After two decades in private equity, Mark McDonald had seen many of the industry’s twists and turns.

From a start in “principal finance” in the late 90s at Barclays Capital — later spun out to become Equistone — to the European deal juggernaut that was 3i Group in the early noughties, to smaller secondaries specialists later on, McDonald rose to become global head of secondary advisory at Swiss giant Credit Suisse.