Kamil Salame joined CVC Capital Partners as a partner to lead its financial institutions group in the U.S. Salame joins CVC from DLJ Merchant Banking Partners, where he was a partner and a member of its investment committee. He was also a managing director at Credit Suisse Group.

Before DLJMB, Salame worked in DLJ's leveraged finance group and DLJ Real Estate Capital Partners.

Swiss Reinsurance Co. will make Agostino Galvagni its chief operating officer and a member of the executive committee on May 1. Galvagni joined Swiss Re's executive board in September 2005 and is head of insurance and specialty in client markets.

The 11,560-person firm also announced that it would cut about 10% of its workforce.

Last month, chairman Peter Forstmoser resigned from the board one year earlier than planned, effective May 1. Vice chairman Walter Kielholz, also Credit Suisse Group's chairman, will succeed him, and board member Mathis Cabiallavetta will take Kielholz's place. Forstmoser was elected to the board in 1990 and became chairman in 2000. In addition, Thomas Bechtler, Bénédict Hentsch and Kaspar Villiger resigned as members of the board.

In February, Swiss Re CEO Jacques Aigrain resigned, taking responsibility for the firm's losses. The board appointed deputy CEO and chief operating officer Stefan Lippe to replace him.

At the end of June, David Bradley will join Blackstone Group LP as a senior managing director in its corporate advisory group and head of its global chemicals practice.

Bradley was formerly a managing director and global head of chemicals at UBS, where he spent seven years. Before that, he was with J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. for nine years. He started his career at Barclays plc in 1984 in the corporate finance department in London.

Peter Schweinfurth launched Gulf + Eastern Advisors, a private merchant advisory firm. It provides restructuring and turnaround advisory services and mergers and acquisitions advice.

Schweinfurth worked at Avenue Capital Group in New York and London, where he was responsible for private investments in the U.S. and Europe. He was previously a managing director and head of Perry Strategic Capital, the private equity affiliate of Perry Capital, and from 1988 to 2000, was an investment professional at Kelso & Co.

General Capital Partners opened a New York office and added a new business unit, GCP Management Services, providing middle market companies with financial and operational turnaround and restructuring management, strategic planning and merger and acquisition support.

Managing principal Kevin Lombardo will run the new unit. He worked at MFS Consulting. Principal Peter Hartheimer will manage GCP in the East Coast.

James Stewart, a managing director in real estate, lodging and leisure at UBS Investment Bank, joined Greenhill & Co. as a managing director. The firm will open a Los Angeles office focused on gaming, lodging and leisure clients as well as other major companies in that region. Before UBS, Stewart was a managing director at Morgan Stanley. He began his career at Salomon Brothers Inc. as an analyst in the mergers and acquisitions department.

Greenhill also just hired Robert Collins as a managing director in Chicago to lead its advisory effort for the infrastructure sector in the Americas. Collins was head of infrastructure investment banking for the Americas at Morgan Stanley.

Last week, Kirk Wilson joined Greenhill as a managing director focusing on financial services. And just before that, Greenhill hired John Paynter as a senior adviser to expand its advisory activities. Paynter retired as vice chairman of J.P. Morgan Cazenove Ltd. in 2008. Kenneth Goldman was also tapped as a senior adviser. He is senior vice president and chief financial officer of Fortinet Inc.

Independent investment bank Reynolds Partners Ltd. added Doug Dunn as a senior adviser. Since 1985, Dunn has been a partner at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP, where he was also co-chair of its global energy and power practice.

Before that, he was a senior vice president and managing director in the investment banking division of Shearson Lehman Brothers.

Jefferies International Ltd. said Frank Jung joined its recapitalization and restructuring group as a managing director, based in Frankfurt. Jung joins from Goldman, Sachs & Co. and worked at HypoVereinsbank and Allianz AG.

Oak Hill Capital Partners LP enlisted Arthur Collins Jr. as a senior adviser. He was chairman and CEO of medical technology giant Medtronic Inc. Collins retired from Medtronic in September after more than 16 years at the company.

America's Growth Capital hired two bankers in Silicon Valley. Rob Buxton joins as a partner covering communications and software, while Hubert Chang arrives as a managing director covering semiconductors and cleantech.

Buxton was a managing director and head of technology, media and telecom at Yorkville Advisors LLC. Previously, he was a managing director and co-head of technology investment banking for CIBC World Markets Inc. from 1999 to 2008. Chang was most recently a director in the semiconductor and clean energy investment banking team at Merrill Lynch & Co. in Palo Alto, Calif.