Guardian Life Insurance adds 2 to private equity team

Jeffrey Chang, a former private equity executive with fund of funds Performance Equity Management, joined the private equity team in November as a senior director.

The company also brought on Paul Busto to focus on private equity operations and additional funds support. It’s not clear where Busto worked before joining Guardian Life in October.

Chang will be responsible for sourcing, execution and monitoring of private equity funds and co-investments. Prior to Guardian Life, Chang worked at Performance Equity Management from 2005 through this year, gradually increasing his responsibilities, according to his LinkedIn profile. He started as an investment associate and worked up to principal.

Guardian Life’s private equity team counts four investment professionals, including head Maurice Gordon. The group had a leadership shift earlier this year when private equity chief David Turner, one of the elder statesmen of the LP world, decided to retire. Turner, who launched the private equity program at the company in 2007, handed the PE reins over to Managing Director Gordon.

Gordon said in a 2012 interview with Buyouts that the goal of the portfolio is to generate returns of at least 300 to 500 basis points over public equity returns.

Guardian Life, the fourth largest mutual insurance company in the United States, has been allocating most of its private equity dollars, some $200 million a year, to smaller buyout funds, Buyouts reported. The company does have appetite for larger funds, Buyouts wrote.