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by Baz Hiralal
Advent International Corp. tapped Mauricio Salgar as a managing director and head of its office in Bogotá, Colombia. He will work with a seven-person team, investing in high-growth companies in Colombia, Peru and the surrounding region. Salgar was a vice president and member of the executive committee at Sanford Management, a privately held investment firm with ownership interests in the petrochemical, manufacturing, plastics and services sectors in Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Brazil and Mexico. Previously, Salgar was chief operating officer of Colombian national oil company Ecopetrol SA. During a stint as Ecopetrol's interim CEO, he led the effort to secure the Colombian Congress' approval to partially privatize Ecopetrol through an initial public offering.
Salgar succeeds Diego Serebrisky, who will leave Advent to pursue other business interests. Serebrisky will remain with the firm for a transition period until the end of 2012.
Moelis & Co. hired Paul Inouye as a managing director. He advises technology clients and focuses on the Internet/digital media sector. He will work alongside managing director Kevin Scheetz in Palo Alto, Calif. Inouye joins from Perella Weinberg Partners LP and was previously a managing director and head of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s Internet banking group. Earlier, he worked at Morgan Stanley, Piper Jaffray & Co. and Robertson Stephens Inc.
Earlier this month, Moelis took on Freeport Financial Partners LLC, an investment manager providing financing solutions to middle-market companies. Freeport will remain in Chicago and retain its name. The principals of the company, Matthew Gerdes, Josh Howie, Stephen Papalas and Joseph Walker, will join Moelis to manage funds that will provide capital solutions to companies owned by private equity sponsors.
Barclays plc made Jean-Francois Astier head of global leveraged finance. He was head of Americas leveraged finance since January 2010. He joined the firm in 2008 from Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Astier started at Lehman in 1993 and rejoined in 2004 after several years at venture capital firm Continuum Group, which he joined in 2000.
Thomas Steyer, founder of $20 billion hedge fund Farallon Capital Management LLC, plans to step down, leaving Andrew Spokes as sole managing partner. Since founding the investment manager's predecessor in 1986, Steyer has been its managing partner. Steyer is also a managing director of private equity firm Hellman & Friedman LLC. Prior to Farallon, Steyer was an associate in the risk arbitrage department of Goldman, Sachs & Co.
Before joining Farallon in 1997, Spokes worked in the investment banking division of Goldman Sachs for 10 years, most recently as an executive director and head of corporate finance, Asia. In 2005, he co-founded Noonday Global Management Ltd., where he is chief investment officer and a member of the executive committee.
Bookrunner Golub Capital said Brian Crabb joined the firm as a managing director in its middle-market lending group. Crabb was a managing director, team lead for Fifth Third Bancorp. He also worked at CapitalSource Inc., GE Capital and Heller Financial Inc.
The firm underwrites and syndicates senior credit facilities up to $250 million. Golub's hold sizes range up to $200 million per deal.
Chad Burns joined Duff & Phelps Corp. as a managing director in San Francisco. He is a member of the transaction advisory services practice, part of the alternative asset advisory business. Burns previously established and led the West Coast transaction advisory services practice at Houlihan Lokey Inc. Before that, he was a director in KPMG LLP's transaction services practice in New York.
Richard Friedman, Anurag Mehta and Gopi Natarajan joined the operating committee of BelHealth Investment Partners LLC, a private equity firm focused on small-cap healthcare.
Most recently, Friedman was chairman and CEO of BioScrip Inc., a publicly traded specialty pharmacy and pharmacy benefit management business. Earlier this year, the specialty pharmacy unit was sold to Walgreen Co. for $285 million. Prior to BioScrip, he was chairman and chief executive of MIM Corp., which he took public in 1996 and combined with Chronimed in 2004, which created BioScrip. Friedman was also chief financial officer for Zenith Laboratories Inc., Goldline Laboratories and Publicker Industries Inc.
Mehta co-founded Omega Healthcare in 2003. He also spent 11 years at Bayer Corp., where he was a business development executive and business unit leader. Natarajan is co-founder, president and CEO at Omega Healthcare.
Alex Francois joined William Blair & Co. LLC as head of Australia and New Zealand institutional distribution. He will report to Dan Charles, global head of business development and client service. Francois spent the past two years as head of distribution-investments at Provident Capital Ltd. in Sydney. Before that, he was a managing director, head of sales and marketing for Principal Global Investors Australia for six years.
The partners of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP elected Kim Koopersmith as chairwoman of the firm, effective April 1. She succeeds Bruce McLean, who will step down following a 20-year tenure. He will remain as senior executive partner. Koopersmith is the firm's U.S. managing partner. She joined Akin Gump 19 years ago from Anderson Kill & Olick PC.
Clippings from the next column:
-- King & Wood Mallesons hires Mark McNamara as head of private equity.
-- Visa Inc. names Charles Scharf, formerly CEO of retail financial services for JPMorgan Chase & Co., to succeed Joseph Saunders as CEO on Nov. 1.
-- Wells Fargo Securities LLC taps Jeff McGrath as a managing director, industrials investment banking.
-- SiriusXM Radio Inc.'s CEO Mel Karmazin plans to leave on Feb. 1.
Chad Burns joined Duff & Phelps Corp. as a managing director in San Francisco. He is a member of the transaction advisory services practice.
