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People: March 2003

Ian Jenks joins Crescendo Ventures, Matrix Private Equity recruits Helen Sinclair and Gresham Trust promotes Andy Tupholme…

Europe & Israel

Appointments

• New Nordic venture capital firm Creandum has strengthened its management team with the appointment of Staffan Helgesson. Helgesson was previously a founding managing partner of Startupfactory, a Nordic venture capital firm focusing on early-stage technology. Creandum has also appointed Ann-Charlotte Bystrom Eek as legal council and finance manager, Claus Hultman as chairman of the investment committee and professor Soren Sjolander as chairman of the advisory board.
  
• Venture capital firm Vertex Israel has strengthened its investment team with the appointment of Eitan Barzilay, a serial entrepreneur with experience in various high-tech European companies. Barzilay will be responsible for identifying opportunities in technologies relating to computing systems, peripherals, add-ons and electronic components.
  
• UK mid-market firm ISIS Equity Partners has strengthened its investment team with a number of senior appointments. Simon Ward has been appointed as assistant director, new investments, in the firm's Birmingham office, and in the London office Daniel Smith is joining as assistant director, new investments and Tim Richardson is to be business development director. Ward was previously with the Birmingham team of Catalyst Corporate Finance, Smith joins from Royal Bank Development Capital, and Richardson worked on the growth companies team at HSBC Investment Bank. Andy Gregory has been recruited to the newly created Manchester office as investment director and Gary Davies as assistant director. Gregory previously worked as head of Royal Bank Development Capital's Manchester office, and Davies was formerly with KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers in corporate finance.
  
• US-based early-stage venture capital firm Crescendo Ventures has underlined its commitment to the European market with the appointment of Ian Jenks as a general partner in the London office. Jenks was formerly president of Uniphase's lasers and fibre optics group. He will be responsible both for supporting investment activity in Europe and for operational support to Crescendo's portfolio companies.
  
• London-based Cobalt Corporate Finance, providers of corporate finance advice to technology and media firms, has appointed Nick Hyner as an associate. Hyner has joined from Clifford Chance where he specialised in MBOs and other M&A transactions.
  
• Walden Israel, an early-stage venture capital firm, has promoted Noga Kap to general partner. Kap previously served as managing director of Central European operations for Mint Technologies, now SunGard Business Integration.
  
• Helen Sinclair has replaced Mark Burgess as managing director of UK-based Matrix Private Equity. Having previously worked at 3i, Sinclair co-founded the private equity group when she joined Matrix in 2000.
  
• Clydesdale Bank has recruited Graham Cunning to join its debt finance solutions team at the bank's Glasgow office. Cunning was previously director in the corporate finance team at PricewaterhouseCoopers. He will be responsible for identifying new opportunities for Clydesdale's deal execution experts.
  
• James Greenwood has been appointed managing director and co-head of European leveraged finance by Lehman Brothers. He was previously with Merrill Lynch.
  
• UK private equity firm, Gresham Trust, has promoted North West buy-out specialist Andy Tupholme to investment director. Tupholme helped to establish the firm's Manchester office in 2001.
  
• Piers Dennison is the latest addition to the team at Candover. He joins as investment relations director, where he will be responsible for co-ordinating Candover's fund raising activities with third parties, and for managing relationships with existing and potential limited partners in the Candover funds. Dennison joins after seven years at the Boston Consulting Group where he focused on retail and telecommunications.

North America

Appointments

• US private equity firm Summit Partners has announced the appointment of Craig D Frances as head of the Palo Alto healthcare and life sciences team. Frances, who holds a BA and MD from Cornell University, was previously managing director of StrandVentures, where he was responsible for evaluating investment opportunities in the healthcare industry.
  
• The Blackstone Group has announced the appointment of Paul O'Neill, ex-US treasury secretary, as a special advisor. O'Neill's focus will be on the firms' portfolio companies, advising them on operational issues, and he will also help analyse potential investment opportunities. O'Neill was treasury secretary from 2000 to 2002. Before that he was chairman and chief executive of Alcoa for 12 years.
  
• Michael Bolner and John Kim have been recruited as principals to New York-based Capital Z Investment Partners. Bolner and Kim will be responsible for performing due diligence on private equity funds and marketing Capital Z-backed funds to other investors.They have both joined from JP Morgan Chase & Co's placement group.
  
• Jason Green and Brian Jacobs, two venture capitalists who specialise in internet, software and communications start-ups, have teamed up to launch Emergence Capital Partners. Green was previously with US Venture Partners while Jacobs has joined from St. Paul Venture Capital.
  
