People

HarbourVest, the fund of funds firm that has committed US$9.8bn to funds, promoted eight members of its global team. Julie K Eiermann, Diane W Goodwin, and Karin J Lagerlund have been named senior vice-presidents of the firm, while Jeffrey R Keay and Laura C Thaxter have been promoted to vice-president. In addition, Kyle A Bohannan has been promoted to senior associate and Carolina Espinal de Carulla and Olga Tater have been named associates.

Bohannon, with HarbourVest’s London-based subsidiary, currently focuses on non-US direct investments. He joined HarbourVest’s direct investment team in Boston as an associate in 2001 and transferred to London in 2003. Espinal de Carulla focuses on non-US partnership and direct investments in the firm’s London-based subsidiary.

PPM Ventures, the private equity arm of Prudential, has expanded its team dedicated to investments in private equity partnerships with the appointment of Simon Faure as an associate director. He joins from Insight Investment, where he was jointly responsible for the fund of funds investments in the US and Western Europe. Before that, he worked at AIG Global Investment (Europe). Since establishing its private equity partnerships investment programme in 2000, PPM has committed €340m to European and Asian funds.

European private equity firm Palamon Capital Partners announced that Matthew Turner would become a partner in February. He joins from PPM Ventures, where he was director in charge of group business development. Turner joined Prudential PLC in 1986 as an attorney specialising in commercial law, including M&A and private equity.

1996, the year the group was formed. He joins existing partners John Van Deventer and James R Clark. Cabot Square Capital provides investment capital for small and mid-sized companies in the UK and Western Europe.

Corbett Keeling, the corporate finance adviser specialising in deals up to £150m, appointed Tom Amies and Douglas Blausten as associates. Amies specialises in mergers and acquisitions in the pharmaceuticals and personal care sectors and Blausten specialises in transactions with a real estate angle.

Law firm Kirkland & Ellis International is opening a new office in Munich in 2005, which will be headed by Thomas Verhoeven and Volker Kullman. Verhoeven is currently head of the firm’s German practice in London and Kullman joins from the German private equity business of Clifford Chance. About 10 other lawyers will join the office. In Germany, the firm cites Bank of America Equity Partners, Madison Dearborn and MidOcean Capital Partners among its clients. Last year, it represented Bain in a €1.4bn LBO of Brenntag.

Nicholas Fisher joined law firm Addleshaw Goddard to help further develop the firm’s leveraged finance and banking business. This is the latest in a series of hires, which has also included Paul Salsbury, Andrew Besser and three associates from Nicholson Graham & Jones. Fisher joined from Simmons & Simmons.

Law firm Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw announced six new partners to its London practice. The promotions become effective on January 1 2005 and affect Bruce Bloomingdale, James Dodsworth, Louise Hobbs, Tim Nosworthy, Michael Wallin and Stephen Woodward.