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Weekly People Roundup: 10 September 200810/09/2008. 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.
Target Partners, a Munich-based venture capital firm, has hired Christian Thaler-Wolski as a new associate. Thaler-Wolski will be responsible for deal sourcing and analysis and due diligence. He will also support Target's investment team by working with portfolio companies. Prior to joining Target, Thaler-Wolski was director of business development at CareerConcept, where he gained knowledge in the area of start-up businesses and venture capital. Before that, he worked at Oracle Deutschland for more than four years, where he built the indirect sales channel in the financial services sector.
HRJ Capital has appointed Theodore J Deutz as managing director of business development and investor relations. In his new role, he will be responsible for HRJ's client services and business development activities. Prior to HRJ, he was a principal with Fontaine Partners, an alternative investment management firm focusing on clean energy and technology investing. Previously, he was managing director and chief marketing officer at RCM Capital Management. HRJ has $2.5bn in assets under management and specialises in alternative asset fund-of-funds across the venture capital, buy-out, distressed/turnaround, real estate and hedge fund sectors.
Hudson Clean Energy Partners has hired Paul Ho as a principal, overseeing their efforts in the biofuels and biomass sectors. He joins Hudson from Credit Suisse in New York, where he was director in the Alternative Energy Group. Hudson invests in companies focused on renewable power, alternative fuels, energy storage and demand-side energy management.
Sovereign Capital has promoted three of its directors, Dominic Dalli, David Myers and Kevin Whittle, to partners. Dalli joined Sovereign in 2002 after five years with Deloitte Corporate Finance's healthcare team. He has been involved with Sovereign's healthcare investments. Myers worked at Andersen Consulting and Bain & Company before joining Sovereign in 1997. He has been involved with Sovereign's direct origination team. Whittle joined Sovereign in 2005, and has headed the portfolio development team. He has also been involved in Sovereign's exits of SENAD, CMGL, CVS and Alpha Plus.
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co has hired Simon Hipperson to join the firm's infrastructure investment team. Hipperson, who will be based in London, is the former president and CEO of Skanska Infrastructure Development, a unit of Skanska, the international construction firm. Prior to that, he was executive vice president responsible for public private partnerships of Skanska UK from 2002 to 2004. During his time at Skanska, Hipperson led investments in a broad range of infrastructure assets.
Chicago-based mid-market private equity firm Wynnchurch Capital has hired Michael A Teplitsky as senior associate and Greg B Gleason as associate. Prior to this, Teplitsky was an associate at Lime Rock Partners, where he concentrated on the oilfield service industry. Prior to joining Lime Rock, Teplitsky was a member of UBS's investment banking global energy group. Teplitsky has also spent time in Moscow at TNK-BP as strategic advisor. Prior to joining Wynnchurch, Gleason was financial analyst at Houlihan Lokey in Chicago. Before Houlihan Lokey, Gleason was an analyst in Bank of America's portfolio management group. Wynnchurch manages a number of private equity funds with capital under management of approximately $500m.
New York and London-based mid-market private equity firm MidOcean Partners has hired former governor of New York George E Pataki to join the firm's board. Pataki served three terms as the 53rd governor of New York State, from 1995 through 2006. He is known for balancing his pro-business philosophy with award-winning policies in the renewable energy and environmental fields. In 2007, Pataki joined law firm Chadbourne and Parke, as counsel, focusing on their environmental, energy and corporate practice areas. Pataki has also been appointed to the board of MidOcean's portfolio company, OneLink Communications, a provider of cable services.
TVM Capital has promoted Steffen Schuster to general partner effective 1 August 2008. Schuster joined the TVM Capital Munich office in February 2008 as a principal in the corporate finance team. With significant experience in the communications industry, Schuster has since focused on technology investments in the TVM Capital portfolio. Prior to his tenure at TVM Capital, Schuster was the CFO of publicly-traded Cycos, where he managed a corporate turnaround followed by an international expansion of business operations. Prior to that, he was managing director finance and investment partner at Mustang Ventures, the venture capital arm of Siemens I&C, which he co-founded.
The Blackstone Group has hired Ivan Brockman as a senior managing director in the firm's corporate advisory business. He will open a new office for Blackstone in Menlo Park, California. Brockman has over 14 years of experience in the technology business as an investment banker and as an attorney specialising in corporate securities and M&A. Before joining Blackstone, he was co-head of West Coast Technology Investment Banking for Citigroup, and led Citigroup's global investment banking efforts in the enterprise systems and software industries. He also served on several of the firm's investment banking committees. Before joining Citigroup, he was with Goldman Sachs's technology, media and telecom investment banking group. He also spent several years with technology-focused Palo Alto law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati.
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has anounced that Robert Astley will become the organisation's next chair of its board of directors effective October 2008. Astley was appointed by Jim Flaherty, federal minister of finance and will succeed Gail Cook-Bennett, the CPPIB's founding chair since 1998, whose term expires in October. Astley was appointed as a director for the CPP Investment Board in September 2006 and is currently chair of its audit committee. As former president of Sun Life Financial Canada and former president and CEO of Clarica Insurance Company, Astley currently sits on the board of directors for the Bank of Montreal and is chair of its human resources and management compensation committee. Astley is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries and is a member of the Dean's Advisory Council at the Laurier School of Business and Economics. The Chief Actuary of Canada projects that the CPP Fund will grow to more than $310bn in assets by the end of 2019. At June 30, 2008, the CPP Fund totalled C$127.7bn.
Central European private equity firm Bancroft Private Equity has hired Valeri Petrov as a partner to focus on expanding the firm's activities in Southeastern Europe. Petrov recently opened Bancroft's office in Sofia. Previously, Petrov was a director at private equity firm Global Finance. Prior to that, he was the CEO of a Bulgarian paints and coatings company. Before that, he gained experience at the Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies. Bancroft has offices in Budapest, Prague, Istanbul, Sofia, Athens and London.
The Riverside Company has opened an office in Hong Kong, to be led by former president of Danaher China Brian Bunker, who has been appointed as managing director. The Hong Kong office is Riverside's third in Asia, following the establishment of the Tokyo and Seoul offices, in April and October 2007, respectively. In his new role, Bunker will work with Riverside portfolio companies to help them develop more effective Asian strategies, according to a firm. He will facilitate market research, manufacturing and sourcing advice, and sales and distribution recommendations throughout the region.
US buy-out giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co has appointed Yoshiharu Fukuhara as a senior advisor in Japan. Fukuhara is honorary chairman of Japanese cosmetics producer Shiseido Co. He joined the company in 1953 and was appointed president and CEO in 1987, and chairman of the board in 1997. He took up his current role in 2001.
Baird Capital Partners, the US-based buy-out fund of Baird Private Equity, has appointed Gordon C C Liao as a vice president in the manufactured products team. Liao will be based in the firm's Chicago office and work closely with BCP partners Andrew Brickman and Gordon Pan. He previously worked as a principal at Chicago private equity firm Reliant Equity Investors and as an associate at divine, a publicly traded investment firm, and Wind Point Partners, a mid-market buy-out firm. Liao began his career as an investment banking analyst at Merrill Lynch.
Cinven has appointed Joseph Wan as a partner and Richard Cheung as a principal. Wan and Cheung will initially be based in London and prepare the opening of Cinven's Hong Kong office in early 2009. Wan joins from The Boston Consulting Group in Hong Kong, where he has been a partner and managing director since 2001. Prior to that, he Joseph was at Credit Suisse First Boston/Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Asia. Cheung has been a partner at McKinsey & Company, a company he joined in 2002. Before that, he was China business development director for Newpower Corporation.
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