On the move, 5.16.2016

PRIVATE EQUITY FIRMS

Black Diamond Capital Management LLC named Robert Simon  CEO of Bayou Steel Group, which produces and sells long carbon steel products in North America. Simon previously led the structural and rail division of Steel Dynamics Inc. Also joining the company are Alton Davis and Jim Howe as president/COO and VP of sales, respectively.

Council Capital, the Nashville healthcare-focused private equity firm, named Grant Jackson managing partner. Jackson had joined the firm in 2008 as a general partner and had effectively assumed the MP’s role in October 2014. He had led the closing of the firm’s third private equity fund, which closed two weeks ago on more than $150 million. Jackson, 44, has 15 years of experience in healthcare PE at all levels, including company directorships and deal sourcing through to exits. Council Capital, currently managing about $300 million, makes control and minority investments in healthcare companies, targeting those with enterprise values of $10 million to $50 million.

Middle market firm Insignia Capital Group hired American Securities vice president Julian Hinderling as a vice president. Insignia, based in San Francisco, also hired Seun Svensson-Sodipo as a vice president, Aaron Keller as an associate and Paige Rasmussen as an administrative assistant. Svensson-Sodipo will join Insignia this summer. She previously worked as an investment associate at Helios Investment Partners.

FTV Capital said May 2 that Brad Bernstein was named a managing partner. Bernstein joined FTV in 2003 from Oak Hill Capital Management.

NorthEdge Capital hired Ben Wildsmith as portfolio director to manage the existing portfolio and find new deals across northern England. Wildsmith joined NorthEdge from EY where he worked as corporate finance director in the regional debt advisory business.

Olympus Partners named Jim Conroy its third managing partner. Conroy, 55, joined the Stamford, Connecticut, firm in 1990 as it began investing its first fund. The firm said he’d had particular success with healthcare and financial-services investments. His new role will include expanded responsibility on the investment committee and within management. Olympus, founded 1988, manages more than $5.5 billion, the firm’s website says. Its latest fund, Olympus Growth Fund VI, has committed capital of $2.3 billion. Olympus says it makes at most three or four investments a year, ranging $50 million for growth-capital deals to $300 million and more for buyouts.

David Crane has joined Pegasus Capital Advisors as a senior operating executive. Crane previously served as president and CEO of NRG Energy from 2003 until 2015.

Summit Partners hired Brian Provost for its executive-in-residence program. Provost, the former president and CEO of tax compliance SaaS company Convey Compliance, will work together with Summit’s technology team to identify investment opportunities in growth-stage software companies.

Summit Partners, the Boston growth equity investor, said Greg Serrao joined the executive-in-residence program, tasked with helping the firm’s healthcare and life sciences team identify investment opportunities among growth-stage healthcare companies. Serrao is founder and executive chairman, and from 1996 until 2015 was chief executive, of American Dental Partners, which Summit had backed. Serrao also led American Dental, the Wakefield, Massachusetts, provider of business services to dental practices, to its 1998 initial public offering. He also served as an executive at Cardinal Health and as a healthcare-focused investment banker at Dean Witter Reynolds. Summit Partners currently has invested more than $7.2 billion in equity and fixed-income opportunities.

Dallas-based Teakwood Capital appointed Jonathan Hustis as managing director of corporate development. Hustis was previously law partner in the Dallas office of Culhane Meadows PLLC and at the Texas law firm Phillips & Reiter PLLC.

Yukon Partners Management hired Michael Furey as a partner on the investment team. Prior to Yukon, Furey worked at Halyard Partners.

PORTFOLIO COMPANIES

Michael Magerman has joined eyebobs as CEO. Magerman most recently served as President and CEO at Quickie Manufacturing Co. Eyebobs is backed by Norwest Equity Partners.

Integrated Beverage Group, which is backed by Juggernaut Capital Partners, named Mike Salzberg chairman and Gary Turner executive vice president of sales. IBG also recently named Brett Zimmerman, master sommelier, as its chief wine officer. Salzberg most recently was president and COO of Advantage Sales and Marketing (now called Advantage Solutions), while Turner was most recently vice president of operations for Aramark. Zimmerman owns Boulder Wine Merchant and is a former Colorado general manager of the American Fine Wine division of Southern Wine & Spirits.

Dave Hansen was named chairman and interim CEO of OnX companies, which include OnX Enterprise Solutions, OnX Managed Services and Momentum Digital Solutions. OnX is backed by Marlin Equity Partners. Hansen succeeds Michael Cox, who retired as OnX CEO at the end of April after three years. Hansen joined Marlin Operations Group, backed by Marlin Equity, as an operating executive in 2015.

Swanson Health Products, the Fargo, North Dakota, online and catalog marketer of healthy living products, named Katie Doyle chief executive officer. Doyle joins Swanson from Abbott Laboratories, where she was a senior vice president, leading the nutrition business in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico. In that post she was responsible for $3.2 billion in revenue “across a portfolio of brands in the pediatric and adult nutrition space as well as sports nutrition and healthy snacking,” Swanson said in a statement. As Swanson CEO she succeeds Ken Harris, who led the company through its late-January acquisition by Swander Pace Capital, the San Francisco private equity firm with $1.3 billion of equity commitments.

