PRINT THIS PAGE Weekly People Roundup: 16 January 200816/01/2008. Source: AltAssets. 
All the week's most important people stories from across the globe. Essential reading for those who need to keep up-to-date with the private equity industry's key staff moves. Braemar Energy Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on energy technology companies, has hired Jiong Ma as a principal. Ma will be based in Braemar's Boston office and focus on looking for companies developing and commercialising energy technologies that include intelligent networks, energy efficiency, energy storage, pollution control, advanced power generation and clean fuels. Ma joins from 3i, where she was involved with the firm's IT and cleantech portfolio. Whilst at 3i, she was on the board of directors of Carbonite and worked closely with Konarka, Mimix Broadband, ImpactRx and OpenAir.
Boston-headquartered growth equity and buy-out firm TA Associates has promoted six members of staff. Jennifer M Mulloy was promoted to director from principal, Harry D Taylor was promoted to principal from senior vice president, Christopher Parkin was promoted to principal from vice president, M Roy Burns and Mark H Carter were both promoted to senior vice president from vice president and Hythem T El-Nazer was promoted to vice president from associate. Mulloy serves in TA's Menlo Park office, focusing on investments in healthcare, consumer products and business services companies. Taylor serves in TA's Boston office, focusing on investments in technology and technology-based services companies. Parkin serves in TA's London office, focusing on investments in growth companies in Europe. Burns is based in the Boston office, focusing on investments in financial services and business services companies. Carter also serves in the Boston office, concentrating on investments in the healthcare and business services sectors. El-Nazer serves in the Boston office, working on investments in telecommunications, media, financial technology and other technology-based services companies.
New York-based private equity firm Lightyear Capital has hired Chris Casciato as managing director. Casciato has spent the past 20 years at Goldman Sachs, most recently serving as partner in the Financial Institutions Group. He will be responsible for sourcing and executing investments on behalf of Lightyear's $850m Lightyear Fund II. Previously, Casciato was partner and global COO of investment banking. He was also previously partner and group head of Goldman, Sachs & Co.'s Latin America Investment Banking; managing director and COO of Goldman Sachs India; and COO of the real estate department.
Communications, media and IT-focused venture firm M/C Venture Partners has promoted Gillis S Cashman and Brian M Clark to the position of general partner, and Robert Savignol to partner. They will be responsible for sourcing, leading and managing investments. Cashman focuses on the telecom and media infrastructure portion of M/C's portfolio. He is currently chairman of Baja Broadband and serves on the boards of Cavalier Telephone, Zayo Bandwidth and CSDVRS. Clark focuses on investment opportunities in the cellular/PCS, wireline and broadband wireless sectors. He serves on the boards of Lightower, Revol, Mobi PCS, Open Mobile and Cellular One of East Texas. Savignol serves on the boards of Melita Cable, Attenda, Nuvox Communications and Zayo Bandwidth and also is an observer on the boards of Airband Communications and Trumper III Communications. He joined M/C in July 2004 and focuses on investments in Europe.
US venture capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners has made two promotions within its Mumbai-based division, BVP India Investment Advisors Private Limited. Anil Sarin has been promoted to managing director and Vishal Gupta has been promoted to vice president. Sarin and Gupta both joined BVP India in 2006. Previously, Sarin was with Prudential ICICI. Gupta was a senior manager in the treasurer's office at Reliance Group. Bessemer established its India practice in 2003 and in 2006 raised a $350m India-focused fund.
Early stage venture firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson has appointed angel investor and start-up veteran Bill Bryant as a venture partner responsible for investments in the Pacific Northwest. Bryant is a former Visio executive who previously co-founded Netbot and Qpass.
Private equity and venture capital firm Summit Partners has promoted Sotiris Lyritzis to general partner and Christian Strain to principal. Lyritzis joined Summit in 2002 and previously held the position of principal. Prior to Summit, Lyritzis was a co-founder of eLabsEurope AG, a Munich-based internet procurement solution for the European life sciences industry. Prior to that, he held various positions at JPMorgan. Strain joined Summit Partners in 2005 as vice president. Prior to Summit, he worked for Apax Partners in Paris.
