In the middle of the pandemic, following an interview process that involved a long, chilly socially distanced walk through the Northamptonshire countryside, I took over as CEO of a mid-sized PR and public affairs business, Instinctif Partners, that was majority-owned by Lloyds Development Capital, a private equity house. For the next three and a half years, I had personal experience of the positives and negatives of PE funding in a people business. Many others are now following the same trail; KKR has bought into FGS Global, Brunswick sold a minority stake to BDT Capital Partners, CVC Capital controls Teneo, Investcorp is the majority owner of SEC Newgate, and so on.  My knowledge of private equity before I joined Instinctif was limited; I had some friends in the business, including one woman who is now on the board of two FTSE 100 firms and is quite formidably clever. I had advised businesses with private equity investors. So I knew a little, but probably not enough, about what I...