Advent International Corp., one of the first private equity firms to go global, "can react more quickly" to situations including the political unrest in the Middle East and the fallout from the earthquakes in Japan, thanks to outposts all over the world, says founder Peter Brooke. "We were able to recognize what would happen to our suppliers in Japan and react quickly, which gives us a competitive advantage," says Brooke, who founded Advent in 1984 as the successor to TA Associates, which he founded in 1968. The Deal magazine spoke with Brooke at the annual meeting of the National Venture Capital Association as part of our Emerging Markets Outlook video series, sponsored by Merrill DataSite. - Mary Kathleen Flynn