Private Equity Firms

Global private equity manager AlpInvest Partners has appointed Nadim Barakat as managing partner in its investment solutions team. He will be based in New York. The fund-of-funds manager was acquired by The Carlyle Group in July 2011.

Javier G. Teruel and Javier Garcia-Teruel, co-founders of Spectron Desarrollo, have agreed to join forces with Alta Growth Capital in Mexico. Founded in 2006, Alta Growth Capital is a private equity firm focused on growth equity investments in mid-market companies in Mexico.

AUA Private Equity Partners has appointed Nancy Rocha as vice president focusing on business development, investor relations and investment management. Rocha was formerly senior director for economic capital and advocacy at New America Alliance.

AXA Private Equity has opened a new office in Beijing, the firm’s first in China. The Beijing office will be headed by Jenhao Han, managing director and head of AXA Private Equity Asia. He will be supported by three investment professionals with significant knowledge of the Asian market: Won Ha, Jason Yao and Colin Wang, all of whom were previously based in AXA Private Equity’s Singapore office. AXA Private Equity opened its first Asian office in Singapore in 2005 and has since deployed $1.3 billion of capital across the region. The firm now has a total of 10 offices across Europe, North America and Asia.

Asset management firm American Century Investments has appointed Patrick Bannigan to executive vice president and chief operating officer. Bannigan succeeds current COO Barry Fink, who is retiring from the $124 billion firm next year. Bannigan’s most recent position was with RiverSource (now Columbia Management and part of Ameriprise Financial), where he served as president of RiverSource Funds and senior vice president and general manager of RiverSource Investments.

UK-based Business Growth Fund has appointed John Swarbrick as head of portfolio. He will be joining immediately to play a key role in overseeing BGF’s rapidly growing portfolio of high growth entrepreneurial businesses. Business Growth Fund was set up to help Britain’s smaller and medium sized businesses.

Kennet Partners, a technology growth equity investor, has appointed Neil Cooper as finance director. Cooper joins Kennet from Robert W. Baird Group, where he was financial controller, a role he previously held at Advent Venture Partners.

Palamon Capital Partners has appointed John David as managing director, investment strategy. David joins Palamon’s pan-European team, all based in London. David joins Palamon from Allstate Investments where he spent seven years, most recently as global strategist and head of the London office.

Technology investor Silver Lake has appointed technology industry veteran John Chen as a senior adviser. Most recently Chen served as CEO of Sybase, a company owned by SAP.

Asian private investment firm Squadron Capital Advisors’ director for investments in Southeast Asia and India, Anand Prasanna, is exiting the firm, Reuters reported. Prasanna was with Squadron for five years. The firm is in the midst of being bought by U.S.-based FLAG Capital Management, Reuters wrote.

David Whitehouse and Keith Carter have joined Tennenbaum Capital Partners, and will be based in the firm’s New York City offices. Whitehouse was named managing director. Carter was named a director. Whitehouse joins from Apollo Global Management. Carter joins from Plainfield Asset Management. Tennenbaum Capital, of Santa Monica, Calif., is a multi-strategy firm focused primarily on credit opportunities.