LPs

OpenGate Partners Lezec, Yook leave firm

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OpenGate, private equity, Andrew Nikou, emerging managers, private equity, Jay Yook, Robert Lezec
Andrew Nikou, founder and CEO of OpenGate Capital. Photo courtesy of the firm.
  • Robert Lezec left earlier this year
  • Jay Yook left last year
  • Departures didn’t trigger key-man provisions in fund

Two OpenGate Capital partners, Jay Yook and Robert Lezec, have left the firm, reducing the partner group to three, including Founder and Managing Partner Andrew Nikou.

The departures did not trigger a key-man provision in OpenGate’s fund, spokesman Alexei Barrionuevo said. Fund I closed last year on $305 million. Yook and Lezec left by mutual agreement, said a person with knowledge of the firm.

OpenGate has no immediate plans to fill Lezec’s and Yook’s roles, whose responsibilities have been assumed by other senior executives at the firm’s Los Angeles and Paris offices, Barrionuevo said.

Lezec declined comment; Yook did not return a request for comment.

Yook left last year, while Lezec left in March, according to his LinkedIn profile. Lezec worked at OpenGate from 2008 to 2017, according to an archived version of the firm’s website. Yook worked at the firm from 2005, the year OpenGate was founded, to 2016.

Yook led operations and oversight of acquired companies and was a member of the investment committee, his LinkedIn profile said. Lezec focused on global transaction execution and oversight of acquired portfolio companies, according to a news release from when he was hired.

Lezec is chairman and managing partner of Paris-based Naxos Capital Partners, which he formed in 2007 to buy lower middle market U.S. and European companies. Earlier in this career he worked at Platinum Equity.

Yook works at Tau Capital Group, an operationally focused global firm that buys small and mid-sized companies. Tau has a capital base of family offices and high-net-worth individuals as well as capital from the firm’s principals.

Other Tau Capital members include former Platinum Equity executives Nate Chandra, principal, and Gary Chen.

Nikou formed OpenGate in 2005 after working at Platinum Equity’s Paris office. OpenGate has moved through its debut fund; the pool was about 42 percent deployed as of November.

Update: This story was updated with information that Yook and Lezec left by mutual agreement.

Action Item: OpenGate’s Form ADV: http://bit.ly/2ps4VeO

Andrew Nikou, founder and CEO of OpenGate Capital. Photo courtesy of the firm.