Allen & Overy has appointed Annette Kurdian and Robert Burt as partners in A&the firm’s leveraged finance practice, based in London.  Both join from Linklaters where they were senior banking and finance partners. Kurdian has a breadth of leverage product knowledge across the capital structure and advises financial institutions, private credit providers, corporates and private equity sponsors. She has carved out a successful practice in a number of areas: the crossover between leveraged and infrastructure finance, private credit transactions, as well as fund finance and mainstream leveraged financing advice. Burt’s experience is in leveraged and acquisition finance, acting principally for

James Excell who joined private equity house Key Capital Partners (KCP) in 2016, has been promoted to Partner. Based at the firm’s London office, Excell works alongside Partners Mike Fell and Philip Duquenoy to source investment opportunities in profitable, dynamic SMEs across the UK. Since joining KCP five years ago, Excell has worked on several transactions including the management buy-out of CMOStores.com, where he sits on the board alongside Mike Fell. With 13 years’ experience within the sector, Excell has held positions with FTI Consulting where he worked in the corporate finance and restructuring practice and Grant Thornton in their

Central Park Group, LLC, an independent investment advisory firm delivering access to premier institutional private equity, hedge fund, real estate and fund-of-funds talent, has appointed Roger Lengyel, formerly a senior investment professional at Fortress Investment Group, as Managing Director, Head of Private Equity Secondaries.  Lengyel will further expand the depth and breadth of secondary investments, including an emphasis on GP-led transactions, available to Central Park Group clients. Secondary investments are not typically accessible to private clients and smaller institutional investors.   Lengyel joins Central Park Group from Fortress Investment Group LLC, where he was a senior investment professional responsible for

Centaur Fund Services, a specialist in fund administration and fiduciary services, has appointed Gareth Davies as Head of Client Service, Private Equity, Europe.  Based in Centaur’s London office, Davies will support Centaur’s private equity (PE) clients and define Centaur’s PE strategy and business development plans. This comes on the back of  two senior hires in Centaur’s North American business in January. Davies Brings over 20 years’ experience working in financial services, including 12 years working in Private Equity Fund administration fulfilling leadership roles. Most recently, he was Head of Client Relationship Management, EMEA at IQ-EQ. The creation of this global

Duraco Specialty Tapes (Duraco) has released a joint statement with its private equity partner and global firm OpenGate Capital announcing the appointment of Ed Byczynski as Chief Executive Officer.  Byczynski has a long tenure of guiding growth in manufacturing businesses and is based in Chicago. Most recently, Byczynski was the Chief Executive Officer of PLZ Aeroscience Corporation, North America’s largest specialty aerosol and liquid manufacturer. During his time at PLZ, Byczynski successfully grew revenue and EBITDA over six times through a combination of M&A and organic growth strategies and throughout the ownership of three separate investment groups. Byczynski also served

Atlantic Street Capital (ASC), a private equity firm targeting entrepreneurial businesses poised for the next level of growth, has appointed Johnny Conklin as a Partner. In this role, Conklin is responsible for the firm’s deal sourcing team and business development strategy for new platforms and add-on acquisitions. In his role, Conklin collaborates with investment and operating partners, as well as portfolio company management teams on investment execution and strategic growth priorities.  Andy Wilkins, Co-Chief Executive Officer of Atlantic Street Capital, says: “Johnny Conklin is an aggressive, strategic, and extremely capable executive that we have known for years. He understands our

Law firm Sidley Austin has appointed Ranah Esmaili as a partner in the firm’s Securities Enforcement and Regulatory practice in Washington DC. Read the full story at Institutional Asset Manager…

SME private equity investments specialist CAPZA has appointed Aurore Gauffre as Head of Sustainability & Impact, and strengthened its investor relations team. Several promotions have also been made in the company’s investment team. A signatory of the UNPRI since 2011, CAPZA is convinced that the implementation of best-in-class ESG practices contributes to the long-term performance of the companies it supports, and has integrated, for the past five years, a rigorous ESG approach in all its private equity and private debt funds based on a proprietary methodology and relying on the platform developed by Sirsa. Recently, CAPZA has innovated on private