Entertainment Software Association's Doug Lowenstein will be heading up the newly formed Private Equity Council, a Washington, D.C. lobby group for the private equity industry.

News of Lowenstein's new job comes weeks after we broke the news that the president of the ESA was stepping down from his position at the association.

The recently formed PEC has been in the works for months and will "aim to conduct research and provide information to the public about the private equity industry," according to an article by The Street. Brian Crecente

Private Equity's New Club [The Street]

Following the recent announcement that Entertainment Software Association president Doug Lowenstein is leaving to found a new investment industry trade association, full details of Lowenstein's new position have been announced.

The new body that Lowenstein will be heading is named the Private Equity Council, according to an official press statement, an association "...whose purpose will be to conduct research and provide information about the industry to policy makers and others interested in understanding what private equity is, how it operates and the increasingly important role this alternative asset class plays in the U.S. and global economy."

Initial members of PEC, all of whom are primarily engaged in the private equity industry, will include major companies such as the Apollo Management, Bain Capital, The Blackstone Group, The Carlyle Group, Hellman & Friedman, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR), Madison Dearborn Partners, Providence Equity Partners, Silver Lake Partners, Texas Pacific Group and Thomas H. Lee Partners.

Lowenstein will assume his new responsibilities at the PEC in February, 2007, stepping down from his presidency of the Entertainment Software Association. Lowenstein, despite having entered the industry from outside, was the first President of the ESA's predecessor organization, the Interactive Digital Software Association, founded in 1994. Details of a possible successor to Lowenstein as ESA president have not yet been revealed.

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