Day in the life: Andrea Mazzaferro

8:17am 
I grab breakfast just off the Via Della Spiga (our home in Milan’s fashion quarter) on the way to the office, while glancing through emails and industry news to get a head start on the day. Once I arrive I sort out the time sensitive issues before preparing for the first meeting of the day. It’s a brainstorming session with Robert Tomei, our chairman, on the performance of the energy market and some promising GPs we are looking at in China. 

9:23am 

Andrea Mazzaferro

Meeting prep done and I’m up to date on all the facts and figures on the energy market and I have several ideas on where new value lies. The meeting takes about 45 minutes, and I emerge with a number of tasks to add to my to-do list. One is arranging a conference call to run the energy market data by our special advisor for energy Alberto Clò. He is invaluable at analysing the environment on a macro level and finding opportunities. We see each other on a regular basis to float ideas when we are looking at transactions in the energy sector.

11:09am 
I finish a briefing for my team on what we should be focusing on and how they should prepare for an upcoming set of meetings with GPs in China. We spend some time going over the latest report from Michael Spence, chairman of the Independent Commission on Growth and Development and another of our specialist advisors. As portfolio manager for both the generalist and energy funds, I divide much of my time between identifying investment opportunities and monitoring our existing assets in these areas.

1:31pm 
Have lunch with one of our existing GPs at Il Salumaio di Montenapoleone restaurant, a couple of doors down from the office. We talk about performance, risk management and our expectations of the fund. We’re hands-on when we make investments, we ensure that each of our investments is living up to our expectations – and if not, we’ll want to know why. We tend to see GPs often through a combination of them travelling to Milan, and our travels to London and New York.

2:40pm
I spend some time with the sales and marketing teams, to keep track of our investor relations side and make sure investors are fully up to date with our work and the performance of the funds. We also start planning meetings with some LPs who want more in-depth analysis. We discuss our latest offerings and products that we will take to investors. I then have a quick chat with the CFO about cash flow management.

4:16pm
It’s time for our twice-weekly senior team meeting, which this time has a focus on internal compliance. There is no regular structure – these meetings are an opportunity to keep everyone fully briefed on what each of our teams is working on. 

7:50pm
On my way to the airport. I’m on the Blackberry keeping up to date with my team back at the office who are sending me over the latest data for my meetings. I’m off to Shenzhen to meet some potential GPs – I’ve spent a fair amount of time there recently, thanks to a particular focus on emerging markets over the past few months. These meetings are the culmination of weeks of research and analysis by my team, and will be key to guiding our future investment decisions. We start analysing the data in the months leading up to a GP’s fundraising and we keep on going on the due diligence even after we have met them.