Morgan Joseph TriArtisan LLC has recruited Stephen Robb as a managing director for its consumer, retail and leisure investment banking practice. Robb was most recently founder and partner at Leap Advisors LLC, chief financial officer of Urban Cottage Design and a managing director at Cantor Fitzgerald & Co., where he was head of the retail, consumer and restaurant investment banking group.

Earlier, Robb spent 14 years at Credit Suisse Group, which he joined in 1994. While there, he worked on the LBO of the Sbarro Inc. restaurant chain, the acquisition of Ryan's Restaurant Group Inc., the leveraged buyout of Michaels Stores Inc. and the sale of David's Bridal Inc., among other deals. A graduate of Princeton University, Robb earned an M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he also received an M.A. in international studies from the Lauder Institute.

James Hemmer will join Robert W. Baird & Co.'s investment banking financial services team as a managing director in the firm's Chicago office. He hails from Sandler O'Neill + Partners LP, where he was a managing director and oversaw Midwest investment banking clients, advising on mergers and acquisitions and equity transactions for banks and thrifts since 2003. Before Sandler, he was a senior vice president at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., where he held a similar role, focusing on Lehman's Midwest bank and thrift relationships. Hemmer also worked at McDonald Investments Inc. and the Chicago Corp.

Blake Macaskill has been appointed managing director of CIT Canada. Macaskill was formerly with De Lage Landen, a subsidiary of Rabobank, where he was responsible for the office technology business. Before DLL, he held senior positions with General Electric Co.'s GE Capital Vendor Financial Services and GE Capital Fleet Services.

Philadelphia's Franklin Square Capital Partners, a sponsor of alternative investment products, has hired Mike Gerber as senior vice president of public affairs, strategy and product administration. Gerber, a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives since 2004, previously served on the board of Franklin Square's third fund, FS Investment Corp. II. He will now lead Franklin Square's government and regulatory affairs group.

Gerber earlier this summer announced that he would not seek re-election. In November, he will also leave his post as a trustee of Pennsylvania State Employees' Retirement System, where he is a member of the audit and investment committees. Gerber is also leaving Philadelphia's Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, where he helped run the marketing and strategy functions and was a member of the firm's corporate and securities practice. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Villanova University School of Law.

Pillar Solutions Group LLC, a Dallas-based consultant to middle-market companies and private equity groups, has named Kevin McAleer and Jeffrey Margolies partners of the firm. McAleer was executive vice president and chief financial officer of Penson Worldwide Inc., which he retired from in March. Margolies was a partner with Gemma Partners LLC.

Alvarez & Marsal LLC has expanded its global private equity services practice, adding senior director Clifford Hall in New York and directors Mark Elsner in San Francisco, Himanshu Gandhi in Boston and Doug Watanabe, Landon Tracy and Jon Sampson in Chicago.

Hall had been CEO of All-Clad MetalCrafters LLC; CEO and board member of Focus Products Group International LLC; general manager of Black & Decker's $750 million cordless business; chief operating officer of Timex Group USA Inc.'s watch, jewelry and licensing business; and vice president of Trane Inc., a global industrial air-conditioning and services company.

Elsner was director of strategic sourcing at Yahoo! Inc. Gandhi was co-lead for Deloitte Consulting LLP's merger integration and separations services in Germany and helped launch the firm's mergers and acquisitions finance offering in the U.S.

Watanabe was a senior manager at Insight Sourcing Group Inc. Tracy was a director at Insight Sourcing Group and Lowendalmasai America.

Sampson was previously a senior manager at Crowe Horwath LLP.

Los Angeles-based investment bank FocalPoint Partners LLC has launched an environmental services industry group and named Bart Begley as industry coverage leader. Begley began his career in environmental services, managing operations for Waste Management Inc. and Laidlaw Waste Systems Inc. He also served as director of mergers and acquisitions for Waste Systems International Inc. and was chief executive of Emerald Waste Services, later acquired by Waste Pro USA Inc. in 2011.

Energy Investors Funds, a San Francisco-based private equity firm focused on the independent power and electric utility industry, has added associate Lydia Blandy to its investor relations team in San Francisco. She was previously a member of the investor relations department of Ironwood Capital Management Corp.

Private equity shop TA Associates has lured Ethan Liebermann and Emily McGinty back to the fold as vice presidents in its healthcare and consumer group in Boston. They had left the firm to earn M.B.A.s, Liebermann at Harvard Business School and McGinty at Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Also, Jason Mironov joined TA as a vice president in the services group in Menlo Park, Calif. He had been an associate with Spectrum Equity Investors.

Marathon Capital LLC, an investment banking and financial advisory firm in the North American power generation sector, has tapped Ani Rouskova as a director in San Francisco.

Rouskova was a vice president in Goldman, Sachs & Co.'s global natural resources group, where she focused on power, utilities, cleantech and renewable clients.

Private equity and distressed securities firm Littlejohn & Co. LLC has promoted Drew Greenwood and Brian Michaud to vice president. Both were senior associates who joined the firm in 2007 from CIBC World Markets Inc., where they were analysts in the mergers and acquisitions group.

James Hall, formerly of Isis Equity Partners, has signed on with lower-middle-market private equity firm NorthEdge Capital LLP as a director in Leeds, England. Hall spent nearly eight years at Isis and previously worked at Royal Bank Development Capital for three years, Bridgepoint Capital Ltd. for two and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP for eight.

Olivetree Financial Group Ltd., an equity brokerage and technology firm, has named Charlotte Wall as a managing director and global head of product sales in London and New York, effective Nov. 1. Wall joins from Markit Securities Finance, where she was also managing director and head of sales following Markit's acquisition of Data Explorers Ltd. Before that, she spent four years at Data Explorers and 16 years as a managing director at Morgan Stanley, where she ran the equities financing business in Europe.