CVC Capital Partners has announced a number of promotions and appointments. Geert Duyck and Roy Kuan have both been promoted to managing partners. Duyck, with CVC since 1998, is responsible for CVC's Paris and Brussels offices, while Kuan, who joined CVC in 1999, is responsible for Greater China, Southeast Asia and Korea. Adrian MacKenzie has also been promoted to managing partner. MacKenzie is responsible for Australia and New Zealand. He joined CVC's London office in 1995 and transferred to Sydney in 1999. Daniel Schmitz, Marc St John, Marc Strobel, Peter Törnquist, Hugo van Berckel, Soren Vestergaard-Poulsen and Christian Wildmoser have all been appointed partners. Among the other senior promotions and appointments are Domnin de Kerdaniel (senior managing director, France), Steven Buyse (managing director, Belgium), Pev Hooper (managing director, UK), Johan Sjögren (managing director, Sweden), Jan Reinier Voûte (managing director, Belgium) and Gijs Vuursteen (managing director, North America). In addition, Tim Cundy has been promoted to group financial controller.
German private equity fund of funds specialist VCM Capital Management has established a new office in Paris, to be led by managing director Pascal Feucher. Feucher will be responsible for client relationships in the French and Italian markets and for co-managing VCM's portfolio of mezzanine funds. He joins from Finama Private Equity. Previously, Feucher worked for Natixis in trade and leveraged finance in Asia and France and was portfolio manager for a €300m CLO fund. VCM has approximately €1.7bn of assets under management.
European buy-out firm Candover has appointed Mark Dickinson as a director. Dickinson joins Candover from 3i, where he led several buy-outs, principally in the support services, leisure and oil and gas sectors. Dickinson led 3i's participation in the $925m acquisition of Vetco International, a supplier of products and services to the global upstream oil and gas industry, alongside Candover and JPMorgan. Vetco's two component businesses were sold to GE Capital for $1.9bn and Ferd Private Equity for $900m in 2007, generating a return of 4.1 times for the investor syndicate, according to a statement. Candover is based in London, Madrid, Milan and Paris. The firm used to also have an office in Düsseldorf but recently closed its German office
The Mid-Atlantic Venture Association's board of directors has elected Updata Partners co-founder and managing general partner John Burton as its new president. Burton is a former president, CEO and COO of business software maker Legent Corporation and was a co-founder of Business Software Technology. Burton succeeds Lazard Technology Partners co-founder and managing principal Kevin Burns, who will assume the position of MAVA chairman. MAVA represents private equity and venture capitalists with investment interests in the Mid-Atlantic region.
US venture capital firm SV Life Sciences has appointed Dr Hamish Cameron as a venture partner in its London office. He will focus on therapeutic investments in Europe and the US. Before joining SVLS, Dr Cameron was appointed CEO of Cambridge Antibody Technology, following its acquisition by Astra Zeneca in 2006. Prior to that, he held a series of senior positions at Astra Zeneca including head of the cardiovascular therapy area, global head of medical research and member of the R&D Leadership Team. Dr Cameron started his industry career with Janssen, after working as a physician in the UK. The firm advises or manages four venture capital funds and a publicly traded investment trust with total capital of approximately $1.6bn.
Darby Overseas Investments, the private equity arm of Franklin Templeton Investments, has appointed Latin America expert Diane Smith to oversee its mezzanine finance activities in the region. Smith has launched and managed several new private equity and mezzanine businesses in both the US and Latin America. She ran her own firm and advised early stage entrepreneurs seeking private growth capital. Prior to that, Smith was a managing director at Electra Investment Trust, an LSE-listed private equity firm. She led Electra's expansion into Latin America in the late 1990s, forming fund management companies jointly with financial institutions in Argentina and Brazil. While at Electra she also played a key role in building the firm's new US principal investing business to over $500m in equity and mezzanine investments, according to a statement.
California-headquartered venture capital firm Canaan Partners has appointed Harish Gandhi as executive director in the firm's India office. In his new role, Gandhi will work to strengthen and expand Canaan's technology investments. Prior to joining Canaan, Gandhi led the value added services business and the new product development team at Bharti Airtel. Gandhi also served as vice president business strategy and planning at Bharti Airtel. Before that, he was director of marketing and technology at Nokia and director of business development at telecom start-up Dilithium Networks. Canaan Partners established its India office in 2006, located in Gurgaon, near Delhi. The firm also has offices in California, Connecticut and Israel.
New York-based mid-market private equity firm Arsenal Capital Partners has appointed former Arch Chemicals senior executive Dr Steve (XiaoHu) Li as a partner in the firm's newly established Shanghai office. Dr Li joins Arsenal from Arch Chemicals, where he most recently served as area director, Asia Pacific and president for Arch China, leading Arch's operations and business in Asia Pacific, including China, Japan, Korea, Australia and Southeast Asia. Prior to joining Arch in 2000, he was a group manager for Bayer Polyurethanes (formerly Lyondell Singapore) and has also has held research and development positions in the US for Bostik and Century International Adhesives & Coatings Corp.
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