Paul Gilbert

Paul Graham Guilbert is a British, Guernsey-based private-equity and investment-company director. Public company records for MXC Capital identify him as a former director of MXC Capital (UK) Limited, appointed on 13 August 2014 and resigned on 17 August 2015, with country of residence listed as Guernsey. MarketScreener and Zonebourse identify him as a director/board member of MXC Capital Limited.

Guilbert’s earlier operating background was in private equity fund administration. SEC filings state that he served as a director of Northern Trust International Fund Administration Services (Guernsey) Limited, formerly Guernsey International Fund Managers Limited, and had held that position since 1997. In 2010, Northern Trust appointed him head of its Jersey office while he retained responsibility for its global private equity fund administration business.

By 2011, Northern Trust moved Guilbert back to Guernsey as head of private equity in Guernsey while retaining his global private equity fund administration role. Northern Trust described the Guernsey private equity administration business at that time as its largest global private equity asset servicing centre, with US$47.8 billion of committed capital under administration.

Guilbert became chairman of Conversus GP, Limited / Conversus Capital, L.P. around June 2011. Conversus was a Guernsey limited partnership listed on NYSE Euronext Amsterdam under ticker CCAP. In 2012, as chairman of Conversus GP, Limited, he oversaw the sale process in which HarbourVest-managed funds agreed to acquire Conversus’s portfolio of private equity fund interests and direct co-investments.

• Conversus was not a typical angel or seed investor in the public records reviewed. It was a listed private equity fund with a diversified portfolio of third-party private equity fund interests and direct co-investments.
• In 2012, Conversus’s public objective was to “maximize long-term unit holder value” by harvesting its existing portfolio and returning capital to unit holders.
• The HarbourVest transaction shows a focus on mature, diversified private equity assets: more than 200 private equity fund interests plus direct co-investments.
• Conversus’s June 2012 portfolio disclosure showed fund-investment exposure weighted heavily to North America, with additional Europe, Asia, and rest-of-world exposure; direct co-investments included industrials, information technology, consumer discretionary, and health care.
• Guilbert’s own career focus appears to be governance, private equity fund administration, investment-company boards, and complex fund/portfolio transactions rather than founder-led seed investing.