Woodsford Litigation Funding has appointed Charlie Morris as Senior Investment Officer, reporting to Steven Friel, the firm’s Chief Investment Officer.  Morris has significant experience of handling commercial disputes, often with an international dimension. He has represented a broad range of clients and has particular experience of shareholder actions, debt claims, claims for professional negligence and breach of trust, insurance coverage disputes and group actions arising from failed tax-advantaged investment schemes. Prior to joining Woodsford, Morris was an associate at disputes boutique Enyo Law LLP, having qualified previously at Addleshaw Goddard LLP.  Woodsford’s Chairman, Yves Bonavero, says: “Our litigation funding business

The African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (AVCA) has appointed Vicki Fuller, Chief Investment Officer of the New York State Common Retirement Fund (CRF), to its Advisory Council. In addition, Sev Vettivetpillai, Partner at the Abraaj Group, has been appointed to AVCA’s Board of Directors.   Fuller is responsible for developing and implementing investment strategies to ensure that New York State's Common Retirement Fund remains one of the best-funded and best-managed public pension plans in the United States. She earned her MBA from the University of Chicago and her BSBA from Roosevelt University in Chicago. She was named one

Scottish-based business angel syndicate, Archangels, has appointed Sarah Hardy as its Chief Investment Officer (CIO). Hardy joins Chief Operating Officer, David Ovens, and Investment Director, Niki McKenzie, to complete Archangels’ executive team line-up, and will be responsible for overseeing Scotland’s largest business angel syndicate’s investment strategy and will have specific responsibility for liaison with a number of Archangels’ investee companies.   Archangels, the prominent business angel syndicate based in Edinburgh, has been at the forefront of early stage investing in Scotland for more than two decades.   Sarah joins Archangels from the Wellcome Trust, the independent charitable foundation dedicated to

Pamplona Capital Management (Pamplona) has appointed Mark Pacala as an operating partner with a focus on healthcare. Pacala has more than 20 years’ experience working in the healthcare industry. Most recently he was a Senior Advisor in the healthcare team at Oak Hill Capital Partners. In that role, he served on the boards of Vantage Oncology and Raintree Oncology Services until their recent sales to McKesson and Cardinal Health, respectively, and will continue to serve on the board of AccentCare and SmartPak. Previously, Pacala served as a general partner at Essex Woodlands Health Ventures and was the Chairman and CEO of

Pivotus Ventures has hired Janina Lieser and Raj Bhandari as Entrepreneur in Residence, Dr Andrew Eichenbaum as Chief Data Scientist and Joshua Sortino as Head of Design. All will work directly with Managing Directors Steve Gotz and Oren Goldschmidt to advance bank innovation and customer experience.   “Janina, Raj, Andrew and Joshua bring a powerful combination of innovative product development, data analytics and user experience design that will be essential as Pivotus leverages Umpqua Bank’s reputation and data to reinvent the banking experience,” says Ray Davis, president and CEO of Umpqua Holdings Corporation. “With their talent and expertise, we look

VSS, a private investment firm focused on the information, tech-enabled business services, healthcare IT, and education industries, has completed the sale of its interest in flight operations software specialist Navtech Inc. Navtech has been acquired by Airbus ProSky SAS, part of the Airbus group of companies.   Headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario, with offices in London and Cardiff, Navtech serves more than 400 aircraft operators and aviation services customers worldwide, with a suite of aeronautical products and services including charts, navigation data solutions, flight planning, aircraft performance and crew planning solutions. In 2015, VSS assisted Navtech with the acquisition of DW

Cleveland-based private equity firm Linsalata Capital Partners (LinCap) has promoted Jeffrey S Wahl to Managing Director and Operating Partner, Murad A Beg to Managing Director and James V Guddy to Principal. Wahl joined Linsalata Capital Partners in 2014 after a 30 year career of progressive operating roles, most recently as President and CEO of EdisonLearning, a private equity-backed international education services provider. Before Edison, Wahl was Executive Vice President and COO at Outsourcing Solutions Inc, a private equity backed global leader of business process outsourcing and revenue cycle management. Prior to that, he rose through senior level positions at GE