People May issue 2006

Kirkland appts

Kirkland & Ellis has poached two senior lawyers from Linklaters’ private equity group in London: Graham White, the former global head of private equity for Linklaters; and partner Raymond McKeeve. The two joined the firm together in 2001 from SJ Berwin, and before that were at Dickson Minto.

White recently acted for CVC on its acquisition of Kwik Fit and its later sale to PAI Partners, as well as acting for Apax on the firm’s €951m acquisition of Swedish surgical solutions provider Molnlycke Healthcare AB.

McKeeve recently represented Apax, Barclays Capital and R20 in connection with the acquisition of Somerfield and the subsequent disposal of the Kwik-Save business. In addition, he represented Aletheia Partners and Hardt Group in the acquisition of EWT.

TVM promotes

TVM Capital has made three promotions: Chris Cobbold and Dr Annegret de Baey-Diepolder have been promoted from principal to partner, and Dr Axel Polack is now a general partner.

Cobbold joined the ICT team of TVM in Munich in August 2001 as a research analyst, and is responsible for identifying and evaluating investment opportunities in mobile communications, Internet infrastructure, semiconductors and electronic design automation.

De Baey-Diepolder has more than six years’ experience as a research analyst in the venture capital industry, and identifies and assesses investment opportunities and for the analysis of the medical need as well as the scientific background of novel therapeutics.

Polack has spent over five years at TVM, and assesses new investment opportunities and monitors portfolio companies, and will also be directly responsible for investments in the future. Before joining TVM Capital in Munich in 2000, he served three years as general manager of Innovative Technologies Neuherberg.

SVC recruits

Sebastian Wossagk has joined Siemens Venture Capital as investment partner in the communications fund. He will be focusing on wireless applications and infrastructure, mobile devices and machine-to-machine systems.

He comes from Siemens Acceleration in Communications, where he was investment partner for over four years, with responsibility for identifying new investment opportunities in France and Scandinavia and for supporting the portfolio companies in these regions. Before entering the Siemens fold, he was a management consultant at McKinsey & Co for three years, specialising in the high tech and automotive industry.

IFE Conseil hires

IFE Conseil, the French mid-cap mezzanine specialist, has recruited Dominique Fouquoire. He joins from Mezzanis, the mezzanine fund of Crédit Lyonnais Private Equity, where he had been managing director since 2002. He had been at Crédit Lyonnais since 1993 where he was in charge of the development of the structured debt activity and the launching of mezzanine funds.

BoI opens in Germany

The Bank of Ireland has opened an office in Frankfurt. The bank has been active in the German market since 1997, focused primarily on the provision of debt funding to leveraged finance transactions. The new German-based team will offer mid-market senior and mezzanine debt arranging capability to private equity funds operating in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Eastern Europe.

Ralph Betz and Maurice FitzGerald will jointly lead the German office. Betz is a German national and recently joined Bank of Ireland from Bank of Scotland, Frankfurt, where he was active on mid-market debt arranging activities. FitzGerald has relocated to Frankfurt from Bank of Ireland, Dublin, from where he has covered the German leveraged finance market since 2002.

TA appts

TA Associates has appointed Christopher Parkin to the London office as a vice-president. He will focus on growth equity capital, leveraged recapitalisations and management buyouts to help implement TA’s investment strategy and support the firm’s continued expansion in Europe.

Parkin joins TA Associates from Lazard Private Equity, where he served as an investment manager overseeing all aspects of transactions, with a focus on middle market investments in Western Europe. Prior to that, he was a manager at Bain & Company’s Private Equity Group in London and New York.

Springwell renamed

Springwell Ltd, the UK early stage biotech and healthcare consultancy, has renamed itself UK Bioscience Consultants Ltd as part of a relaunch to reflect the increased range of services it now offers.

Springwell was founded in 2001 by Dr Vivienne Cox and began by providing technology evaluations, IP management and business development services.

It now also supplies patent and trademark advice, as well as regulatory, legal and financial services.

Based in the London Bioscience Innovation Centre, Royal College Street, London, the firm also provides business development skills to non-European companies that want access to the European market. It will continue to run events such as the Biomedical Innovation Conference, which Springwell co-hosted in July 2005, to provide a showcase for innovative technologies. This year’s event is in partnership with the London Biotechnology Network and will form part of the Genesis VI conference on December 12, 2006 at the QEII Conference Centre in London.

