Buyouts’ Off-duty provides a snapshot of top investors, including a few details about what they do when not chasing deals.
Cari Lodge, head of secondaries at CF Private Equity, was doing secondary deals long before many investors knew the market existed.
Lodge got started in 2000 as a member of Credit Suisse’s secondaries team, Strategic Partners, which in the same year wrapped up its debut transaction: the acquisition of a mezzanine fund. Since then, she has closed more than 425 secondary deals for roughly $3.3 billion.
Commonfund’s CF Private Equity hired Lodge in 2013 to build a secondaries team focused mostly on LP-led transactions. In 2015, she launched the firm’s first dedicated secondaries fund and is now raising a fourth vehicle with a $1.25 billion target, according to Buyouts data. In her 10 years at CF Private Equity, she has completed some 250 deals.
Along with being a market pioneer, Lodge is today one of very few women globally to lead a major secondaries practice.
Over her career, secondaries went from being “a nascent market to a very inefficient one,” Lodge told Buyouts. Still “in its early days,” she expects the space to “double in size” in the next five years.
Where is your hometown?
Wilton, Connecticut.
If you weren’t in PE, what job would you like to have?
A high school field hockey or ice hockey coach. I played both varsity field hockey and ice hockey at Dartmouth College and was actually offered a volunteer job as an assistant coach for the Darien girls’ varsity hockey team when my three kids were younger. I unfortunately did not have the bandwidth to do it.
How do you relax when you’re not working?
I love to play tennis and paddle tennis. I have recently reconnected with a friend from Dartmouth and we are playing in the Darien paddle league together. It is a wonderful way to get outside in the winter and, on most nights, there is a breathtaking view of the moon.
What book are you reading right now?
Going Infinite by Michael Lewis. It’s a fascinating story – a cautionary tale – and there is no author better equipped to tell it.
What is your favorite song, album, performer or music genre?
Believe it or not, “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor is my favorite song. It brings me back to my childhood when I would listen to it to get pumped up for various sporting events. Today, I often play it with my kids to get them excited for their games. Rocky was a fantastic movie.
What is your favorite meal, recipe, cocktail or bottle of wine?
A Coke Classic. There’s nothing better. I don’t drink coffee, so you can often see me with a coke in hand first thing in the morning.
What is your favorite place for a vacation, sanctuary or a place to explore?
Quonnie, a small beach community in Rhode Island. It is amazing to breathe the beach air, swim in the ocean and bike on the flat roads. There is so much to do from clamming to paddle boarding. It is just a quiet and beautiful place to be in the summer.
Who in your career do you regard as a mentor?
There are two people that really stand out to me as being instrumental in my career, both of whom I worked with at Credit Suisse.
First is Stephen Can, who founded the Strategic Partners business and was a terrific leader and a visionary in the secondaries space, inspiring my continued career in this field.
Second is Nicole Arnaboldi, who was head of Credit Suisse’s illiquid alts business and then vice chair and is currently a board member at Commonfund, the parent of CF Private Equity. Nicole is an amazing role model. She is a legend in the private equity and venture communities. She is a current partner at Oak Hill Capital and serves on multiple boards and advisory committees, including at her alma mater, Harvard University.
Professionally, what was your toughest moment?
My mother died suddenly in an accident on August 7, 2008, right before my third child, Grace, was born on August 18. My mother was an amazing person and role model and I had been really hoping to spend a lot of quality time with her over my maternity leave. My mother’s death put things in perspective for me and served as an important reminder that you never truly know what the future holds.
Around this time, I had been commuting to New York City from Darien, which was grueling and left little time to see my three kids before they went off to school or at the end of the day. I think I must have lost a year on the train in commuting time over the course of my career at Strategic Partners.
With the perspective I gained following my mother’s death, I knew I needed to readjust the balance in my life and prioritize time with my family, which spurred me to look for jobs in Connecticut. Fortunately, in 2013 I accepted a role at Commonfund, which is headquartered in my hometown of Wilton. My father still lives there in the house that I grew up in and it has been amazing to spend time with him and my children while continuing to advance my career at CF Private Equity.
What was your most rewarding moment?
Raising our first dedicated secondaries fund at CF Private Equity in 2015. I joined the firm in 2013 and built out the core secondaries team, who all remain together today. We’re now on our fourth fund raise and have met or exceeded our targets every time. Being able to deliver for our investors in this way has been truly gratifying.
What PE buzz words or jargon do you hate most?
“Double-click!”
What advice would you give a young person interested in a PE career?
First, find a firm where you can work with people you like because you’ll be spending a lot of time with them. Second, don’t be afraid to look for, and request, new assignments that will stretch and challenge you to learn and grow. Last, know what your contributions are worth and make sure you’re compensated fairly!
What word or phrase best describes you?
Optimistic and happy. I’m really lucky to work with an amazing and young team. The future is bright.
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