Ardian opens San Francisco office

Ardian, the French-headquartered fund manager, has opened a San Francisco office as it continues to expand globally.

The new outpost, its second office in North America after New York, which it opened in 1999, is its 12th worldwide.

Ardian’s North American team is a large contributor to the firm’s investment and fundraising activities, thanks to relationships with pension plans, insurance companies, financial institutions, endowments and family offices.

Wilfred Small, who joined Ardian in 2011 and was previously a senior investment management in the New York office, is leading the San Francisco outpost, under the responsibility of Vladimir Colas and Mark Benedetti, two managing directors in the New York office. Kathy Kang, an analyst with Ardian's fund of funds who was previously in the New York office, has also moved to San Francisco.

The new office will be staffed by a local team, who will monitor the firm's fund of funds relationships with limited partners and general partners. The new team will also focus on bringing Ardian’s buyout, infrastructure and private debt activities closer to West Coast investors.

“We believe it is important to establish an on-the-ground presence given how… active we are in the region,” said Benoît Verbrugghe, member of the executive committee and head of Ardian US.

Ardian opened a Madrid office at the beginning of September. As at last June the firm had hired 45 people throughout the company in 2014, bringing its total headcount to 350.

A version of this article was first published on Secondaries Investors, Infrastructure Investor's sister publication focused on alternative asset secondaries markets.