Mr. Biden, here’s the truth about private equity | Jack and Suzy Welch

Mr. Biden, here’s the truth about private equity | Jack and Suzy Welch

Time was you worked in private equity and people just sort of shrugged when you mentioned it. You were in finance sort of; you invested in companies, you made deals. Whatever.

Now, you’re in private equity, and well, hello. You’re a heroic job creator – or no, wait, you take pleasure in firing people. You’re a savvy executive who knows how to grow the economy – or get outta here, you’re a vulture capitalist with leadership skills, as Vice-President Joe Biden recently put it, that are no better than a plumber’s.

Hello, indeed, and with all due respect to the vice-president, and certainly with no offense intended toward plumbers, we have a question.

Mr. Vice-President, where in the world are you getting your ideas about private equity?

Because we have an entirely different take, and we can tell you where ours comes from – experience, 20-plus years of working with PE firms and 11 years of working for one. And given that experience, and given how private equity is at the epicenter of the political debate now, we’d say it’s time for a reality check about what private equity really does and what kind of leaders it tends to produce.