In a burst of staff changes, OMERS promotes Eric Haley to North America PE chief

OMERS Private Equity is seeing a shakeup in its team, with promotions and new hires offsetting some prior and forthcoming departures, sources told Buyouts.

Among the changes is the appointment of Eric Haley to head of the North American direct buyout group, sources said. The role, formerly held by Michael Graham, appears to have been unoccupied since Graham was named OMERS’ global head of private equity in 2020.

New York-based Haley, a senior managing director, was previously head of business services, participating in deals like Alexander Mann Solutions, Epiq and Inmar. That job, sources said, now goes to Geoff Bird, a managing director.

In addition, managing director Mark Van Wart was appointed head of healthcare, a role vacated last year with the departure of senior managing director Tim Patterson.

Haley was hired by OMERS in 2011 from Tailwind Capital, where he was a managing director, according to his LinkedIn profile. Earlier, he was with Boston Ventures Management and Morgan Stanley.

Bird joined in 2007 from EY’s corporate finance unit, while Van Wart joined in 2008 from CIBC’s investment banking and commercial lending unit. Van Wart played a key part in the sale of OMERS’ majority interest in Forefront Dermatology to Partners Group, announced last month.

On top of these changes, OMERS recruited Lane McDonald as managing director, operations, sources said.

McDonald comes from ESG Portfolio Partners, her LinkedIn profile shows, a consultancy she co-founded to help grow private equity-backed companies. Before, she was global head of financial services, education and business services value creation at Partners Group.

McDonald’s hire follows that of Tyler Craig, brought on by OMERS last September from BMO Capital Markets for the newly created role of director, debt capital markets. He is now a managing director, sources said.

In all, 10 new team members were introduced in 2021, sources said, offsetting the loss of a few long-standing employees, such as Patterson. Upon leaving, Patterson filed a wrongful dismissal lawsuit that took aim at PE compensation practices, asserting they were behind many of the exits.

OMERS Private Equity is expected to see further departures, sources said. Names have not been confirmed, though some are said to occupy senior-level positions. It is not known if any of the leave-takings are linked to disputes over compensation.

OMERS’ direct buyout strategy focuses on investing in North American and European companies in business services, healthcare, industrials and software sectors. Last year, OMERS Private Equity as a whole earned a one-year net return of 25.8 percent, well above an 8 percent benchmark.

OMERS declined to provide a comment on this story.