Yann Robard

Yann Robard is the Founder of Dawson Partners, a pioneer in preferred equity solutions for private equity investors. Over more than a decade, he has seen the market evolve from intensive LP education to widespread programmatic adoption, with Dawson sourcing over a trillion dollars in deal flow. Robard explains how preferred equity sits between debt and equity to allow LPs and GPs to access liquidity without crystallizing a full discount or forgoing future portfolio upside.

• Preferred equity as an alternative to selling at a discount in the secondary market
• Accelerating LP liquidity while maintaining portfolio upside exposure
• Lp financing versus GP financing through preferred equity structures
• Diversified portfolio underwriting as a core discipline in structured secondaries
• Evolution from market education to programmatic adoption over a decade
• Secondary market volume forecasts and structured solutions market share
• How structured secondaries enable active management of private equity books
• Tail-end allocation management and portfolio rebalancing using preferred equity

Liquid Courage Episodes

• In the Booming Secondary Market, Structured Solutions are Going Mainstream2026-02-18