Advent International — The Boston private equity firm enlisted Angelo Brisimitzakis, former chief executive of Compass Minerals International (NYSE: CMP), as a consultant. Brisimitzakis will work closely with Advent’s industrial team to identify and evaluate new investment opportunities in the chemicals and materials sector, primarily in North America.


Bank of America Merrill Lynch (NYSE: BAC) — The New York investment bank hired London-based Saba Nazar (pictured), formerly co-head of the global private equity banking group at Nomura Holdings Inc., as vice chairman of financial sponsors. Nazar came over from Nomura, which she joined in 2008 after it acquired assets of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., and served as co-head of the European financial sponsors group. Before Lehman, she worked at Goldman, Sachs & Co. (NYSE: GS) for about 13 years.


Canaccord Genuity — The New York investment bank enlisted Geoffrey Richards as managing director, head of U.S. special situations and restructuring. Richards, who specializes in bankruptcy and restructurings, will balance his time between Canaccord’s New York headquarters and the firm’s Chicago office. Previously, Richards was head of the special situations and restructuring group at Chicago investment bank William Blair & Co. Before that, he was a managing director at Giuliani Capital Advisors LLC and a partner in Kirkland & Ellis LLP’s restructuring practice.


Friedman LLP — Laura Kucera assumed her role as chief marketing officer of the New York-based advisory firm. At Friedman, she will be responsible for the marketing, communication and business development efforts of the firm. Kucera has experience across a variety of sectors, including financial services, healthcare, technology, manufacturing, retail, media and real estate. Prior to joining Friedman, she was a marketing director at Grant Thornton.


K&L Gates LLP — The New York law firm has added three new partners in its Australian offices. In Melbourne, Nick Ruskin joins the labor, employment and workplace safety practice from DLA Piper, while both Edward Nixey and Glenn Hughes join the firm’s Sydney office as partners in the corporate and transactional practice, arriving from law firms Ashurst LLP and Henry Davis York. K&L Gates first set up shop in Australia when it purchased law firm Middletons, which brought the firm a total of more than 2,000 lawyers. Middletons had offices in several cities, including Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and Perth.


TA Associates C. Kevin Landry (pictured), senior adviser at the Boston private equity firm, passed away on Aug. 1 from complications of lung cancer. He was 69. Landry, described as gregarious, with a plainspoken manner and tireless work ethic, joined TA at 24, in 1968. He rose to become a general partner in 1972, managing partner in 1982, CEO in 1984 and chairman in 2007. He retired as chairman in 2012, and became a senior adviser to the firm. He is credited with adding to TA’s development, moving the firm from an early-stage venture capital investor to a private equity firm focused on minority recapitalizations and majority buyouts. Landry served on the boards of Ameritrade Holding Corp. Biogen, Continental Cablevision, Instinet Group, Keystone Group, MetroPCS Communications, SBA Communications Corp. (Nasdaq: SBAC) and Standex International Corp. TA recently donated $10 million to Harvard University to endow the Landry Cancer Biology Consortium and the Landry Cancer Research fellowships, which will fund research on cancer biology and treatments, including lung cancer studies.


Quarton Partners — The Birmingham, Mich.-based investment bank announced three hires: Gene Bitonti, Abe Fadel and Eric Van Dam. Bitonti, previously at auditing firm KPMG LLP, joins Quarton as a director. Fadel jumped from investment bank Montgomery & Co. LLC to Quarton as an analyst. Van Dam, meanwhile, left his post at Kingdon Capital, a New York based hedge fund, and joined Quarton as a vice president.

For last week's column...