Ardian

Ardian was founded in 1996 as AXA Private Equity, after AXA asked Dominique Senequier to build a private equity arm. In 2013, Senequier led an employee buyout that made the business independent and renamed it Ardian.

The firm invests across private equity, real assets and credit, including buyout, growth, infrastructure, real estate, secondaries and primaries, co-investment and private debt. Its secondaries platform dates back to 1999 and remains a defining part of the firm's private-markets offering.

For students, Ardian is notable for the breadth of its platform: interns may encounter investment teams in buyout, infrastructure, real estate, growth or secondaries, as well as investor relations, fund finance, sustainability and other functions.