Executive moves, week of June 16, 2008

Another ex-Sun employee joins Kleiner Perkins

has joined Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers as a partner. Gage was one of the original employees of Sun Microsystems, where he most recently served as chief researcher and vice president of the Science Office. Gage is credited with coining the term “The Network Is The Computer.” In 1995, while at Sun, Gage founded NetDay, a volunteer project to contribute the resources of tech companies to schools, libraries and clinics worldwide to connect them to the Internet.

At Kleiner Perkins, Gage joins fellow Sun co-founder Bill Joy, who is a partner at the storied venture firm.

LACERS lassos GM

has been named general manager for the Los Angeles City Employees Retirement System (LACERS). She is a former LACERS assistant GM, and currently serves as deputy mayor for finance and performance management for the City of Los Angeles. Choi succeeds Robert Aguallo Jr., who left earlier this year to become a managing partner of infrastructure-focused private equity fund Cardinal Americas.

Quaker adds King to lineup

Quaker BioVentures has hired David King, a former executive of three venture-backed biotech companies, as venture partner. King was most recently CEO and founder of BioRexis Pharmaceutical Corp., which was bought by Pfizer Inc. last year. Quaker recently closed its second fund with $420 million in commitments.

Kindle joins CDR

has joined Clayton Dubilier & Rice as a partner. Kindle is the former CEO of Swiss engineering group ABB. He took the helm at ABB in 2005 and has been widely credited with the company’s return to strong growth after near bankruptcy in 2002.

Saban snares Yen

Richard Yen has joined Saban Capital Group as a director in the firm’s venture capital and digital media investment group. He is based in Los Angeles, and previously was a principal with Blueprint Ventures.

Paul Capital staffs up

San Francisco-based funds of funds manager Paul Capital Partners has made a pair of personnel moves. Duncan Littlejohn will serve as a managing director on the firm’s secondaries team, after having been a consultant to the firm since 2007. He also will be responsible for the firm’s Sao Paulo-based office. Lucian Wu has joined as a managing director and head of the firm’s Asia office. Wu previously was a partner with Henderson Private Capital.

Blackstone Hires new CFO

The Blackstone Group announced last week it hired Laurence Tosi from Merrill Lynch & Co. as CFO. Michael Puglisi, the firm’s current CFO, will remain a member of senior management, Blackstone said in a statement. Tosi is expected to take up his position after the summer.

Providence adds COO

has joined Providence Equity Partners as COO. He previously was with Lehman Brothers, as a managing director and global chief administration officer of investment banking.

Kirtland promotes two

Ohio-based buyout firm Kirtland Capital Partners has promoted Bob Fines and Corrie Menary to managing partner and vice president, respectively. Fines joined in 2005 as an operating partner, and leads Kirtland’s operations resource team. Menary joined in 2004 as an intern, and became an associate in 2005. The firm raised a $165 million fund in 2002.