Responsible Private Equity Investors Revitalizing U.S. Manufacturing
Pension Funds Investing in Industrial Midwest Score Solid Returns
By Marco Trbovich
Vice President of Strategic Communications
for Tricom Associates
Detroit, MI – Private equity firms and their investors from Taft-Hartley and state pension funds offered compelling accounts of their success in securing profitable returns on investment in U.S. manufacturing – especially in the Midwest – at the Heartland Capital Strategies fourth and final Responsible Investment Forum, organized in collaboration with the Blue Green Alliance.
Michael Psaros, a Co-Founder and Managing Principal of KPS Capital Partners, the world’s leading turnaround private equity investor in the middle market, explained how KPS has achieved top decile investment returns among private equity firms globally by investing in manufacturing and industrial companies, while maintaining a constructive relationship with unions.
“When we raised our first institutional fund fifteen years ago, institutional investors were initially skeptical that superior investment returns could be achieved by investing in manufacturing. Further, investors were highly skeptical that unions could play a constructive role in the turnaround and subsequent growth of our companies.
“The industrial affiliates of the AFL-CIO did something magical at that time. They took reference calls for us reassuring potential investors in KPS of our firm’s successful track record in turning around companies, and in the power of working constructively with unions.”
AFL CIO’s Housing Investment Trust (HIT) Creating Competitive Returns and Thousands of Jobs
Innovative Projects to Rebuild Philadelphia Showcased at Responsible Investment Forum
By Marco Trbovich
Vice President of Strategic Communications
for Tricom Associates
Paseo Verde, an innovative project to rebuild a critical neighborhood in North Central Philadelphia, was the highlight of a Responsible Investment Forum that preceded the project’s official groundbreaking on April 10, 2012. Partly financed by the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust’s (HIT) Building America CDE, the multi-use housing, retail and services project near Temple University is setting new standards for LEED construction, energy efficiency, renewable energy 
sources and transit-oriented development.
The forum, the third of four regional conferences sponsored by Heartland Capital Strategies in collaboration with the Blue/Green Alliance, focused on the need to revitalize the real economy and rebuild cities through value-added investments in real estate and clean energy. The forums have provided a “collaboratory” on the successful roles of pension funds and other sustainable investors in re-investing in America.
The Keynote Speaker was Eric Price, CEO of the Building America CDE program, who showed how the fund, capitalized by union pensions, is creating sustainable targeted investments that bring highly competitive returns while creating more than 12,000 jobs in the beleaguered construction trades, including hundreds of jobs in Philadelphia.
Nation’s Largest Public Pension Funds Focus on Urgent Need for Infrastructure Investments
By Marco Trbovich
Vice President of Strategic Communications
for Tricom Associates
Representatives of the nation’s two largest public pension funds, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS), were among pension fund managers, union and community leaders at a Responsible Investment Forum in Los Angeles convened by Heartland Capital Strategies to address the urgent need for infrastructure.
Kirsten Spalding, California Director for CERES, who led the forum’s discussion of the opportunities and challenges facing pension funds and investors interested in infrastructure projects, noted that California alone has “$500 to $600 billion in infrastructure needs over the next 10 to 20 years.” Nationally the figure exceeds $2 trillion.
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