Credit Suisse Americas secondary chief to leave bank

  • Bank has lost a few senior secondaries executives
  • Plans to expand secondary advisory team
  • Not clear if Areson is leaving for a new job

Chris Areson, head of the Americas secondary advisory strategy at Credit Suisse, is leaving the bank, sources told Buyouts.

Exactly when Areson is leaving is unclear. Areson did not respond to a request for comment.

The group expects to add more senior executives to the team in 2019, and will name a successor to Areson, according to a person with knowledge of the bank.

It’s not clear how many people work on secondary advisory at Credit Suisse. The strategy is part of the bank’s Private Fund Group, which includes primaries, secondaries and direct investments and has a total of 74 professionals. 

Jonathan Abecassis leads the strategy for emerging markets, Europe and Asia. The Private Fund Group is led by Kevin Naughton and Michael Murphy

Areson joined Credit Suisse in 2004 as an analyst, according to his LinkedIn profile. He moved up the ranks to associate and eventually director, his profile said. It’s not clear if Areson is leaving to take another job. 

Areson’s departure comes after several other high-ranking executives left or moved roles at the bank in recent years. The last global head of secondary advisory, Mark McDonald, left last year to take over the secondary strategy at Deutsche Bank, Reuters reported.

Mike Custar, a managing director who worked on the secondaries team, left last year and joined M2O Private Fund Advisors.

Last year, the bank hired Sameer Shamsi, who previously worked on secondary advisory at Evercore

Credit Suisse is among a handful of firms competing for the growing market of advising LPs and GPs on secondary deals. Other such teams include those from Evercore, Park Hill Group, Lazard, UBSSetter Capital and Moelis.

Correction: An earlier version of this report misstated Mike Custar’s name. The article has been updated. 

Action Item: Read more about the Private Fund Group here: https://bit.ly/2ErwNKe