David Verbance

Nationwide Insurance Group is based in Columbus, OH and is one of the largest insurance and financial services firm in the world. The firm manages about $60 billion in balance sheet assets overall, and about $2 billion is invested in private equity. The private equity portfolio is invested via single-manager funds based in the US and strategies include buyouts, distressed, growth capital, mezzanine, and venture capital. The firm used to have a much larger exposure to venture capital but it is significantly lower at this time and the firm is not looking to increase it in the near future. Nationwide works with one fund of private equity funds group for exposure to international markets. The firm also has about $300 million invested in funds of hedge funds. The firm will likely begin investing in single-manager hedge funds later in 2011.Nationwide's real estate investment group manages investments in 23 private real estate funds and also manages direct investments. The firm invests only with commercial property funds and is not actively looking for new managers at this time.