Centerview Partners LLC has added two partners to its ranks.

Restructuring specialists Marc Puntus and Sam Greene will join the New York-based private equity firm from Miller Buckfire & Co., where they served as managing directors.

Together they will build Centerview’s new restructuring advisory practice, set to launch later this month, said Robert Pruzan, a founder of the PE firm.

Pruzan worked with Puntus and Greene at Wasserstein Perella & Co. in 2001 on the firm’s restructuring team, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, which was spun out a year later to become Miller Buckfire.

Certainly that camaraderie came into play when Puntus and Greene decided on Centerview to be their next move.

“We both jumped at the opportunity to start something from scratch here,” Puntus told Mergers & Acquisitions. “We know Robert going back a long time.”

As far as clients go, Puntus is currently representing Foxwoods while Greene is representing the senior bank lenders at Stations Casinos Inc., but don’t count on leisure and gaming to be the center of focus for the team.

“We’re generalists,” Puntus added. Together, they intend to hire another 10 or 12 partners for the practice that, at the outset, has over 15 years of deal experience in a variety of industries.

Puntus and Greene have restructured more than $50 billion worth of obligations. Past mandates include Holmdel, N.J.-based Vonage Holdings Corp., Jackson, Miss.-based CMS Energy Corp., Tampa, Fla.-based Teco Energy, Atlanta-based energy company Mirant Corp. and Swiss airline catering company Gate Gourmet, based in Zurich.

In addition, both are members of the American Bankruptcy Institute and the Turnaround Management Association (TMA).

Greene, who was unavailable for comment at press time, is the recipient of the TMA 2008 Turnaround of the Year award for restructuring Houston-based Calpine Corp., which emerged from bankruptcy protection that January. He earned his juris doctor from Fordham University School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts from University of Pennsylvania.

Prior to joining Miller Buckfire, Puntus was a partner in the restructuring department of law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP. He earned his juris doctor from Boston University School of Law and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Finance from Georgetown University.