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People: June 2003

EVCA announces new chairman, Cees van Lede joins Carlyle, ComVentures loses David Helfrich and Aurora Funds recruits three new professionals…

Europe

Departures

• Arianne Leuftink has resigned from her position as managing director at Wilshire Private Markets Group. Leuftink spent approximately four years with Wilshire and left on amicable terms, according to Dan Allen, managing director at the firm.

Appointments

• The Carlyle Group has recruited Cees van Lede to advise on industrial economic and market issues. Until recently, Dutchman van Lede was chief executive and chairman of Akzo Nobel and remains a member of the supervisory board. He is also chairman of the supervisory board of the Dutch central bank and chairman-elect of the board of directors of business school INSEAD.
  
• The European Venture Capital Association has appointed Jean-Bernard Schmidt as chairman. The head of French high-technology venture capital group Sofinnova, replaces Apax executive Max Burger-Calderon. The new chairman's brief will be to promote harmonisation and transparency in the expanding private equity industry.
  
• Global investment manager, Frank Russell, has recruited Renata Milczarek to strengthen its European private equity fund of funds business. Milczarek will be based in the firm's Paris office and will be responsible for selecting and managing Frank Russell's European private equity portfolio.
  
• Dr Peter Gruss, president of the Max Planck Society, has joined Switzerland-based life science private equity firm Ultreia Capital as a director. The firm has also appointed its own managing director, Barbara Zink, to the board. Zink was formerly the head of the life sciences private equity team at Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch & Cie. Prior to joining LODH she served as head of strategic venture capital investments in life sciences at F Hoffmann-La Roche.
  
• Finama, the French buy-out business owned by insurance firm Groupama, has recruited Lionel Bergeron and Sami Rifaï as directors. Bergeron joins the firm from Lehman Venture Capital and will serve as a director in the firm's fund of funds business. Rifaï was previously at Bain Capital and joins Finama as a director of direct investments.
  
• The French private equity and venture capital association, AFIC, has appointed Gilles Mougenot as president. Mougenot replaces Astorg Partner's Xavier Moreno. Mougenot has served as vice president of the AFIC since June 2002. In this position he was responsible for the promotion of private equity among institutional investors.
  
• Ilona Brom has joined Wilshire Private Markets Group as managing director. Brom previously served as vice president in corporate bond research at Morgan Stanley. She is joining as the fourth member of Wilshire's European investment team based in Amsterdam. Brom is replacing Arianne Leuftink. In addition to Brom's appointment Wilshire has recruited two professionals to its US operations and has launched a new research presence in New York.
  
• Claes Dahlback, the chairman of major Nordic buy-out firm EQT, has been appointed a non-executive director by US investment bank Goldman Sachs. He is also chairman of listed Swedish investment firm Investor AB. Goldman's also named Edward Liddy, chairman and chief executive of The Allstate Corporation, to its ten-person board.

North America

Departures

• ComVentures has announced that partner David Helfrich has left the firm. He joined ComVentures in 1997 and is believed to have left to start a new technology buy-out firm. ComVentures has no plans to replace Helfrich.
  
• Theodore Schell, the former Sprint Corp strategy chief who joined New York-based Apax Partners in 2000, has left the private equity firm to return to the telecoms industry. Schell was one of three private equity professionals hired by Apax following the close of the firm's $1.1bn Apax Excelsior VI fund designed to invest heavily in telecommunications opportunities.
  
• Cliff Robbins, general partner at General Atlantic, a US venture capital firm, will step down from the firm later this year. His decision to leave the firm is based on his desire to broaden his investment focus outside of IT-specific deals.
  
• Stephen Skoczylas has left his role as chief financial officer of JP Morgan Partners, to join Geller Investment Partnership Services as a managing director. Skoczylas was formerly chief financial officer of JP Morgan Partners' global private equity fund and its Latin American fund. He was with JP Morgan for 19 years and was also head of the finance division's international controls unit, CFO of the Paris office and CFO of the equity and equity derivatives business.

Appointments

• Brazos Private Equity Partners, the US mid-market private equity firm, has recruited former Thomas Weisel Partners vice president Peter Boylan as an executive. The firm has also appointed Megan Taylor as an associate. Boylan spent three years as vice president with the San Francisco-based firm, focusing on investments in healthcare, consumer, industrial and technology companies. Taylor joins Brazos from TCW/Crescent Mezzanine, where she served as an associate specialising in leveraged buy-outs and growth financings of manufacturing and service companies.
  
