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People: April 2003

Fraser Sampson leaves Horsley Bridge, Coller Capital hires Frank Morgan and Duke Street Capital recruits staff to new Paris office…

Europe & Israel

Departures

• US fund of funds giant Horsley Bridge Partners has parted company with the head of its London office, Guy Fraser Sampson. Fraser Sampson had been at Horsley bridge for six years and previously worked for the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
  
• Credit Suisse has cut five of its Swiss private equity firm's seven investment professionals and suspended any further investment becoming the latest bank to scale back from the private equity market. The private equity operation affected, known as Innoventure Capital, aimed to invest the bank's own capital in early-stage Swiss companies. Credit Suisse will retain its existing portfolio, which will be managed by the two remaining professionals.
  
• Swiss Life Private Equity Partners has abruptly ‘severed its ties' with its chief executive David Salam and chief operating officer Thomas Grotzer because of ‘insurmountable differences of opinion.' Their departure is the latest stage in a long-running saga at the firm. Peter Derendinger, a member of SLPEP's board of directors, is assuming immediate responsibility for the unit's operations.

Appointments

• Northzone Ventures, Nordic specialists in early-stage technology investments, has recruited two new partners to its regional offices. The Danish office has been expanded with Gregers Kronborg and Par-Jorgen Parsson joining the Swedish team. Kronborg co-founded Danish technology company Cocom, while Parsson has previously acted as an independent technology investor through Koncept Kapital.
  
• US corporate restructuring and crisis company, Alvarez & Marsal, is expanding its European operations with the appointment of Vincenzo Morelli as managing director and co-head of a newly launched Global Equity Sponsor Group based in London. The new team will advise European private equity firms and corporates on the early stages of investment.
  
• French private equity house Initiative & Finance has appointed two new partners to its Paris office. Thierry Boghossian previously acted as a partner at Euridi, the private equity arm of IDI. Jean-Bernard Meurisse joins the firm from the Paris office of Barclays Private Equity, where he was a director. Initiative & Finance is listed on France's Second Marche and is a subsidiary of Natexis Banques Populaires.
  
• France-based Activa Capital has appointed Christophe Parier as an investment director. Parier joins the firm from Royal Bank of Scotland Private Equity France where he was an investment manager dealing exclusively on the French MBO portfolio. Parier previously spent three years within the MBO team at 3i France.
  
• UK-based Inflexion Private Equity has strengthened its healthcare advisory team with the appointment of Tony Caplin to its advisory board. Caplin remains deputy chairman of Barts health trust and the London NHS. He is chairman of Durlacher and senior non-executive director of Easynet as well as chairman of Inflexion investee ANT.
  
• Coller Capital, a global private equity secondaries player, has recruited Frank Morgan as head of its newly formed New York office. This is the first time the firm has had a dedicated staff presence in the US. Morgan joins Coller Capital from the law firm Dewey Ballantine where he was a partner with responsibility for venture capital investment management and technology. The firm has also recruited Erwin Roex from NIB Capital to become an investment director. Roex will assume responsibility for transaction origination and structuring. Roex, a Belgian national, founded NIB Capital Private Equity's secondary investment business. He was previously managing director of Alpinvest Mezzanine.
  
• UK Bridges Community Ventures, the community development venture capital firm, has appointed Tim Lawrence as executive director. Lawrence joins Bridges from Nyne, an investor in early-stage technology companies. Prior to that he was a director at Causeway Capital and ABN Amro Private Equity.
  
• Nova Capital Management, the private equity firm set up last year to take over the management of private equity and venture capital portfolios, has appointed former Texaco director Andrew Paszkowski to oversee the firm's debut portfolio.
  
• Duke Street Capital is to increase its commitment to the French private equity market with the opening of a Paris office. Frederic Chauffier will head the new team. Chauffier joined Duke Street in 1998 from SPEF, the private equity arm of Banc Populaires. The Paris team will also include Boris Zaitra, James Weir, Samantha da Soller and Beatrice Vivier.
  
• Techno Venture Management, the German-US venture capital firm, has appointed Peter Hoffmann-Fischer as senior advisor for corporate finance strategy in its life sciences team. Hoffmann-Fischer joins TVM from Robertson Stephens' European investment banking operations in Munich where he was a managing director with responsibility for the firm's technology and healthcare practice in continental Europe.

North America

Departures

• Hamilton Lane principal Bradley Atkins and five fellow investment professionals have left to set up a new private equity advisory firm, Franklin Investment Advisors. Atkins is the chief executive officer of newly formed Franklin Investment. He is joined by former Hamilton Lane vice presidents Michael Bacine, Karl Hartman and James McGovern and former Hamilton Lane associates Neil Mowery and Ryan Chowdhury. Franklin Investment will focus on ‘portfolio construction, manager due diligence and selection, performance monitoring, portfolio analytics and valuation service'.
  
• Leslie Vadasz, the founder and president of Intel Capital, is retiring from the firm. Vadasz will officially leave the firm on June 1 2003. He joined Intel after serving as an electrical engineer from 1964-1968 at Fairchild Semiconductor.

