AIC Distinguished Speaker Honour
The mission of the London School of Economics Alternative Investments Conference is to educate the next generation of business leaders.
To achieve this mission, the AIC team works tirelessly throughout the year to bring together an annual gathering that attracts more than 400 attendees from around the world. At the heart of the inspirational two-day event is our extraordinary speaker line-up. Together, they bring not only a wealth of expertise and knowledge of their fields but also a spirit of trust, unity, excitement, ambition and most of all, community.
We are fortunate to have received a tremendous amount of support from speakers, sponsors, media and educational partners throughout our 20-year history.
This year, we are launching the LSE AIC Honorary Speaker initiative to thank speakers who have taken the extra step to support us consistently. They are leaders in their organisation, and leaders in their communities. From our years of working with them, we have drawn a great amount of admiration for their causes which involve not just succeeding for their firm, but helping aspiring students and communities to also reach their goals.
We are grateful for the invaluable contributions that our honorary speakers have provided to us, and we look forward to our shared future in building and inspiring the ever-growing AIC community.
Jonathan Lavine
Chair, Bain Capital
Founder, Bain Capital Credit and Bain Capital Special Situations
Keynote Speaker in 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
Jonathan Lavine is Chair of Bain Capital, a global private investment firm based in Boston. He served as the firm’s Co-Managing Partner from 2016 - 2024.
Mr. Lavine joined Bain Capital’s private equity business in 1993, and founded its Credit and Special Situations businesses in 1998. He began his career at Drexel Burnham Lambert in mergers and acquisitions and as a consultant at McKinsey & Company.
Mr. Lavine is Chair Emeritus of the Board of Trustees of Columbia University and Chairman Emeritus of the National Board of Trustees at City Year. In 2007, Mr. Lavine and his wife, Jeannie, formed the Crimson Lion Foundation, which delivers financial resources to a variety of nonprofit organizations focused on leveling the playing field for individuals and families. They are longtime supporters of Harvard University, where they endowed the Lavine Family Humanitarian Studies Initiative at the Harvard School of Public Health and provided substantial support to fund scholarships for first-generation students at Harvard Business School.
Mr. Lavine is a 2017 recipient of Columbia College’s Alexander Hamilton Medal, the highest honor awarded to a member of the college community for distinguished service. He is a past recipient of Columbia’s John Jay Award for professional achievement, Columbia’s David Truman Award for distinguished contribution to academic affairs and Columbia/Barnard Hillel’s Seixas Award for outstanding contributions to Jewish life at Columbia University.
President Obama appointed Mr. Lavine to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council in 2016. He was reappointed by President Biden in 2023, and continues to serve today.
Mr. Lavine graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude from Columbia College, and earned an M.B.A. with distinction from Harvard Business School.
Erik Serrano Berntsen
CEO, Stable
Keynote Speaker in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024
Erik Serrano Berntsen is the CEO of Stable, responsible for defining and executing the firm’s Investment Strategy. Stable is an investment firm dedicated to helping ambitious Founders build investment firms. We take a strategic partnership approach to investing because we believe the Asset Owner-Founder relationship of the future differs from industry dynamics today. We aim to build a future of shared success between Asset Owners and Founders, with incentives aligned for the long-term. Alignment comes from various structuring approaches including minority stakes and scale capacity.
We serve Asset Owners who realize that building the exceptional lies beyond conventional limited partnerships. We back Founders who appreciate that delivering extraordinary performance requires building a great organization. Stable provides strategic, operational and business building support to the Founders we back alongside significant investment capital. We manage $4.3B across public, private credit, private equity and venture markets globally. Asset Owners that entrust Stable with their capital include public pensions, sovereign wealth funds, endowments, foundations, and successful Founders.
Prior to Stable, Erik was with Bain & Co., where he was part of the Private Equity Group (PEG) and worked with clients, including banks and asset managers. A believer in education as a tool for change, Erik supports initiatives such as the LSE Alternative Investment Conference, the largest student conference for alternatives globally, and the charity Grit. Amongst other initiatives, Stable is a supporter of 100 Women in Finance and a Founding Partner of #100blackinterns. Erik holds a Bachelor of Arts in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Keble College, University of Oxford and a Masters of Business Administration with honours and a Concentration in Finance from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.