Service Providers

International financial services firm Baird has appointed Satoshi Matsumoto to the firm’s investment banking group as a managing director and director of Japan mergers and acquisitions. In the newly created role, Matsumoto will work with Baird’s investment bankers to coordinate the firm’s M&A activity between Japanese businesses and companies based in the US, Europe and other parts of Asia. He will be based in the firm’s Chicago office. Most recently, Matsumoto was a managing director and head of Japan consumer/retail investment banking at Barclays Capital in Tokyo.

Private equity-focused investment bank Cogent Partners has appointed Jonathan Jameson as a managing director based in New York. Jameson joins from Pinnacle Trust Partners, where he was a partner.

Michael C. Cassetta has joined GB Merchant Partners as a managing director in the debt investment group. Cassetta is a senior investment professional with 14 years of investment management and credit experience. His primary focus will be on private market debt underwriting and opportunistic secondary market investments. GB Merchant Partners is the investment management affiliate of Gordon Brothers Group, a global advisory, restructuring and investment firm specializing in the retail, consumer products, industrial and real estate sectors.

The law firm Jenner & Block has appointed M&A attorney Mark A. Harris as a partner in its Chicago office. Harris will join Jenner & Block’s corporate practice and become co-chair of the firm’s private equity practice. Harris was a partner at McDermott Will & Emery and prior to that, was the COO and a principal, portfolio manager of GTCR Golder Rauner LLC.

Doug Lawson has joined Lazard Middle Market, a unit of Lazard, as a managing director and head of packaging within the industrials group. He is based in Chicago. Most recently, Lawson was a managing director and head of the packaging group at BMO Capital Markets in Chicago.

The SPECTRUM Group has appointed Kedar Gangopadhyay and Lindy Allyn to its investment banking team as principal and senior vice president, respectively. Both report to Tom Gallagher, managing director and CEO of Spectrum Capital Advisors. The SPECTRUM Group, headquartered in Alexandria, is a defense consulting firm.