Close Bros expands

Close Brothers Growth Capital has appointed Simon Jobson as investment executive. He joins from Deloitte & Touche where he was a manager in the lead advisory practice of its corporate finance division. He previously worked in Deloitte’s audit and assurance division, following a stint as a graduate in the financial markets division at Arthur Andersen.

Bridgepoint appts

Bridgepoint has named Mikael Lövgren as chairman of its Nordic business. Lövgren, who becomes an advisory partner of Bridgepoint, spent 20 years at Boston Consulting Group, where he held a number of positions including that of managing director of its Nordic business, head of its Nordic healthcare practice group and latterly was senior vice-president and director based in Stockholm.

Bridgepoint has made nine investments in the Nordic region. Graham Oldroyd heads its Stockholm-based team.

Linklaters promotes

Linklaters has elected seven new partners to its banking practice. Private equity-related appointments include Annette Kurdian, who specialises in acquisition financing, debt restructuring, plain vanilla and structured corporate lending transactions. She joined Linklaters in London in 2001 following a spell at Mallesons Stephen Jaques in Sydney. She recently advised on the leveraged financing transactions in connection with the acquisition of Petroplus International by a Carlyle-led consortium.

Also making the step-up to partner is Jaroslaw Miller, who joined Linklaters’ Warsaw office in February 2005. He specialises in project and structured finance, corporate restructurings and acquisition finance transactions.

Tim Ross is a banking and corporate finance specialist, with experience of advising on lending, debt capital markets, derivatives, structured finance, private equity and restructuring deals, with a particular knowledge of public and private acquisition finance, property finance, trade finance, asset finance, tax-based structures and equity bridge lending.

Sabrena Silver specialises in leveraged buyouts and other acquisition financings and second lien, general corporate and complex structured finance transactions. She recently represented the mandated lead arrangers in their financing of Permira’s acquisition of the Jet Aviation and Midcoast Aviation companies.

Lehman appts

Lehman Brothers has named Vittorio Pignatti Morano, formerly the co-head of the banking giants’ European M&A business, as head of its European private equity activities. In this newly created role, Morano will oversee the launch of several funds and expand the private equity unit. He will report to Michael Odrich, head of global private equity, and Thierry Sciard, head of the European investment management division. Pignatti joined Lehman in 1989, and is a vice-chairman. His co-head of European M&A Carlos Fierro has assumed responsibility for the business.

CVC appts

CVC Capital Partners has recruited David Wood from Deutsche Bank, where he was co-head of European leverage finance for six years following a stint at JPMorgan as a senior banker in acquisition finance.

He has worked within the leveraged finance and banking market for over 30 years and during this time has worked on a number of high profile deals, including several CVC transactions ( BASF Inks, Inalta, Kappa Packaging, Lecta, Ruhrgas). Wood will be working alongside Marc Boughton on further developing CVC’s financing initiatives.

Sovereign hires

Lower mid-market specialists Sovereign Capital has made three promotions. Dominic Dalli and Simon Hitchcock have been made directors and Jose Rodriguez has been promoted to investment manager.

Dalli joined Sovereign in 2002 and specialises in healthcare and education investments. Prior to this he spent five years with Deloitte corporate finance’s healthcare team.

Hitchcock began his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers and joined Sovereign in the same year as Dalli, having spent three years with Dilmun Investments. He focuses on the support services sector.

Rodriguez joined Sovereign in 2004 and had previously spent five years supervising M&A transactions and international operations in the banking and securities commission in Mexico. He has been involved in the implementation of roll-out strategies across the portfolio and, most recently, worked on the Alkare platform as well as a number of bolt-on acquisitions for C.H.O.I.C.E. and SENAD.

Capital Dynamics reshuffle

Capital Dynamics has promoted two people this month. The first is Stefan Amman, CFO, COO and member of the executive committee, who has been made a managing director and principal of the firm.

Also finding himself in a new role is Mark Coppin, head of the group’s portfolio servicing team in Birmingham. He will become head of the portfolio servicing team for the entire firm, replacing the outgoing Hilary Sonstegard, who is resigning to spend more time in her new role of being a mother. Coppin has been with Capital Dynamics since 2005. Between 1997 and 2005 he worked for 3i in London. Before joining 3i, he worked for Rolls-Royce plc and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Actis appts

Actis, a private equity investor in emerging markets, has appointed Rajiv Kaul as partner, based in London. Kaul, who until recently was the managing director of Microsoft in India, moved last year to Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, US as senior director, spearheading its expansion strategies in emerging markets.

