Performant Capital, a lower middle market private equity firm focused on investments in technology-driven companies across SaaS, tech-enabled services, and data intelligence products and services, has established a new strategic board of advisers.  This Advisory Board includes distinguished private equity and family office industry veterans whose focus will be to advise on Performant’s business and growth strategies while augmenting the firm’s deal sourcing, capital raising, and portfolio management capabilities. Keith H Yamada is a former Partner and member of the Investment Committee at CIVC Partners, a Chicago-based private equity firm investing in high-growth middle market companies in business services sectors.

Ridgemont Equity Partners, a middle market private equity firm, has appointed Justin Lay as Partner and Ryan Shanahan as Vice President. Lay has joined Ridgemont’s Origination & Capital Markets practice, the firm’s dedicated effort to building relationships with intermediaries, trusted advisors, industry executives in the M&A community, as well as debt financing partners. Lay has a diverse background in principal investing and financial services, including his most recent experience as a senior member of the global private finance team at Barings LLC, as an investment and business development professional at HCI Equity Investors and Summit Park, and in investment banking

HIG Capital (HIG) has hired John Woyton to lead its dedicated technology buyouts platform, which combines HIG’s existing technology sector capabilities across multiple investing funds. Woyton has spent over 18 years as a private equity investor in the technology sector. Most recently, he was a Managing Director and Partner at Advent International, where he helped form and lead the firm’s global technology team. HIG has previously completed, across its various private equity funds, more than 60 investments in the technology sector, with a particular focus on software, fintech, and software-enabled services. The dedicated technology buyouts team will build on HIG’s

West End law firm, Seddons, has appointed Ben Gillespie as a Partner in the Corporate team.  Gillespie joins the firm from DLA Piper, where he was a Partner in the London office and before that Head of Corporate for the Middle East based out of Dubai. His appointment is with immediate effect.  Gillespie is ranked for Corporate/M&A advice in Chambers and Partners legal Global Guide 2021 and his appointment reflects Seddons’ commitment to continued investment and growth in its corporate offering, following the appointment of Head of Corporate Ilan Kotkis in 2020, and strengthening of its links with the Middle

Apex Group has appointed Andrea Gallenca as Head of Private Market Sales – Australia, and Prakash Kharel, Head of Real Estate, Asia Pacific. Based in Sydney, Gallenca will oversee the Group’s Private Markets’ sales operations in Australia. Gallenca brings more than 18 years of experience in the private funds industry, with a focus on Fund Administration, Trust and Corporate Services. Prior to joining Apex, Gallenca was Head of Sales at Alter Domus Australia where he built and managed multi-service and -jurisdictional relationship with clients across APAC and EMEA. He previously worked as Director of Global Business Development at TMF Australia.

Aries I Acquisition Corporation (Aries) has appointed Andrew Lester to its Board of Directors, and Chris Perry to serve as an adviser to the Board. Lester has over 40 years of experience building and managing businesses. Along with his brother Mitchell, he built a 10-person team at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ) that specialised in providing research coverage to hedge funds, family offices, and managing retail capital for 17 years. After DLJ was sold to Credit Suisse, the Lester Brothers’ team moved to ABN-AMRO where Andy was Managing Director and Co-Head of Hedge Fund Sales and Research. Subsequently, Leser was

Akin Gump has appointed Terence Rozier-Byrd as a partner in its investment management practice in New York. Rozier-Byrd comes to Akin Gump from Baker Botts, where he served as partner in charge of its New York office. Rozier-Byrd advises a wide array of institutional investors in connection with their investments in private equity funds, venture capital funds, hedge funds, credit funds, real estate funds, energy funds and hybrid funds, as well as in the negotiation of separately managed account arrangements, co-investments, direct venture capital and growth equity investments and secondary transactions. His practice also includes representing fund sponsors regarding the

Tolga Kirhan, a seasoned private equity professional with over 20 years of global investment experience, has joined emerging markets private equity firm Da Vinci Capital as a managing partner. Before joining Da Vinci Capital, Kirhan was vice president of corporates and funds at German development finance institution KfW DEG- Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH, where he led all equity deal teams in Europe, the Middle East, the CIS, and the United States.  Kirhan was instrumental in creating and implementing DEG’s global tech strategy and led its first tech investment in Silicon Valley. He served on numerous advisory and corporate boards,

TA Associates, a global growth private equity firm, has made five new hires in its Boston and Menlo Park offices.  Kevin Schuler and John Triebsch have rejoined the firm as Vice Presidents in Boston and Menlo Park, respectively while Ritika Chandra and Gregory Majno have joined as Vice Presidents in Boston, and Eric Zagorski as a Vice President in Menlo Park. “We are excited to expand our professional and investment teams with the addition of Ritika, Greg and Eric, and the return of Kevin and John to TA,” says Ajit Nedungadi, Chief Executive Officer of TA. “These individuals bring a