Partners Group announces co-CEO succession

Partners Group, the global private markets investment manager, has announced a change in the firm’s Co-CEO office.

David Layton, partner and head of private equity, will replace Christoph Rubeli as co-CEO from Jan. 1, 2019. He will join André Frei, who has been co-CEO since 2013, in the co-CEO office.

Rubeli will additionally step down from Partners Group’s executive committee and global executive board by the end of this year, but he will remain a partner of the firm.

Rubeli joined Partners Group in 1998 from UBS. In his early years with the firm, he was instrumental in building out its global investment activities. He also established Partners Group’s footprint in Asia, spending several years as head of the Singapore office.

Layton joined Partners Group in 2005 in its headquarters in Baar-Zug, Switzerland. Prior to his current role as global head of private equity, he was the Americas head of private equity, based in New York. Layton has played a key role in developing Partners Group’s direct private equity practice, leading some of the firm’s most successful investments to-date on behalf of its clients. In 2016, he moved to Denver to establish the firm’s new Americas regional headquarters, which today has approximately 150 professionals. He is a member of Partners Group’s executive committee and its global executive board, as well as its global investment committee.