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by Baz Hiralal
Private equity pioneer, lawyer, and independent publisher Frank H. Pearl died Friday, May 4, from complications related to lung cancer. He was 68.
Considered a founding father of leveraged buyouts, Pearl began his finance career at Wesray Capital Corp., where he helped buy Gibson Greetings for $80 million and flip it in a $290 million initial public offerings within a year. Other notable investments were Avis Rent-a-Car, Western Auto Supply and Wilson Sporting Goods Co. He retired in 1988 before returning to found Rappahannock Investment Co. in 1991.
In 1995, Pearl founded Washington merchant bank and private equity fund management company Perseus LLC, of which he was also chairman and CEO. The following year, he founded Perseus Books LLC, now the largest independent publisher of non-fiction books, where he was chairman. Pearl once told The Washington Post that his mission in founding Perseus was to ensure that "publishing doesn't simply become a lowest-common-denominator commercial operation. It's of crucial importance to the intellectual landscape in this country that important books get published and stay in print." Perseus's authors included Cornel West, Orlando Patterson and Iris Chang.
Known for shunning the limelight, Pearl was described by The Washington Post as "the most powerful unknown man in Washington." Raised in Chicago, he attended the American University School of Law and joined Lane and Edson in 1969, covering real estate. He practiced law in Washington until 1983, when he joined Wesray Capital.
He was also chairman of the Jennie Zoline Foundation, which he established in 1987 for scientific, literary and educational purposes. Pearl was also a member of the board of trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Rockefeller University; a board member of the Peterson Institute for International Economics; a member of the National Advisory Council for the Trust for the National Mall; a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and was trustee emeritus for the Brookings Institution. Pearl also served as a member of the Visiting Committee of the Freer Gallery of Art, the board of the National Book Foundation, and the board of the Alliance to Save Energy.
At Perseus LLC, senior managing director Kenneth Socha, who worked with Pearl for 25 years, will lead the firm.
Perella Weinberg Partners LP tapped 10-year Goldman, Sachs & Co. veteran Alexander Schnieders as a managing director in its advisory business. Based in New York, he will advise life and property and casualty insurance clients as part of the financial institutions group. Schnieders was a managing director in the U.S. FIG at Goldman and co-head of its U.S. insurance mergers and acquisitions team.
Schnieders began his investment banking career at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.
Private equity partner Matt Richards joined Ropes & Gray LLP in Chicago. He was a partner with Kirkland & Ellis LLP, representing PE firms and their portfolio companies in acquisition, financing and restructuring transactions. He also counsels on governance, compliance, reporting and contracting issues.
Workplace law firm Jackson Lewis LLP recruited Paul Kelly for its Boston office as a partner.
He joins from College Hockey Inc., an educational and promotional arm of NCAA Division I men's ice hockey representing 58 colleges and universities across the U.S., where he created and established the entity and was its executive director since November 2007. Before that, Kelly was executive director of the National Hockey League Players' Association for two years. He began his legal career at Ropes & Gray and spent 10 years as an assistant U.S. Attorney, prosecuting federal criminal cases.
Expanding its Asia capital markets practice, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP tapped Joseph Lee, Jeffrey Maddox and David Neuville as members in Hong Kong. They arrive from Jones Day.
The Doha, Qatar, office of K&L Gates LLP added Amjad Hussain as a partner in its corporate and finance practices. He joins K&L Gates from Eversheds LLP, where he managed the operations of its Doha office. Hussain focuses on Shariah-compliant matters, including corporate, real estate, asset and project financings. Among those was a more than $1.5 billion financing for Qatar's man-made Pearl Island.
And in the next column:
-- Aviva plc's CEO Andrew Moss resigns.
-- The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority hires Robert Colby as chief legal officer.
-- Christophe Florin joins Abu Dhabi Investment Authority as head of emerging markets fund investments in its private equity department.
-- Investment manager Gramercy appoints Gustavo Ferraro as head of Latin American markets.
-- Deutsche Bank AG taps Maxim Lojevsky as co-head of capital markets, Russia and CIS.
-- Douglas Greenig becomes chief risk officer of Man Group plc's AHL fund.
-- Barclays plc names Sharon Quinlan as head of structured property, London.
-- Geoffrey Coll joins Schiff Hardin LLP as a litigation partner from Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP.
Private equity pioneer, lawyer, and independent publisher Frank H. Pearl died Friday, May 4, from complications related to lung cancer. He was 68.
