Myth of Private Equity

In his presentation, Jeffrey Hooke, WG’77, asks attendees to open their minds and to break from conventional wisdom.

Jeffrey unravels the exaggerations that the private equity industry has spun to its customers and the business media, and he scrutinizes its claims of lucrative investment returns and financial wizardry. He shows the stark realities that are concealed by the fund’s self-mythologizing and their penchant for secrecy, and he reveals the broad spectrum of its many enablers. The talk is a summary of his new book: “The Myth of Private Equity: An Inside Look at Wall Street’s Transformative Investments” (Columbia University Press, 2021). Publisher’s Weekly designated the book as one of their top 10 business books of the year.

Topics to be discussed:

• To show how the PE-LBO industry works
• To explain how the PE-LBO industry does not beat the S&P 500, and has not done so for a long time
• To look at how the performance measurements are manipulated
• To showcase the high fees
• To review how a broad set of enablers allow the myth to continue 

About Jeffrey Hooke:
Now a full-time finance lecturer at Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, Jeff Hooke is an experienced investment banker and private equity professional. He is a keen observer of the institutional investment business, and he is the author of four other books. A portion of his second book, “Security Analysis on Wall Street”, is used on the CFA exam, and the second edition was released in 2013. Mr. Hooke has been published academic research on the topic of private equity, and he has spoken before many CFA groups. A Baltimore native who now lives in suburban Washington, DC, he has a Wharton MBA and a University of Pennsylvania BS.