Valor Equity Partners and DOGE

Here are some sample due diligence questions that retirement plan
fiduciaries may wish to ask:

• How has Valor managed to cover the absence of Antonio Gracias and his two associates while they have been working for DOGE at the Social Security Administration?
• Has Valor appointed an interim CEO and CIO to fulfill Gracias’ duties while he is volunteering with DOGE? Has he been replaced on Valor’s investment committees?
• Has Mr. Gracias been able to attend board meetings of the various Valor portfolio companies that he serves on while he is also volunteering with DOGE?
• Have there been any opportunity costs in the form of missed investment opportunities from having Valor’s principal officer on leave from Valor while working at DOGE?
• Has Valor reduced its compensation to Gracias and his two associates to reflect their DOGE time commitments? Can limited partners expect a corresponding fee reduction?
• What is Valor doing to return capital to its limited partner investors from its more mature investment funds and improve its DPI performance metric?
• Does Valor have an employment policy that governs its employees’ political activities that may have reputational consequences for the firm and its limited partners?

Lambert here: Nice gotchas of a class enemy, but the spectacle of a union trying to improve the functioning of a private equity firm…. I dunno. Then again—

With $17.5 billion in assets under management, Valor manages funds on behalf of many public employee retirement plans including CalPERS, CalSTRS, Illinois State Board of Investment, Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund, New York State Common Retirement Fund, NYSTRS, NYCERS, Teachers’ Retirement System of the City of New York, and the Philadelphia Board of Pensions and Retirement.