Why this manager sees private equity as art
January 2026
Craig MacDonald
Managing Director and Portfolio Manager
HarbourVest
What’s your background in private equity?
This is my 21st year at HarbourVest Partners. I have worked in Boston, London, and now as head of the firm’s Dublin office. Prior to that I was in investment banking. My career at HarbourVest has been shaped by working across our diversified private markets platforms, and this has been helpful in the context of the private equity fund I manage.
For the past six years I have also headed HarbourVest’s regulated European Alternative Investment Fund Manager (AIFM) authorisation and in that role I worked closely with our Chief Risk Officer, which deepened my experience in managing fund liquidity and conducting related stress testing.
What’s your routine as a portfolio manager?
Each day is different. At the weekend I review valuations and am particularly interested in performance trends, market developments and liquidity scenarios. During the week we make our deal proposals and share recommendations at our portfolio manager meeting, and vote on proposals at our evergreen portfolio management committee.
Each week also involves meetings and calls with investors and prospects, identifying deals in due diligence and their portfolio impact, scenario analysis for investments, reviewing liquidity and stress testing.
Our fund in focus is the HarbourVest Global Private Solution - Direct Private Equity Fund (HGPS-DPE). What does a 'dynamic portfolio construction model' mean for this fund?
HGPS-DPE is a diversified product, meaning it can source investments across secondary markets and as direct co-investments; it can invest in companies at the growth stage and/or as a buyout; and it invests across geographies, sectors, managers and sizes. At any time we can be invested between 2000 and 4000 underlying companies and across more than 100 investments.
Navigating private markets is an art and a science, and we seek to benefit from 40 plus years of data, analytics, and experience. We have the flexibility to shift where we allocate (within our portfolio construction guardrails) to take advantage of market conditions, using data-driven insights from our Quantitative Investment Solutions (QIS) platform to optimise our portfolios and improve investment outcomes.
And what does a 'first in line' account mean?
‘First in line’ means that HGPS-DPE is eligible for all deals (subject to our portfolio construction limitations) on an equal footing with other HarbourVest funds. This ensures that HGPS-DPE invests in the same deals as our closed end funds – we do not source deals specifically for any of our evergreen funds, including HGPS-DPE. Our deal teams do not know where capital will ultimately be allocated from when they underwrite a deal, so investors have access to the same high quality, diversified deal flow regardless of their point of access.
Favourite part of the job?
When we meet and exceed our target returns for investors. It is satisfying to see how our data-driven portfolio construction, diversification, and total portfolio approach come together to deliver results for our clients.
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