Private Equity
- Madrona named three venture partners to its team: Loren Alhadeff, Mark Nelson and Ted Kummert. Alhadeff, who grew sales from $2.5 million to more than $2.5 billion in annual revenue during his more than 14 years leading the sales organization at DocuSign, will work with Madrona portfolio companies on go-to-market strategy, sales team development, field leadership, and executive development. Nelson, who served most recently as a strategic director for software developer Tableau, will work with portfolio companies and the Madrona investment team to identify new companies. Kummert, who originally joined Madrona a decade ago, will work with the investment team on potential investments, in addition to helping product and engineering leaders.
- Timotheus Osnabrug and Weston Wilkinson have joined Investcorp’s Strategic Capital Group, which acquires minority equity stakes in established, high growth mid-sized private market asset managers. As investment partners, the pair will handle the sourcing, evaluation and execution of new investments, reporting to Anthony Maniscalco, managing partner and head of Investcorp’s Strategic Capital Group (read more).
- AXA Venture Partners (AVP) named Elizabeth de Saint-Aignan as general partner, putting her in charge of the Late Growth Fund for North America. The move comes weeks after the launch of the firm’s €1.5 billion ($1.6 billion) Late Growth Fund. Saint-Aignan, who brings over 20 years of growth equity experience, most recently led Sun Capital Partners technology vertical. Prior to that, she was the founding partner of Jump Capital’s growth equity strategy and spent more than seven years at TA Associates’ the technology investing practice.
- John Wernz joined Great Hills Partners as an executive-in-residence to help the firm target investment opportunities in the wealth management and wealth technology spaces. Wernz spent the past 13 years as the chief marketing and interim chief growth officer of Wealth Enhancement Group, during which he deployed multichannel organic and inorganic growth strategies that helped the firm grow from $2 billion in AUM to over $50 billion. Among other accomplishments, Wernz is a co-founder of and executive director for Datalign, a wealth technology company that connects users with financial advisors.
- Los Angeles-based middle market private equity firm Vance Street Capital hired Andy Kirkpatrick as a senior operating partner and promoted Nick Lindholm to vice president. Kirkpatrick has held several leadership roles within the medtech industry, most recently as COO of dental technology company Sonendo and COO of radiation therapy device company Accuray. Lindholm, who joined the firm in 2021 from Barclays, has played a key role in the due diligence and underwriting of new investments, in addition to supporting portfolio companies.
- Presidio Investors appointed Mark Goldman as its newest operating partner. Goldman’s industry knowledge and operational experience are expected to help the Austin, Texas-based lower middle market firm cement its leading position as an investor in the media space. Goldman’s experience includes founding Current TV with former Vice President Al Gore and Joel Hyatt; leading the development of News Corporation’s first digital satellite TV service as the company’s first president; and founding ZypMedia, a programmatic media buying platform that was later acquired by Sinclair Broadcasting Group.
- Oaktree Capital Management plans to promote Robert O’Leary and Armen Panossian to co-CEO roles as Jay Wintrob steps down as Oaktree’s CEO in the first quarter of 2024. Additionally, Todd Molz, Oaktree’s general counsel and chief administrative officer, will be named chief operating officer and will oversee the day-to-day management of the firm as all non-investment functions at the firm report to him. Molz along with O’Leary and Panossian will serve on the executive committee along with Co-Chairmen Marks and Bruce Karsh and Vice Chairman John Frank (read more).
- Chicago-based firm blockchain and digital asset ventures investor CMT Digital named Erik Ellingson as head of business development and Augustus Ilag as head of Asia. Ellingson will be based in Chicago, and his remit will include building new partnerships with limited partners, spearheading marketing and communications efforts, and assisting the investment team with deal structuring and sourcing. Ilag will be based in Singapore, where he will oversee the firm’s investments and overall brand- building in APAC.
