The chief executive of the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association is now gearing for the launch of a manifesto for venture capital which will seek to put ‘encouraging enterprise at the core of the economic agenda for each of the major parties’.

Walker promises a warts and all assessment. Is this the same BVCA? I hear you ask.
You’ll remember how, just 12 months ago, private equity bosses were dragged before the House of Commons.

Walker’s predecessor, Peter Linthwaite, came under fire from MPs on McFall’s committee for presenting what they said was ‘the most obstructive piece of evidence we’ve been given for a long time’.

Afterwards BVCA chairman Wol Kolade admitted they had been kippered. ‘You ask me whether things could have gone worse?’ he said to one journalist. ‘I’d reply by saying, could things have gone any better?’

Just as the BVCA has seen almost 100% staff turnover in the last 12 months, the economic situation Walker is dealing with could hardly be more different to the climate of little more than a year ago.

Walker is clearly not risking a return to those days of private equity hostility ­ and you’d be right to argue it’s
the credit crunch that has rendered that impossible. Nevertheless he appears intent on presenting a very different side to his industry.

Damian Wild is editor in chief of Accountancy Age and blogs at accountancymatters.accoutnancyage.com

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