Executive moves, week of Oct. 6, 2008

Pakman leaves eMusic to join Venrock

has stepped down as CEO of eMusic.com to become a partner with Venrock. He will work out of the firm’s New York office, and will focus on digital media opportunities. Pakman says on his blog that he will stay at eMusic through the end of December and will stay on at the company as an adviser. “My passion is building small companies into bigger ones,” he writes on his blog. “I love using the disruptive forces of technology to create new players in the value chain of media and technology industries. I like working with entrepreneurs who see the world differently than everyone else. I love exploiting the inefficiencies of markets. And I enjoy building value by taking advantage of incumbents.”

Evercore adds Newton

has joined Evercore Capital Partners, the private equity group of Evercore Partners, as a senior managing director. He previously was a senior managing director of Perseus and was with J.H. Whitney & Co. before that.

Blackstone sets up shop in Asia

The Blackstone Group has hired 12 corporate advisory pros to form a team in Asia. It includes Partners Anthony Steains (formerly with Lehman Brothers) and Jianping Zheng (HSBC), plus Managing Directors Johan van Jaarsveld (Lehman), Dong Hyun Lee (Lehman) and Jing Xiaowen (HSBC).

NEA boosts staff

New Enterprise Associates has made several promotions. Harry Weller was named general partner, Rohini Chakravarthy and Jon Sakoda were promoted to partner and Ali Behbahani to principal.

Providence hires Gahan

Thomas Gahan has joined Providence Equity Partners as president of the firm’s capital markets group, which invests in the debt of media, entertainment, communications and information companies. He previously was CEO of Deutsche Bank Securities and head of corporate and investment banking in the Americas.

Darwin grows with two partners

and Ken Hausman have joined Darwin Ventures as partners. In addition, Sunil Kurkure has joined the San Francisco-based firm as a principal. All three were previously with Mirador Capital. Darwin raised a $50 million fund of funds earlier this year.

Former Netscape CFO joins Palamon

London-based Palamon Capital Partners, a European mid-market private equity house, has appointed former Netscape CFO Peter Currie to its board of advisers. The firm raised more than $850 million for its most recent buyout fund in 2006.

Storm promotes Choi

Storm Ventures has promoted Ben Choi to principal and hired Bill Shetti as a senior associate. Choi joined the firm in 2006 as a senior associate, while Shetti most recently worked in business development and product management at Cisco Systems.