Korn Becomes COO at Bear Stearns –

Doug Korn, senior managing director at Bear Stearns Merchant Banking added a new title to his card in January as he was named chief operating officer of the group.

Korn first joined Bear Stearns as a principal in Janaury 1999 after leaving his position as a founding managing partner of Eos Partners.

In his new capacity, Korn will work closely with John Howard, managing partner and head of Bear Stearns Merchant Banking, in planning the development strategy of the group, including issues such as marketing efforts, partnership issues and compensation reviews.

“I’ve been working with [Howard] a fair amount in setting the tone for the business and planning the business,” said Korn. “So this was in recognition of that.”

Korn will continue to perform his previous deal-related responsibilities as a senior managing director in addition to this new effort.

The position of COO is a new one for the group, but Korn said there is not so much a change of strategy occurring within the group, as an increased attention on managing the business and the evolution of the group.

“We’ve become a big business and we’re really not interested in letting our success happen by accident,” he said.

The group has fully invested its first fund, which was entirely the bank’s money, and is currently investing Bears Stearns Merchant Banking Partners II, managing more than $1.5 billion. To date, the group has 26 investments in its two portfolios, including Integrated Circuit Systems Inc., Oxford Health Plans Inc., Bally Group and Virtual Ink Corp.

In other news, Richard Perkal joined the group earlier this year as a managing director. Prior to joining Bear Stearns, Perkal headed up Kirkland & Ellis‘ transactional practice in Washington, D.C. Perkal will be working on deals and will also be contributing his structuring and documentation expertise.

“Rick has an unusual combination of legal skills and experience,” Korn said. “That experience comes with doing an inordinate number of transactions over the years together with an entrepreneurial mindset and an entrepreneurial experience set.”