The opening will strengthen the firm’s global presence with fifth EMEA office
HarbourVest Partners, a global, independent private markets asset manager with more than $125 billion in AUM as of 12/31/2023, today announced the opening of its office in Zurich, underscoring its commitment to the Swiss market and aimed at supporting local institutional and private wealth clients. The office is headed by Managing Director Simon Jennings.
Zurich will be the fifth EMEA office for HarbourVest, and its fourteenth office globally. The expansion will address the growing demand from institutional and private wealth clients looking for broad-ranging investment solutions. HarbourVest has been active in the Swiss market for nearly 40 years, investing in the country and managing, on a cross-border basis, significant capital for investors such as pension funds, insurance companies, wealth advisors, private banks, and family offices through both commingled solutions and separately managed accounts.
“We are pleased to be opening our office in Zurich and deepening our relationships with clients and investment partners in Switzerland,” said Peter Wilson, Managing Director, HarbourVest Partners. “As one of the world’s most dynamic economies, Switzerland’s robust investor base is a sophisticated market for the continued growth of private markets. This is an exciting stage in our firm’s global growth as we continue to expand access to our solutions to investors in new regions.”
The Zurich office will be led by HarbourVest Managing Director Simon Jennings, who also leads the firm’s private client activities in EMEA and APAC. Simon joined the firm in 2017 with over 30 years of private markets experience in the sector, most recently, helping to launch the firm’s private equity open-ended evergreen solution designed for non-US institutional and high net worth investors. The office will be fully integrated into the firm’s global network, providing Swiss clients with access to private equity, credit, real assets, and infrastructure investments as well as separately managed accounts.
“Institutional and wealth management have been deeply entrenched in the Swiss financial ecosystem for years,” said Simon Jennings. “Our Zurich office is fully integrated in the firm’s global platform, providing clients with seamless access to our strategies. We are seeing demand for alternative investments accelerate in the region and look forward to working with local institutional investors and private wealth clients looking to access global private market opportunities.”
The Zurich office will operate as HarbourVest Partners (Switzerland) GmbH, authorised by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority as a representative office of a foreign collective asset manager, HarbourVest Partners L.P., that is an investment adviser supervised by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
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