People

Nahla A. Azmy has been named managing director of investor relations at Energy Capital Partners LP, based in Short Hills, N.J. Azmy was previously at NRG Energy, which announced that Chad S. Plotkin would succeed him there as vice president of investor relations.

David Blechman

has joined H.I.G. Capital as a managing director in the LBO practice. Previously, he was a managing director at Tower Three Partners and a Sun Capital Partners principal.

Christopher Boever has joined Pinnacle Foods Group as executive vice president and chief customer officer. In his new position, Boever will report directly to CEO Bob Gamgort and lead the sales force and broker organization for the US retail organization. Boever most recently served as senior vice president of sales at ConAgra Foods Inc. Pinnacle Foods is a portfolio company of The Blackstone Group.

Andre Burba has been appointed as managing director on the energy investment team of New York-based investment firm Pine Brook. Burba joined Pine Brook in 2008 as a principal with the energy team. He has been involved in Pine Brook’s investments in Phoenix Exploration Co., Common Resources, Common Resources II and Forge Energy.

Henry WK Chow

has been appointed to the European advisory board of the buyout firm Bridgepoint. Chow is former chairman and chief executive officer of Greater China Group at IBM where he spent more than 40 years in various leadership positions throughout the Asia Pacific region. This included more than 15 years as general manager of IBM’s Greater China Group where he was responsible for its operations in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Christopher Carolan has joined law firm Seyfarth Shaw as a partner in the corporate department, and a member of its finance practice group. Carolan was previously a partner at Brown Rudnick.

Ed Dandridge has been appointed president and chief executive officer of the National Association of Investment Companies, effective in January. Dandridge will succeed Samuel J. Boyd, Jr. who had served as president and CEO since 2007. Dandridge was formerly chief communications officer at Nielsen Holdings NV, the audience measurement company.

Danske Bank named its chairman, Eivind Kolding, to be the group’s new chief executive to restore the bank’s leading position after struggling through the financial crisis, Reuters reported. Kolding will replace retiring Peter Straarup as CEO and board member Ole Andersen will replace Kolding as chairman. Andersen was senior partner at Swedish private equity group EQT Partners from 2003 to 2008 and is currently senior advisor at EQT, Reuters wrote.

Evan Eason and Michael Horgan were promoted to partner at Olympus Partners. Eason joined the Stamford, Conn.-based firm in 2006 as a vice president and became a principal in 2010. He has worked on transactions in the health care, restaurant and financial services industries. Horgan joined Olympus in 2008 as a vice president and became a principal in 2010. Horgan focuses on manufacturing, steel services and financial services. The promotions were effective at the beginning of 2012.

Michael Gallagher has been named CEO of IBBS, a provider of voice, data and network services for mid-market cable and broadband providers, and a member of its board of directors. Gallagher takes over from Dave Keil, who was to step down on Jan. 1. Mid-market private equity firm Pamlico Capital is the majority shareholder in IBBS.

General Atlantic said it has promoted Jing Hong to managing director and Ke Wei and Joern Nikolay to principal. Hong is based in China and leads GA’s global emerging markets consumer sector. Wei is in GA’s Beijing office, while Nikolay is in London.

Michael Ho has joined State Street Global Advisors, the investment management business of State Street Corp., as chief investment officer for its active emerging markets equities and global macro capabilities. Ho, who will be based in Boston, joins from Mellon Capital Management where he oversaw all investments as chief investment officer, responsible for approximately $220 billion in assets under management, spanning all investment disciplines.

Joel Gheen has joined global investment banking firm, Core Capital Group as business development manager. Gheen will lead the business development division of Core Capital Group with an emphasis on capital sourcing. Colorado Springs-based Core Capital Group is a 20-year old investment banking firm offering strategic, advisory, merger and acquisition, and capital sourcing services for lower and mid-market companies.

Jeffrey Goldstein has rejoined Hellman & Friedman as a managing director. Goldstein returns to the private equity firm after serving as Under Secretary of the Treasury for Domestic Finance and counselor to the Secretary of the Treasury from 2009 to 2011. He will be based in the firm’s New York offices and will resume his investment focus on the financial services sector, the firm said.

Jing Hong

has been promoted to managing director at the global growth equity firm General Atlantic, and Ke Wei and Joern Nikolay have been promoted to principal. Hong is based in China and leads the firm’s global emerging markets consumer sector. Wei and Nikolay are senior professionals in the firm’s Beijing and London offices, respectively.

International investor Jeff Jaffrey has been appointed to the advisory board of technology and services interactive media marketing company Augme Technologies. Jaffrey is a partner of Veritas Investments. He launched the Veritas I fund in 2008 and is currently invested in nine businesses, ranging from forestry to the medical device industries.

