"There's a populist climate right now, and it's easy to paint the industry in a negative way," Harris said. "We need to do a better job of telling our story."
The Massachusetts senator said PE firms often act like "vampires, bleeding the company dry and walking away enriched even as the company succumbs."Adam Jeffery | CNBC, Apollo Global Management's co-founder, has a message for private equity's naysayers in Washington. Harris was asked about presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren's policy proposal to slap new rules on private equity, which makes PE firms responsible for the debt and pension obligations that the companies they buy. The Massachusetts senator said PE firms often act like "vampires, bleeding the company dry and walking away enriched even as the company succumbs."
"We are adding about more than double what the public markets do. The productivity figures are also better. the industry is very very important to deal with the $1.3 trillion underfunded pension funds in the United States," he added.