• US early-stage private equity firm, Koch Ventures, has hired Stuart Lodge as partner and chief financial officer. Lodge joins as the sixth investment professional. Lodge was previously chief financial officer of The Structure Group, a privately held company providing software products and consulting services.
  
• Richard Holcomb, William New and Tom McMurray have joined US early-stage venture capital firm Aurora Funds as special venture partners. Holcomb and McMurray will be responsible for working with Aurora's portfolio companies and evaluating investment opportunities. Holcomb is founder and CEO of Strikelron, a seed stage company focused on web services and was also a founder of GadgetSpace. McMurray joins Aurora with over 20 years experience as a venture capitalist and entrepreneur, having served as a general partner at Sequoia capital. New has worked with Aurora since 1994 as part of the firm's medical device advisory team, but will now take a much more active role. He previously founded and led a number of early-stage companies including developer of medical devices, Natus Medical.
  
• Tony Abate has taken a position at Ironside Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on multi-stage equity investments in the communications, infrastructure and information technology industries. He is the firm's fourth managing director. Abate joins Ironside from Battery Ventures where he was general partner. He was previously vice president at one of the US's oldest venture firms, Whitney & Co.
  
• Edison Venture Fund has recruited Sandi Barber as vice president of limited partner relations and administration. Barber will lead investor relations for the firm as well as managing human resources and administrative functions for the three Edison offices. Barber joins Edison from South Atlantic Capital where she was the administrative partner. At South Atlantic Barber helped to raise four private equity funds successfully. The firm has also recruited Steve Hovagimyan as business development associate. In this role, Hovagimyan will identify private equity opportunities that match Edison's investment strategy.
  
• Fenway Partners has recruited Timothy Mayhew to its senior ranks. Mayhew previously co-founded Palladium Equity Partners and has more than a decade of buy-out experience. At Palladium, Mayhew led investments in underperforming companies in a variety of industries including automotive, branded food, animal health, speciality chemical, speciality packaging, radio broadcasting and healthcare. Mayhew served as principal at Joseph, Littlejohn & Levy prior to joining Palladium.
  
• US private equity firm Harvest Partners has recruited Michael DeFlorio as managing director. DeFlorio joins Harvest from Whitney & Co. At Whitney, DeFlorio led transactions in the manufacturing, business services and healthcare sectors. He previously worked at American Industrial Partners and Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette.
  
• Jim Maikranz has joined Bain Capital Ventures, the venture capital arm of leading US private equity firm Bain Capital, as special advisor. Maikranz will be responsible for working with Bain Capital's portfolio companies, assisting with sales methodology, marketing, lead generation, product positioning and general strategy.
  
• Joseph Parzick has been named as the latest addition to the team at the Cypress Group. He joins as managing director and as a member of the firm's investment committee. Parzick will work with Cypress's business development teams on capital market transactions for new investments and portfolio companies. Parzick previously served as managing director in the financial sponsors group of Morgan Stanley's investment banking division.
  
• Garheng Kong and John Glushik have been promoted at Intersouth Partners, an early-stage venture firm focused on life sciences and information technology companies in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast regions. The two principals have now become partners. Kong has been with the firm since May 2000, and focuses on Intersouth's life science portfolio. Glushik joined Intersouth in September 1999 and concentrates on information technology.
  
• Vista Ventures has promoted Craig Hanson from associate to principal. Hanson joined the firm in May 2002 as an associate. Prior to Vista Ventures, he was chief financial officer of eCarCredit, an investment banker with Credit Suisse First Boston, and a vice president with merchant banking firm Berenson Minella & Company.
  
• San Francisco-based private equity firm Hellman & Friedman has hired Melissa Ma as a director. She will be responsible for finding investments within the financial services sector. Ma joins the firm from McKinsey & Co's private equity and financial services practice.
  
• Leveraged finance specialist Art Penn has joined private equity firm Apollo Management. Penn, the former co-head of leveraged finance for UBS Warburg and Bankers Trust, had previously been advising CDC Ixis, the investment banking arm of French state bank CDC, on expanding its leveraged finance group.

Middle East

Appointments

• The Bahrain-listed private equity firm Investcorp has recruited media specialist Thomas Middelhoff as head of European corporate investment. Middelhoff joins Investcorp having left German media group Bertelsmann over strategic differences ten months ago.