PEM award goes to Riverside’s Hendrickson

Pam Hendrickson, chief operating officer of global mid-market firm The Riverside Company, was awarded the 2012 Private Equity Manager Leadership Award on Thursday. 

“I am proud of our industry and especially of what my colleagues at Riverside have accomplished in making a significant impact on the worldwide economy”, said Hendrickson upon receiving her award at the Private Equity International CFOs and COOs Forum in New York. 

Pam Hendrickson

William Hupp, chief financial officer of Adams Street Partners, was last year’s winner. 

Hendrickson went on to say the industry’s most important work still lay ahead, citing recent media scrutiny of the private equity model as cause for greater advocacy on the part of industry professionals. 

True to her word, Hendrickson plays an active role with industry trade bodies, including sitting on the board of the Private Equity Growth Capital Counsel’s (PEGCC) growth capital committee 

Hendrickson was also among those testifying at a March congressional hearing on Dodd-Frank’s potential stifling of job creation. US private equity firms with $150 million or more in assets will need to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission, thus becoming subject to new regulatory and reporting requirements.

Hendrickson warned lawmakers registration would be an “undue burden on firms – especially small and mid-sized firms – in terms of both money and time”. That in turn will “divert scarce resources from buying and building small and mid-sized companies – the engines that drive job growth in the United States”. 

At the conference Hendrickson challenged delegates to “engage with the organisations trying to tell the story, whether its ACG, PEGCC or SBIA – they are all working hard for you, so please help them”.

Her message is a timely one. Mitt Romney’s run for the US Republican nomination has stirred his political opponents to attack his time as a Bain Capital executive. Some of Romney’s opponents have challenged his assertion that 100,000 net new jobs were created during his stewardship of Bain.  

“Collect the data from your portfolio companies – the number of jobs created, how much you invested, especially in capex and R&D,” Hendrickson urged delegates during her acceptance speech. 

Since joining Riverside in 2006, Hendrickson has also kick-started a number of initiatives which speak to GPs' growing appreciation of a value-add philosophy. Perhaps her most notable work was the launch of Riverside University, a place for Riverside portfolio company executives to collaborate and attend seminars focused on growth. 

Other accomplishments include the development of “BRAD”, an automated database which Riverside portfolio companies directly feed in reporting results which the firm then uses to manage portfolio performance and information in real time. 

“Stop being so private, we have to beat our own drum loudly and openly about our wins and losses so that people understand what we really do,” said Hendrickson at the conference.