On The Move: Rhone re-appoints John Bolton; KKR named Diego Piacentini as senior adviser

PRIVATE EQUITY

Rhône Group re-appointed Ambassador John Bolton as a senior advisor. He previously served as national security advisor to President Trump.

KKR named Diego Piacentini as a senior adviser. Piacentini is a former senior vice president of Apple’s international consumer business.

Argand Partners promoted Ryan Beres to senior associate. Beres was previously an investment banking analyst at Goldman Sachs.

Santé Ventures appointed Eric Epstein as senior associate. He previously worked at McKinsey & Company.

TZP Group made several new hires: Shamit Mehta as partner for growth equity; JoAnne Kruse as portfolio operations partner for talent; Michael Khutorsky as principal; Jarrad Berman as portfolio operations vice president for digital; Marco Luy as associate. The firm also made several promotions: Sheera Michael as partner; Harrison Davis as a principal; Matt Doherty, Manvir Heir and Ryan McCarthy, as senior associates.

Tony Wang was named managing partner at 500 Startups. Prior to joining 500 Startups, Wang was COO at Color.

EnCap Investments hired a team of four executives to pursue investments in global transition to lower-carbon-energy systems: Jim Hughes, Tim Rebhorn, Shawn Cumberland and Kellie Metcalf.

4Front Ventures Corp appointed Kathi Lentzsch and Betty Aldworth to its board of directors. Lentzsch is CEO and president of Bartell Drugs while Aldworth is the executive director for Students for Sensible Drug Policy.

LLR Partners named Geoff Baird as senior managing director of the firm’s value creation team. Baird was previously an operating executive at Tailwind Capital.

H.I.G. Capital hired Ed Pallesen to lead its infrastructure team in the U.S. He was previously a managing director at Goldman Sachs.

Altamar Capital Partners hired Pilar Junco as managing partner and chief strategy and client officer. Junco previously worked at Blackstone Group as a senior managing director and head of non-U.S. private wealth management and retail business.

Gridiron Capital promoted Chris King and Doug Rosenstein to principal. Both joined the firm in 2015 as senior associates and were promoted to vice president in 2016.

Oak HC/FT named Leah Scanlan as partner, talent. Scanlan was previously with Khosla Ventures where she worked on talent development as an operating partner.

Turnspire Capital Partners promoted Abel Osorio to partner. He joined the firm in 2016.

FTV Capital named Allison Walker as its first chief talent officer. She previously worked at TCV.

Bain Capital Ventures named Keri Gohman as an operating partner. Gohman was recently chief platform business officer at Xero.

Shatter Fund LLC named Jenny Johnson as an adviser. Johnson is president and chief operating officer of Franklin Templeton.

PORTFOLIO COMPANIES

WD Lab Grown Diamonds named Sue Rechner as CEO. The producer of laboratory-grown diamonds is backed by Huron Capital.

Viola Ventures-backed PlainID named Richard Bauer as global vice president of sales.

Artios Pharma Limited named Tania Dimitrova as chief business officer. The DNA damage-response company that develops treatments for cancer is backed by Arix Bioscience plc, SV Health Investors, M Ventures, IP Group plc, AbbVie Ventures, Andrea Partners, LSP, Pfizer Ventures and Novartis Venture Fund.

Eden, a workplace management platform, named Brian Snow as vice chairman. Eden’s backers include Fifth Wall Ventures, S28 Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Y Combinator Continuity, ENIAC Ventures, Redpoint Ventures and Liquid2 Ventures.

Thrive Earlier Detection Corp, a healthcare company focused on incorporating earlier cancer detection into routine medical care, named Seema Singh Bhan as senior vice president. Thrive Earlier is backed by Third Rock Ventures, Section 32, Casdin Capital, Biomatics Capital, BlueCross BlueShield Venture Partners, The Invus Group and Exact Sciences.

Spine & Sport Physical Therapy appointed Adam Elberg as chairman of the board. The provider of physical therapy and rehabilitation services is backed by Great Point Partners.

JenaValve Technology Inc, a maker of transcatheter aortic valve replacement systems, named Dr. Vinny Podichetty as a vice president of clinical affairs and Jeff Thiel as vice president of operations. JenaValve’s backers include Atlas Venture, Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners, Gimv, Legend Capital, NeoMed Management, Omega Funds, RMM, Sunstone Capital, Valiance and VI Partners.

