Oct 12, 2026 · 55 min
Columbia’s Erlina Yeo Terwelp rethinks private-market allocation
Senior Decision Makers: Erlina Yeo Terwelp, Columbia Investment Management Company (EP.520)
Private portfolios face higher rates, tighter liquidity, concentration risks, and changing value-creation economics, making manager selection and portfolio construction more consequential.
- 1Erlina Yeo Terwelp evaluates investment managers as businesses, weighing positioning, competitive advantages, people, and business quality.
- 2Columbia manages private-market exposure through diversification, vintage-year planning, liquidity awareness, and disciplined manager sizing.
- 3Higher rates and weaker leverage economics are pushing managers to prove operational improvement rather than rely on multiple expansion.
Don't miss
Yeo Terwelp explains why ending a manager relationship can be harder than underwriting one, and which performance, personnel, and strategic signals force an exit.
The brief
Erlina Yeo Terwelp traces a path from investment banking through private equity, growth equity, and family-office investing to leading private asset classes at Columbia.
Her central analytical move is to treat an investment manager like an operating company: assess its positioning, people, competitive advantages, and business quality.
Columbia’s private portfolio balances manager diversification, vintage years, liquidity, unfunded capacity, and exposure tilts as valuations, rates, and AI enthusiasm reshape the market.
The difficult call is exiting a manager. Performance, personnel, and strategy can all justify leaving, while staying too long risks turning familiarity into inertia.
Yeo Terwelp also describes the allocator’s broader job: preserve intellectual honesty, develop talent, and remain a generalist while building specialist expertise.
What was said on this episode
29 statements · 11 positive · 5 negative · 5 mixed · 8 neutral
Business and investment-manager evaluation share largely the same fundamentals.
“I don't think there is a huge difference in the fundamentals of what you're looking at between a business and a manager.”
Listen at 0:00
Five investment-specific factors can determine deal success or returns.
“there's probably five things unique to every investment that will make or break the deal or make or break the returns.”
Listen at 0:37
Investment decisions require balancing trade-offs and risk-return profiles.
“there is a lot of dynamic decisions that you have to make around. different investment opportunities around trade-offs, around risk and return profiles.”
Listen at 7:57
Positioning, competitive advantages, and people matter for businesses and managers alike.
“You need to look at the positioning and debate that they're in, whether thereabouts. All these things apply equally to a business as it does to a manager.”
Listen at 17:30
Investment managers should evaluate their firms as businesses.
“All managers need to look at their firms as businesses as well.”
Listen at 17:41
Business and manager analysis similarly considers positioning, moats, people, and execution.
“All those things are similar between a business and a manager.”
Listen at 18:07
Managing equity beta dynamically was uncommon among institutions at that time.
“It was less common back then to manage to an equity beta or a range as more of a form of dynamic risk management.”
Listen at 19:38
A generalist mindset remains valuable early in an investment career.
“It's still valuable when you're younger and you come in with a generalist mindset.”
Listen at 23:19
Generalists can compare asset classes and select from a broader opportunity set.
“You're able to compare across asset classes. You're picking from a bigger universe.”
Listen at 23:23
Specialization improved her understanding of portfolio construction.
“The benefit to being a specialist for me a little bit later in life was that there was this element of portfolio construction that I had not appreciated.”
Listen at 23:51
Five investment-specific factors can determine a deal’s success or returns.
“I belong to the school where I believe that there's probably five things unique to every investment that will make or break the deal or make or break the returns.”
Listen at 29:23
No team member has exclusive ownership of good investment ideas.
“Good ideas can come from anywhere. Nobody in team has monopoly on good ideas.”
Listen at 30:15
Remaining invested with managers too long can be a costly mistake.
“Some of the mistakes that I've made in the past amongst many is when you stay on the bus for too long, that can be hard.”
Listen at 32:46
Portfolio construction determines manager sizing, manager count, and new-manager additions.
“There are portfolio construction decisions that determine how much we allocate to a manager, how many managers we allocate to, and whether we would add to a new manager.”
Listen at 34:40
Public markets have recently outperformed private markets.
“as public markets have outrun private markets.”
Listen at 38:03
The next NVIDIA may not emerge until 2028.
“Maybe the next NVIDIA is not going to be built till 2028.”
Listen at 39:01
Higher interest rates materially change buyout investment economics.
“The biggest one, particularly for buyout, is higher interest rates. It makes the math different.”
Listen at 40:18
Concentrated portfolio bets are a significant private-market risk.
“The second risk is the concentration of bets that we have in some parts of our portfolio.”
Listen at 40:43
Replicable operating playbooks are especially important for buyout investments today.
“That idea of how do you replicate Your success, your operating playbook is particularly important today for buyouts.”
Listen at 41:37
Venture capital is inherently high-risk and high-reward.
“Venture is inherently one of those asset classes. High risk, high reward.”
Listen at 42:03
Specialist buyout managers can provide operational advantages.
“Specialists can be helpful there.”
Listen at 42:50
Buy-and-build managers who execute well can generate exceptional results.
“People who do it well can generate exceptional results.”
Listen at 43:43
Poor role fit, rather than personal deficiency, explains many workplace mismatches.
“It's never the wrong person. It's the wrong job.”
Listen at 46:21
Retaining and leveraging high performers requires responsibilities and learning opportunities.
“The question is, how do you keep high performers around? How do you leverage them?”
Listen at 47:47
Kim Lew continually adapts by examining how and why conditions change.
“She's always looking forward. She's always looking at why things have changed.”
Listen at 49:39
AI disruption is changing the investment environment and requires adaptation.
“There's the AI disruption. How do you invest through that?”
Listen at 50:59
Some investment conditions familiar over the past 10–20 years no longer exist.
“Certain things that we've been used to in the last 10, 20 years are not there anymore.”
Listen at 51:12
Confusing risk identification with conviction undermines intellectual honesty.
“People mistake identifying risks for like a conviction and it goes to intellectual honesty.”
Listen at 53:26
Young allocators should regularly undertake uncomfortable actions to grow.
“Doing something that scares you every day is a good one.”
Listen at 53:49
Statements are attributed to the speaker as said on the episode and reflect their view at the time, not PodLume's. They are not advice.
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