Leadership
Can Private Equity Stay Private?
As both the scope and size of their deals get bigger, private-equity firms are finding it hard to stay in the shadows.
February 04, 2026
The New Way Private Firms Speak to Stakeholders
When the bankruptcy of a midsized private-equity firm’s healthcare-portfolio company made headlines, the managing partners thought they were insulated. After all, they weren’t the operational leaders, just the investors. But within days, and with continuing media coverage, the word—and the PE firm’s name—got out.
Welcome to the new reputational landscape in which private equity now operates. PE companies used to fly silently under the radar until the news cycle moved on. Investors even found this silence appealing, because it offered an element of exclusivity and elusiveness. But bit by bit, as the dealmaking has grown larger in dollars and scope, investors and regulators have made it clear that PE shops can no longer treat communications as an afterthought. “Private-equity investments have become so diverse that they touch nearly everything,” says Peter McDermott, head of Korn Ferry’s Corporate Affairs practice for North America. “The firms have to learn to be comfortable in the public eye.”
In recent years, experts say, as PE firms have abandoned their traditional opacity, they’ve hired additional in-house communications and investor-relations leaders. “When there’s a void, people will fill in the blanks,” says Richard Marshall, Korn Ferry’s global managing director of Corporate Affairs. “To control the narrative, they need to play offense.”
The need to go on the offensive has risen as private-equity firms have more money to spend, and this has in turn led to larger deals, says Chad Astmann, co-head of Korn Ferry’s Global Investment Management practice. In the third quarter of 2025, there were 156 deals above $100 million, compared to 108 in the third quarter of 2023. “The size and scale of these investments invites public scrutiny,” Astmann says. Adds Francois Auzerais, head of Korn Ferry’s Private Markets practice in North America: “Clients now expect a certain level of transparency.”
But experts say private-equity firms have to manage two very different types of communications. The first is their communication with the limited partners who provide capital to the firm. Say an investment goes sour; to avoid raising questions about the quality of their due diligence, private-equity shops need to contact those partners within 24 hours. The second communication type is with the broader public, which can be trickier. A private-equity firm could come under scrutiny merely because “guilt by association is common,” Astmann says.
McDermott and Marshall note that leveraging good communications has become an advantage for some private-equity outfits. Putting forward a public face, or several public faces, can help firms provide human perspective and a better understanding of what they do. “Today’s environment has portrayed private equity as the evil empire,” Marshall says. “Good comms can help advocate what their value-add is.”
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