London School of EconomicsSU | Alternative Investments Conference
The LSESU
With this extraordinary line-up of speakers it promises to be the world’s leading Private Equity & Hedge Fund conference. The LSESU AIC therefore attracts top students from major European Universities who are likely to be among the future leaders in the Alternative Investment Industry. Speakers address an audience consisting of approximately 350 students at undergraduate, MBA and PhD levels from top universities throughout Europe including LSE, LBS, INSEAD, Oxford and others. We also anticipate the attendance of approximately 30 professionals and academics at this event.
The LSE Alternative Investments Conference is designed to provide an opportunity for students, academics and professionals interested in Private Equity and Hedge Funds to meet and discuss relevant emerging topics as well as learn about the history and fundamentals of alternative investments. The two-day conference taking place on the 25-26th of April 2007 included workshops, seminars, interdisciplinary panels, and keynotes speeches by professionals and academics. The conference was being co-sponsored by the LSESU Alternative Investment Society and Business Society.
Workshops were more intimate and hands-on, where firms such as Blackstone and Sankaty (Bain Capital) worked through case studies with groups of approximately 30-50 interested students. This gave the audience an opportunity to ask questions and better understand the firms’ goals, methods and day-to-day decision making process and provided the firm with an opportunity to access top young talent.
The keynote PE Panel featured David Blitzer (Partner, Blackstone) and Steve Puccinelli (Partner, Investcorp). The topic of the panel focused on PE under the scrutinized eye of the public and a title as “LBO Funds: Strippers and Flippers?” . This forum was open to all conference participants and gave them an opportunity to ask questions of experienced professionals on pressing topics.