Altus Capital Partners  — Tom Groh has joined the Wilton, Connecticut, private equity firm as a principal focusing on deal generation. Prior to joining Altus, Groh worked in middle-market investment banking at KPMG Corporate Finance in Chicago. He will be based in Altus’ Lincolnshire, Illinois, office.


Castanea Partners — The Newton, Massachusetts-based private equity firm has hired Tim Burke as a partner. Prior to joining Castanea, Burke was co-founder of Glenbrook Consumer Partners, a San Francisco based consumer fund where he was responsible for all elements of the investment process. Prior to Glenbrook, Burke was a partner at consumer fund Rosewood Capital, where he was active in consumer products and services, retail and restaurants. As a senior investor at Rosewood, he led multiple investments and worked closely with portfolio companies.


Duane Morris LLP — Kristy Wagner has jumped from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP to Duane Morris as a partner in the firm's energy practice group New York and Washington, D.C. Her addition bolsters the firm's environment, resources and construction practice groups.


Duff & Phelps — Laca Wong-Hammond joined the New York office as a managing director in the mergers and acquisitions practice, specializing in health care real estate transactions. She was head of health care real estate at Raymond James & Associates Inc., which she joined in 2006 from Merrill Lynch & Co. She also worked at iStar Financial Inc. and was an analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from 1999 to 2000.


Jefferies LLC —Sage Kelly, head of Jefferies Group LLC's health-care investment-banking group, is taking a leave of absence. Before arriving in 2009, Kelly was a managing director at UBS Securities LLC for more than 10 years and worked at Salomon Smith Barney.


Kirkland & Ellis LLP — Ian John has joined the New York law firm from Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP. He will be a partner within Kirkland & Ellis’ antitrust and competition practice. In the past, he has advised on several high profile deals, including AB InBev’s $21 billion acquisition of the remaining stake of Grupo Modelo; CF Industries’ $910 million acquisition of a stake in Canadian Fertilizers Ltd.; and GTCR’s $390 million purchase of Fundtech


Matrix Capital Markets Group Inc. — The investment bank is establishing a media and communications group. Managing director Michael McHugh will oversee the unit out of the bank’s Richmond, Virginia, headquarters. Prior to joining Matrix, McHugh was managing director with Waller Capital Partners, based in New York.  In the past, he has also held leadership positions with WWC Securities, MCG Capital and General Electric (NYSE: GE).


Praesidian Capital— The New York firm hired Serkan Dede and Sarah Pierce as investment directors for its London office. Most recently, Dede was an associate director at Lloyds Bank, focusing on acquisition financing and leveraged buyouts. Pierce worked in Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc's U.K. structured finance team for five years, recently as a director in the origination and execution team for the lower middle market. Before that, she worked in RBS' mid-market financial sponsor team.