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The Estonian Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (EstVCA) has elected Margus Uudam of the investment firm Ambient Sound Investments as the new chairman of its management board. Other members of the management board elected include Kristjan Kalda of BaltCap, Heidi Kakko of SmartCap, Mart Altvee of Redgate Capital, Ivar Siimar of WNB, Marek Kiisa of Astrec Invest and Sille Pettai of Swedbank Investeerimisfondid.   Uudam (pictured) says Estonia’s venture capital sector trails Europe in terms of its investment volumes, and consequently the main task of EstVCA in coming years is to significantly increase the market activity. "Our goal is
Ben Eaton, partner, Goodwin Procter
Ben Eaton has joined Goodwin Procter as a partner in the firm’s London office. Eaton (pictured) comes to Goodwin from Allen & Overy in London. As a member of the firm’s tax practice, Eaton’s initial focus will be on tax matters involving investment funds and real estate transactions. He has considerable experience advising on the tax aspects of numerous types of funds, including private equity, infrastructure/renewables, debt, hedge and real estate. In addition to his multi-sector expertise in the fund formation area, he has advised clients on all aspects of real estate work, including investment, financing, development and leasing as
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Doug Lawson has joined Lazard Middle Market as a managing director and head of packaging within its industrials group. He is based in Chicago. “Doug has established a national reputation in the packaging sector, having advised on many of the most notable middle market transactions in the sector in recent years,” says Bob Frost, head of the industrial group for Lazard Middle Market. Lawson’s investment banking experience include numerous sale and buy-side advisory mandates, leveraged buyouts, and fairness opinions for a wide variety of clients, including private equity groups, public companies, and privately owned businesses. Prior to joining Lazard, Lawson
Silverfleet Capital, the European private equity firm, has promoted three of its investment team. Mark Piasecki, who is based in London, has been promoted to principal. Robert Knight, also based in London, and Cyril Bourdarot who is based in Paris, have become investment executives. Neil MacDougall (pictured), managing partner of Silverfleet Capital, says: “Mark, Cyril and Robert have all made very significant contributions to our firm and the partners at Silverfleet Capital have recognised their hard work through these promotions. “Silverfleet Capital has strong and experienced investment teams based in each of our London, Paris and Munich offices which enable
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Michael Deleray has joined investment bank and growth equity investor Broadhaven Capital Partners as a partner. Deleray has enjoyed a career in financial services as a senior executive, investor and strategic adviser, and will be a key participant in Broadhaven’s expanded coverage of the global financial services industry. "We are extremely pleased to welcome Mike to Broadhaven, adding to our deep expertise across the financial services spectrum," says Greg Phillips, co-founder of Broadhaven. "Our clients and portfolio companies will immediately benefit from his experience as an executive and strategic advisor." Deleray was previously a founder of Bendigo Partners, a private
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Actis, the pan-emerging markets private equity investor, has promoted Adiba Anyaoku Ighodaro to partner. Ighodaro is a member of the investor development group, responsible for leading fundraising activities and investor relations in North America. Paul Fletcher, senior partner at Actis, says: “Adiba exemplifies the best of Actis’s values. During her time at Actis, she has demonstrated exceptional levels of commitment, energy and professionalism in a number of different roles. Adiba has a rare ability to combine managing complex business relationships with great sensitivity and clear commercial acumen.”   Ighodaro joined CDC in 1991 after beginning her career in commercial and
Jones Day’s Düsseldorf office, opened in March 2012, has added a banking and finance team led by Claudia Leyendecker. Leyendecker and her team join a number of other lawyers who have moved to Jones Day’s Düsseldorf office in the past few months, including the transactional team of Dr Ulrich Brauer, Dr Kerstin Mast, and Dr Ralf Recknagel; an employment law team led by Dr Markus Kappenhagen; and an IP practice led by Kai Rüting. The team led by Leyendecker includes three additional attorneys with experience in regulatory and capital investment law: Mathias Raabe and Marc von Ammon, joining the firm
International law firm CMS has announced the new leadership structure for its UK and CEE private equity sector. James Grimwood (pictured), recently announced as the global CMS PE leader, will also lead the UK PE sector team. He is a partner in the corporate department with extensive experience in advising on a wide range of PE transactions. Grimwood’s experience spans development capital deals through to high value, cross border buy-outs.   For CEE, the international PE sector group will be co-led by David Butts and Graham Conlon. Butts is a partner with considerable expertise on a broad range of PE, corporate
Dallas-based private equity firm glendonTodd Capital has appointed David Novak as president at Chemical Information Services (CIS). John Harris stepped down as chief executive of CIS on 31 October to return to his role as an operating partner at glendonTodd. Novak (pictured) will report to Todd Furniss, chairman of the board of CIS and CEO and managing partner at glendonTodd. “We are grateful for John’s contribution and service to CIS,” says Furniss. “David’s marketing acumen, sales focus and attention to operational execution substantively expands our firm’s leadership and functional competence. David is rapidly positioning CIS as a cloud-based services provider
Highland Capital Partners has strengthened its consumer internet and digital media practice with the appointment of Manish Patel as a partner in its Menlo Park office. After spending nearly seven years at Google building the products and teams responsible for many of the company’s key product offerings, from AdWords and AdSense, to Google TV and Google Maps, Patel (pictured) joined Highland in late 2010 to extend the firm’s reach into the Bay Area entrepreneurial community. His background in engineering and design has been instrumental in growing the firm’s local portfolio, with active involvement in Leap Motion and Game Closure, among

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