Investment Partner vs. Operating Partner Comp

So in PE funds there are obviously a ton of operating partners/senior guys on the portfolio side of things who usually come from industry or consulting. how does the pay for these operating professionals contrast with the investment professionals. I’m looking at a couple of PE -esque distressed shops where the operating partners drastically bring down the AUM per IP head if you count operating partners as investment professionals - but I’d like to know if they’re comped at all similarly to investment professionals.

5 Comments
 

Reviewing the following two compensation reports side by side should provide you all the answers:

Investment professional compensation trends in North America: 2019

Operating professional compensation trends in North America: 2019

 

The number of respondents on the Operating professional report is rather low. Therefore I would use these data points more as a directional guideline.

For Operating Associates I would focus on the average figures - $179k base and $90k bonus. $450k+ base and bonus is usually the starting point for VP level. Also, many firms have the hierarchy Associate -> Senior Associate -> VP. Assume that Senior Associate compensation is between the quoted Associate and VP figures.

 

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