Elena McGovern

Elena McGovern

Director

Elena is the Head of Capstone’s Private Markets Group and plays a leading role in the firm’s policy advisory, strategy, and due diligence work for private equity and corporate clients. Her work cuts across major themes in the US and global business environment including advising on geopolitics, the energy transition, policy responses to the impacts of climate change, the business implications of novel US federal government programs and packages, and trends within state and local governments. Since joining Capstone in 2019, she has provided strategy support to a range of US and global businesses on opportunities emerging from the shifting policy and regulatory landscape, and advised on a large number of private equity transactions when policy and regulatory drivers are fundamental to the investment thesis.

Prior to joining Capstone, Elena was a Senior Analyst with Kearney’s Global Business Policy Council, a strategic service of Kearney that is ranked second in the world for-profit think tanks. She focused her work on advising clients and writing public-facing analysis on the business implications of key trends including globalization-localization pressures driving the reconfiguration of global supply chains and the business impacts of emerging technologies and data privacy trends around the world. Elena also served as the Council’s Head Global Energy Analyst on US and global energy policies and energy transition. Prior to her work at Kearney, Elena served as an Energy Analyst at the political risk firms The Eurasia Group and Fitch Solutions (formerly BMI Research), as well as in the United Arab Emirates. She started her career at the Stimson Center focused on Middle East regional security issues.

Elena has a dual master’s degree in international economics and strategic studies from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a bachelor’s degree in international relations from Lehigh University. She resides in Washington, DC.