Pace Joins Kayne After Short Stint At Siguler

Christopher Pace joined Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors on March 1 as a senior managing director, nearly five months after the firm held a second closing on its debut mezzanine fund.

Pace previously was a principal at Siguler Guff & Company, a position he held for less than a year, working on private equity portfolio management and business development for the fund-of-funds manager. Before that, he served as general partner and executive director at WestLB Mellon Asset Management, where he worked for more than 10 years.

BNY Mellon Asset Management and Siguler Guff established a strategic alliance in January 2009, when Siguler Guff hired BNY Mellon to distribute its products and services. In May of that year, a subsidiary of Siguler Guff became the investment adviser of the private equity fund of funds formerly run by WestLB Mellon Asset Management. At that time, several of WestLB Mellon Asset Management’s key investment and operational professionals joined Siguler Guff, including Pace.

Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors manages more than $8 billion in alternative investments via investment partnerships, closed-end funds and offshore funds. Strategies include private investing in midstream and upstream oil and gas securities, private investing in non-energy growth equity and mezzanine financing. In mid-October, the firm held a $110 million second close on its first mezzanine fund, which is targeting $500 million, as previously reported by peHub, a sister publication of Buyouts.

In other news, Solomon Owayda joined Siguler Guff in December as a managing director. Owayda told Buyouts he has known George Siguler, the firm’s founder, for many years and that initially, among other things, he will manage separate accounts for investors such as pension funds, insurance companies and endowments. He previously served as the CIO at SVG Advisers and before that he headed private equity investing for the California State Teachers’ Retirement System.