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Twenty-Four Seven December 18, 2006, 9:36PM EST

In Search of Work-Life Balance

This UNC grad left Bank of America in New York to work at an international private-equity firm closer to home

by Franco Valentino Famularo

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Franco Valentino Famularo
Associate, Arcapita
BSBA, Class of 2005
UNC-Chapel Hill Kenan-Flagler School of Business

Arcapita is a private-equity firm headquartered in Bahrain with offices in Atlanta and London. Like a traditional private-equity firm, Arcapita takes controlling equity positions in companies and ventures. Unlike one, it targets a unique investor base. Arcapita, a leader in Islamic finance, structures and offers Sharia-compliant investments (investments that adhere to Islamic principles concerning social and financial activities) to affluent Muslim investors in the Middle East (see BusinessWeek.com, 10/26/06, "Islamic Finance Comes of Age").

As an associate in the Atlanta office of the real estate investments group at Arcapita, I spend my days learning about and analyzing potential real estate investment ideas, managing investment processes, and helping to oversee existing investments. After graduating from the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School in May, 2005, I went to work in New York as an analyst for Bank of America's (BAC) Investment Banking division in the Global Industries Advisory group (where I had interned the summer between my junior and senior years of college).

Toward the end of my first year, I began looking for private-equity opportunities in the South, where I would be closer to my family in North Carolina and would be able to enjoy a better work-life balance (see BusinessWeek.com, 10/10/06, "Bonus Babies: Digging Into the Lifestyle"). I got lucky when I found Arcapita, which was looking to hire an associate for its U.S. real estate team. I immediately clicked with the other members of the team, who had very similar backgrounds (a couple having gone to Kenan-Flagler as well), and accepted an offer after a few rounds of interviews.

Arcapita is a great firm for building a career. It offers many of the benefits of a large and established firm while having many of the positive factors of a smaller, entrepreneurial firm with a collegial culture. Now, four months into my job, I still learn something new every day about real estate, finance, law, private equity, and Islamic finance.

8:00 a.m. — It's Monday morning, and I want to get into the office a little early to kick off the week. I leave my condo building in midtown Atlanta to make the three-block trek to my office. One of my co-workers reminds me that I'm one of the few (lucky) people in Atlanta who walks to work. Atlanta traffic can make commuting by car pretty painful.

8:15 a.m. — I sit down at my desk with a cup of coffee and begin to comb over various financial and industry news sources. Staying informed of trends in real estate, business, capital markets, and both regional and global economies is important, as they collectively affect our investment decisions.

9:00 a.m. — Time to have our Monday morning conference call with the other real estate teams in Bahrain and London. I take a seat in my executive director's office with the other four members of the U.S. team. I listen and take notes as each office discusses projects that are in the closing process or still being analyzed. Today, the London team is giving its views on pursuing investments in Eastern Europe, and later the global head of real estate discusses the status of our newly created Singapore office.

9:45 a.m. — After the conference call is over, the five of us on the U.S. team remain in the office to have a more thorough discussion of our team's projects and where they are in the analysis and execution stages. We also discuss project ideas that were presented to us by potential partners over the past couple of weeks to get various perspectives on their attractiveness.

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