With a diverse and well-established portfolio of private equity managers, the PE Funds team uses a three-pronged investment approach:
- Making multi-year commitments to established large- and middle-market buyout in North America and Europe. The team targets fund size in excess of C$1 billion in developed markets, with a minimum commitment size of C$100 million;
- Selectively backing first- or second-time funds with limited realized track records or institutional history (emerging managers), with a minimum fund size of C$500 million; and
- Making minority direct investments, generally up to C$150M, alongside our private equity fund partners.
The Secondaries team participates in the private equity secondary market through various strategies including:
- Acquiring interests in existing funds (LP Secondaries);
- Providing fund liquidity solutions to existing funds (GP Led Secondaries); and
- Providing structured financing to owners of private equity assets (Structured Secondaries); and
- Selling portfolios of Funds and Co-Investment positions to rebalance the PE portfolio.
Our Secondaries business leverages CPP Investment’s scale, the GP relationships established by our Funds business and strong execution capabilities. We are sector agnostic, with a focus on investment opportunities in North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America. Target investment size ranges from C$25 million to in excess of C$1 billion.
Our Team
Caitlin Gubbels
Managing Director, Head of Funds
Caitlin Gubbels leads the private equity funds business at CPPIB. She is responsible for overseeing and leading private equity fund investments in North America and Europe, with a focus on buyout and growth equity strategies.
Prior to joining CPPIB in 2010, Caitlin worked at CIBC World Markets in Investment Banking, based in Toronto. During her time at CIBC, Caitlin focused primarily on executing M&A transactions and public market offerings for clients in the Diversified Industries group. Caitlin holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Dalhousie University.
Tom Kapsimalis
Managing Director, Secondaries
Tom oversees our Toronto based secondaries effort and is responsible for leading and managing private equity secondaries investments in North America and Europe. During his tenure with CPP Investments, Tom spent 2 years in our London office executing on secondaries transactions and helping establish a hedge fund co-investment program.
Prior to joining CPP Investments in 2012, Tom worked in Leveraged Finance with TD Securities, based in New York.
Tom holds a BBA (Hons) from Wilfrid Laurier University.
Afsaneh Lebel
Managing Director, Funds
Afsaneh is responsible for executing and managing private equity fund investments in North America and Europe.
Prior to joining CPP Investments in 2009, Afsaneh was an investment banker at UBS Securities Canada, where she worked on a variety of M&A and restructuring mandates across different sectors in the U.S. and Canada.
Afsaneh holds a BComm from McGill University. She is a CFA charterholder.
Megan Lindhe
Managing Director, Funds
Megan focuses on primary fund investment and passive syndicated co-investment opportunities across North America and Europe. During her tenure at CPP Investments, Megan spent four years in our London office within the Funds & Secondaries team.
Prior to joining CPP Investments in 2010, she worked at BMO Capital Markets in the Mergers & Acquisitions team in Toronto.
Megan holds a BA and MA in Economics from Boston University and a Master of Financial Economics from the University of Toronto. She is also a CFA Charterholder.
Dushy Sivanithy
Managing Director, Head of Secondaries
Dushy leads our private equity secondaries team, based in London and Toronto, which undertakes a wide range of secondary transactions and liquidity solutions for both GPs and LPs.
Prior to joining CPP Investments in 2018, Dushy was Head of Origination for Rede Partners. Prior to that he was an LP for 15 years, primarily with Pantheon, where he sat on the investment committees for Europe and Emerging Markets. He began his career at Morgan Stanley in Investment Banking.
Dushy holds a BSc in Biochemistry from King’s College London.
Evelyn Zhang
Managing Director, Secondaries
Evelyn oversees CPP Investments’ private equity secondaries effort in Europe and is responsible for leading and managing our secondary investments globally.
Prior to joining CPP Investments in 2021, Evelyn was a senior member of Partners Group’s private equity secondaries team where she completed investments across the spectrum of secondaries markets. Prior to that, she started her finance career at HSBC’s investment banking division followed by Blackstone.
Evelyn holds a BA (Hons) in engineering from the University of Cambridge.
Jeremy Weisberg
Managing Director, Secondaries
Jeremy oversees the U.S. private equity secondaries effort and is responsible for leading and managing secondary investments in North America and Europe.
Prior to joining CPP Investments in 2021, Jeremy was a senior member of GIC’s private equity secondaries team where he completed numerous investments across various aspects of the secondaries market. Prior to that, he was a private equity investment professional focusing on secondaries at Pantheon and Permal Capital Management.
Jeremy holds a BSBA from the University of Richmond. He is a CFA charterholder.