Six years ago, tech-focused buyout shop Silver Lake had no investment professionals in Europe. Today it counts nearly 20 in London, including recent hire Christian Lucas, formerly Morgan Stanley's top European tech banker.

Silver Lake recruited Lucas, along with managing director Joe Osnoss, to co-head a 16-member team in London. The pair is responsible for sourcing, arranging and managing deals across Europe, as well as for expanding the firm's relationships in the Middle East and Africa. Europe represents an integral part of the global companies Silver Lake considers buying with its $9.4 billion fund, says Osnoss, who has worked at the 11-year-old firm for more than eight years and was previously based in New York.

Lucas and Osnoss replace managing director Egon Durban, who heads back to Silver Lake's home Menlo Park, Calif., office. At Morgan Stanley, Lucas was succeeded by managing director Enrique Perez-Hernandez, who transferred to London from Madrid.

The new Silver Lake co-heads have a history of working together, often on opposite sides of the table. Take NXP Semiconductors NV, a Dutch chipmaker bought by Silver Lake, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., Bain Capital LLC, Apax Partners LLP and Alpinvest Partners NV in a $10.4 billion buyout in 2006. Lucas didn't work on the leveraged buyout, but in 2008 he led a Morgan Stanley team that advised Geneva-based STMicroelectronics NV on a joint venture with NXP, merging the companies' wireless divisions. Morgan Stanley was also an underwriter for NXP's $476 million initial public offering in August.

After more than 15 years as an investment banker, Lucas says he jumped to private equity to get more deeply involved with companies and their managements. Bankers advise on deals from the sidelines, he says, whereas "when investors make decisions, they have to live by them." He was also drawn to Silver Lake's culture of helping management teams grow businesses internationally.

A native Parisian, Lucas simultaneously received degrees from Essec Business School and Université Panthéon-Assas Paris II's law school in 1992. He worked the next two years in London with Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., before earning an M.B.A. at Harvard Business School in 1996. He then spent seven years at Merrill Lynch & Co., also in London, followed by another seven heading Morgan's technology group for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Europe is home to one of Silver Lake's biggest deals since the financial crisis. In November 2009, it led an investor group that bought a 65% stake in Internet calling business Skype Technologies SA from eBay Inc. for $1.9 billion. The purchase put a $2.75 billion valuation on the Luxembourg-based company, which in August filed plans for an IPO.

"Technology has been very resilient in this most recent downturn," says Osnoss. One reason the sector has continued to grow faster than the broader economy is that companies are investing more heavily in tech to fuel growth, as opposed to financial engineering, he says.

It also helps that debt markets have rebounded since the financial crisis, spurring a pickup in buyouts this year. In August, Silver Lake and BC Partners Ltd. completed one of the largest LBOs of the year, the $3.1 billion purchase of New York-based healthcare network business MultiPlan Inc. from Carlyle Group and Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe.