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Avondale Partners, a Nashville-based investment banking and wealth management firm, is expanding to New York City. Leading the new office will be John Cuddeback from BMO Capital Markets and Dana Lambert from Royce & Associates.

Dresner Partners has named Alan Mustacchi as managing director and head of consumer products and specialty retail investment banking and Brian Graves as managing director. . Most recently, Mustacchi was managing director at Navigant Capital Advisors where he led the firm’s consumer products and specialty retail team. Graves’s experience includes leadership and advisory roles with Ernst & Young’s strategic advisory services, Credit Suisse’s HOLT Value Group, Mesirow Financial and Motorola. Dresner Partners is a mid-market investment bank based in Chicago.

The Emerging Markets Private Equity Association has named Robert W. van Zwieten to be the organization’s next president and CEO. Most recently, van Zwieten served as director of private sector capital markets at the Asian Development Bank in Manila, Philippines. Based in Washington, D.C., EMPEA is a global organization with approximately 320 member firms representing more than $1 trillion in assets under management.

International law firm Greenberg Traurig has added shareholder David Oppenheim to its New Jersey and New York offices. Oppenheim’s practice will focus on franchising, transactional and regulatory matters.

Investec Specialist Bank has appointed Grant Davidson to Investec Growth & Acquisition Finance. In his new role, Davidson will focus on the origination and execution of deals for both entrepreneurs and private equity firms. He will report to Ed Cottrell, head of Investec Growth & Acquisition Finance.

Mizuho Securities USA, the investment banking unit of Mizuho Financial Group, has expanded its U.S. equity sales team with the hires of Mark Orsi and Wes Dalton in San Francisco, plus Robert Leggat in Boston. Orsi, formerly of Lazard Capital Markets, joins as an executive director, while Dalton, who comes from Macquarie Securities, will be a director. Leggat also will be an executive director.

The law firm Robinson & Cole has expanded its private equity/M&A practice with recent hires in its New York City, Boston and Connecticut offices. Among the new partners are Stephen P. Hanson, Eileen Smith Ewing and Mitchell L. Lampert, The firm is currently representing Nielsen Holdings N.V. in its sale of Nielsen Expositions to Onex Corp.

Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. said it has named Jose M. Amador as a managing director. In his new position, Amador will head the firm’s Latin American investment banking coverage. Amador, who will be based in TPH’s Houston office, joins the company from Scotia Waterous, the oil and gas division of Scotiabank.

J. Robert Tyler III has joined Williams Mullen as a partner in the firm’s corporate and private equity law practice. Most recently, he worked as a partner at Poyner Spruill. William Mullens is a law firm with offices in North Carolina, Virginia and Washington, D.C.