Key Takeaways
- Geography: United States.
Analysis
Madrid, London, Miami & New York — HIG Capital has hired four senior executives from Morgan Stanley’s private equity secondaries team, marking a bold step into the fast-growing GP-led secondaries market. The team—Dan Wieder, Yash Gupta, Austin Gerber, and Joe Holleran—bring nearly five decades of combined experience and will lead the firm’s upcoming launch of a continuation vehicle fund in early 2026.
Dan Wieder, who served as a Partner and Investment Committee member at Morgan Stanley, was the first analyst hired when the platform launched. He played a key role in shaping its secondaries strategy. Yash Gupta, also a Partner, focused on structuring and executing complex continuation deals. Austin Gerber and Joe Holleran, both Executive Directors, specialized in portfolio structuring and GP-led transaction execution across global markets.
The appointments come as HIG builds out its secondaries platform to target continuation vehicles—structures that allow sponsors to transfer high-performing assets from legacy funds into new vehicles, offering liquidity to existing LPs while extending value creation. The firm plans to focus its strategy in sectors where it already has deep expertise: healthcare, manufacturing, technology, and business services.
GP-led secondaries are surging globally. According to Jefferies, these transactions rose by 19% in the first half of 2025, underscoring a growing demand for creative liquidity in a constrained exit environment. Evercore and Baird data show that continuation vehicles now represent nearly half of global secondary transaction value.
HIG’s move aligns it with major players such as Warburg Pincus, Leonard Green & Partners, New Mountain Capital, and TPG, all of which have expanded their GP-led platforms in recent quarters. For instance, ICG Strategic Equity closed an $11 billion continuation fund in late 2024—more than double the size of its predecessor—demonstrating investor appetite for these vehicles in both Europe and North America.
Other firms like Lexington Partners, Coller Capital, and AlpInvest Partners have aggressively scaled their platforms. AlpInvest, part of The Carlyle Group, led a $1 billion CFO transaction in 2024, while Coller Capital and Lexington continue to lead billion-dollar deals with dedicated global teams.
The recruitment of Wieder and his team reflects a broader talent war across the private markets landscape. Earlier this year, Morgan Stanley appointed Nash Waterman as sole head of its secondaries group, while PJT Partners and Goldman Sachs have also made high-profile hires from firms like Credit Suisse and Eaton Partners.
As HIG prepares for a 2026 launch, it will use this senior team to design a fund structure that appeals to institutional LPs seeking tailored liquidity solutions. The firm’s global footprint and capital base—estimated around $70 billion AUM—gives it a competitive edge as it enters this increasingly crowded space.
With demand rising and seasoned talent on board, HIG’s expansion into GP-led secondaries could redefine its position among mid- and large-cap private equity managers.