Updated Monday, Nov. 5, 2012, 1:57 p.m.
Baird Capital Partners — The private equity arm of Robert W. Baird & Co. added Jim Conniff as a managing director. He will be based in Chicago, where Baird is headquartered, and work within the firm’s investment banking industrial team. Conniff returns to Baird from Goldman Sachs & Co. where he was a senior member. Earlier in his career, he was a director in Baird’s industrial investment banking team.
CNA Financial Corp. (NYSE: CNA) — The Chicago-based insurer hired James Anderson to oversee mergers, acquisitions and divestitures. Anderson, who was previously at Macquarie Group Ltd., will be senior vice president of financial planning and analysis and corporate development. CNA Financial is majority-owned by Loews Corp. (NYSE: L), a holding company with subsidiaries that operate mainly in commercial property and casualty insurance.
CVC Capital Partners — The New York private equity firm announced that chairman Michael Smith (pictured) is set to retire in January 2013. Smith has worked on many notable transactions, including the April 2012 sale of brewer StarBev LP to Molson Coors Brewing Co. Donald Mackenzie, Rolly van Rappard and Steve Koltes are slated to succeed Smith as co-chairmen. Koltes will assume Smith's responsibilities regarding investor relations, while Mackenzie will chair the group board meetings and continue as chairman of the investment and portfolio committees. The Europe/North America and Asia Pacific will continue to be managed by van Rappard.
First Round Capital — The venture capital firm hired Bill Trenchard as a partner. Previously, Trenchard was with venture capital fund Founder Collective. Before that, he was a founder at CallCast, which was later merged to form LiveOps Inc., and Jump Networks which was acquired by Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) in April 1999.
Walker & Dunlop — The New York commercial real estate finance firm has appointed Andrew Florance and Michael Malone to the company’s board of directors. The move fills two of the three vacancies created in September 2012 when the size of the board was increased from eight to eleven members in connection with Walker & Dunlop’s purchase of CWCapital LLC.
Z Capital Partners LLC — The Lake Forest, Ill.-based private equity firm promoted four managing directors. Martin Auerbach, Christopher Kipley, Rahul Sawhney and Jonathan Schmugge were each named senior managing directors and partners.
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