UK Secretary Lord Myners marks Private Equity Foundation as example for financial services industry to follow

In his speech to the BVCA Private Equity Summit yesterday, Myners said, “I believe that, as an industry, you should be justly proud of the achievements of the Foundation...and I would encourage you to continue to support those less fortunate with your time and expertise and to make sure that your good work here is well understood.”

Created in 2006, PEF is a venture philanthropy fund  that focuses its efforts on charities that benefit young people.  They specifically focus on the issue of young people who are not in education, employment or training. Some of the charities that PEF supports include Vital Regeneration, Skill Force, School-Home Support, Tomorrow’s People and their only non-UK charity, Hamburger Hauptschulmodell, located in Germany.

Myners also told the conference, “Other sectors of the financial services industry would do well to seek to emulate the example set here by private equity, particularly at a time when there is a broad sense in society that banks and others have and continue to enjoy substantial support at some cost to the taxpayer, economy and public policy priorities.”

By using basic private equity skills based on results-based management, PEF hopes to maximise the social impact of its work by helping charities reach out to more young people.

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