• Thomas Weisel Partners has hired James Hoch as partner to help manage the capital partners fund. Hoch was previously managing director at Morgan Stanley Private Equity. Thomas Weisel Partners is seeking to rebuild its private equity practice with senior level hires after the high profile departures of Alan Menkes, Dan Dross and Keith Oster last year.
  
• US venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates has recruited Jimmy Treybig as venture partner. Treybig will focus on software firms and will also serve as chairman of NEA portfolio company WholeSecurity. He was previously venture partner at Austin Ventures.
  
• California-based Gabriel Venture Partners has appointed Steven Simonian as chief financial officer and director of operations. Simonian was previously chief financial officer at late-stage venture capital firm Meritech Capital Partners.
  
• New York-based private equity firm Evercore Partners has recruited Jonathan Knee from Morgan Stanley as a senior managing director. Knee previously worked at Goldman Sachs and will continue to focus on the media sector.
  
• US-based early-stage technology private equity firm General Catalyst Partners has recruited Terry Jones as a special venture partner. Jones was previously CEO of online travel service Travelocity.com and will focus on identifying new investment opportunities within the transportation and e-commerce sectors.
  
• New York-based merchant bank Veronis Suhler Stevenson has recruited three new partners. Gerry Benford, Marco Sodi and Scott Troeller will continue to serve the bank's private equity affiliate VS&A Communications Partners where Benford and Troeller remain general partners.
  
• George Milne has joined US-based venture capital healthcare specialist Radius Ventures as a venture partner. Milne was previously executive vice president of global research and development at Pfizer. Milne will advise Radius Venture's portfolio companies and help to identify new investment opportunities.
  
• De Novo Ventures, the California-based venture capital firm, has recruited Joe Mandato from Ioptex Research where he was president. Mandato has joined the firm as a director and becomes the firms sixth investment professional. He will be responsible for identifying new medical technology investments.
  
• Mike Richter has joined US-based Quarterdeck Investment Partners, the defence investment banking affiliate of Jeffries & Co, as a managing director. Richter recently resigned as head of CIBC's World Market's defence investment banking group. Richter will focus on defence electronics, homeland defence and federal IT services.
  
• Longworth Venture Partners has announced the appointment of Peter Roberts as a general partner. Roberts joined the firm from BancBoston Ventures where he was managing director for 12 years. Longworth invests in early and expansion-stage technology companies.
  
• Charles Woo has joined California-based private equity firm Pasadena Capital Partners as vice president. Woo previously worked for Morgan Stanley's mergers and acquisitions group and prior to that as a financial analyst for Thomas H Lee Partners.
  
• US-based Edison Venture Fund has appointed Douglas Petillo as vice president. Petillo will identify and evaluate new information technology investment opportunities in Pennsylvania. He joins the firm from Apax Partners in King of Prussia. He also led investments in early and expansion-stage technology businesses with TL Ventures of Wayne.
  
• US-based Forward Ventures has announced the appointment of chief financial officer Maria Walker to the additional position of administrative partner. Walker joined Forward Ventures from KPMG in November 2000.  In her new position she will oversee reporting to limited partners and investor relations, and will also assist with fundraising.
  
• US early-stage technology venture capital fund, CIR Ventures, has recruited James Horn as partner. Horn joined CIR from RSA Ventures and has previously served as senior investment manager at Intel Capital.
  
• Stephen Yim has joined venture capital firm WI Harper Group as managing director at its San Francisco headquarters. Yim was formerly the company's senior vice president and has previously served as a director of CDIB Venture Investment.
  
• US Labrador Ventures has recruited Nina Ebert as chief financial officer.  Ebert joins the firm from Saints Capital and has previously worked with Goldman Sachs and Montgomery Securities.
  
• Pascal Luck has been promoted to managing director at Core Capital Partners, a Washington-based private equity firm. Luck joined Core Capital in 2000 as a principal. Prior to joining Core Capital, Luck was a director and founder of CrossHill Financial Group.
  
• Sanderling Venture Partners, a biomedical-focused venture capital firm based in San Diego, has announced the appointment of Paul Grayson as a director. Grayson was formerly at Senomyx, where he served as chief executive officer and chairman.
  
• Newly formed, Los Angeles-based venture capital firm Centre Palisades Ventures has named Michael Banks as managing director. Banks will focus on broadband infrastructure companies. Prior to joining CPV he was a managing director at Steamboat Ventures, and before that he was a managing director at Intel Capital.