People
Dentons has bolstered its UAE Corporate practice with the hire of partner Ziad Saad who has been based in Dubai for over seven years.
Saad is the third partner hire for Dentons in Dubai in the past six months, a clear demonstration of the Firm’s commitment to strengthening its Middle East practice while also expanding its senior Arabic-speaking resource. Saad’s recruitment follows that of corporate partner Ghassan Shuhaibar in October and Energy partner Mhairi Main Garcia in November.
Saad’s practice is primarily focused on domestic and cross-border M&A, private equity, joint ventures, foreign direct investments and capital markets. He
HarbourVest Partners has announced a raft of promotions including six Managing Directors, six Principals and four Senior Vice Presidents.
The company says these promotions recognise team members whose expertise contributes to the success of HarbourVest and its clients across the Americas, Europe, and Asia Pacific. HarbourVest has also continued to invest in the growth of its team through the promotion of seven Vice Presidents.
“HarbourVest has long believed that our people are our greatest asset,” says John Toomey, Managing Director, HarbourVest. “These promotions span geographies from Asia to EMEA and the US, and functional areas from investment to technology.
KKR & Co has appointed Xavier Niel to the Board of Directors of KKR Management, the managing partner of KKR.
Neil’s appointment brings the number of independent directors on KKR’s Board to seven out of a total of eleven Board seats.
Niel serves as Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Strategy Officer of Iliad SA.
KKR’s other independent directors include David Drummond (Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer of Alphabet Inc), Joseph Grundfest (Stanford Law Professor and former Commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission), John Hess (Director and Chief Executive Officer of Hess Corporation), Patricia Russo
Maples Fiduciary, a provider of fiduciary and corporate administration services, has appointed Guy Dominy as Director, Business Development in North America.
Dominy (pictured), brings extensive buy and sell side experience in the asset management industry, including senior roles at private equity fund managers and fund administrators. In his most recent role he was Managing Director and head of the US business development team of a global asset services provider, responsible for US growth strategy, product development and sales of all divisional and group business lines. He also brings considerable advisory experience as a funds lawyer at major international law firms.
Offshore law firm Carey Olsen has added to its banking and finance team with the appointment of Michael Evans as counsel in the Jersey office.
Evans (pictured), brings with him more than 10 years’ experience working on a variety of finance transactions and has acted for a wide range of international institutions and borrowers on complex multi-jurisdictional bilateral and syndicated facilities. He has a particular interest in leveraged and acquisition finance, Islamic finance and restructuring and insolvency.
Evans qualified as a solicitor in England and Wales in 2007, having trained in the London and Dubai offices of Freshfields Bruckhaus
Global fund administrator Mainstream Fund Services is expanding its organisation to handle the growing practice for closed-end funds; private equity, venture capital, and real estate – with the appointment of Jay Maher as CEO of Private Equity.
For the past two decades, Maher (pictured), who will be based in the US, has been a developed a best in breed service focusing on technology and automated workflow processes.
“Mainstream is the perfect fit for our experienced team to execute delivery of our service model to the Private Equity, Venture Capital, and Real Estate industries. Mainstream has a global reach while
Augentius, a global service provider to private equity and real estate funds, has appointed James Watts to the role of Chief Operating Officer.
The appointment follows another successful year of 19 per cent growth for the firm as the industry remains resilient to political and regulatory challenges.
As Chief Operating Officer, Watts (pictured) will be responsible for Augentius’ Global Operations throughout its’ offices across three continents.
Watts says: “The growth of Augentius has been quite amazing. In just over 10 years the small UK/Guernsey centric business I joined, has become a major global player, with offices and clients across the world.
Ipes, a provider of outsourced services to private equity in Europe, has appointed Mark Symons as Senior Manager in the firm’s Guernsey Office.
Symons has joined Ipes as part of the Senior Management Team in Guernsey and brings considerable client service experience. He will focus on leading and managing a number of key client relationships across the Ipes Group. He will also play a key role in delivering our growth strategy by communicating and strengthening relationships with the Guernsey business community. In addition, Mark will be responsible for the New Business team.
Prior to joining Ipes, Symons worked at Kleinwort
Heitman LLC (Heitman), a global real estate investment management firm, has appointed Tony Smedley as Managing Director, Head of European Private Equity.
In this role, Smedley will lead Heitman’s European Private Equity group and is tasked with broadening the scope of the firm’s European operations while continuing to serve its clients in meeting or exceeding their European real estate investment objectives.
Smedley brings with him nearly 30 years of experience in real estate and investment management. Prior to joining Heitman, Smedley was the Head of Continental Europe for Schroder REIM where he provided leadership, direction, and management for fund
Barings Real Estate has expanded its European asset management and transactions team with the appointment of Guillaume Bieganski as Director, Asset Management & Transactions.
Bieganski, who will be based in Barings’ Paris office, will support the development of the business in France and will report to Séverine Laffineur, Head of France.
Bieganski joins from Abenex (formerly ABN AMRO Capital France) where he was a Director overseeing the launch and development of the Company’s real estate activity. Between 2013 and 2016, Guillaume served as a Portfolio Manager for Standard Life Investments where he was responsible for asset management and acquisitions in
Events
12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
