MORGAN STANLEY AT WORK
KEVIN SWAN
TITLE : CO-HEAD OF GLOBAL PRIVATE MARKETS
“ We have the equity management platform and transactional capabilities to be able to support companies and shareholders ,” Swan explains . “ We also have an attractive investor client base for participation in liquidity events and secondary transactions .”
According to Swan , high-growth venture-backed companies control their cap tables , as ownership structures and the different legalities provide them the authority to decide who can be an investor – and who can ’ t .
“ The big takeaway is that these companies have a definitive say in terms of who can actually own their shares . So they want high-quality , reputable , long term investors on their cap table .”
Morgan Stanley at Work is fortunate to work with some of the best companies in the world , due to the full suite of wealth management and financial wellness offerings . These services empower companies to extend benefits to their employees , at the same time as engaging directly with both employees and investors .
“ A lot of times , for employees in these startups , it ’ s the first time that they ’ ve obtained any wealth . And whether that ’ s a modest amount or generational wealth – which isn ’ t uncommon at some of these
INDUSTRY : FINANCIAL SERVICES LOCATION : ALBERTA , CANADA
Kevin Swan is a Managing Director of Morgan Stanley in Wealth Management . He is Co-Head of Global Private Markets for Morgan Stanley At Work , which delivers equity management , liquidity , and workplace solutions to private companies . He joined Morgan Stanley through the acquisition of Solium Capital where he served as the VP of Corporate Development . Prior to joining Morgan Stanley , Kevin held roles in product management and corporate development , was a Partner at venture capital firm Inovia Capital , and served as a board member at several venture backed technology startups . Kevin has a B . Sc . from the University of Alberta and an M . S . from Stanford University where he studied mechatronics and control systems .
startup companies – we have solutions and a large population of top financial advisors to support these employees on their financial journey .”
Managing the public versus private pathway Sam Adams is the Executive Director of Private to Public Strategy for Morgan Stanley at Work . A veteran of the ‘ route to IPO ’ journey prior to joining Morgan Stanley , she managed a number of prominent IPO projects , which helped her to decide that managing share plan administration programmes and supporting companies through the process was the perfect use of her acquired skills .
“ We have several private clients who have no intentions of ever going public and we ’ re starting to see a larger trend in new clients who want to establish stock plans with regular liquidity activity already preprogrammed in ,” explains Adams .
“ This is because it gives them the flexibility to allow people to take some of the value that they ’ ve helped create in the company off the table through the shares they ’ ve earned as an employee , while not putting so much pressure on the overall company to have to make a decision of whether or not to go public within a certain time period .”
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