Managing Director, Business Management – Private Markets

The Managing Director, Business Management is responsible for strengthening and scaling the operating model of Manulife’s Global Private Markets platform. The role focuses on how the business runs—driving efficiency, execution discipline, and scalable processes across investment operations and all supporting functions.

The role owns platform-wide operating model refinement, execution governance, and transformation initiatives, including AI strategy and implementation, oversight of functional support and workload management, and delivery of the Private Markets book of work, among others. The role partners closely with the investment and operational leadership of each private markets business (private equity, private credit, infrastructure, real estate, timber and agriculture) and functional support teams, as well as enterprise strategy and transformation teams, to ensure alignment between Private Markets priorities and broader firm initiatives.

The role reports to the Global Chief Operating Officer, Private Markets
and works collaboratively across investments, operations, and enterprise functions to embed durable improvements that support long-term growth.

Position Responsibilities:

1. Operating Model Design & Continuous Improvement

• Own and evolve the Private Markets operating model, ensuring clarity of roles, decision rights, handoffs, and accountability across investments and support functions.

• Lead ongoing assessment and refinement of processes to improve efficiency, scalability, consistency, and control.

• Drive standardization and simplification across investment strategies and business units, where appropriate.

• Establish and maintain effective governance structures to support decision-making in a global, matrixed environment.

2. Efficiency, Scalability & Execution Discipline

• Identify and execute initiatives to improve operational efficiency and productivity, reducing manual work, rework, and process fragmentation.

• Partner with leadership on capacity planning, workload management, and headcount optimization.

• Define and monitor operational KPIs, service levels, and productivity metrics across functions.

• Ensure Private Markets can scale growth without disproportionate increases in cost or operational risk.

3. Book of Work, SOW & Capacity Management

• Own the Private Markets book of work funding and approval process, including intake, prioritization, sequencing, and tracking of initiatives.

• Establish and maintain a disciplined statement of work (SOW) and resource allocation process across teams and functions.

• Balance “run-the-business” and “change-the-business” work to avoid bottlenecks and execution fatigue.

• Lead cross-functional governance forums to ensure alignment, transparency, and accountability for delivery.

4. AI Strategy, Technology Enablement & Automation

• Own the Private Markets AI strategy, aligned with enterprise standards and priorities.

• Identify, prioritize, and sponsor AI and automation use cases across investment and operational workflows, data management, reporting, and risk processes.

• Partner with Technology, Data, and Risk teams to define data and technology strategy to ensure solutions are scalable, well-governed, and adopted by the business.

• Oversee change management to embed new tools and capabilities into day-to-day workflows.

5. Partnership with Operational & Functional Support Teams

• Work closely with Operations, Finance, Risk, Compliance, Legal, Technology, Data, HR, and Tax teams to design and execute effective operating processes.

• Drives organizational alignment to private market industry best practices, continuously scanning the market for emerging standards in governance, risk management, operational efficiency, and regulatory expectations—and translating insights into actionable upgrades across the operating model.

• Maintains deep awareness of competitive peer strategies, benchmarking the firm’s processes, technology stack, investment operations, and client‑service capabilities to ensure the platform remains differentiated, scalable, and positioned as a top‑quartile operator.

• Collaborates with business partners to determine best‑in‑class vendor oversight and partnership management, ensuring external partners deliver high‑quality, resilient, and cost‑effective services aligned with the firm’s strategic objectives.

• Serve as a central point of coordination to ensure functional initiatives align with the Private Markets operating model.