In brief people news

Edmond de Rothschild Capital Partners, which manages the €210m Edmond de Rothschild LBO fund, has reinforced its team with four additional hires. Hervé Fonta and Antonio Graça joined as investment managers and Bertrand Demesse as associate. Sylvie Verges also joined as chief financial officer.

Fonta was previously an investment manager at Chequers Capital. Graça had been an investment manager at CDC Equity Capital since 2002. Bertrand Demesse joined from Banque Lazard.

The Edmond de Rothschild fund is managed by Erick Fouque and Eric de Montgolfier, co-managing partners. It is focused on lower mid-market growth buyouts and has made four investments.

  • GE Commercial Finance, the corporate lending arm of GE, has appointed two senior figures to its corporate lending team in Europe. Andrew Bernhardt and Nicole Gates have both joined as executive directors of origination. Bernhardt will primarily focus on cashflow funding for pan-European corporates, including quoted and large family businesses. Gates will look at restructuring deals for non-investment grade companies. Bernhardt joins from Barclays Bank, where he was director of corporate leverage. Gates has had an 18-year career at Kleinwort Benson/Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein.
  • Nordic Venture Partners has strengthened its operations by engaging Per-Arne Sandstrom as senior adviser. Sandstrom will provide guidance and expertise to Nordic Venture Partners and its portfolio companies. Most recently, Sandstrom was first executive vice-president and deputy CEO of Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson. He retired from the company in July 2004, having joined Ericsson in 1988 and later becoming chief operating officer in the US. Sandstrom also served on the board of directors of the Cellular Telephone Industry Association.

Nordic Venture Partners invests in technology companies with the potential for rapid growth and international expansion. It has combined funds under management of €330m and has invested in 23 companies to date.

  • Pascal Feucher has joined Quartilium, the fund of funds team of French private equity group Finama, as an investment manager. He will be responsible for mezzanine investment in Europe and the US. Feucher began his career with Natexis in 1995 and was last year appointed portfolio manager of Vallauris, a €300m arbitrage cashflow CLO invested in a diversified pool of LBO assets. Quartilium Mezzanine held a first closing at €50m last December.
  • Hammonds Partner Michael Woollard is joining law firm SJ Berwin’s reconstruction and insolvency department. He has more than 20 years’ experience as an insolvency and reconstruction lawyer and has been at Hammonds since 1991.
  • Corporate finance adviser Corbett Keeling has appointed Douglas Young and Ian Langley as associates. Young is a chartered accountant by training and specialises in mergers and acquisitions. Langley is an engineer and general manager by background.