Transpay, the New York cross-border payments platform, named Mike Carlo global head of travel payments. Carlo had been head of travel solutions at Wex Inc and global market leader for travel at GlobalCollect/Ingenico. At Transpay he’ll oversee expansion of the company’s travel-industry solutions. Transpay is backed by GCP Capital Partners, the $1.8 billion New York private equity fund led by top investors in the payments industry.

SERVICE PROVIDERS

Finance consulting firm Accordion Partners launched its Financial Accounting & Advisory Services practice, to provide operational accounting, performance improvement and technical accounting support. Rich Medor, formerly an operational executive at Viacom, will lead the new practice group as managing director.

BlackArch Partners named Pete Bilden as managing director and co-head of the firm’s aerospace, defense and government services industry practice. Bilden, a former U.S. Army captain and helicopter pilot, was previously managing director at Stone Key Partners and an investment banker at Goldman Sachs.

BlackArch Partners, the Charlotte, North Carolina, middle-market investment bank, tapped Grant Hamilton as managing director and head of the firm’s building-products industry practice. For more than a decade, he’s been advising on middle-market M&A, emphasizing the building-products and diversified-industrials sectors, BlackArch said in a statement. Hamilton and a number of BlackArch senior bankers worked previously at Edgeview Partners, which Piper Jaffray acquired in 2013.

BTIG LLC hired Colin Knudsen as a managing director in the technology, media and telecom banking group. Knudsen will be based in New York and will focus on TMT M&A and capital markets transactions. Prior to BTIG, Knudsen was co-founder and vice chairman of Coady Diemar Partners.

Debevoise & Plimpton LLP named seven new partners, effective July 1, 2016. Two of them, Uri Herzberg and Thomas Smith, are members of the firm’s private equity group.

Fifth Third Bancorp hired William Tyson, formerly of BB&T Capital Markets, as co-head of Fifth Third Capital Markets. Tyson will focus on strategic mergers and acquisitions, as well as developing the bank’s relationship with private equity companies.

Kirkland & Ellis LLP said private equity lawyers Michael Weisser and Sarah Stasny  joined the firm’s New York office as partners in the corporate practice group. Weisser and Stasny, who represent PE firms and their portfolio companies as well as pension plans and hedge funds, were previously partners at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP.

Global law firm Morrison & Foerster‘s Berlin office said Angela Kerek joined as partner to its finance department. Kerek, formerly of the Linklaters Frankfurt office, will help the firm build out a dedicated debt finance practice in Germany.

MUFG Investor Services named Daniel Trentacosta sales director to help develop business for the firm’s solutions across hedge funds, funds of funds and private equity/real estate funds. MUFG, the global asset-servicing arm of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, provides services including fund administration, middle-office outsourcing, custody, depository, trustee, fund of hedge fund financing, foreign exchange and more. Trentacosta will report to John Sergides, managing director and global head of business development and marketing in New York. Previously, Trentacosta headed the treasury-operations team at Och-Ziff Capital Management Group, the New York alternative-asset manager.

RealtyShares, the San Francisco online marketplace for real estate investing, named Arash Sotoodehnia chief credit officer, responsible for managing the firm’s risk analytic framework, policies and guidelines. Sotoodehnia was previously Citi Mortgage’s head of risk policy and controls; his resume also includes tenures with Ally Financial and  Fannie Mae.

Clearlake Capital-backed Swiss Watch International Inc. named Keith Bradley chief executive officer and Russell Ackner chief marketing officer. Bradley is a Clearlake operating adviser while Ackner is returning to Swiss Watch, having previously spent more than three years as a vice president of marketing.

PROMOTIONS

Gores Group promoted Robbie Reynders from vice president to managing director, operations. Reynders joined Gores as a VP in 2009 from Dubai Capital Group and focuses on portfolio company oversight and operational due diligence for Gores’ investments in Europe.

Asset management firm Hamilton Lane announced a number of promotions, including nine new managing directors within its Americas offices in Bala Cynwyd, Penn. and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

• Janet Bauman, Bala Cynwyd, Fund Investment/Legal
• Keith Brittain, Bala Cynwyd, Secondary Investment
• Anthony Donofrio, Bala Cynwyd, Co-Investment
• Ricardo Fernandez, Rio de Janeiro, Fund Investment
• Christian Kallen, Bala Cynwyd, Fund Investment
• Olin Honore, Bala Cynwyd, IT
• Jackie Rantanen, Bala Cynwyd, Product
• Drew Schardt, Bala Cynwyd, Co-Investment
• Dennis Scharf, Bala Cynwyd, Secondary Investment

Gridiron Capital LLC promoted two new vice presidents, Christopher M. King and Douglas J. Rosenstein. Since joining Gridiron, King and Rosenstein have been responsible for sourcing and evaluating potential investments and participating in deals for new portfolio companies.