Northern Gritstone, a new university spin-out investment business based in the north of England and chaired by Lord Jim O’Neill, has appointed Marion Bernard as Chief Investment Officer. Throughout her career Bernard has focused on funding fast-growing businesses in the UK. She joins Northern Gritstone from SME investor The Firmament Group, and prior to that led the Business Growth Fund’s activity in the south east of England. Having begun her career at Barclays Bank, her experience also includes over half a decade at 3i Ventures as well as playing an instrumental role in founding Newcastle-based Northstar Ventures, where she was

Great Hill Partners, a private equity firm that invests in high-growth, disruptive companies, has appointed Suaad Sait as Growth Partner. In this role, Sait will work collaboratively with Great Hill investment teams to explore new investment opportunities and portfolio company management teams to help design and execute their growth strategies. Sait has substantial experience scaling software, cloud computing and marketing technology companies through an emphasis on product strategy, marketing, sales and customer success, and has helped create over USD15 billion in value for leading businesses over the course of his three-decade career. 

Willkie Farr & Gallagher has added David S Hong as a partner in the firm’s Asset Management Department based in the Los Angeles office. Hong was previously a partner at Munger, Tolles & Olson. Hong focuses his practice on the formation and operation of private funds across the spectrum of asset classes, including private equity, credit, real estate, venture capital, growth equity, hedge and hybrid funds. He represents emerging and institutional private fund sponsors in fund formations, fund investment matters, seed capital arrangements, complex restructurings, structuring of investment management businesses and regulatory, compliance and operational issues. In addition, he represents

Private markets investment management firm Adams Street Partners has added Lou Holland Jr as the fifth member of its Board of Directors. Holland’s addition to the Board of Directors concludes an extensive search within the asset management industry of executives with deep investment management backgrounds and a wide range of diverse perspectives. Holland has spent 35 years in the asset management and investment business, including senior roles in sales, marketing and strategy at firms such as Oppenheimer Capital/Quest for Value, the John Hancock Funds and Nuveen Investments. He currently serves as President and CFO of his own family office, CUMOTA

HCML, a UK-based provider of rehabilitation and case management solutions, has appointed industry veteran, Nick Delaney, as CEO following its recent acquisition by healthcare specialist investors, Apposite Capital. Delaney previously headed up the team at Ascenti where he was CEO, growing the business by over five times during his seven years of leadership and opening over 400 therapy sites. More recently Delaney has provided extensive strategic and non-executive advice to many well-known names within the healthcare industry, including Moving Minds, the handl Group, My:Method, UKS Health Group and The Medical. 

Experienced investor, lender and adviser Stephen Murray has joined YFM Equity Partners (YFM), which has offices in Birmingham, London, Leeds, Manchester and Reading, as investment director to strengthen the firm’s support for fast-growing businesses across the Midlands. YFM typically invests between GBP2 million and GBP10 million per transaction.   Murray will be based at YFM’s new central Birmingham office at 102 Colmore Row. YFM plans to grow its presence in the city and will be expanding the team in the coming months.

KKR & Co has appointed Matthew Cohler to its Board of Directors, effective 31 December, 2021, taking the number of independent directors to twelve out of a total of sixteen Board seats. Cohler is a former General Partner at the venture capital firm Benchmark, where for over a decade he led early-stage investments in Internet and software startup businesses.

Chuck Flynn is to retire as Chairman of Bregal Investments’ fund investing arm, Bregal Private Equity Partners (BPEP), with effect from 1 January, 2023. Flynn will continue as Chairman through 2022 while full leadership of BPEP is assumed by Managing Partner, Jan Faber, who has been Chuck’s partner since BPEP was founded in 2004. Bregal also announced on 28 September, 2021 the appointment of Alain Carrier as CEO with effect from 1 January, 2022 and he joined the business in November to ensure there was a period of transition.

International law firm McDermott Will & Emery has appointed Samantha Koplik as partner in its Transactions Practice Group based in New York. Koplik, who joins from Dechert, where she served as a pro bono practice leader for the New York office, is a recognised finance lawyer in the market and a trusted advisor to some of New York’s most prominent private equity firms across a broad range of financing matters. Her practice is focused on leveraged finance transactions for private equity firms, strategic buyers, institutional investors, biotech/pharma companies, private debt funds and other providers and consumers of debt financing.  She