Second Annual Women's Alternative Investment Summit Returns to New York City

LEXINGTON, Mass., July 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Falk Marques Group today announced the 2nd Annual Women's Alternative Investment Summit will be held on November 4 & 5, 2010 at The Pierre in midtown Manhattan. At last year's inaugural Summit, close to 250 senior women executives in private equity, venture capital, hedge funds, and real estate investing – GPs and LPs – gathered to exchange ideas, build trusted networks, and participate in substantive, in-depth conversations about alternative investments in an emerging new world.  The 2010 Women's Alternative Investment Summit program will be both broader and deeper, with the inclusion of distressed debt and the addition of multi-session tracks for each asset class.

With the financial world in flux, the Women's Alternative Investment Summit will feature industry-leading speakers and panelists discussing the critical issues central to the business interests of Summit attendees. Topics for discussion include: The LP Perspective – The Search for Global Returns; The New U.S. Regulatory Environment; Striking Out on Your Own; and niche topics designed for each asset class examining the debt markets, the current exit environment, fundraising strategies, and more.

The Women's Alternative Investment Summit has attracted a select group of sponsors from the financial, legal, corporate, and non-profit sectors. The Summit's Lead Sponsor is Reed Smith, a top-15 global law firm with 22 offices worldwide and a large and respected alternative investments practice.  Summit Founder and Managing Director Beth Falk, President of Falk Marques Group, said she was "delighted to welcome Reed Smith as the New York Summit's Lead Sponsor.  The firm represents clients across the spectrum of alternative investments, including private equity firms, hedge funds, venture capital funds, and major pension funds. The diversity of Reed Smith's practice makes the firm the ideal partner for the Women's Alternative Investment Summit."

Landmark Partners, a private equity and real estate firm specializing in secondary investments, has signed on as a first-time Silver Sponsor.  Returning Silver Sponsors include The Carlyle Group, a global alternative asset manager with $90.5 billion of assets under management, and Grant Thornton, LLP, the U.S. member firm of Grant Thornton International Ltd -- one of the six global audit, tax, and advisory organizations -- focused on providing financial services attention to the hedge fund and private equity industries.

Also returning to the Women's Alternative Investment Summit are Educational Partners Kauffman Fellows Program Center for Venture Education and the Robert Toigo Foundation.  Two of the Summit's sponsors, Carlyle and Toigo, are also linked through the Toigo Private Equity MBA Fellowship, a joint initiative aimed at attracting minority MBA graduates to the sector.

The Women's Alternative Investment Summit opens on the evening of Thursday, November 4, 2010 with a welcome reception sponsored by Reed Smith, followed by a full-day program on Friday, November 5 at The Pierre.  Falk said that the success of the first New York-based Summit confirmed the need for an annual conference. "The Summit brings together a high-powered group of senior-level women to debate the most pressing issues facing alternative investment professionals. We provide a unique and valuable forum for women to learn from one another, make new contacts, renew existing relationships, and gain access to information and inner circles so important to succeeding in this volatile environment."

For more information about the Women's Alternative Investment Summit visit www.WomensAlternativeInvestmentSummit.com or call 781-652-9610.

SOURCE Women's Alternative Investment Summit