Pacific Equity Partners

An Operating Committee comprising the three founding partners — Simon Pillar (Chair), Rickard Gardell, and Tim Sims — oversees all investment decisions alongside strategy heads. Jake Haines leads PEP Credit, and Paul Foster co-leads Secure Assets. The founders remain the ultimate ratifying body, a structure unchanged since the firm's first fund in 1998.

PEP operates four distinct strategies: a flagship Private Equity buyout series (currently Fund VII), Secure Assets targeting infrastructure and essential services, PEP Credit providing private debt across the capital structure, and PEP Gateway — a co-investment platform launched alongside the most recent flagship fund. Each strategy has dedicated investment committee oversight and separate limited-partner documentation.

The firm primarily structures direct control investments through its PE and Secure Assets funds, but PEP Gateway was created specifically to accommodate co-investment alongside the main buyout vehicle. PEP Credit operates as a direct lending strategy rather than a fund-of-funds allocator.

The Private Equity strategy targets mature, cash-generative businesses across Australia and New Zealand, executing buyouts, take-privates, and corporate carve-outs. The firm occasionally pursues growth-stage investments through its main fund, but its core competency remains operational turnarounds and expansion-stage value creation in established companies.

According to PEP's own disclosures, its long-term investor base includes the world's largest and most experienced investment institutions, sovereign wealth funds, and private wealth investors (per the firm, 2025). While superannuation funds are known anchors in Australian private markets, PEP does not publicly break out specific LP names.

Three structural features separate PEP. First, its founders built a regional strategy practice at Bain & Company before launching the firm, creating an operations-heavy value-creation model that embeds ex-consultants inside portfolio companies. Second, an Operating Committee of the original founders still ratifies every investment, avoiding the succession disruption common among first-generation firms. Third, the multi-strategy platform — spanning buyouts, infrastructure, credit, and co-investment — operates under a single P&L with shared deal origination resources.

PEP has been a United Nations Principles of Responsible Investing signatory since 2012. The firm reports measuring carbon footprint across nine portfolio companies, with its own operations powered by renewable energy (per the firm, FY25). ESG risk assessment is formally embedded in the investment evaluation process.