In his new role at Actis he will provide leadership in the technology sector and also be responsible for driving a strategy to derive synergies between India, China and South East Asia.

DLJ recruits

DLJ Merchant Banking Partners, the private equity investment arm of Credit Suisse, has created a media investment team, appointing Tim Schoonmaker, Nigel Walmsley, and Rupert Shaw. The team will focus on investments in the UK and European consumer and B2B media sectors.

Schoonmaker spent 17 years at UK media group Emap performing a variety of roles, including managing director of an Emap local newspaper company, founder and CEO of Emap Radio, Emap Performance, Emap Advertising and a member of the executive board. After leaving Emap, he served as the CEO of Odeon Cinemas, where he restructured the business following its sale to Terra Firma Capital Partners. He has since been involved in a number of other private equity-led transactions.

Walmsley was managing director of the Capital Radio Group, where he led the company’s successful IPO in 1987. In 1991, he started and became the CEO of Carlton Television, eventually serving as the chairman of Carlton Media Group (now part of ITV). He is currently chairman of the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board Ltd (BARB) and of Eagle Rock Entertainment, the HgCapital-backed music rights and content company. He has also served in a number of other prominent capacities, including vice-chairman of the Advertising Association, chairman of GMTV, vice-president of the Royal Television Society and a governor of the South Bank Centre.

Rupert Shaw joins from GMT Communications Partners, where he spent five years responsible for deal origination, investment execution, ongoing portfolio monitoring, exits and general marketing. He began his career at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette.

HgCapital expands

HgCapital has created a services sector team to be led by Robin Lincoln. Ian Moore has been appointed associate director of the leisure team, joining from KPMG corporate finance where he focused on mid-market transactions in the leisure sector. He advised both corporate and private equity houses on acquisitions and disposals in the UK and Continental Europe.

Alastair Laing has been named as an associate in the new team. He comes from Deloitte’s M&A team, and before that was with Zilkha Venture Partners in the US.

Dominik Vonier has also joined as an associate following a spell with Merrill Lynch in London where he worked for the M&A team.

Another associate is Birker Bahnsen. Prior to joining HgCapital, he worked in global equity research at Goldman Sachs in London, focusing on the healthcare sector.

Jonathan Boyes, also an associate, previously worked at Mercer Management Consulting. He was with Mercer for four years working on strategy and operational issues across a broad range of sectors.

BoI builds

Bank of Ireland has recruited Peter Mullen as the head of its new London-based syndications team. Other appointments will be announced. Mullen has extensive knowledge of the syndications market having spent eight years working for Société Générale in London and New York. Prior to Société Générale, he was with Chase Manhattan based in London.

3i promotes

3i has promoted Ian Nolan to head its UK buyout operations. He began his 3i career in 1987 in Manchester, moving to London in 1995 as a director in the buyouts team. In 1998, he returned to Manchester as MD of 3i’s business in the North West of England, subsequently assuming responsibility for the whole of the North and Scotland. In 2004 he came back to London as an MD within 3i’s European buyouts business.

ECI recruits

ECI Partners has hired Tom Wrenn as investment executive. He will take a wide-ranging role across all aspects of ECI’s investment activities, deal origination, execution, transformation and exit. He joins after spending two years with the private equity team at Close Brothers Corporate Finance, where he focused on the leisure and media sectors, advising on both public and private company transactions, before moving to the private equity team. Previously he spent four years at Deloitte & Touche where he began his career as a tax adviser in the M&A team advising on European buyouts and large corporate transactions.

WPE promotes

UK firm West Private Equity (WPE) has promoted David Harland, who became operations director in February 2006, to the senior management. He has been at the firm, soon to be known as Lyceum Capital following regulatory approval, since 2001, and is part of WPE’s business evaluation and development resource.

He has been responsible for successfully repositioning Fox IT, a WPE Fund 2000 portfolio company, where he was appointed CEO in 2002. Harland is also a member of the Shareholder Committee of Coperion Group and is a non-executive director of National Britannia Group and Velo. He also works with, and has carried out, a number of assignments for other WPE portfolio companies.

A specialist in corporate development, M&A and performance improvement, he has extensive public and private company management experience in the UK and internationally, including senior, interim or non-executive director roles at, among others, Eagle Star, Fairway Group, Hamley’s, JO Hambro, Lynton Group, MAI (now United Business Media) and United City Merchants.