Private equity has evolved from a niche strategy built on leverage and governance into a dominant force shaping global capital markets. In this episode, we sit down with Steven Kaplan, Neubauer Family Professor of Entrepreneurship & Finance at University of Chicago Booth School of Business, to explore how the industry developed, what the data says about performance today, and where opportunities—and risks—are emerging next. We revisit the early foundations of private equity, including the “holy trinity” of financial, governance and operational engineering, and examine whether buyout returns continue to outperform public markets, what is driving value creation in the current environment, and why persistence in top-quartile performance has become more elusive.

Referring to Steven’s over 30 years of research, this conversation offers a clear, data-driven view of private equity’s evolution and the forces shaping its future.