Berkeley Research Group (BRG) hired Brian Murphy as managing director in the firm’s corporate finance practice, where he has been charged with leading a new alternative investment practice.
Murphy will be working on providing services to investment firms investing in private equity, credit and other alternative investments. He previously served as an executive with two leading global private equity firms: Advent International and Bain Capital.
According to BRG, Murphy has been the primary operating executive in more than 20 equity transactions — partnering with management and private equity and debt investment teams to established post-acquisition strategy, pursue performance improvement initiatives and install a strong foundation of transparent governance and reporting.
Murphy was an executive director in the Portfolio Support Group at Advent International, where he worked from 2012 through 2019. He joined Advent in the London office, spent four years working with the firm’s European portfolio, and had a key role as Advent build its European operating team. He returned to the U.S. in 2016.
Prior to Advent, he was an operating partner at Bain Capital, where he spent 15 years with the firm’s portfolio group in the U.S. and Asia. While at Bain, he spent significant time with roughly a dozen investments, often serving on the portfolio company’s board.
His experience spans all forms of deals, including equity growth, corporate carve-outs, sponsor buyouts, debt-for-equity swaps and public-to-private transactions. He has also worked across sectors including consumer and retail, manufacturing and distribution and healthcare.
“I’m thrilled to join BRG and have the opportunity to expand the firm’s strong corporate finance offering in the private equity, credit and alternate investment fund space,” said Murphy. “Private equity firms, debt funds and their portfolio companies are facing unique opportunities and challenges in today’s economic environment. I look forward to working with both investment teams and portfolio company management to support their pursuit of the growth and transformation required to create winning investments.”
“Brian brings to BRG a new dimension of practical industry experience that will be invaluable to our private equity and debt fund clients as they seek to drive returns, manage risk and create a repeatable model of value-creation,” said Bob Duffy, co-chair of BRG Corporate Finance. “Increased exposure to private equity, credit and alternative investment funds has long been an area of opportunity for our Corporate Finance practice at BRG, and our strong results have driven our ability to meaningfully invest in this important new offering.”