Pieter de Jong has succeeded Menno Antal as managing director of 3i Benelux following Antal’s appointment as managing partner and co-head of 3i’s European and North American private equity activities. Menno will also continue in his role as partner in the Benelux team in Amsterdam.

Marc Kramer has joined H.I.G. Capital and will work out of its New York office. Kramer was recently a partner at Fenway Partners.

Michel Lagarde, a principal at JLL Partners, has been appointed to the board of directors of Patheon, a provider of contract development and manufacturing services to the global pharmaceutical industry. Lagarde succeeds Thomas S. Taylor, a managing director at JLL Partners, who is leaving the board.

Dan Lee has joined Comvest Capital, the West Palm Beach, Fla.-based mid-market private equity firm, as a managing director. Lee was a founding member of Dymas Capital, a mid-market lending platform backed by Cerberus Capital. He also co-founded Square 1 Bank’s late-stage lending group, and served as a managing director at Kugman Partners, among other things.

Private equity professional Anne L. Mariucci has been elected as an independent director of Corrections Corporation of America, a provider of corrections management services to government agencies. Since 2003, Mariucci has been affiliated with private equity firms Hawkeye Partners, Inlign Capital Partners and Glencoe Capital.

Paul McLaughlin has been appointed head of operations for State Street Corp.’s Alternative Investment Solutions team in Guernsey. McLaughlin has more than 15 years of experience in the alternative investment industry and joins State Street to help further build its alternative investment servicing business in Europe, Middle East and Africa with a particular focus on the private equity and real estate funds sectors.

Michael Michienzi has joined The Riverside Company as a senior operating partner. He will be part of the Dallas office. Michienzi was most recently a senior principal at American Capital.

John L. Miclot has been named president and chief executive officer of the regenerative medicine company Tengion. Most recently, Miclot was an executive-in-residence at Warburg Pincus. He was president and chief executive officer of CCS Medical, a company owned by Warburg Pincus from 2008 until completion of a financial restructuring of the company in 2010.

Elena Pantazi has joined Impetus Trust, a British venture philanthropy organization, as investment manager. Pantazi was previously vice president of CognoLink, an international research firm that supports investment decisions by connecting hedge fund, private equity and consulting clients with a network of industry specialists.

Global private markets investment manager Partners Group has announced year-end promotions. Andreas Baumann, promoted to partner, is co-head of the Singapore office, and Michael Studer, promoted to partner, is head of the portfolio and risk management team and responsible for the implementation of the firm’s global private markets investment portfolios. Managing director promotions include: Alex Cho, Asia, Seoul; Robert Collins, investment solutions Americas, New York; Christian Ebert, private equity directs, Zug; Scott Essex, private debt, New York; Sergio Jovele, investment solutions Europe, London; Raphael Meier, co-head product management, Zug/Singapore; and Raymond Schnidrig, head business applications, Zug.

Ashish Patel has joined emerging markets fund manager Aureos Capital as partner for Asia. Patel spent over a decade at Intel Capital, the private equity arm of international technology company Intel Corp., where he was managing director for Europe, Middle East and Africa from 2003. He joins from AVG Technologies, a global security software company, where he was head of strategy, emerging markets and corporate development since 2010.

Tim Pawlenty, the former governor of Minnesota, has joined Tiburon’s board. Tiburon, which is backed by The Gores Group, provides public safety and security solutions for law enforcement, fire and rescue and corrections agencies.

Mid-market focused investment bank The Peakstone Group announced two appointments. Jay Kemper has joined the firm as managing director focused on the consumer and food & beverage sectors and Dan Fuhrman has joined as senior advisor focused on the automotive and aerospace and defense sectors.

Niina Pullinen has been appointed head of investor relations at Finnish financial services group Pohjola Bank, effective Jan. 15. She will be responsible for Pohjola’s equity investor and debt investor relations and report to Vesa Aho, CFO. She has been working for Pohjola since 2001.

Thomas Sechler has been named chief executive of Iron Data, a provider of IT software and services that is a portfolio company of Arlington Capital Partners. Sechler previously ran the homeland and civilian solutions business area for BAE Systems. Earlier, he served as a senior vice president at DigitalNet. Iron Data is based in Washington, D.C.

Chuck Taylor has joined A10 Capital, a provider of commercial real estate financing products, to head Southeast markets for the firm. In this position, Taylor is responsible for sourcing all new commercial real estate debt and equity opportunities in the southeast markets of Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Alabama and Tennessee.

Benjamin Weston has been appointed global head of alternative investments at the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. Weston will be responsible, with the alternative investments department’s senior management team, for developing strategy in the alternatives space and overseeing the department’s investment program. Weston will report to Khalifa Almheiri, executive director of the alternative investments department.