Service providers

Arent Fox has appointed partners Mark S. Fawer and Carolyn Austin and associate Brandilyn Y. Dumas. The newly appointed professionals will be based in the firm’s New York office, where they will focus on representing lenders, private equity funds, real estate developers, real estate investment trusts and other investors in the financing, acquisition, disposition, and development of multifamily, retail, industrial, office and hotel properties.

Armentum Partners, which provides debt capital raising services, has hired former TriplePoint Capital managing director Hutch Corbett as a managing partner. Corbett will help strengthen Armentum’s focus on life sciences and technology.

Balboa Capital has hired Jim Motley for its enterprise division. In his new position, Motley will help package and expedite mid-market transactions for all industries. Based in Irvine, California, Balboa Capital is an independent finance company.

Bank of America Corp named Rodrigo Xavier as chief executive of its Brazilian wholesale and investment banking unit, Reuters reported. Xavier, a former head of UBS AG’s Banco UBS Pactual SA investment banking unit in Brazil and founder of private equity firm Vinci Partners, will replace Alexandre Bettamio at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Management consulting firm Blue Ridge Partners has beefed up its senior leadership team with four new additions. Joining the company are Art Chivvis and Mark Hardy as managing directors and Jim Ettamarna and Marten Leijon as principals. Previously, Chivvis worked at McKinsey & Co, where he was a partner, while Hardy was at Aurora Capital Group. Ettamarna served as vice president of strategy at Staples while Leijon was the CEO of MIX.

Specialty finance company CapX Partners has named Stephen Healey as managing director. In his new role, Healey, who will be responsible for business development in the Northeast, willl be opening the firm’s new office in the Boston area. Previously, Healey worked at Full Circle Capital, where he served as managing director.

The law firm Cooley has hired Divakar Gupta and James Strawbridge as partners in its business department. Gupta will work in the firm’s New York-based capital markets practice group, while Strawbridge will join the firm’s business and finance practice group in Palo Alto, California. Previously, Gupta worked at Latham & Watkins. Strawbridge worked at Worldview Technology Partners. Cooley’s clients include entrepreneurs, investors and financial institutions.

New York-based investment bank Cornerstone Capital has hired Michael Geraghty as a global markets strategist. Geraghty previously worked at Citi Investment Research and UBS.

Enlightenment Capital has appointed Brett Lambert to the firm’s advisory board. Lambert, the outgoing deputy assistant secretary of defense for manufacturing and industrial base policy, brings more than 25 years of defense, government and intelligence expertise to Enlightenment’s group of advisers. Enlightenment Capital, a Washington, D.C., area private investment firm, provides senior debt, mezzanine debt and minority equity to small and mid-sized companies in the aerospace, defense and government sector.

Gen II Fund Services, a third party private equity fund administrator, has appointed Jeff Gendel as managing director of business development. Gendel joins Gen II from PEI Media, a publisher covering private equity and related fields, where he was the first U.S. employee.

The investment bank Greenhill & Co has hired Patricia Moran as a managing director and chief legal officer. Moran is a partner at Skadden, Arps, Meagher & Flom, where she began her career 30 years ago. She has experience in the areas of M&A, private equity, restructurings, corporate governance and general corporate and securities law. Gavin Solotar, who has worked as general counsel since 2012, will step down from the role into a managing director position in the firm’s corporate advisory group.

Guggenheim Securities, the investment banking and capital markets division of Guggenheim Partners, has hired Eric Mandl as a senior managing director. He was most recently a senior managing director in the technology, media and telecom group at Evercore Partners and previously was the global had of software and enterprise banking at UBS. At Guggenheim, Mandl will focus on advising companies across the technology industry.

Hycroft, an investment bank focused exclusively on the alternative investments market, has appointed Kim M. Pedersen as managing director. Pedersen brings to Hycroft over 17 years of private markets expertise, most recently as founder of Arrow Point Advisors LLC, a boutique advisory and placement firm.

Mid-market M&A and debt advisory firm Livingstone has added to its London team. Karen Dawaf, formerly with accounting firm Deloitte, joins Livingstone’s business services sector team as an associate. Tom Smith, formerly with accounting firm PwC, joins Livingstone’s industrial sector team as an analyst. Lewis Gray, also from PwC, joins Livingstone’s business services sector team as an analyst.

Marsh & McLennan Cos has hired Ed Dandridge as chief communications officer. Dandridge joins from Collective, a digital technology company where he worked as chief marketing officer. Dandridge also worked as president and chief executive of the National Association of Investment Companies, an industry trade group representing diverse private equity firms.

Okapi Partners has hired Michael Fein as a senior managing director. Previously, Fein was a principal and founder of investment firm Midway Management Partners. Based in New York City, Okapi Partners is a proxy solicitation and investor response firm.

Brodie Cobb, founder and executive chairman of The Presidio Group, has taken over leadership of the firm’s automotive investment banking practice. Cobb replaces Alan Haig and Erin Kerrigan, who left Presidio to pursue other opportunities.