Jessica Hamlin

5 days ago | pitchbook.com | Jessica Hamlin

Mustafa Siddiqui’s secondaries firm, SQ Capital, is seeking roughly $1 billion for its first fund, capitalizing on an uptick in LP interest for exposure to the asset class, Buyouts reported. The former global head of Blackstone’s GP stakes strategy launched the firm in January to buy into both LP-led and GP-led transactions in the US and Europe, focusing on assets from middle-market funds between $350 million and $10 billion.

6 days ago | pitchbook.com | Jessica Hamlin

West Virginia University’s endowment has a new chief investor whose recent track record of beating Ivy League returns may help the portfolio navigate liquidity constraints. On Thursday, the WVU Foundation named Jim Bethea its VP of investment and chief investment officer. Bethea, who has overseen investment at the University of Iowa Center for Advancement since 2010, will succeed West Virginia’s long-time CIO, Rick Kraich.

1 week ago | pitchbook.com | Jessica Hamlin

The chief investor at Virginia’s $113.9 billion public pension fund thinks tariff uncertainty, paired with overvalued assets, will keep PE dealmaking down through 2025. “My view is private-equity transactions are pretty much dead for the rest of the year,” Andrew Junkin, chief investment officer of the Virginia Retirement System, told attendees at the Milken Institute 2025 Global Conference on Tuesday.

1 week ago | pitchbook.com | Jessica Hamlin

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pitched the American economy to foreign investors at the Milken Institute on Monday. Bessent opened the annual global conference with a speech that framed the Trump administration’s trade, tax and deregulatory policies as part of an effort to prime the US economy for outside investments. The US is “the premier destination for international capital,” Bessent said.

1 week ago | pitchbook.com | Jessica Hamlin

After weeks of uncertainty, President Donald Trump renewed his threats to remove Harvard University‘s tax-exempt status. The move could threaten the endowment’s fundraising and investing capabilities. “We are going to be taking away Harvard’s Tax Exempt Status. It’s what they deserve,” Trump posted to Truth Social on Friday. It remains unclear whether the IRS will meet Trump’s demand.