PHD Industrial Holdings – a North West-based conglomerate which acquires established SMEs – has appointed Richard Blackburn as group finance director. Blackburn, who joins from leading architectural and engineering practice BDP, has 15 years’ experience in finance, having worked in accounting firms and held international roles in industry. He started his career with Mazars, where he qualified as a prize-winning chartered accountant and later worked in audit at Deloitte.    PHD Industrial Holdings, which brings together seven companies with a combined turnover in excess of £60 million and with over 330 employees, was previously known as PHD Equity Partners before changing

Akin Gump has appointed Amy Wollensack and Sergio Urias, a pair of private equity transactional lawyers, as partners in the firm’s New York office. Wollensack and Urias regularly advise on M&A, recapitalisations, leveraged buyouts, growth equity investments and related corporate transactions. Urias’ practice also represents investment funds and strategic clients in Latin America.

Private equity firm Thomas H Lee Partners (THL) has appointed Sam Hendler as managing director and head of business development for the firm’s healthcare investment group.

Ocorian, a specialist in corporate and fiduciary services, fund administration and capital markets, has appointed Don Ross as global head, investor services as it continues the transformation of its technology-led fund services business.

Victory Park Capital (VPC) has added Chad Clamage, principal, and Ahmed Eltamami, vice president, to the firm’s investment team. Clamage and Eltamami are primarily responsible for sourcing, analysing, executing and managing investments within legal finance. They will work closely with Luke Darkow, Principal, and Richard Levy, chief executive officer, chief investment officer & founder, who leads the legal finance strategy at VPC. Clamage brings several years of experience in legal finance to VPC. Most recently, he was a vice president at Burford Capital, where he underwrote and managed litigation finance investments.  Eltamami was previously an associate on the quantitative team

Law firm Stephenson Harwood LLP has strengthened its corporate finance practice, and life sciences and technology sector capabilities, with the appointment of Kristian Shearsby as a partner in its London office. Shearsby is a corporate lawyer who specialises in the life sciences and technology sectors. He advises businesses on a broad range of matters across all stages of their development – from early-stage to publicly listed companies – including venture capital investments, private mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, equity capital markets, joint ventures and general corporate advisory work.  Shearsby joins the firm from Mills & Reeve, where he was head

Omni Partners, a London based alternative investment management firm, has appointed Charles Gallagher-Powell as head of private equity. In this newly created position Gallagher-Powell, who has worked closely with Omni since 2018 when he was  a founding partner at Umbra Capital, will report to Omni’s founder, Steven Clark. Gallagher-Powell has over 11 years of experience in the investment industry having started his career in the Leveraged Finance team at UBS before joining private equity firm XIO Group.

MidOcean Partners (MidOcean), a premier New York-based alternative asset manager specialising in middle-market private equity and alternative credit investments, has appointed Erik Oken, former Global Chairman of Investment Banking at JP Morgan, as chairman of MidOcean’s private equity business. An accomplished C-Suite executive with over 30 years of industry experience, Oken will work directly with MidOcean’s private equity investment team by adding valuable senior insights and oversight to the firm’s thematic investment approach. Prior to joining MidOcean, Oken spent over 30 years at JP Morgan, where he played an integral role in the global success of its banking franchise. 

Activant Capital, a growth equity firm focused on the next generation of commerce companies, has promoted investment team members David Yang, Maximilian Mayer, Shawn Jung, and Andrew Steele to partner, and Sean Park to chief people officer. Since the firm’s inception in 2015, Activant has invested in more than 25 private and public companies building the future of commerce. The team has backed some of the market-leading companies in the space, including Deliverr, Hybris (acquired by SAP), Better.com, Truework, Tridge, Hive, Vivenu, and Bolt, amongst others.