Secondary shop Whitehorse grows partnership team, hires CPPIB exec

Whitehorse Liquidity Partners, which late last year closed a third secondaries fund at $2 billion, announced a flurry of promotions and additions, including the introduction of a new partner, Buyouts has learned.

Whitehorse promoted Leah Boyd, a general counsel since February 2019, to partner, according to a statement. The elevation expands the Toronto-based firm’s partnership team to six members, including Yann Robard, Whitehorse’s founder and managing partner.

Boyd joined Whitehorse last year from Goodmans, where she had a corporate and securities law practice focused on PE and M&A. She is a member of Canadian organizations Women in Private Equity and Women in Capital Markets.

In addition, Whitehorse hired Derek Miners as a senior principal. Miners came onboard in December from Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, where he worked for 15 years, most recently as a managing director of capital markets and factor investing.

Miners will head Whitehorse’s active portfolio management, a newly formed department responsible for fund management, fund monitoring and liquidity management.

Miners is one of several CPPIB professionals recruited to Whitehorse. Last year, the firm hired CPPIB’s Sebastien Siou as a senior principal as well as Josh Booth and Nadeem Kheraj as principals. Robard himself is a CPPIB alumnus, having led the pension fund’s secondaries and co-investments program prior to creating Whitehorse in 2015.

Whitehorse also promoted 11 professionals in its asset and firm management groups. The shop’s staff complement now totals 46, up from 28 a year ago, according to the statement.

Recent significant growth in Whitehorse’s team is a result of intensive activity on the fundraising trail. The firm has raised $3.4 billion over three funds since 2017. That includes Whitehorse Liquidity Partners Fund III, which closed 33 percent above its original target of $1.5 billion.

Whitehorse specializes in the provision of structured products to generate liquidity in PE portfolios. It reports completing 25 transactions valued at $2.6 billion in 2019 alone. Since inception, the firm has closed or committed to 48 transactions valued at $3.9 billion.

Action Item: Learn more about Whitehorse Liquidity Partners here.