People
FTV Capital, a sector-focussed growth equity investment firm, has promoted Richard Liu to principal. The firm has also announced the promotions of Adam Hallquist and Tyler Krueger to vice president.
Liu joined FTV Capital (FTV) in 2014. Liu, based in FTV’s New York office, has been actively involved in FTV investments in enterprise technology and tech-enabled services sectors. He is currently a board director at A-LIGN, a leading cybersecurity and compliance solutions firm, and involved in ID.me, a next-generation digital identity technology firm; ReliaQuest, a leading provider of security model management; and Sitehands, a rapidly growing technology marketplace for IT
DAC Beachcroft has bolstered its banking and finance offering with the hire of ex-Kirkland & Ellis partner Chris Wall as Head of Banking.
Wall has broad banking and debt financing experience with a particular focus on leveraged financing transactions, corporate lending transactions, structured financings and restructuring situations acting for financial institutions, private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies, credit opportunity investors and listed corporates.
His remit will see him take charge of the firm’s Banking team including colleagues in the firm’s well-established real estate finance and corporate law practices.
John Williams, Head of Business Advisory at DAC Beachcroft,
Chicago Equity Partners has added emerging markets equity portfolio manager, Venkat Eleswarapu, PhD to its team.
Eleswarapu joins the firm as a Managing Director and brings his emerging markets equity strategy (formerly Valant Emerging Markets Equity) from Trilogy Global Advisors, a fellow AMG Affiliate. He will continue to manage the strategy as he has since its 2013 inception, with the added resources of Chicago Equity Partners’ research team. Venkat commented on the move, “I am excited to be a part of a large team of seasoned quantitative investors and look forward to the cross-fertilisation of ideas with my new colleagues.”
StepStone Group (StepStone), a global private markets specialist, has named five new partners and six new managing directors.
StepStone partner and CEO Monte Brem says: “These talented and hardworking people have left an enduring mark on the firm; they have been instrumental to StepStone’s growth and success. We are proud to work alongside them.”
The new partners are:
Aiyu Nicholson joined StepStone in 2009 and is based in New York. She is a member of the private equity team and focuses on distressed debt and equity investments and co-investments.
Christable Yau joined StepStone in 2010 and is
Mercia Fund Managers has appointed Will Schaffer as Investment Manager. He will be supporting businesses across Yorkshire, with a particular focus on the Sheffield City Region.
Will has six years’ experience in finance, most recently as a mergers and acquisitions specialist with KPMG in Leeds and previously with The McLean Group in Washington DC. He has worked on deals including the private equity-backed merger of Pharmacy2U and ChemistDirect.co.uk and the Pressure Technologies Plc divestment of its Hydratron subsidiary to Pryme Group. For the past 12 months he has been seconded to NorthInvest, where he developed an angel investor network and support
Europa Capital, a pan-European real estate investment manager, has expanded its Private Capital Markets team with the appointment of Ian Currie as Director as it looks ahead to another year of strong capital-raising to support a range of European strategies.
The newly created role will also support the management and growth of Europa Capital’s EMEA-based client relationships across global real estate equity and real estate debt funds, working closely with other Europa Capital affiliates and Mitsubishi Estate’s global marketing team.
Currie brings to the role a strong track record and contact base in real estate business development and investment
Neptune Financial (NepFin), a technology-enabled lower middle market commercial lender, has expanded its presence in the Midwest by opening a Chicago office, which will be led by Matthew Kirst, Senior Managing Director.
In this role, Kirst brings deep industry knowledge and expertise to the firm and will drive initiatives throughout the Midwest.
“There are many phenomenal middle market companies throughout the Midwest and we are excited to expand our practice into the Chicago market so we can work even more closely with those companies on their capital needs,” says Albert Periu, NepFin Co-Founder & CEO.”
Kirst has nearly
Business recovery, financial advisory and property services consultancy Begbies Traynor Group has appointed restructuring and corporate finance specialist Martin Barron as a partner in its BTG Advisory team.
Joining Begbies Traynor Group from Grant Thornton where he was a partner and led the firm’s restructuring team across Yorkshire and the North East, Barron is a qualified accountant with more than 20 years’ experience advising businesses and stakeholders. Previously, he spent 16 years with Deloitte LLP working within the firm’s restructuring services teams in Leeds and Newcastle.
Barron has worked across a wide range of sectors and organisations from small
The Maples Group has appointed Hugo Lodge as a partner in its Regulatory & Compliance legal practice.
Lodge joins the Group’s Cayman Islands office from the UK Financial Conduct Authority, where he led the new team responsible for the oversight of AML supervision in the UK legal sector, prior to which he worked in the Retail Banking, Enforcement and Market Oversight division. Lodge was called to the Bar in England and Wales in 1998 and practised as a barrister at 7BR in London where he specialised in financial crime and regulation.
Global Managing Partner, Alasdair Robertson, says: “We
GCA Altium is opening a new office in Leeds, its 20th around the world. The firm will be based in the One Park Row office development.
The opening builds upon a very successful 2018 for GCA Altium in the region, advising on nine transactions with a total value of GBP1.35 billion. These include the sale of Deep Sea Electronics to Caledonia and the IPO of Team 17.
The office will be headed by Managing Director, Stuart Warriner, who says: “I am delighted that we are opening in Leeds. The office will put us at the heart of the deal community
Events
12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