Insitro, a drug discovery and development company, appointed Dr. Matthew Rasmussen as vice president of data engineering and Duane Valz as general counsel. Insitro’s backers include Alexandria Venture Investments, Bezos Expeditions, Mubadala Investment Company, Two Sigma Ventures and Verily.

Humphrey Chen was named chief product officer of VidMob, a full-stack creative technology platform backed by BuildGroup, Acadia Woods, Herington LLC, Interlock Partners, Macanta Investments and You & Mr Jones.

Artivest named Sheldon Chang as head of product and distribution strategy. The digital platform for alternative investing is backed by Aquiline Capital Partners, Genstar Capital, KKR and Thiel Capital.

AI-driven biopharmaceutical company twoXAR Inc appointed Dr. Allen Poirson as senior vice president of biopharmaceutical business development. TwoXAR’s backers include SoftBank Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, OS Fund, CLI Ventures and the Stanford-StartX Fund.

Modern Aviation, which is backed by Tiger Infrastructure Partners, named Daniel Reinheimer as chief financial officer and Kerry Kampschroeder as controller.

Rgenix Inc, a developer of first-in-class small molecule and antibody cancer therapeutics, named Dr. Robert Wasserman as chief medical officer. Rgenix is backed by Lepu Medical, Oceanpine Capital, Wuxi AppTec’s Corporate Venture Fund, Novo Holdings A/S, Sofinnova Partners, Alexandria Venture Investments LLC and the Partnership Fund for New York City.

AMTdirect, a provider of lease management solutions, named Jeff Ralyea as CEO. AMTdirect is backed by Luminate Capital Partners.

Appalachian Railcar Services LLC appointed Michael Obertop as chief commercial officer. ARS, a provider of railcar repair, railcar storage, plant loading and unloading, and short line switching operations, is backed by GenNx360 Capital Partners.

Legal 1031 Exchange Services LLC, a division of Kensington Vanguard National Land Services, promoted James T. Walther Esq., LL.M to general counsel. Kensington Vanguard is backed by Stone Point Capital.

SERVICE PROVIDERS

Livingstone named Mark Birkett and Michael Jenny as partners. Both previously worked at William Blair.

Evercore named Len Rosen as senior managing director and CEO of the firm’s new business in Israel. Rosen was previously the CEO of Barclays Israel.

Weil, Gotshal & Manages LLP named Jeffery Malonson as a partner to its private equity practice. He previously worked at King & Spalding.

Houlihan Lokey hired Shea Goggin as head of U.S. on the private funds group. Goggin joins from UBS, where he worked as co-head of distribution on the private funds group. The investment bank also named Sean Fitzgerald as a managing director in the capital markets. Fitzgerald worked at Macquarie Capital.

Rockefeller Capital Management named Shelly Lazarus and Marty Mannion to its board of directors. Lazarus is the former CEO of Ogilvy & Mather; Mannion is an ex-managing director at Summit Partners.

Leigh Webb joined finnCap Group plc and will head finnCap’s private equity sponsor coverage and expand its M&A advisory business across the mid-market private equity community. He previously worked at RSM.

Alantra named Aamit Joshi as managing director and co-head of chemicals. Joshi previously worked at Lincoln International.

Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners made three hires: Hank Jones as managing director; William Blake as vice president; and Dennis Mou as an associate.

Livingstone hired David Misch as partner and head of sponsor coverage. Misch has worked at Levine Leichtman Capital Partners, Wells Fargo and Houlihan Lokey.

Intermediate Capital Group appointed Alan Jones as a senior managing director. Jones was mostly recent a vice chairman of private credit and equity at Morgan Stanley.

Battea Class Action Services named Michael J. McCreesh as president. McCreesh is a former managing director at Goldman Sachs.

Hamilton Lane appointed Niki Mangos as chief technology officer. Mangos is the former chief information officer at Brandywine Global Investment Management.

Evercore named Andrew MacNiven as a senior managing director for the firm’s investment banking business. He was previously a managing director at RBC Capital Markets.