Wilshire Private Markets Tailors Portfolio Services With Changing Client Needs

SANTA MONICA, Calif., July 12, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Wilshire Private Markets, a business unit of Wilshire Associates (Wilshire®), today announced it has dedicated additional resources to serve clients in an advisory capacity, to continue to deliver customized client-driven solutions.  With more than $5 billion in discretionary private equity assets, a global investment team, relationships with leading managers in the United States, Europe, Asia and Australia, and a long history rooted in the consulting industry, Wilshire is in a unique position to offer a full-service advisory capability.  

The global financial crisis, combined with maturing private equity portfolios, has motivated plan sponsors to explore more efficient ways to enhance their private equity portfolios.  This industry-wide movement presents an opportunity to provide clients with customized solutions on both a discretionary and non-discretionary basis. Wilshire Private Markets has both the breadth and depth of investment experience and resources, accumulated and improved upon since 1984, to serve clients in private equity.

"As investors have become more experienced and sophisticated over time, Wilshire has found that the substance of underlying portfolios, rather than the form – either discretionary or non-discretionary – is of greatest important to investors and to eventual performance," said Kevin Nee, CFA and president of Wilshire Private Markets.  "Many firms have strong investment teams with the ability to conduct research on private equity, but it takes a different perspective and approach to be able to offer solutions that integrate into a complete portfolio, while meeting the needs of a plan sponsor's internal processes. Wilshire has positioned itself to be able to offer a full range of customized solutions to new entrants and sophisticated investors."  

Wilshire Private Markets has spent the last 12 months augmenting its team and infrastructure to enhance its customized, client-driven advisory services platform.  In doing so, the firm placed a strong emphasis on individuals with meaningful private markets experience, a history of building investment organizations at prestigious institutions, and experience serving institutional clients in a consultative manner.  Notable additions to the team include:

• Karl Beinkampen, CFA and the chief investment officer of Wilshire Private Markets, has extensive experience building a private markets investment organization.  As an early and senior member of Morgan Stanley's Alternative Investment Partners in 2000, he was a managing director and served on the team's Business and Investment Committees.  He began working with LBO sponsors in 1995, leading equity, fixed income and acquisition finance transactions.  He was recruited from within the firm to build Morgan Stanley's private equity fund-of-funds business shortly after its inception in 2000 and was responsible for a meaningful portion of the team's U.S. investment efforts.  
• Gary Gabriel, CFA, managing director and head of the Asia-Pacific region of Wilshire Private Markets, has twice held the position of head of private markets at notable institutions.  Most recently he held that title at the Future Fund, Australia's sovereign wealth fund with more than A$70 billion in assets, where he was hired to establish and lead the organization's private markets investment program.  He held the same position with UniSuper, one of Australia's largest superannuation schemes.  Gary was also with Mercer Consulting, where he served the needs of large superannuation schemes in Australia.  
• Marc Friedberg, CFA and managing director of Wilshire Private Markets, comes from Wilshire's consulting division, where he was an investment consultant for more than 10 years.  In addition to leading the private equity research within consulting, he has extensive experience working with plan sponsors to build their investment portfolios.  He was actively involved in designing solutions and providing research on asset allocation, investment policy development, investment structure, manager selection, manager monitoring, risk management, and other areas, while fulfilling his prior role in investment consulting.  
• Paul Rodgers, CFA, CAIA and vice president of Wilshire Private Markets, was also formerly a consultant with Wilshire, beginning in 2007.  Prior to joining Wilshire, he was a portfolio manager at the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System, where he managed the private equity team and its $2.5 billion portfolio.  Prior to his role with Ohio Public Employees Retirement System, he was a portfolio manager for the Mellon Financial private equity group, where he invested in private equity partnerships on behalf of Mellon's clients.

These individuals work in a concerted manner with the senior investment team at Wilshire Private Markets, including Kevin Nee; David Chiang, managing director of Wilshire Private Markets in the United States; and William van Eesteren and Ilona Brom, both managing directors of Wilshire Private Markets in Europe and long-term members of the team in a leadership capacity.

About Wilshire Associates

Wilshire Associates, a leading global independent investment consulting and services firm, provides consulting services, analytics solutions and customized investment products to plan sponsors, investment managers and financial intermediaries. Its business units include Wilshire Analytics, Wilshire Consulting, Wilshire Funds Management and Wilshire Private Markets.

The firm was founded in 1972, revolutionizing the industry by pioneering the application of investment analytics and research to investment management for the institutional marketplace. Wilshire is credited with helping to develop the field of quantitative investment analysis that uses mathematical tools to analyze market risks. All other business units evolved from Wilshire's strong analytics foundation. Wilshire developed the Wilshire 5000 Total Market Index(SM), one of the first asset/liability models for pension funds, the first U.S. equity style metrics work and many other "firsts" as the firm grew to approximately 350 employees serving the investment needs of institutional and high net worth clients around the world.

Based in Santa Monica, California, Wilshire provides services to clients in more than 20 countries representing approximately 600 organizations. With ten offices on four continents, Wilshire Associates and its affiliates are dedicated to providing clients with the highest quality counsel, products and services. Wilshire is a registered service mark of Wilshire Associates Incorporated. Please visit http://www.wilshire.com/ for more information.

Contact:
Kirsten Clausen
[email protected]
213-438-8726

SOURCE Wilshire Associates