A record high of 251 fundraising and marketing professionals were hired by alternative asset management firms in the first quarter of 2017, according to data from the Context Jensen Partners’ Q1 2017 newsletter.
Context Jensen Partners (CJP) is a global corporate advisory and executive search firm that recruits capital raising talent for alternative investment managers.
“There is perhaps no better evidence that the industry has come of age than the number of senior professionals now working in a variety of distribution roles,” says Sasha Jensen (pictured), founder and CEO of Context Jensen Partners. “We view the record number of marketing moves to-date in 2017 not as an aberration, but as a sign that alternative asset managers are looking to build more specialised distribution platforms and bring on experienced business development professionals with the right relationships and industry expertise.”
The record high of 251 marketing moves eclipsed the previous high of 231, recorded in Q3 2016, and is up roughly 33.5 per cent from 188 moves tracked in Q4 2016.
Overall, alternative marketing hires in the first quarter increased by 14.1 per cent from Q1 2016 and by 122.1 per cent from Q1 2015. Driving the majority of this hiring activity are hedge funds, which accounted for about 42.6 per cent of all marketing moves in the quarter, and private equity firms, which also posted a record high with 71 new hires.