People moves

• SVG Advisers, the specialist private equity and fund management business of SVG Capital, has appointed two directors, James Witter and Sharad Rathke, who will join the marketing and corporate finance teams respectively in London. The appointments follow three additions to the private equity fund selection teams in both the London and Boston offices in September.

James Witter joins the marketing team at SVG Advisers, working alongside Simon Lund on the development, marketing and distribution of new private equity products. Witter has more than 20 years experience within the financial markets, having held senior positions at Merrill Lynch International, Dresdner Kleinwort Benson and most recently at Nomura, where he was head of private equity capital markets before becoming head of UK and Ireland, global markets Europe.

While at Nomura, Witter played a leading role in arranging the innovative SVG Diamond Private Equity I and II Collateralised Fund Obligation transactions. He has an MBA from the London Business School and graduated with an MA in Natural Sciences from St Catharine’s College, Cambridge.

Rathke joins the corporate finance team at SVG Advisers, with responsibility for the origination, structuring and development of new products. Rathke was previously a senior director within KPMG’s private equity group in London, advising UK and European based private equity firms on large buyouts and leading numerous complex financial investigations across a wide variety of industries.

During his three and a half years at KPMG, Rathke was instrumental in successfully setting up the large leveraged buyout team. Prior to joining KPMG, he worked at Andersen (now part of Deloitte in the UK) for nine years. He graduated with an honours degree in commerce and accounting from SRCC, New Delhi and is a chartered accountant.

Andrew Williams, CEO of SVG Advisers, said: “We are delighted to welcome both James and Sharad to the team. Their wealth of experience and industry knowledge will provide us with an invaluable skill-set as SVG Advisers continues to grow its funds under management and product base, ensuring that we offer investors unrivalled opportunities for investment in private equity and related asset classes.”

• Barclays Capital has appointed Ramon Walsh as a director in the leveraged finance sponsor origination team. Based in London, he reports to David Shaw and Jonathan Hosgood, co-heads of financial sponsor origination, and he will be responsible for coverage of a number of financial sponsor clients, as well as the execution of financings to support their financings.

Walsh joins BarCap from Morgan Stanley, where he was an executive director in the leveraged and acquisition finance team, focusing on financial sponsor transactions.