Mr. De Backer is a member of the private equity team, focused on European fund, direct, and secondary investments.

Prior to joining StepStone, Mr. De Backer was a partner at Equity Capital Management GmbH, a Frankfurt-based buyout firm. Before that, he was a senior portfolio manager at the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), where he was responsible for ADIA’s European funds portfolio.

Previously, Mr. De Backer was a London-based partner at Parish Capital, and subsequently, briefly at StepStone Group. Mr. De Backer started his career in private equity in 2000 at BancBoston Capital in London.

Mr. De Backer holds an MSc and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Ghent, as well as an MBA in Finance from Columbia University.