27 - Building better private equity structures and practices for a more equitable world

The Impact Investing Podcast

Private equity can be a wonderful thing. The combination of capital and expertise provided by private equity investors can help companies to grow and create jobs. This is particularly true for smaller and mid-sized companies which tend to be engines of job growth.

But at the same time, traditional private equity structures have contributed to wealth inequality. Not just for executives of the portfolio companies, but for their employees and the communities they operate in.

In this episode of the Impact Investing Podcast, I caught up with Delilah Rothenburg, Founder and Executive Director of The Predistribution Initiative. The Predistribution Initiative is a multi-stakeholder project designed to co-create improved investment structures, particularly for mainstream markets.

Their goal is to share more wealth with workers and communities, incentivize investment teams for environmental, social, and governance (or ESG) integration, and ultimately make sure that systemic risks - like income inequality and climate change - are addressed.

In our conversation, Delilah and I discuss the many challenges within traditional private equity structures, from outsized influence to unfair profit distribution and market instability. Plus, what investment professionals at all levels of the playing field can do to solve them. And be sure to stay tuned to the very end where we discuss how The Predistribution Initiative is exploring new solutions to these traditional private equity issues.

Resources from this episode:

• The Predistribution Initiative website
• Follow The Predistribution Initiative on LinkedIn
• Connect with Delilah on LinkedIn
• Follow Delilah on Twitter