- G2 Venture Partners promoted Neel Mehta to partner. Mehta, who joined G2 as an investor in August of 2021, leads the firm’s work in areas such as mobility and robotics. He began his career at Morgan Stanley and was an early hire at Zoox, a start-up that was eventually sold to Amazon. Mehta oversaw two capital raises totaling $700 million during his tenure at Zoox.
Service Providers
- Justin D. Gingerich has joined Honigman LLP’s Corporate Department as a partner in the firm’s Transactions and Counseling Group in Chicago. Gingerich works with start-ups and private companies, with a focus on venture capital, private equity, and mergers and acquisitions transactions. He joins from Dickinson Wright PLLC, where he served as of counsel.
- Palm Tree, an M&A advisor that provides integrated investment banking, transaction support, and strategic finance services for global private equity firms and other businesses, named Derek J. Alderton to the newly created role of vice chairman. Alderton’s background includes doing media- and cross-border transaction-focused M&A advisory work at Macquarie Bank and a 10-year tenure at McKinsey & Co., rising to the position of co-head of the Media and Entertainment Practice. He is currently the director of the Anderson Strategy Group for UCLA Anderson’s MBA Program.
- Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group expanded its sponsor coverage division by hiring Pam Bruno as a managing director. Bruno will oversee the coverage of private equity financial sponsors for the bank. She will be based in New York, reporting to Robert Smock, head of sponsor coverage & advisory at MUFG. With over 25 years of experience in financial services, Bruno joins MUFG from Santander, where she held several positions, most recently leading a team that covered various investment firms such as multi-strategy alternative investment firms, private equity firms, infrastructure funds, pension funds, and wealth funds.
Real Estate
- Travis Hamlin joined Trilogy Real Estate Group as a senior regional vice president. Hamlin will be responsible for boosting the Chicago-based real estate investment and property management firm’s investment offerings in the western U.S. region. Hamlin, who spent the past six years as a wholesaler for Pacific Oak Capital Markets and SmartStop, brings about 20 years of experience in selling and marketing investment products such as Delaware Statutory Trusts, qualified opportunity zone funds and non-traded REITs.
- Canadian real estate finance firm and investment manager KV Capital launched its Calgary office and appointed Michael Hoffman as managing director, Calgary for its Commercial Real Estate Finance division. Hoffman brings over 20 years of experience in finance and commercial real estate lending.
- Brennan Investment Group, a developer and operator of industrial facilities in the U.S., named Dan Smith as vice president of investments in the Midwest region. Smith served most recently as director of Acquisitions & Investments at Bridge Industrial.
Investors
- Johara Farhadieh will join Wespath Benefits and Investments in Glenview, Ill., in October as deputy chief investment officer, and will succeed current CIO Dave Zellner when he retires next summer. She joins from the Illinois State Board of Investment (ISBI), where she is executive director and chief investment officer. Wespath is one of the largest reporting faith-based pension funds in the world and is a not-for-profit agency that has been serving The United Methodist Church (UMC) for over a century (read more).
Asset Management
- Miracle Mile Advisors appointed Bruce Milam as the firm’s first chief executive officer. Milam worked most recently at Freestone Capital Management, an RIA based in Seattle; prior to that he spent over eight years as a director at HBK Capital Management. Miracle Mile Advisors is based in Los Angeles and offers customized wealth management to high-net-worth clients across the U.S.
Credit
- Global consumer-focused private equity firm L Catterton is diving into the private credit space, most recently hiring Peter Chang as managing partner and co-head of private credit. Chang joins fellow Oaktree Capital Management alum Shahab Rashid, who joined L Catterton last July to launch the $33 billion firm’s private credit platform. Chang and Rashid worked together for nearly 12 years at Oaktree (read more).
Infrastructure
- John Bruen will join H.I.G. Capital’s dedicated infrastructure team as managing director in the firm’s London office on Aug. 1. He brings 20 years of investment and operating experience in the infrastructure industry. Most recently he spent the better part of a decade at Macquarie Asset Management as senior managing director and head of transportation investments for EMEA (read more).
