Mercatus is excited to welcome Jacqueline Rees to its growing team. Jacqueline comes to Mercatus from Argo Infrastructure Partners, where she was an associate in the asset management group. We recently sat down with her to learn more about his new role, what brought her to Mercatus, and her thoughts on the future of private market technology.
What is your role at Mercatus and what are you hoping to accomplish?
I am joining Mercatus as Director of Program Management. In a previous role I experienced firsthand the challenges met by a fund trying to quickly grow and scale. Giving partners the tools and expertise to gain control of their data, derive insights from analytics and work smarter will be all the more satisfying having lived the challenges myself.
What is your career background?
My undergraduate degree is in mechanical engineering and I worked for several years as an engineer in the oil and gas industry before completing my MBA and moving into business consulting for oil and gas, and then for a wide range of heavy industries. Most recently I worked for an energy infrastructure fund in the asset management team.
In your past role(s) what are some unmet needs from private market investors around data management technology?
A typical default for many firms, both large incumbents and early stage firms acting with tight margins, is an overreliance on Excel as a ‘do everything’ tool. Even with meticulous version control there is no true data centralization which makes analysis and reporting a lot more challenging.
What excites you about Mercatus?
I am excited to be joining a company at the forefront of technology innovation where there are so many growth opportunities. The product has the power to change the way investment professionals work, to enable them to focus on the exciting parts of their jobs, rather than checking and rechecking figures multiple times to close a reporting period.
How do you see private market technology evolving over the next decade?
I see it evolving from a nice-to-have to a must-have. LPs are becoming ever more demanding for transparency on all dimensions, from operating KPIs to ESG targets. GP fees are becoming more competitive and they need a way to efficiently scale their teams.
What is your favorite / go-to Karaoke song?
Eternal Flame – the Bangles. I imagine it sounds almost like the original. The reality is far from.
