Women in PE, class of 2023: Suyi Kim

Suyi Kim, global head of private equity at Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, was no stranger to gender discrimination as a young woman growing up in Korea.

On entering Seoul National University to study economics, Kim was asked why she wanted an education that had nothing to do with getting a “suitable husband.”

“Why not?” she asked. This determined mindset has guided Kim over a two-decade career in private equity and helped her rise in an industry with few female role models.

Kim first considered a PE career while obtaining an MBA at Stanford. “I was intrigued by investments,” she says, especially in private markets where “hard work offered a better chance of getting results.”

“We have a long way to go in our industry”

In 2002, she joined Carlyle, becoming the “first female private equity professional in South Korea.” The novelty caused some confusion, including being mistaken for a secretary. “Secretaries don’t need to work this late,” a cleaner told her.

Kim next went to Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan before joining CPP Investments in 2007 and establishing the pension’s first global office in Hong Kong. Promoted to head of Asia-Pacific in 2016, she grew the regional PE business, cutting mega-deals like the 2017 acquisition of Nord Anglia Education for $4.3 billion. In 2021, Kim was appointed to CPP’s top PE job, giving her oversight of a C$141 billion ($106 billion) strategy of direct, fund and secondaries investments.

While progress has been made, Kim says gender discrimination persists, especially in the form of “unconscious bias.” She recalls negotiating a deal a year ago, when a male business executive insisted on talking to a senior person. “I had to tell him three times I was that person.”

As the world’s largest investor in private equity, CPP has a special responsibility to promote diversity, Kim says. “My job is to generate strong and long-term gains” and one way of achieving that is having “diverse views on investments.”

CPP does this as a limited partner and as an owner of private companies. “For both, it starts with asking the questions. All of the sudden, they have to answer.” Then, the focus is on setting up the right expectations and policies in areas like board effectiveness and tracking the results.

“Over time, I’ve seen improvements,” Kim says. Today, for example, almost no PE-backed portfolio company is without a woman board member.

For its part, CPP tries to set an example, seen in the more than 30 percent of a 166-person PE team who are women. “We still have more to do,” Kim says, including creating more senior-level female representation.

Pointing to a McKinsey & Company study showing low gender diversity in private equity’s upper ranks relative to corporate America, Kim says, “we have a long way to go in our industry.” She is encouraged, however, by a “strong pipeline of young people” who can help realize a better balance.

Kim lives with her husband in Toronto. Outside of work, she sits on the board of JA Korea, the Korean branch of Junior Achievement, and practices meditation.