Every third employee here is a millionaire

It is estimated that one in three of the 1,500 employees of the investment firm Partners Group, is a multi-millionaire. The exclusive circle is young and above all male. Why it shouldn't stay that way.

Christine Warkentin considers herself very lucky. She has managed to be accepted for a training program for financial analysts at Partners Group. "I want to work in a company with people who let me grow personally. I can do that here”

An employment contract with the investment firm is considered to be an accolade in the financial sector, and many young, well-educated people throughout the world know this. In 2019, Partners Group received an average of 140 applications for every one of the around 200 advertised jobs– a total of 28,000. This ratio was similar in the last corona year.

Nine out of ten of the top management are men
Breakfast is being served in a meeting room at Partners Group's glass headquarters in Baar. At the table, two women who are in a more advanced career stage sit next to the young German newcomer. Men are in the minority here. But even a quick glance at the personnel statistics reveals that this is an illusion: nine out of ten members of the top management level are men. One level lower, three out of four managers are still male. The company is also strikingly homogeneous on an ethnical basis. "We have very clear deficits," says co-founder Fredy Gantner: "Too few women, too few Asians."

Partners Group would be a better investor with a more diversified workforce. "I'm fundamentally convinced of that," says the co-founder. But the company seems to deter many women. Only 15% of the applicants for our investment teams are female. "An industrial phenomenon," says Gantner. But not only that: "It is also a sign of how we are perceived as a company."

The business of Partners Group's is referred to as "private equity". Using the money of pension funds and other professional investors, the company buys up companies worldwide, in order to resell them a few years later for a much higher price. A tough business. There is a bitter battle over every promising investment object. If you offer too little, you won't have a chance. If you think about it too long, you’ll be left behind. Christine Warkentin's working days are long –they sometimes end at midnight. "Ambition is important in our job," she says. "I don't always have to win, but I just want to be particularly good."

The tenth most valuable company in Switzerland
Money is never spontaneously mentioned in the round. The topic is omnipresent. Partners Group is in tenth place in the ranking of the most valuable stock exchange companies in Switzerland. Only a year ago, the shares were included in the index of the 20 top companies on the Six Swiss Exchange, and the stock market value has risen by 60%, to over CHF 40 billion, since then. The company is only 25 years old, and is already twice as advanced in value as Credit Suisse, which is over 150 years old.

Partners Group has made many of its employees rich through equity participation. The annual success fees that are distributed to the responsible employees if the investments have paid off for the customers are now in the three-digit million range. Fredy Gantner and his two founding partners are multi-billionaires.

Within 25 years, Partners Group has become one of the most valuable listed companies in Switzerland.                                                     Gaetan Bally
She’s made the leap into the training program: Christine Warkentin.
Partners Group co-founder and billionaire: Alfred Gantner.
Esther Peiner has been with us for a long time.
Responsible for the development of talents: Amanda Evans.
Photos: ZVG

Money, success and competition obviously act as a magnet for the young men queuing up for a job at Partners Group. But women are not immune either. Esther Peiner, who heads the investment group for private infrastructure facilities, is one of the very few top managers. She is an industry veteran and admits: "When I started in the industry, it was the short-term incentives that were very important to me." When a new investment project came along, she was always first interested in the financial model. "What the companies did wasn’t important to me. Looking back, that's a bit uncomfortable for me."

Homogeneous committees make more mistakes
In the meantime, Esther Peiner herself has become a role model for the boys. Perhaps this is also a reason why she prefers to talk about responsibility, rather than money. "I do my job here because I enjoy building and developing great companies." In response to a question about stock market success, she answers: "This conversation is enlightening for me. In fact, I hardly even think about our share price when I come in or go out. I feel more pride when we make good investments – in a business sense."

But in order to continue to be successful, the company needs to change its genetic code. "We make very long-term investment decisions, and the risk of error increases if the group of decision-makers is too one-sided," says Esther Peiner, and receives an approving nod from the company founder. Women are responsible for a large part of consumer spending and many companies are now mainly growing in Asia. "The composition of our investment committees must take these circumstances more into account."

In other words, Partners Group must become a "normal" company. "We’ve actually now been able to increase the proportion of women in our new hires from 7% to 37% of  the applicants," reports company founder Fredy Gantner. Topics such as part-time work and baby break are now negotiable. But no one at Partners Group knows exactly how far this normalisation can go without the competitiveness suffering. "We’re experiencing an incredible success story," says Amanda Evans, who is responsible for personnel and talent development. "But this growth also presents challenges,” as the Englishwoman herself translates in pure Bernese German.

Rapid growth complicates change
Experts in the private equity industry do in fact predict many more years with growth rates that are far above-average. This fast ride leaves the company little time to revise the internal structures. "The perspective can still be changed," says Executive Board member Philip Sauer, who initiated the conversation. "I see the value of more diversity and inclusion in my own team, and I have acquired this perspective with targeted training."

The seriousness of these efforts will probably only be properly tested when the current congratulatory  mood of the shareholders comes to an end and the patience of the investors is put to the test.