Glen Shields is the Founder and CEO of GP Fund Solutions, an independent fund administrator for private fund managers who want institutional-grade back office operations without sacrificing the trust and partnership of a boutique firm.

In today’s conversation, Glen takes us through 25 years in fund administration — from his early days at PwC and AYCO through the Goldman acquisition and spin-out, leading to the launch of GPFS from scratch with a one-page contract and a single relationship built on trust.

We dig into how GPFS has grown to over $125 billion in assets under administration and what staying independent means in a consolidating industry.

From there, we get into the data question that sits at the center of everything Glen is building — why shadow books signal a trust gap, how GPFS is moving from deliverable-driven fund admin to data-enabled partnership, and what good data design actually looks like when your clients have complex waterfall structures, hybrid fund vehicles, and investors who want information at speed.

For anyone running or building operations at a private fund- this is a grounded conversation on what a fund admin relationship can and should look like when trust, data, and culture are all working together.