‘Complexity is Our Friend’: James Brocklebank on Advent's Private Equity Strategy

This is just one more challenging time in a line of challenging times. But complexity is our friend, and we lean in in times like this. And the best deals tend to be made in non benign conditions, if you like.

Where are the biggest opportunities for private equity investors now? I'm Alison Mast, Chairman of Investment Banking and Goldman Sachs' Global Banking and Markets Group, and your host for this episode of Goldman Sachs Exchanges Great Investors. Today, I'm sitting down with James Brockelbank, who is the co chair of ADVENT, a global private equity investor, where he also co heads the European business. Well, welcome to Great Investors, James. Really thrilled to have you here.

Thank you so much for having me. It's a real privilege. Thank you.

So you've been at ADVENT now for thirty years?

Just under thirty years.

Which is spectacular.

Thank you.

And thanks to a paper job listing in the Feet, the Financial Times, I heard. Yes. And I heard that you still have that listing in your office.

I do. I have it on my wall. It was given to me for my twenty fifth anniversary at Advent. They found it. That's fantastic. Framed on the wall. And it does mean a lot to me because it's a reminder of how random life can be and how nonlinear one's career can be. And it was interesting because when I was at Barings in the first year or so, did an internship of stash, if you like, an apprenticeship in their private equity business, which was called Barring Capital Investors. It was on Park Lane in London. I really enjoyed it. So I had an inkling that private equity was interesting and And would th