Blueprint Capital Advisors, an investment firm focused on manager sourcing, due diligence and the structuring of opportunistic investments, has appointed John McAvoy as a Partner. At Blueprint, McAvoy is involved in the execution of all investment activities and responsible for the Firm’s strategic investments. He is also a member of the Blueprint Investment Committee.   “John is a highly-accomplished industry executive with extensive alternative investment management, equity and debt capital markets experience,” says Jacob Walthour Jr, Chief Executive Officer of Blueprint. “At Blueprint, we are levelling the economic playing field by structuring investor participation more creatively to best align the

BGF has appointed Andy Watts to its Talent Network team. Watts will provide support to BGF-backed companies by further expanding BGF’s network of non-executives, interim managers and experienced finance directors.   Watts has more than 13 years’ recruitment experience, including most recently as a partner with Boyden UK. He has worked with blue-chip and smaller, high-growth clients across the consumer, retail, hospitality, technology, support services and industrial sectors. Before Boyden, Andy worked at Whitehead Mann as part of the Industry team, covering London and the Midlands. His early career was as a fully qualified Solicitor.   In his new role, Watts

Adams Street Partners, a private markets investment management firm with USD30 billion of assets under management, has expanded its Private Credit team with the addition of Justin Lawrence as a Principal. Lawrence joins a growing team led by Bill Sacher and Shahab Rashid, former Oaktree Capital executives, who co-founded Adams Street’s Private Credit strategy in January 2016.      Prior to joining Adams Street Partners, Lawrence was a Vice President in the Direct Lending Group at Ares Management, a global alternative asset manager. While at Ares, he was responsible for providing debt financing solutions to private equity backed middle-market companies and also played a lead

Private equity investor, Ardenton Capital, has made a key appointment to its UK team with the appointment of Allan Dunn as Head of Strategic Development. Dunn joins Directors Mike Bradbury and Iain Marlow and will be responsible for working closely with the management teams of Ardenton’s UK investments. He will help drive quality and performance, boost operational efficiency and overcome any obstacles to long-term sustainable growth. Dunn will also be responsible for building out Ardenton’s strategic and operational teams in the UK.   Dunn brings with him extensive knowledge and experience that will be of significant benefit to both the

Inflexion Private Equity has appointed Simon Tilley as Partner in the firm’s Partnership Capital team and Ben Long as Investment Director in the Enterprise Fund team. Tilley brings a wealth of experience to our unique minority investment fund, Inflexion Partnership Capital. Offering investment between GBP10 million to GBP150 million in high growth companies, Partnership Capital provides patient equity capital through tailored solutions. Most recently, Tilley was Managing Director and Head of European Financial Sponsors at DC Advisory. His seniority and track record in advising successful private equity backed transactions such as Oasis Healthcare, Zenith, Southern Dental and Park Holidays brings

SK Capital Partners, a private investment firm with a disciplined focus on the specialty materials, chemicals and pharmaceutical sectors, has expanded its team with the addition of Edward Donkor as a Principal, and Simon Dowker as Director of Business Development. Prior to joining SK Capital, Donkor was a Principal at Pine Brook Partners, where he played a significant role in sourcing and executing a variety of energy investment opportunities as well as holding active board-level responsibilities for several of Pine Brook’s portfolio companies. Before joining Pine Brook, he was an investment professional at First Reserve Corporation and an investment banker

Ancala Partners (‘Ancala’), the independent mid-market infrastructure investment manager, has strengthened its infrastructure asset management and investment teams with two new appointments. Ancala has appointed Charles Herriott as Asset Manager to assist in the active management of existing investments in Ancala’s portfolio. He joins from DIF where he was an Asset Manager for a portfolio of 12 PPP and renewable energy assets. He has strong skills in managing infrastructure projects through participating on project company boards and building close relationships with their management teams, co-shareholders and other stakeholders. He has also worked for Amber Infrastructure, Ernst & Young and Smith

Estera, a provider of fiduciary and administration services, has launched in Luxembourg, following its successful acquisition of Headstart earlier this year. Led by managing directors Christophe Gaul and Manuel Mouget, Estera (Luxembourg) provides a full range of high-end specialist corporate and trust services to a diverse client base of private equity and real estate firms, institutional clients and high-net-worth-individuals.   Gaul says: ‘We are proud of the success we have achieved as Headstart and, in order to build on this, it is important that we align ourselves with the Estera brand and values. This exciting step marks the beginning of

Livingbridge has expanded its Equity Funds business with the appointment of David Leahy to Investment Analyst. Leahy initially joined the Livingbridge private equity team in September 2016 to focus on investing in high growth companies, both public and privately owned.  Livingbridge earlier this year expanded the Equity Funds business with the launch of the new CF Livingbridge UK Multi Cap Income Fund, which exists alongside the CF Livingbridge UK Micro Cap Fund, the Livingbridge private equity business and the Baronsmead Venture Trusts.    Leahy’s appointment as Investment Analyst will support the growth of the CF Livingbridge UK Micro Cap Fund and