Key Takeaways
- Geography: United Kingdom.
Analysis
HarbourVest Partners has tapped Ivan Pascual to run its private-wealth franchise across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, a move designed to deepen the firm’s distribution ties with private banks, wealth managers and family offices. The London-based appointment signals a stepped-up push into wealth channels as demand for institutional private-markets access rises.
Pascual will report to Venu Krishnamurthy, HarbourVest’s global head of private wealth, and takes over from Simon Jennings, who transitioned to a senior advisory position after eight years leading the EMEA and APAC wealth agenda. HarbourVest says the hire supports a strategic focus on building tailored solutions for wealth clients.
The firm, which reports more than $146 billion in assets under management as of 30 June 2025, has grown its private-wealth capability steadily. HarbourVest highlights a dedicated team of over 110 professionals working on global private wealth and a broader organisation of roughly 1,270 employees supporting its multi-strategy private markets platform.
Pascual arrives with more than 25 years in financial services, including a senior leadership role overseeing BlackRock’s wealth client business in EMEA. His brief at HarbourVest will centre on expanding distribution partnerships, developing client-facing product wrappers and scaling portfolio solutions — from evergreen vehicles to secondaries and co-investment exposure — that match high-net-worth expectations.
The change comes as private wealth allocations to alternatives continue to rise, with investors increasingly seeking simpler access, greater liquidity options and clearer fee structures. HarbourVest has been active in that space for more than 43 years, and recently launched an evergreen private equity secondaries vehicle to give wealth clients exposure to the expanding secondaries market.
Market observers say the appointment reflects a broader trend: traditional asset managers and specialist private-markets firms are investing heavily in distribution and product engineering to monetise growing retail and wealth demand for private assets. For HarbourVest, strengthening senior distribution leadership in EMEA could help accelerate partnerships with multi-family offices, private banks and digital wealth platforms across the region.
Internally, the firm positions the hire as part of a long-term build-out of its wealth offering, combining its scale in primaries, secondaries, direct co-investments and private credit to create packaged solutions aimed at wealth clients. The move will be watched closely by competitors and intermediary partners seeking to capture a fast-evolving slice of private-markets savings.