LeapFrog Investments has appointed new Partner Yalin Karadogan to head its Global Investor Solutions team, as it scales its impact investing platform. Yalin is a 23-year veteran of the private equity industry, most recently serving as Partner, Fundraising and Investor Relations, for USD37 billion global private equity firm Cinven. Yalin will lead an expanded Investor Solutions team with many decades of top-tier private equity experience, including recent hires Greg Jones, formerly of CVC Capital Partners, and Alice Maltby, formerly of Apax Partners. He succeeds retiring Partner Nick Moon, who has been instrumental in the growth of LeapFrog across a decade

HIG Capital (HIG) has appointed Gwen Watanabe as a Managing Director in the firm’s dedicated life-science investment affiliate, HIG BioHealth Partners. Watanabe has more than 28 years as an investor, entrepreneur, executive and board member in the medical device industry. Most recently, she was the Vice President and General Manager for Smith & Nephew’s US Robotics business unit.  Watanabe holds an MS in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University, as well as an MBA from Harvard Business School. She also holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Elevation Securities has hired Paul Young as Senior Managing Director, Senior Special Situations Analyst in the Special Situations Group. Young will be based in New York City and report to Ian Harris, Senior Managing Director and Head of Research, who leads the Event Driven team. Young joins Elevation Securities with over two decades of industry experience, most recently as a Senior Analyst on the Event Driven Research team at Olivetree Financial. Previously, he held similar positions at UBS, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Truist. Elevation Securities has a dedicated team of analysts, data scientists, consultants and sales professionals who

HarbourVest Partners, a global private markets asset manager, has made a raft of promotions including six new Managing Directors, eight new Principals, and five Senior Vice Presidents. These promotions recognise team members whose expertise contributes to the success of HarbourVest and its clients across the Americas, Europe, and Asia Pacific. In addition to the Managing Directors, Principals and Senior Vice Presidents, this round of promotions also includes 26 Vice Presidents. Managing directors: Dan Buffery, Gonçalo Faria Ferreira, Aliza Firestone Goren, Richard Hickman, Fran Peters, and Alex Wolf. Principals: Aiko Adachi, Nicholas Bellisario, Melissa Cahill, Todd DeAngelo, Kyle Dowd, William Hasten,

Charger Investment Partners, a middle market private equity firm, has appointed Aaron Figura as a Managing Director.   Figura will be responsible for sourcing, evaluating, and leading investments, as well as supporting the portfolio and contributing to the firm’s strategic direction. Figura has over 15 years of M&A experience and was most recently a Principal at OpenGate Capital, where he led investments primarily within the industrial manufacturing and services sectors. Figura’s extensive transaction experience includes corporate carve-outs, reorganisations, management buy-outs, and private sales.

Churchill Asset Management LLC, an investment-specialist affiliate of Nuveen providing customised financing solutions to private equity firms and their portfolio companies, has made 29 promotions across the business. Notably, Kelli Marti has been named Senior Managing Director, Head of CLO Management. Since joining Churchill in October 2020, Marti has been responsible for the management and growth of Churchill’s middle market CLO platform.

Mark Thompson has joined Covington’s London office as a partner and co-chair of the firm’s global private equity practice. Thompson has an established private equity practice in London, where he has been advising on transactions in a variety of industries, including life sciences, energy, telecommunications, electronic payments, banking, finance and real estate, for the past 20 years. He has extensive experience advising clients, including sovereign wealth funds, on making investments in the US, Western and Eastern Europe, Russia, Africa and the Middle East.  Thompson regularly advises private equity funds in strategic investments in emerging markets, as well as navigating issues

BTIG has appointed Jared Sender, MD as a Managing Director within its Healthcare Investment Banking division. Sender will focus on investment banking opportunities across the healthcare industry. Sender is uniquely positioned to evaluate multiple facets of the healthcare universe as a result of his experiences working various positions in the investment community as well as holding leadership roles at both a US municipal healthcare system and a Medicaid Health Plan in New York State. He will focus on business development, client relationship management, and structuring transactions across the rapidly growing healthcare space. Most recently, Sender was Head of Healthcare Investing

Pemberton, an alternative credit specialist, has appointed Rob Reynolds to head its new Collateralised Loan Obligation (CLO) platform.

Global law firm Ropes & Gray has appointed Bianca Levin-Soler as a partner in the firm’s private equity practice. Levin-Soler will be based in Ropes & Gray’s new Los Angeles office. With significant experience in all facets of private equity and corporate finance, Levin-Soler brings deep knowledge and a commercial approach to her practice. She has represented private equity firms and their portfolio companies in a variety of transactions, including leveraged buyouts, public and private mergers and acquisitions, SPACs and restructurings.