Morgan Stanley has named Graham Keniston-Cooper, who was most recently at Lazard European Private Equity Partners, to lead its private equity business in Europe, focusing on direct investm
Morgan Stanley has named Graham Keniston-Cooper, who was most recently at Lazard European Private Equity Partners, to lead its private equity business in Europe, focusing on direct investments, joint ventures, leveraged buyouts and fund investments.
Keniston-Cooper will be responsible for building a private equity team based in London and establishing Morgan Stanley’s European private equity business for third-party investors. He will report to Stephen Trevor and Alan Jones, global co-heads of Morgan Stanley’s private equity business, part of the merchant banking division of Morgan Stanley Investment Management.
Between 2004 and last year Keniston-Cooper was a managing partner at Lazard European Private Equity Partners, responsible for setting up and managing Lazard’s pan-European private equity business. He was previously a partner and director for 11 years at Cinven, where he was involved in all aspects of private equity activities and led transactions across a range of sectors and geographic regions with a focus on consumer-related businesses.
Earlier Keniston-Cooper was head of business development at UK retail conglomerate Kingfisher for six years and a senior consultant at Boston Consulting Group for five years.
‘We are pleased that Graham will be leading the development of our private equity business in Europe,’ says Owen Thomas, president of Morgan Stanley Investment Management. ‘As we continue to grow our private equity business, we are focused on assembling a team of top talent from both inside and outside Morgan Stanley who can use the full resources and capabilities of the firm to create industry-leading private equity products for our clients.’
Adds Trevor: ‘Graham has a proven track record in European private equity investing. We believe his knowledge and expertise will help drive the success of our private equity business, not only in Europe but globally as well.’
Morgan Stanley Investment Management, together with its investment advisory affiliates, has more than 500 investment professionals around the world and approximately USD560bn in assets under management or supervision at the end of May on behalf of clients including governments, institutions, corporations and individuals.