Appointments

• US private equity firm The Carlyle Group has appointed Charles Rossotti and Duncan Lewis as senior advisors. Rossotti, the former founder and chairman of American Systems Management and commissioner of Internal Revenue will commit 50 per cent of his time to the firm and will focus on information-technology related buy-out and venture investments. Lewis was formerly chief executive of telecommunications companies GTS and Equant. He will be responsible for promoting Carlyle's position in the telecom restructuring business.
  
• Intersouth Partners, a Durham, North Carolina-based early-stage venture firm, has appointed Chris Hegele as a part-time venture partner. Hegele will assist in deal sourcing and management, due diligence and mentoring of other professionals. He is also a general partner at Kitty Hawk Capital.
  
• David Verey, the former chairman of Lazard, has been appointed as a European adviser to US private equity firm Blackstone Partners eight months after his shock departure from Cazenove. Verey will be responsible for expanding the New York-based buy-out firm's presence in Europe and will also join the firm's European advisory board.
  
• Marc-Henri Galletti has joined Pequot Ventures as a vice president focused on venture investments in healthcare, particularly on biotechnology and medical devices. Galletti joins from Amerindo Investment Advisors, where he was a private equity research analyst.
  
• Questor Management has appointed General Motors chairman, John Smith, as chairman to its advisory board. In his role as chairman of Questor and affiliated consulting firm AlixPartners, Smith will use his relationships to help the firm and act as a mentor to the firm's management.
  
• ABS Capital Partners has recruited Cal Wheaton as principal. Wheaton will focus on East Coast healthcare investments. Prior to joining the company Wheaton served as vice president at Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown's Healthcare Investment Banking Group where he specialised in equity, debt, and M&A transactions for healthcare companies.
  
• Keith Kerman is the latest addition to the team at Primus Venture Partners, a US venture firm that invests in business services, telecommunications and healthcare. Kerman joins Primus from Morgenthaler, where he served as general partner for six years.
  
• Kodiak Venture Partners, the US-based early-stage venture capital firm, has recruited Subhash Roy as entrepreneur-in-residence and Beth Hoffman as principal. Roy will focus on identifying and developing semi-conductor and communications opportunities, while Hoffman will evaluate and initiate new software investment prospects.
  
• Providence Equity Partners has hired Julie Richardson as managing director. Richardson joins the firm from JP Morgan Chase where she was vice chairman of the investment banking department and chairman of its telecoms, media and technology group. Prior to joining JP Morgan, Richardson was a managing director in the telecoms and media group at Merrill Lynch.
  
• Mark deLaar and Michael Madden have joined Summit Accelerator Fund, the venture capital arm of US-based Summit Partners, as vice president and associate respectively. They will identify investment opportunities in the firm's target sectors, which include software, communications technology and services, semiconductors and electronics and financial services.
  
• Meritage Private Equity Funds, which focuses on communications investments, has announced the addition of two investment professionals, Kuldeep Ram and Derek Pilling, to its partner development programme. Ram joins Meritage from McKinsey & Company where he served as a senior associate with private equity expertise in communications infrastructure. Pilling joins Meritage from the 2003 MBA class of Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
  
• Matthew Shaw has been promoted from principal to partner at Crossbow Ventures. He is responsible for evaluating, investing and managing venture capital investments in the communications, services and media industries. He also joins the firm's investment committee.
  
• Hamilton Lane has hired four new executives, including a head of research, to replace the executives that left to form their own advisory firm. Alexander Cheung replaces Bradley Atkins as head of research, according to a report from Bloomberg. Cheung was previously research head at Long Bow Capital Management. He is joined at Hamilton Lane by Richard Hoff and Joseph Pavalone who have been recruited as associates. Hoff joins Hamilton Lane from Merrill Lynch and previously worked for General Motor's asset management business. Pavlone was previously a partner at merchant bank Konquer Capital. Hamilton Lane also appointed Janet Bauman, an attorney with Sidley Austin Brown & Wood, to its legal team.
  
• Battery Ventures has hired Chris Hanson as chief operating partner. Hanson previously served as chief financial officer for WaterCove Networks, NetGenesis and Saville Systems. He will be responsible for managing Battery's finance and accounting, human resource, information systems and administrative functions.
  
• Sam Jadallah has joined Mohr, Davidow Ventures as a general partner. He formerly worked at Internet Capital Group where he was managing director of operations. Prior to that he held a senior management position with Microsoft.
  
• Bain Capital Ventures has named Ajay Agarwal as a venture partner in its Boston office. Agarwal's new role in the firm will focus on identifying new investment opportunities in the enterprise software and services sector. He will also work with entrepreneurs building software companies.
  
• Silver Lake Partners, a Menlo Park, California-based private equity firm, has named Alan Austin as managing director and chief operating officer. Austin previously served as general partner and chief operating officer of Accel Partners and, prior to that, he spent 13 years at Wilson, Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.
  
• Steven Simonian has joined Gabriel Venture Partners, a Californian venture capital firm, as chief financial officer and director of operations. Simonian most recently served as chief financial officer of Meritech Capital Partners. He began his career as an auditor at Ernst & Young.
  
• Draper Fisher Jurvetson, which is located in Redwood City, California, has promoted two of its staff. Raj Atluru and Andreas Stavropoulos have both become managing directors. Atluru focuses on enterprise applications, software infrastructure, wireless communications and emerging technologies. Stavropoulos joined the firm in 1999, before which he worked at McKinsey & Company.