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Julien Barral
Senior Director, Private Markets
Julien is a Senior Director within the Private Markets team, specializing in Private Equity and Real Estate. Prior to returning to bfinance in November 2020, Julien was Managing Director of GS Invest, a real assets investment boutique based in London. In this role he was responsible for strategic planning, evaluation and implementation of business opportunities. Julien also managed and coordinated day-to-day activities and was responsible for the long term business strategy implementation.
Prior to joining GS Invest, he spent 11 years with bfinance. Julien focused on equity asset allocation, investment manager reviews, investment manager selection and Smart Beta engagements. He has co-authored a number of articles on Smart Beta. Julien was also heading the team of analysts in charge of supporting research. He has previous experience at Fortis Banque Monaco. Julien has a first class BSc in Applied Mathematics from the Sophia Antipolis - Nice University, France and a Masters in Finance specialising in Risk and Asset Management from Edhec Business School, Lille-Nice, France.
More insights from the team:
Private credit and the asset allocation challenge
Increasingly, asset allocation models are treating Private Credit as a strategic asset class with its own clearly defined profile, rather than an implementation solution within a fixed income or...
bfinance Platform: real assets, UK open-ended property funds in five charts
M&A activity, such as the recent news of the combination of the Columbia Threadneedle and PATRIZIA UK property funds fits a neat narrative.
Manager Intelligence and Market Trends - August 2026
bfinance's quarterly report for August 2026: read the team's latest insights on institutional investor activity, risk appetite, market developments and asset manager performance across all major...
Investor Spotlight: PGB - can impact investing become the default setting for private markets portfolios?
While many asset owners continue to debate the role of impact investing, Pensioenfonds PGB has already made its choice. The Dutch pension fund has decided that new private markets investments should...
Investment Management Fees: Pricing pressure in the turbulent twenties
The latest instalment in the bfinance Fee and Cost Insight series highlights recent price pressures in both private and public markets as the turbulent twenties change the competitive landscape.
Infographic: private capital and German ‘place-based investing’
Governments are seeking to turn investors' attention closer to home in pursuit of resilience – Germany is at the forefront of efforts to redirect private capital.
bfinance poll: investors gain edge in private market fees
Disappointing distributions, weak returns and a softer fundraising climate now appear to be putting real pricing power in investors’ hands. That is a key finding of the bfinance Private Market Fees...
Secondaries under scrutiny: layer cake or traffic jam?
Private market secondaries are booming – but are they creating a welcome 'layer cake' of liquidity solutions, or a 'traffic jam' that postpones real exits? We explored this question in bfinance's...
