Executive moves, week of May 18, 2009

VC joins U.S. Department of Energy

David Danielson is leaving venture capital firm General Catalyst Partners to join the U.S. Department of Energy.

Danielson will move to Washington, D.C., to become part of the DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy, a program created by the U.S. Congress in 2007 to support transformational energy research projects. The Obama Administration has allocated $400 million to the ARPA-E as part of the economic stimulus package.

“David got approached to help get ARPA-E off the ground, and I can’t think of a better person to do it,” says Hemant Taneja, a managing director with General Catalyst. Taneja adds that Danielson will no longer have an official role with General Catalyst due to potential conflicts of interest, and that the firm is looking for a replacement on its cleantech team.

Danielson joined General Catalyst in mid-2007 as a senior associate, with a focus on advanced materials and cleantech opportunities. He had previously performed doctoral work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in clean energy materials, taught several courses on cleantech, founded the MIT Energy Club and co-founded the MIT Energy Conference and the New England Clean Energy Council. Prior to MIT, Danielson spent time at Applied Materials, IBM and Intel. —Dan Primack

OPERS hires Shafer

Richard Shafer has joined the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System as deputy director of investments for external management. He previously was director of investments for the New Hampshire Retirement System and, before that, was chief investment officer of the Alaska Permanent Fund.

Armstrong joins Lovell Minnick

Brad Armstrong has joined Lovell Minnick Partners as a senior associate in the firm’s Radnor, Penn.-based office. He previously was an investment banking associate in Merrill Lynch’s financial institutions group. El Segundo, Calif.-based Lovell Minnick last year raised a $375 million buyouts fund and a $100 million sidecar fund.

Greenhill boosts team

Anand Jagannathan has joined Greenhill & Co. as a London-based managing director, leading the firm’s European infrastructure advisory practice. He previously was head of global infrastructure for Dresdner Kleinwort. In addition, Rahul Mody has joined Greenhill as an infrastructure-focused principal. He also was most recently with Dresdner Kleinwort.

New Leaf adds associate

Michael Dybbs has joined New Leaf Venture Partners as an associate. He previously was with Boston Consulting, and has a Ph.D. in molecular and cellular biology from the University of California at Berkeley.

Carlyle adds advisor

Nader Sultan has joined The Carlyle Group as a senior advisor to the firm’s Middle East North Africa team. He has spent the past 33 years in the Kuwaiti oil industry, most recently as deputy chairman and CEO of Kuwait Petroleum Corp.