About Jeffrey Hooke
Jeff Hooke is a broad-based finance and investment executive with global experience throughout the U.S., Europe, and the emerging markets of Latin America and Asia.
He was a Managing Director of Focus Securities, an M&A-oriented boutique investment bank, prior to joining Carey. Earlier, Hooke focused on emerging market investment and private equity. He was a director at the Emerging Markets Partnership, a $5 billion private equity group. Earlier, he was a Principal Investment Officer of the International Finance Corporation, the $30 billion private sector division of the World Bank.
His New York investment banking career covered two major firms: Lehman Brothers and Schroder Wertheim. He began his career as an investment officer in the private placement department of Metropolitan Life Insurance. Mr. Hooke has an MBA from the Wharton School and a BS degree (cum laude) from the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of five books and many publications.
The Myth of Private Equity: An Inside Look at Wall Street’s Transformative Investments
Once an obscure niche of the investment world, private equity has grown into a juggernaut, with consequences for a wide range of industries as well as the financial markets.
Private equity funds control companies that represent trillions of dollars in assets, millions of employees, and the well-being of thousands of institutional investors and their beneficiaries.
Even as the ruthlessness of some funds has made private equity a poster child for the harms of unfettered capitalism, many aspects of the industry remain opaque, hidden from the normal bounds of accountability.
The Myth of Private Equity is a hard-hitting and meticulous exposé from an insider’s viewpoint. Jeffrey C. Hooke―a former private equity executive and investment banker with deep knowledge of the industry―examines the negative effects of private equity and the ways in which it has avoided scrutiny. He unravels the exaggerations that the industry has spun to its customers and the business media, scrutinizing its claims of lucrative investment returns and financial wizardry and showing the stark realities that are concealed by the funds’ self-mythologizing and penchant for secrecy. Hooke details the flaws in private equity’s investment strategies, critically examines its day-to-day operations, and reveals the broad spectrum of its enablers. A bracing and essential read for both the financial profession and the broader public, this book pulls back the curtain on one of the most controversial areas of finance.