General Counsel
Valeria Hegnauer
Responsibilities
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Legal due diligence
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Transaction structuring
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Value creation (holding period)
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Fund operations
Experience
Valeria Hegnauer is a seasoned private equity legal and operations leader with over 15 years of experience driving value creation across cross-border transactions, portfolio governance, and corporate operations. She combines deep legal expertise with operational excellence, making her uniquely equipped to bridge strategy, governance, and execution at scale
Prior roles
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As Head of Legal Europe and Transaction Services at Partners Group, Valeria led cross-border deals worth more than $10 billion, from IPOs to complex joint ventures and continuation vehicles. She transformed the legal function at Partners Group by streamlining external counsel, cutting costs, and implementing best practices that strengthened execution and governance across the firm’s global platform
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In her subsequent roles as Chief Operating Officer of the Industry Value Creation Department and later as Senior Vice President of Portfolio Governance at Partners Group, Valeria worked directly with boards and C-suites of 70+ portfolio companies. She drove performance reviews, operational maturity assessments, turnaround strategies, and cybersecurity resilience programs - initiatives that safeguarded assets, improved decision-making, and enhanced shareholder value
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Valeria Hegnauer holds valuable experience across asset classes: from private equity to private infrastructure, private debt, and private real estate
Career start
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Her career began at leading law practices in London and Vienna, including Schoenherr Attorneys-at-Law and C’M’S Reich-Rohwig Hainz
Education
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Advanced degrees in law and management from the London School of Economics, University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law