M&A Appointments

Arcapita Inc. – The private equity firm, formerly Crescent Capital Investments, hired Charles (Chuck) Griffith as an executive director, in which capacity he oversees the performance of the firm’s portfolio companies. Most recently, Griffith had been a group executive at Berkshire Hathaway. Bain & Co. – Former partner and office head of Bain San Francisco and Bain Palo Alto, Steve Ellis, has been promoted to serve as the company’s worldwide managing director. Prior to joining Bain in 1993, Ellis co-founded Focus Inc., a Silicon Valley-based consulting firm. Robert W. Baird – Christopher Hildreth, VP, recently joined Baird’s business and technology services investment banking group. He had been a VP in the global consumer/business services investment banking group at Deutsche Bank. In other news, Randall Mehl, senior research analyst, has become a partner at Baird Capital Partners. Mehl joined Baird in 1996. Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft – Steven Sunshine, former head of Shearman & Sterling’s worldwide antitrust practice, joined Cadwalader to create a practice solely dedicated to antitrust. He is based in Washington, D.C. Along with Sunshine came David Wales Jr. and Jessica Biggio, former partners in Shearman & Sterling’s antitrust practice, plus a number of associates. Wales and Biggio are based in the firm’s New York office. Previously, Sunshine had served as the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division of the DOJ, where he supervised the division’s merger enforcement program. Wales joined Shearman as an associate in 1995. From 2001 to 2003, he served as counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division at the DOJ. He returned to Shearman as a partner last year. Biggio joined Shearman & Sterling in 1993 and became a partner in 2001. Cardinal Venture Capital – Cardinal, which focuses on early-stage IT companies, recently promoted Christian Borcher to partner, responsible for identifying and managing investments for the firm. Before joining Cardinal, Borcher was a lawyer in Denmark at Bech-Bruun Dragsted, Scandinavia’s largest law firm. Credit Suisse First Boston – In continued restructuring of its global technology group, three bankers – David Wah (semiconductor banking specialist), Andrew Fisher, and David Popowitz – are taking over day-to-day management of the 100-banker group as the previous co-heads, William Brady and George Boutros, are elevated to co-chairman of global technology. Daniels & Associates – Two professionals moved up the ranks at the firm – Grant Gieringer and Steve Campione. Gieringer, director, provides M&A, corporate finance, and financial and strategic advisory services to clients in the telecom and technology industries. Prior to joining the firm in 2000, he was an assistant VP in Banc One Capital Markets’ investment banking division. Campione, also elevated to director, joined Daniels in 2000. Before that, he had been assistant VP of new business credit at Sumitomo Bank Capital Markets. DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary US – Three senior lawyers have joined the firm’s Boston office from disbanding Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault as partners in the corporate and securities group. All were experienced members of the private equity practice group at Testa, Hurwitz. Michael Collins concentrates on private equity fund formation and investment. Kimberley Kaplan-Gross represents VC and private equity funds in a variety of transaction types and advises them on regulatory matters. Howard Rosenblum focuses on private equity fund formation and investment activities and representation of emerging growth companies. Duane Morris – Law firm Duane Morris added partner Richard Keck, who focuses on telecommunications, M&A, corporate finance, JVs, and e-commerce, to its corporate transactions practice group. Keck is a former Troutman Sanders partner. Edwards & Angell – The law firm, which focuses on financial services, technology, and private equity and VC firms, brought in private equity and transactions attorney Heather Stone, partner, from disbanding Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault in Boston. Stone had been a partner in Testa, Hurwitz’s business practice group. Fidelity Ventures – Early-stage VC firm Fidelity Ventures appointed Larry Cheng as a principal in Boston. Previously, Cheng was a senior associate at Battery Ventures. Fox-Pitt, Kelton – M. Grant Tolson joined the firm’s investment banking group as a SVP, focusing on insurance companies and depository institutions. Tolson, based in New York, joined the firm from Citigroup Global Markets, where he had been director of the financial institutions group in its New York investment banking group. Galen Capital Group – Mid-market merchant banking firm Galen Capital hired Eric Weissman as a managing director, in Los Angeles. Previously, Weissman worked as an investment banker at Huntington Securities, in Los Angeles, and at Phoenix Group, where he specialized in sell-side M&A, MBOs, and leveraged ESOPs. Goodwin Procter – Alyssa Grikscheit has joined the firm’s corporate and private equity practices as a partner in New York from O’Melveny & Myers, where she was counsel in the M&A and private equity practice group. Greenhill & Co. – Veteran power and energy M&A banker Kenneth Crews came aboard as a managing director, based in Dallas. Crews joined the firm from UBS, where he most recently had been vice chairman of UBS Investment Bank and a member of the firm’s Americas Executive Committee. He had been the senior banker in UBS’ Dallas office. Greenhill plans to open a Dallas office focused on the energy sector as well as other companies in the region. Another new hire, in the firm’s London office, is Peter Stott, former co-head of U.K. investment banking at Morgan Stanley. He joined the firm as a managing director. Harris Nesbitt – Two former RBC Capital Markets bankers have made Harris Nesbitt their new home. David Haas, who had been head of consumer products and retailing M&A at RBC, joined as a managing director and head of Harris Nesbitt’s consumer and leisure group. Anthony Moretti, former director of RBC’s M&A group, came aboard as a director in the consumer and leisure group. Both are based in New York. The firm also has added Erik van Nispen (based in New York) as a managing director to focus on financial services clients. Van Nispen joins from Milestone Merchant Partners, where he had been a managing director. Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin – Gregg Feinstein has joined the firm as a managing director and co-chair of its M&A Commitment Committee. Feinstein, based in New York, had spent the past three years at Jefferies & Co., where he had been director of the firm’s M&A division. Hyde Park Capital Advisors – Shoring up its position in mid-market investment banking in Florida and the Southeast, Hyde Park added Jeff Doherty, VP in investment banking, and Ingeborg Baugh, associate in investment banking. Doherty most recently served as an SG Cowen Securities VP. Baugh had been with Washington, D.C.-based law firm Heller & Rosenblatt. InterMedia Advisors – Leo Hindery, former CEO of the YES Network, AT&T Broadband, and Tele-Communications, is forming InterMedia Advisors, a media-oriented investment firm. Along with former partner and media industry advisor Peter Kern, InterMedia will make investments in a variety of media and communications markets, focusing mainly on mid- to large-size media investments, primarily in the United States. Jefferies & Co. – A group of four SG Cowen bankers, including Mark Leavitt, head of the media and communications group, and Peter Lombard, head of M&A for media and communications, have joined Jefferies in similar positions. Former Cowen directors Robert Cockburn and Gregory Dawkins also came aboard in the firm’s media and communications division. Lincolnshire Management – Private equity firm Lincolnshire Management brought in Ed Moss as a managing director. He is charged with kick-starting West Coast deal origination efforts for the firm in Los Angeles. Previously, Moss had focused on mid-market private equity deals at Mellon Ventures. Merrill Lynch – It’s been heard on the Street that Merrill’s raid of Credit Suisse First Boston’s technology division garnered two of the group’s top bankers: Kevin Tice, co-head of global corporate finance for the technology group, and Jean Tardy-Joubert, head of European tech banking. MSD Capital – Former Onex Corp. managing director Eric Rosen has been named to lead the firm’s private equity investment group. MSD manages the capital of Dell Inc. founder and chairman Michael Dell and his family. NDC Capital Partners – The New York-based private equity named Kenneth O’Connor a principal. Before joining NDC Capital, O’Connor had been VP and regional director of Citigroup Investments. Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker (Europe) – This international law firm boosted its London arm with the addition of former Baker Botts managing partner Samantha Hampshire. Hampshire joined as a partner in the firm’s City Practice to focus on corporate work in the energy sector. Preston Gates & Ellis – Eric Simonson has joined the firm’s corporate securities and M&A practice. He is based in Seattle. Prior to this, he had been a partner at Kaye Scholer in New York. Stephens Inc. – The firm appointed Mauro Souza as VP of its investment banking group. He is based in Atlanta. Before joining Stephens, Souza had served as a VP of Berkeley Square Advisors, a New York-based restructuring and turnaround firm. Stonebridge Associates – This Boston-based investment banking firm recently added Timothy Leland as principal, in which capacity he manages private equity firm relationships and oversees M&A activities. He joined Stonebridge from Carlin, Charron & Rosen, where he was principal and director of the firm’s M&A group. SummitPoint Management – Tom Lemanski has joined this M&A consultancy as director of the manufacturing group. Previously, he was president and founder of strategy consulting firm Vista Development in Kildeer, Ill. TA Associates – Bolstering the firm’s European expansion efforts, Christian Gruenwald has joined TA’s London office as a VP, focusing on growth equity capital, MBOs, and leveraged recaps. Prior to this, Gruenwald was a Duesseldorf-based senior associate at General Atlantic Partners. TH Lee Putnam Ventures – Sasha Grutman and Todd Miller recently were promoted to partner. Grutman focuses on financial and marketing services deals, while Miller focuses on transactions in the offshore services, BPO, and marketing services industries. Thompson & Knight – Top Texas law firm Thompson & Knight opened two new offices recently – one in New York City and the other in Mexico City. Robert Saunders from Shearman & Sterling and Marcello Hallake and Carlos Mendez-Pen from Coudert Brothers, all new partner hires with global practices, staff the New York office. Also, of counsel Toshi Yoshida relocated from Dallas to New York and partner Timothy McCormick now splits his time between Dallas and New York. The office features M&A, capital markets, project and private finance, and securitization practices. Spearheading T&K’s operations in Mexico City is partner Carlos Valencia Barrera, formerly of the law firm Sanchez-Mejorada, Velasco y Valencia. The new office -Thompson & Knight y Valencia – features international JV, foreign investment, M&A, and telecommunication practices. Trenwith Securities – Luciane Roessler has joined the firm’s New York office as a managing director in the global banking group, and provides M&A advisory services to large multinational and mid-market private clients worldwide. Throughout her career, Roessler has been a member of the investment banking teams of Bankers Trust, CNH Capital, and Westdeutsche Landesbank. Previously, she was an electronics design engineer at Hewlett-Packard, and she co-founded an industrial automation and control company. Wachovia Securities – Wachovia’s M&A practice got a boost with the recent addition of J. Stuart White III, managing director based in New York. White previously was a managing director in CIBC World Markets’ M&A group. In other news, Alan Mitchell joined the firm as a managing director in the media and communications investment banking practice and Kevin Smith, managing director based in Charlotte, became the newest addition to Wachovia’s industrial growth investment banking team. Mitchell joined the firm from Viant Group, where he was president and managing partner. Smith had been a managing director in the mid-corporate investment banking group at J.P. Morgan Securities in Chicago. Copyright 2005 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. http://www.thomsonmedia.com http://www.majournal.com