Day in the life: Béla Schwartz

6:04am
Up early despite landing in Cleveland late last night. I need to be up and check my emails from Europe and Asia. It’s important to stay ahead when handling different time-zones as well as the sheer volume of emails.

Béla Schwartz

8:02am
Get settled into my temporary office. The beauty of technology is that it allows the phone from my office in New York to appear on my laptop or even the phone in whichever office it is I’m sitting. I have a call with a prospective investor to discuss their comments on a current fund we are raising, as well as their lengthy side-letter.

10:01am
Move onto a discussion with HR and our firm’s senior management regarding vesting of carried interest alongside any other GP-related issues for our current funds. Then it’s time for our semi-weekly tax call which reviews all open issues and projects in process, status reports, and other progress matters (including discussion of new acquisitions and exits around the world). This meeting is also used to keep me up-to-date with any of our major ongoing tax projects.

12:30pm
Sit down for a lunch meeting with our chief compliance officer Jennifer Boyce. Jennifer is based in our Cleveland office so it’s important to catch-up personally as often as we can. Over lunch we discuss co-investment matters and sector fund issues, and more specifically, how they relate to our compliance obligations.

2:02pm
Handle various housekeeping needs for our finance department, including submitting mid-year bonus numbers for approval and addressing department personnel issues.

3:17pm
After lunch it’s time for a catch-up with our Cleveland-based finance team to go over our projects. This is also a time for my team to bring up any departmental issues with me in person. While technology allows for plenty of virtual meetings, including daily video conferences between Riverside’s 20 offices, nothing replaces direct in-person communication. Developing that personal bond and trust with colleagues (not to mention investors) is critical to our success.

4:28pm
Another meeting with Jennifer, our chief compliance officer, to go over some details we discussed about our compliance projects from before, one of which is an upcoming mock
SEC audit. This type of thing has become more important, as new regulations on both sides of the Atlantic have changed our policies and procedures surrounding compliance.

5:11 pm
Impromptu meeting with a fund manager to discuss the complexities of carried interest in the fund given the various constituencies involved.

6:04pm
Sit down for dinner and cocktails at a local steakhouse with 10 to 15 of our Cleveland-based administrative assistants. This outing began about 10 years ago with only two assistants. It is always a special outing considering the fun it allows for, which provides great bonding and socialising with people who really make Riverside run every day.

9:30pm
Back to the hotel. It’s time to check my emails from Asia and Australia before wrapping up any loose ends from the day.