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by Baz Hiralal
Credit Suisse Group co-chair of mergers and acquisitions, Steve Koch, will become deputy mayor of Chicago under Mayor Rahm Emanuel, effective Sept. 4. David DeNunzio becomes global chairman of the M&A group, while Scott Lindsay is global head of the group.
Koch, who has worked on more than $1 trillion worth of deals, joined Credit Suisse in 1985, became a managing director in 1989 and ran the global M&A business from 1993 to 2000, later becoming global co-chairman of the group. He also played a major role in recruiting and in the managing director review process. Koch is chairman of the board of trustees of the Sinai Health System in Chicago and is a board member of the Greater Chicago Food Depository. He is also a member of the Green Ribbon Committee of the Chicago Climate Action Plan and the board of trustees of Francis W. Parker School.
DeNunzio joined the firm in 1989 after nine years at Kidder, Peabody & Co. He has been head of investment banking for the Eastern U.S. region and Canada and head of insurance investment banking. He also ran the private equity business for several years prior to the firm's acquisition of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Inc.
Separately, BMO Capital Markets Corp.'s Bruce Cox will join Credit Suisse as a managing director in the oil and gas group, based in Houston. He is expected to start in September as head of acquisition and divestiture. Cox was a managing director in BMO's A&D group since 2009. Prior to that, he worked at Macquarie Tristone and spent 17 years as a partner at Netherland, Sewell & Associates Inc., an oil and gas reserves consulting firm. He also spent nine years at Exxon Mobil Corp. as a petroleum engineer.
Clayton, Dubilier & Rice LLC has appointed John Krenicki Jr. as a senior operating partner, effective in January. Krenicki is vice chairman of General Electric Co. and the president and CEO of GE Energy. Last month, GE announced Krenicki will leave the company at the end of 2012, following the breakup of its energy business into three units.
According to a press release, under Krenicki's leadership since 2005, GE Energy doubled in size and profitability to become GE's largest business, with revenue increasing to about $50 billion in 2012 and representing roughly one-third of GE's total profits. He also oversaw more than $11 billion in acquisitions, including Dresser Inc., Wellstream Holdings plc, Lineage Power Holdings Inc., John Wood Group plc's well-support division and Converteam over the past two years. Krenicki spent 29 years at GE.
Cantor Fitzgerald LP has launched an advisory business in Europe with 17 hires from Canaccord Genuity Inc., led by Gordon Neilly, who joins as head of corporate finance. Angelo Sofocleous, who arrives as co-head of equity trading, will lead European sales and trading with Marc Altmann. The team is based in London and reports to James Rowsell, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald Europe.
Separately, Cantor Commercial Real Estate said Kenneth Margala, previously an executive director at UBS Investment Bank, joined the firm as a director focused on loan origination. He works from Newport Beach, Calif.
Oliver Chang, Robert Lee, Sarah Lee and Gavin Kleinknecht have founded asset management firm Sylvan Road Capital LLC. Focusing on the single-family rental market, the firm expects to invest more than $1 billion nationally over the next two years, beginning with an initial capital commitment of $300 million from an unnamed private equity firm. Chang is the former head of U.S. housing strategy at Morgan Stanley, and his partners are the principals of Atlanta-based Delmar Realty Advisors LLC. Sylvan is based in Atlanta and has offices in San Francisco.
Chang joined Morgan Stanley in 2005 and is said to have predicted, in 2006, the bursting of the housing bubble.
William Blair & Co. LLC has tapped Jon Zindel as chief financial officer. He replaces retiring CFO Tim Burke. Zindel was CFO for American Century Investments. He began his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.
Clippings from the next column:
-- Evercore Partners Inc. hires Brett Pickett and Lowell Strug as co-heads of the consumer and retail investment banking group.
-- Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. LP taps Akhil Puri as director for KKR Capstone.
-- Herbert Smith LLP hires six commercial litigation partners from Chadbourne & Parke LLP, mostly in New York.
-- AMP Capital appoints Kerry Ching as managing director Asia (ex Japan)
-- Burrill & Co. to start publishing institutionally-focused investment research, hires Reni Benjamin and Elemer Piros as managing directors.
William Blair & Co. LLC has tapped Jon Zindel as chief financial officer. He replaces retiring CFO Tim Burke.
