Profile

Adams Street Partners has been recognized as one of the most respected and experienced private markets investment managers for over five decades. Adams Street is 100% employee-owned, which fosters a positive and unique culture of collaboration, intellectual rigor, integrity, and a commitment to professional development. For the fifth year in a row, Adams Street was named one of Pension & Investments’ Best Places to Work in Money Management in 2022. 

The firm’s integrated platform of relationships, data, and insights provides institutional and high-net- worth investors with customized access to a spectrum of private markets investment strategies. Employees operate as a single global team, integrating the expertise of the firm’s investment professionals across five strategies: primary investments, secondary investments, growth equity, private credit, and co-investments.  

Adams Street is considered a private markets pioneer and was inducted into the Private Equity Hall of Fame in 2000.

www.adamsstreetpartners.com

Awards

2023 Top Private Equity Firms

2020 Top 25 Growth Equity Firms

2017 Top 40 Under 40 Growth Investors, Mike Zappert, Thomas Bremner

2015 Top 40 Under 40 Growth Investors, Mike Zappert

2015 Top 25 Growth Equity Firms

Key People

Bon French, Board Chairman

Bon French is the Chairman of Adams Street’s Board of Directors. Bon has been with Adams Street and its predecessor organizations since 1980. He was instrumental in the development of Adams Street’s private equity investment strategies, fund management, and investor relations.

Jeff Diehl, Managing Partner & Head of Investments

Adams Street is led by Managing Partner & Head of Investments, Jeff Diehl, who reports into an independent Board of Directors. Jeff joined the firm in 2000 as a Partner on the Growth Equity Investment Team and was named Head of Investments in 2014 and Managing Partner in 2015. Jeff has 29 years of experience.

Jim Walker, Partner & Chief Operating Officer

Jim reports to Jeff Diehl and leads Adams Street’s non-investment shared services teams. Jim is a member of Adams Street’s Executive Committee. He has 38 years of experience and has been with Adams Street for seven years.

Miguel Gonzalo, Partner & Head of Investment Strategy & Risk Management

Miguel reports to Jeff Diehl and leads Adams Street’s Investment Strategy and Risk Management Team. Miguel is a member of Adams Street’s Executive Committee. He has 28 years of experience, all of which has been with Adams Street.

Kevin O’Donnell, Partner & Global Head of Investor Relations

Kevin O’Donnell reports to Jeff Diehl and leads Adams Street’s 43-member Global Investor Relations Team. Kevin is a member of Adams Street’s Executive Committee and has been with Adams Street for six years.

Funds Raised

Adams Street Partners was founded in 1972 as the growth equity investment team of the First National Bank of Chicago. After several corporate events the firm operated for many years as a part of UBS Global Asset Management. In 2001 Adams Street Partners, LLC was established as an independent entity, and in 2008 became a 100% employee-owned firm.

Adams Street Partners is dedicated exclusively to private markets investment management. The initial focus of the firm was direct venture and growth equity investing. Its primary fund investment activity began in 1979 when it first made commitments to primary partnerships on behalf of its clients, thereby creating the first private equity Fund of Funds (FoF). Today the firm also offers secondary (first established in 1986), co-investment (1989), and private credit (2016) strategies to its global client base through both multi-strategy and single strategy vehicles. Adams Street was one of the first private markets firms to create a multi-strategy FoF, an annual offering which is now in its 28th vintage. The firm currently manages $55 billion.

In May 2023, Adams Street announced that it secured $3.2 billion in capital commitments for its Secondaries Investment Program,* including the successful close of Global Secondary Fund 7.

Adams Street’s Co-Investment Fund V closed the oversubscribed program with more than $1.3 billion of committed capital in November 2022.

The Adams Street 2022 Global Fund had a close in November 2022 of $1.1 billion in capital commitments.

Key Investments

Representative private credit portfolio companies can be found on Adams Street’s website.

Growth equity portfolio companies can be found on Adams Street’s website.

Capital Responsibility

Adams Street believes that the integration of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors in investment decision making can have a positive impact on performance by helping to mitigate investment risk. The firm’s commitment to ESG integration is further demonstrated by its participation in industry-wide initiatives. 

Adams Street became a signatory to the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) in 2010, and the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) in 2020. Most recently, Adams Street signed up to Initative Climat International (iC International), which seeks to harmonize action on climate risk in private markets, and the ESG Data Convergence Initiative, which aims to standardize and promote ESG reporting and benchmarking in private equity portfolios. This directly supports the firm’s efforts to improve ESG transparency in private markets.

Adams Street has a dedicated ESG Committee which meets quarterly and oversees ESG integration. The committee includes representatives from each of our firm’s investment teams and each of the key geographies in which we invest.