MassPRIM PE officer to join Hermes GPE

The Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board is losing another seasoned private equity professional, Michael Langdon, who is leaving in October to join Hermes GPE.

Langdon, senior investment officer for private equity, will work to establish Hermes’ Boston office, according to spokespeople for MassPRIM and Hermes. Hermes announced in July that it was expanding its international presence with the opening of offices in Boston and Singapore.

Hermes’ Boston office will be led by Delaney Brown, the firm’s head of the Americas. Hermes GPE manages more than $8 billion in private equity and infrastructure programmes on behalf of global institutional investors and pension funds. It has been investing in the US since 1996 and manages more than $1 billion of US-based assets.

“The decision to consolidate our position with a physical presence in the US demonstrates our continuing commitment to this major private equity market, which represents a significant element of our clients’ portfolio,” Brown said in a statement. “We expect to be able to capitalise more fully on the exciting co-investment opportunities we are seeing in the US.”

Hermes GPE was launched in April last year as a joint venture between Hermes Private Equity and asset manager Gartmore. The latter has since been acquired by peer Henderson Group.

Langdon helped establish the pension system’s private equity exposure to China and South Africa, “even taking the step of studying Mandarin Chinese to more effectively understand and interface with this realm”, a pension spokesperson said.

“[He’s] been an extremely strong performer at PRIM and his talents will be missed,” the spokesperson said.

Langdon is the second private equity professional to leave MassPRIM in two months. The system lost its private equity chief, Wayne Smith, in August after he left to join fund of funds and advisor Pathway Capital Management.

The pension system is searching for a replacement for Smith to run the $6.8 billion private equity programme. The pension system did not return a request for comment about whether it will replace Langdon.

The MassPRIM board oversees the public pension system’s $41 billion in assets. Its private equity programme includes 235 limited partnerships. The system has a 10 percent allocation target to private equity.