Sarah Hewitt has joined Blank Rome LLP as a partner in its mergers and acquisitions and private equity group. Previously, Hewitt was a partner at Thelen LLP, where she covered corporate and securities law, private equity and venture capital financing, M&A, capital markets and corporate governance.

Veteran dealmaker Gavin MacDonald, Morgan Stanley's global head of mergers and acquisitions, died Friday night at 47. He had suffered a heart attack earlier in the week. CEO John Mack said in a memo to employees that "Gavin was an extremely decent, universally liked, funny, selfless and deeply valued man. He was also a close and generous friend to many of us." Mack extended his condolences to MacDonald's wife, Luise, and family.

MacDonald joined Morgan Stanley in 1983 and was a founding member of the European M&A department. In 2004, he became vice chairman of investment banking, responsible for business development in the food, beverages, consumer products, luxury goods, retail and utilities sectors. The Cambridge University graduate was named global head of M&A last year, working from London.

SK Capital Partners LP, focusing on private equity investments in segments of the specialty chemicals and healthcare sectors, brought in Clark Winter as chief investment officer. Previously, Winter was a managing director and director of portfolio strategy for Goldman, Sachs & Co. and, before that, was chief global investment strategist for Citigroup Global Wealth Management.

Washington emerging markets investor EMP Global LLC hired Chung Min Pang and Samir Soota as managing directors. Pang will cover the Greater China region, while Soota will handle the South and South East Asian markets.

Pang headed Aureus Capital in China, and was China country head for both Bank of America Corp. and Salomon Brothers before that. Soota worked at Principia Management Group, which he co-founded, and KPMG's financial advisory services group in Indonesia.

Venture capital adviser and manager SV Life Sciences enlisted three venture partners. Sarah Bodary focuses on biotechnology and is based in San Francisco. Gary Velasquez and Kevin Barrett focus on healthcare services and are based in San Francisco and Boston, respectively.

Bodary was responsible for licensing at Schering-Plough Biopharma, Velasquez was president and CEO of radiology firm Synarc and Barrett was a founding partner of consulting firm Commonwealth Health Partners.

Babson Capital Management LLC established a global business development group to cover sales, client management, marketing and product development. Anthony Sciacca leads the group.

Sciacca, a managing director, is also the head of the middle-market bank loan business for Babson's U.S. bank loan team in Charlotte, N.C. Managing directors reporting to Sciacca are: Jean Fleischhacker, global sales and client management; Paula Ryan, marketing and consultant relations; and Linda Carstens, strategic product development.

In addition, the firm hired Duncan Robertson as a managing director to lead sales for Australia. Robertson was responsible for all fixed-income distribution activities for Merrill Lynch & Co. in Australia and New Zealand. He also spent more than seven years with Westpac Banking Corp., working in corporate and structured finance.

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP said three white collar crime lawyers joined its New York office as partners: John Carroll, David Meister and Warren Feldman.

They hail from Clifford Chance LLP, where Carroll oversaw the U.S. white collar practice and was the firm's managing partner for the Americas from 2002 to 2004.

Francis Serbaroli joined Greenberg Traurig LLP in New York as a shareholder in the health and FDA business practice group. Serbaroli arrives from Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP. He also served as a member of the New York State Public Health Council for more than 13 years.

Chadbourne & Parke LLP announced that James Stenger joined as counsel in its communications, media and technology practice, in Washington. Stenger practiced at Thelen LLP.

Carter Ledyard & Milburn LLP named Christine Fazio and Leonard Miller co-directors of the environmental practice group, serving alongside Stephen Kass and Clifford Case III.

Burr & Forman LLP tapped business litigator Oscar Persons as senior counsel in Atlanta, effective Jan. 1. Persons is a recently retired partner of Alston & Bird LLP. He was also general counsel to the Georgia Republican Party for more than 20 years.

Consulting and internal audit firm Protiviti Inc. promoted James Ambrosini to a director. He has worked as an information technology auditor at Bear, Stearns & Co. and an application programmer and systems analyst at AXA Financial Group.