Drew J. Guff is a visionary leader in private equity, with over 35 years of investment expertise and a track record of shaping the global financial landscape. A founding partner of Siguler Guff, he played a pivotal role in acquiring PaineWebber’s Private Equity Group in 1995, establishing one of the most influential firms in alternative investments. He is a recognized authority in emerging markets and strategic investing, serving as Chairman of the Global Private Capital Association (GPCA) and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

A trusted advisor to some of the world’s most sophisticated investors, Mr. Guff has been instrumental in advancing private capital across frontier and high-growth markets. Beyond finance, he is deeply committed to education and social impact, serving as a Trustee of Phillips Academy Andover for three decades and mentoring future leaders through the Institute for the Recruitment of Teachers. An award-winning corporate leader, he is a sought-after speaker at global investment summits, shaping the future of private equity worldwide.

Vidit Jain joined Hamilton Lane in June 2021 and sits within the Fund Investments & Managed Solutions team, based out of London, UK. Vidit is responsible for overseeing managed account relationships across EMEA and supporting with diligences on primary fund managers based in Europe.

Prior to joining Hamilton Lane, Vidit worked for Barclays in the Wealth & Investment Management team covering (U)HNW clients.

Vidit has a BSc degree in Accounting and Finance from the University of Warwick and is a CFA® Charterholder.

Charlie Flanagan, CFA is the Head of Applied AI, based in our New York office. Prior to his current role, he was the Head of Data Science for Balyasny Elevate.

Charlie joined Balyasny Asset Management (Balyasny) in May 2022 following five years at Google, where he worked as a Senior Data Science Technical Lead on Google Duplex.

Charlie also worked at QuantRes Fund as a Quantitative Trading Manager. Prior to QuantRes Fund, he was an Equity Derivatives Dealer at ICAP Plc.

Charlie received a Master of Business Administration from Columbia University and holds a Masters in Software Engineering from Harvard University.

Hans-Jürgen Weidenbacher is a Managing Director and Global Head of Product Specialists for Private Markets with Allianz Global Investors, which he joined in 2008. He is focusing on the positioning of our growing Private Markets capabilities globally as well as expanding our client offering.

Since 2013, he has been instrumental in the build of our Private Markets platform and significantly growing our asset base. Prior to that, Mr. Weidenbacher managed a number of significant projects in the formation of the new Allianz Global Investors investment platform, as part of the Global CIO office.

Mr. Weidenbacher originally worked as a Senior Consultant in Group Planning & Controlling, responsible for the Asset Management segment of Allianz SE since 2002. Previously he worked several years at Lehman Brothers and Hypovereinsbank as an M&A advisor in Munich, Frankfurt, London and New York.

Mr. Weidenbacher has over 25 years of investment industry experience. He holds a degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Applied Science in Munich and an MBA from Thunderbird (USA).

Robin Butler, CFA is a Partner at Sturgeon Capital, a London-headquartered investment firm that invests in teams building transformative businesses in emerging markets.

Sturgeon manages over $300m in AUM across Private Equity and Venture Capital strategies, for institutions such as the IFC, SBI Holdings and Chevron.

Robin leads Sturgeon's VC team, backing early-stage companies in Emerging Asia.

A.J. Agarwal is a Senior Managing Director in the Real Estate Group, where he focuses on the global Core+ business.

Prior to the launch of the Core+ real estate investing business, Mr. Agarwal was co-head of the U.S. Acquisitions team and oversaw more than $50 billion of investment transactions across all real estate asset classes for Blackstone’s opportunistic real estate funds. Mr. Agarwal joined Blackstone in 1992 and is a member of Blackstone’s Real Estate Investment Committee as well as the Investment Committee for Blackstone Total Alternatives Solution.

Mr. Agarwal graduated from Princeton University, where he graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, and received his MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Mr. Agarwal is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Daniel is a Principal in the Client Solutions Group based in the firm’s London office.

Prior to joining Hamilton Lane in 2007, Daniel was a Senior Vice President in charge of asset owners and investment consultants in Europe and Africa at Morgan Stanley Capital International in London. Previously, he worked as an institutional advisor at the German bank, Metzler, and prior to that, he spent more than eight years at the advisory and brokerage firm, Hall International Partners in the Netherlands. Daniel began his career as a research analyst at the Dutch bank ABN Amro in Amsterdam.

Daniel received an M.B.A. from Henley Management College in London and a B.S. in Finance from Roosevelt University in Chicago.

Timur Akazhanov is a General Partner at B Capital and is focused on strategic minority and control investments in technology and tech-enabled services companies.

He has more than 15 years of private equity experience covering technology and a broad range of other industries.

Before joining B Capital, he was a Managing Director at H.I.G. Capital focusing on technology and tech-enabled Services. Prior to that he was a Managing Director at Blackstone, a Vice President at Bain Capital and a Business Analyst at McKinsey & Company.

Timur holds a BA Magna Cum Laude in Economics from Harvard University and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker and Ford Scholar. Originally from Almaty, Kazakhstan, he is based in New York