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by Baz Hiralal
King & Wood Mallesons hired Baker & McKenzie's Mark McNamara as head of private equity, heading a team of around 60 partners and lawyers. He will work alongside PE mergers and acquisitions partners Mike Barker, Lee Horan and Jason Watts with a banking team led by partners Yuen-Yee Cho and Jeff Clark. McNamara was global head of Baker & McKenzie's PE practice and head of its Australian corporate markets practice. He joined the firm in 2000 from Clifford Chance LLP. Earlier this month, Baker & McKenzie named London-based partner Simon Hughes, a 20-year veteran of the firm, as chair of the global private equity group.
China's King & Wood and Australia's Mallesons Stephen Jaques combined in December.
After nine years as a managing director at Rhode Island's Providence Equity Partners Inc., which she helped open a New York office, Julie Richardson is pulling back into a senior adviser role. Prior to joining the firm in April 2003, she was vice chairman of the investment banking department and chairman of the telecom, media and technology group at JPMorgan Chase & Co. Richardson was also co-chair of the firm's global client executive council. Before joining JPM in 1998, she spent 12 years at Merrill Lynch & Co., most recently as a managing director in the telecom and media group.
Earlier this month, Richardson stepped down as a director of SRA International Inc. She is a director of Altegrity Inc., Open Solutions Inc., Stream Global Services Inc. and SunGard Data Systems.
Visa Inc. named Charles Scharf, formerly CEO of retail financial services for JPMorgan Chase & Co., to succeed Joseph Saunders as CEO on Nov. 1.
Saunders has been CEO since 2007, when he helped finalize the combination of Visa Canada, Visa International and Visa U.S.A. that created Visa Inc. In March 2008, he led Visa through what is still the biggest initial public offering in the nation's history at $19.65 billion. On the financial crisis, Saunders said, "Over the past five years, we have put the company on a clear path towards continued long-term growth." He will stay on as executive chairman until March 31. After Saunders retires, the board will appoint a new nonexecutive independent chairperson. The board has also expanded from 10 to 11 directors; Scharf will be a director.
Scharf is a managing director at One Equity Partners, which manages $10 billion of investments and commitments for JPM. He previously spent nine years at JPM and its predecessors. He was previously chief financial officer of Bank One from 2000 to 2002 and spent 13 years at Citigroup Inc. and its predecessors, serving as CFO for Citi's global corporate and investment bank prior to joining Bank One. He also served on the board of Visa U.S.A. from 2003 to 2007 and the Visa Inc. board from 2007 to January 2011.
Wells Fargo Securities LLC, the capital markets and investment banking business of Wells Fargo & Co., tapped Jeff McGrath as a managing director, industrials investment banking. He leads the defense, aerospace and technology services, or DATS, team and reports to John Church, head of industrials. Joining from Sagent Advisors LLC, McGrath brings with him four supporting bankers and administrative personnel, based in Charlotte, N.C.
McGrath was a managing director and head of the DATS and information technology services and outsourcing practices at Sagent. Prior to that, he was a managing director and head of the DATS investment banking group at Wachovia Securities. He spent 15 years with Wachovia Securities and its predecessor firm, First Union Securities.
Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP announced that finance partners Olivier Jauffret and James Clarke joined its Paris office. Jauffret will join the firm from the Paris office of Linklaters LLP, while Clarke joins from the London office of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP.
Deloitte Financial Advisory Services LLP expanded its corporate restructuring group in Dallas, adding Scott Pinsonnault as a director specializing in oil and gas companies and the broader energy sector. He was a vice president, origination at SFC Energy Partners. Pinsonnault was previously a managing director at UniCredit Bank, a director at Bridge Associates LLC and a vice president at American Capital Strategies Ltd. and GE Energy Financial Services. He was also a geologist at Texaco Inc., where he worked from September 1995 to August 2000, and which was acquired in 2000 by Chevron Corp. for $36 billion.
Morris, Manning & Martin LLP elected three attorneys to its partnership, effective Jan. 1. They are Jason Cordon, corporate, funds and alternative investments, real estate capital markets and tax; Rusty Fleming, commercial finance; and Heather Friedman, environmental, construction, hospitality and sustainability.
Sirius XM Radio Inc. chief executive Mel Karmazin plans to leave Feb. 1. The board of directors formed a search committee, chaired by Greg Maffei and including James Mooney and Eddy Hartenstein to consider both internal and external candidates for the next CEO.
Clippings from the next column:
-- Perella Weinberg Partners LP taps Joseph Gatto, former chairman of investment banking at Barclays Capital Americas, as a partner.
-- Howard Spooner, former head of European equity trading at Barclays Capital, joins Omni Partners.
-- Sciens Capital Management Group appoints Farhang Mehregani as chief investment officer, alternative investments.
-- Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. LP opens a Singapore office, led by Ming Lu and including Kabir Mathur and Ridha Wirakusumah.
-- Paladyne Systems enlists Paul Cucurullo as senior director of sales.
-- Aflac Inc. adds J. Peter Kelso as managing director, chief investments technology officer in its global investment division.
After nine years as a managing director at Rhode Island's Providence Equity Partners Inc., Julie Richardson is pulling back into a senior adviser role.
