Private equity firms

Aequitas Capital has hired William Ruh as executive vice president and managing principal. As executive VP, Ruh will provide executive oversight to the firm’s investments in the financial services sector. As managing principal, he will co-manage assets derived from Aequitas’s private credit strategies. Prior to joining Aequitas, Ruh was a managing principal and co-founder of Castle Creek Capital.

Tristan Nagler has joined Aurelius Investments as managing director. Nagler, who most recently worked at Investec Growth & Acquisition Finance as a senior banker originating and executing a number of UK mid-market debt facilities, will lead Aurelius’ London office and be responsible for sourcing, identifying and executing equity investments across the UK and Ireland.

Blackstone Advisory Partners has named James Schaefer as a senior managing director. Previously, Schafer worked at UBS, where he served as the global head of the power and renewable energy group. BAP is a subsidiary of The Blackstone Group.

Joe Dear, the chief investment officer of California Public Employees’ Retirement System, California’s $282 billion pension fund for public employees, is taking leave to resume cancer treatment, a spokesman told Reuters. Dear was diagnosed with prostate cancer last year and began treatment, which CalPERS announced in June. Dear had returned to work full-time in December.

The Carlyle Group has brought on UBS executive Neil Collins as a managing director and global head of sales and marketing for its Solutions Group, which houses the firm’s fund of funds operations. The firm also has hired veteran fundraiser Reidan Cruz as a managing director in global sales and marketing for Solutions. Cruz joined Carlyle from KRG Capital, where he worked as a director in investor relations.

The Carlyle Group has hired Boris Okuliar as head of capital markets for global market strategies, a newly created position. Okuliar also will be head of capital markets for Carlyle GMS Finance, a business development company. Okuliar joins from UBS, where he was managing director and head of leveraged capital markets, in London. He will start at Carlyle in February and will be based in New York.

GenNx360 Capital Partners has hired Otis Spencer Jr. as an operating partner. Spencer previously worked at WBS Financial, where he served as manufacturing strategy and operations adviser. Based in New York, GenNx360 Capital Partners is a private equity firm focused on mid-market business to business industrial and business services companies.

Alternative asset management firm GrizzlyRock Capital, which invests across credit and equity markets, has named Chris Ricciardi as managing partner and head of business development and Doug Laux as chief financial officer. Previously, Ricciardi worked at Altegris Investments, where he served as director of strategic relationships, while Laux was at Ernst & Young in Chicago, where he was a partner for nine years.

ICE Canyon has hired Paulo Vieira da Cunha as economist and head of macro research. Vieira da Cunha previously worked at hedge fund EMVal Partners LP, where he served as a partner and was head of research. Headquartered in Los Angeles, ICE Canyon, which is a joint venture with Canyon Capital Advisors, is a global investment firm specializing in emerging markets and global credit investment strategies.

LLR Partners has hired John Hillen, the former assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs, as an operating partner. Previously, Hillen worked at Sotera Defense Solutions, where he served as president and CEO. LLR Partners is a private equity firm that invests in mid-market companies.

Napier Park Global Capital, which offers a range of hedge funds, private investments, CLOs and structured credit, has hired John P. Havens as a partner and non-executive chairman. Previously, Havens worked at Citigroup, where he served as president and chief operating officer.

UK-based buyout firm NVM Private Equity has appointed Liam May to its investment team. May joins NVM from Altium Capital, where he worked for two years as a corporate finance associate. He will work alongside NVM directors to help generate new investment opportunities and manage NVM’s existing portfolio across the UK. He will be based in NVM’s new Manchester office.

Private equity firm StepStone Group has expanded its team with three new hires in its real assets platform. David Altshuler and Brenden Woods have been named partners and co-heads of real assets. The company has also hired Kate Budiselik as a vice president. Altshuler formerly worked at Meketa Investment Group, while both Woods and Budiselik were at Macquarie Group.

Strategic Value Partners has appointed Johan Van de Steen as a senior operating professional. Van de Steen previously worked at Vision Capital, where he was an operating partner and head of the portfolio management committee. He joins the London office and will lead the European operating team of SVP Global, which focuses on distressed and deep value opportunities.

Thomas Franchise Solutions, an investment firm for franchisors, has named R. Randall Clark as president and CEO. Clark has more than 27 years of senior management and operational leadership experience, including Wall Street investment banking and domestic and international capital formation and as a private equity sponsor.

Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe has hired William Frank as an operating executive in the firm’s Resources Group. Frank was most recently an associate principal at McKinsey & Co, where he worked for the past eight years. Prior to McKinsey, Frank served as an infantry officer in the U.S. Marine Corps from 2001 to 2004. Welsh, Carson’s Resources Group has grown to about 25 professionals over the last several years.