Manchester-based venture capital firm Praetura Ventures has added five new hires to its team of investment experts, including GC Angels’ Jessica Jackson. She joins Praetura Ventures as an investment manager, and will dedicate her extensive experience to strengthening the firm’s commitment to providing founders with ‘more than money’ support. Prior to joining GC Angels in December 2018, Jackson worked in healthcare technology with the likes of Emis Health and Evergreen Life, gaining experience in M&A, start-up growth and angel investment. More recently, she has led investments into Guardian Angel, Collctiv and Xploro, and has also helped support funding rounds led by

Nuveen, a global investment manager with over $1 trillion in assets under management, has appointed Nick Simon as Managing Director in its Private Credit Specialist team. Simon joined the firm in August. Simon brings to the role just under 20 years’ experience in institutional sales and investor relations. Having worked across Europe and the Middle East, focused primarily on private credit, direct lending and structured credit. He holds business development experience across alternative markets including private debt, private equity, real estate and infrastructure. Simon joins Nuveen from Cross Ocean Partners, where he most recently worked as Head of EMEA Marketing.

Edison Partners, a growth equity firm, has promoted general partner, Kelly Ford, to become the first ever chief operating officer (COO) in its 36-year history. In Ford’s new role, she oversees the firm’s operations, including the Edison Edge value creation platform, investment development, finance, portfolio operations and marketing. Her role is critical to the continued, consistent growth of Edison’s assets under management (AUM), Edison Edge capabilities and the Edison team.   In her more than eight years at Edison, Ford has worked with more than 55 portfolio companies, been involved in 15 financings, served as director at 11 companies, and

Arctos Sports Partners, a private investment platform dedicated to providing growth capital and liquidity solutions to professional sports franchise owners in major North American leagues and premier global sports organisations, has appointed Shane Battier, Jessica Gelman, Chris Grove and Normand Legault as operating advisors. Arctos’ group of operating advisers brings deep operational experience and perspective to the firm and is a valuable resource for Arctos’ portfolio franchises and investment team.  The firm’s operating advisors play a broad role in the firm’s operations, including identifying and completing due diligence on potential investments, providing insights into industry trends and deepening relationships with

Ara Partners (Ara), a private equity firm specialising in industrial decarbonisation investments, has appointed David Touhey s Managing Director of the firm’s Portfolio Services Group. Touhey has more than 20 years of experience in project development and optimisation in the industrial sector. Prior to joining Ara, Touhey was the Executive Vice President for Kent, a global EPC, operations, and maintenance business. At Kent, he was a key member of the executive team that grew the organisation from 4,000 people across 19 countries to 12,500 people across 26 countries.  During his time at Kent, Touhey was the executive sponsor and trusted advisor

QED Investors, a global venture capital firm focused on investing in disruptive financial services companies, has added Christian Limon to its team. Limon joins QED as a principal focusing on domestic investments across multiple stages, with an emphasis on early stage companies. Previously, Limon ran growth for Gemini and Nifty Gateway. Prior to roles in crypto and web3, he held executive growth and marketing positions at Tubi (acquired by Fox for $500 million), Wish ($14 billion market cap IPO debut), Glu Mobile (acquired by Electronic Arts for $2.5 billion) and Tapjoy (acquired by IronSource for $400 million). Limon has held

Squire Patton Boggs has appointed private equity lawyer Arnaud Lafarge as a partner in its Corporate practice in Paris. Lafarge joins from Lamy Lexel, and is accompanied by two associates, Nicolas Leveque and Eva Jouannic.  Lafarge joins a Corporate team in France significantly bolstered by the recent arrivals of private equity lawyers Maxime Dequesne and Anthony Guillaume, and private equity finance and tax specialists Benjamin Marché and Charles Briand, and his appointment is the eighth partner hire in the firm’s Paris office since summer 2021. Lafarge is an experienced private equity and corporate lawyer, advising funds, private and listed companies

BEX Capital, a private equity secondaries specialist, has promoted Thomas Carbonel and Alexis Ferrer to Senior Partner. BEX Capital, founded in France in 2010, is the first and only secondaries firm to be solely dedicated to the acquisition of positions in global private equity fund-of-funds, secondary funds and co-investment funds. It has over $1.3 billion of capital under management.  This summer, the firm also hired a Vice President and three Associates to join the investment team. These hires are in line with the continued growth of BEX Capital’s assets under management and deal flow, following the close of its fourth

British chemicals manager Calum MacLean is to become CEO of the envisaged joint venture for high-performance engineering materials which private equity investor Advent International (Advent) and speciality chemical company LANXESS AG (LANXESS) are planning to form. 

Lightyear Capital, a New York-based private equity firm that partners with growth companies in financial services, technology, healthcare, and business services, has appointed Michael Langer as a managing director and member of the firm’s Investment Committee.  Langer will be responsible for leading Lightyear’s investments within the healthcare financial services sector. Previously, Langer was a Partner at Five Arrows Capital Partners, where he focused exclusively on healthcare. He has over 20 years of private equity experience and over 15 years covering the healthcare sector. Langer has served as a member of the boards of directors of several companies throughout his career.