People
Mark Decker and Mark Decker, Jr have joined Morgan Keegan as managing directors in the firm’s Real Estate Investment Banking group. Both were formerly with Robert W Baird & Co, and will be based in the firm’s recently-opened office in Washington, DC.
Decker will serve as co-head of the Real Estate Investment Banking group along with current managing director Chris Kollme (pictured).
“Mark Decker is an established banker with invaluable relationships throughout the REIT sector, and Mark Decker, Jr is a talented and well-respected banker in his own right,” says Rob Baird, executive managing director and president of Morgan Keegan’s
Aurora Capital Group, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm with over USD2 billion of assets under management, has made three promotions within Aurora Resurgence Management Partners, an affiliate of the Company. Joshua Phillips, has been made Managing Director, while Peter Leibman and Ryan McCarthy have been promoted to Principals.
Anthony DiSimone, Managing Partner of Aurora Resurgence, say: "We are proud to acknowledge the accomplishments of these highly talented members of our investment team through well-deserved promotions. Josh, Peter and Ryan have been integral contributors to Aurora Resurgence’s successes and we look forward to continuing to benefit from their expertise."
Josh
Micro-market, private equity firm Evolution Capital Partners has appointed Gene Marino to its team as a partner. Effective 1 March, Marino will open Evolution’s Chicago office, where he will focus on sourcing new investment opportunities, join the board of existing Evolution portfolio companies and continue to build the Evolution brand in the Chicago region.
"Hiring Gene and opening a Chicago office will reinforce our presence in the Chicago market, as we already have several portfolio companies there," says Jeffrey Kadlic, a Managing Partner at Evolution.
Prior to joining, Marino was the President and Chief Executive Officer of Innerpac, Inc,
RJD Partners (RJD), a middle market private equity firm, has announced four promotions within in its investment team. Alex Hay (pictured) and Frank Bulman are both promoted to Partner, Jill Williams is promoted to Investment Director, and Richard Court to Investment Manager.
The promotions follow a busy second half of 2010, which saw RJD complete two new investments and achieve the first realisation from its second fund, RJD Private Equity Fund II, with the sale of Teaching Personnel in July.
Hay joined RJD from Close Brothers Corporate Finance in January 2007. He completed the management buyout of Chemigraphic Limited, one
Irving Place Capital, a middle-market private equity firm, has appointed Michael Feiner as Senior Advisor of Human Capital. Feiner has extensive experience helping some of the world’s leading corporations develop and optimise their leadership and talent as a corporate executive, management consultant, author and professor.
Feiner’s corporate experience includes 20 years at PepsiCo, where he served as Senior Vice President & Chief People Officer for beverage operations worldwide. In that role, Feiner built a global human resources organisation that has been recognised as one of the most innovative in the world. He also has taught at Columbia Business School, where
Lightspeed Venture Partners, a global venture capital firm with over USD2 billion of committed capital, has promoted John Vrionis (pictured) to managing director.
“John has been a valuable member of our team, driving key investments with some of the most promising enterprise infrastructure startups over the past five years,” says Chris Schaepe, Lightspeed co-founder and managing director. “In this senior role, he will continue to build our strong portfolio in disruptive growth segments relevant to the datacenter, including cloud computing, virtualization, data management, and next generation networking.”
Vrionis joined Lightspeed in 2006 as a senior associate and was later promoted
Throgmorton, one of the UK’s largest specialist accountancy and professional services providers to the hedge fund, private equity and corporate finance industries, has hired Sara Selvarajah to bolster its tax team.
Selvarajah will assist and service Throgmorton’s increasing client base with her knowledge across all aspects of tax. The firm hopes to capitalise on the shrinking banking sector and the growing number of proprietary trading desks spinning out to set up fund management companies. Selvarajah’s significant experience and contacts within the banking sector will help achieve this.
Formally a senior member of the tax team at Salomon Brothers and
Ogier Cayman’s litigation team has promoted both Shaun Folpp and Rachael Reynolds to Managing Associates, and Michael Makridakis to Senior Associate. These appointments reflect the contributions of these individuals to Ogier’s litigation practice over the past 18 months.
Ogier Fiduciary Services Cayman Limited meanwhile, has promoted Scott Dakers to Director. In his new role, Dakers will focus on ensuring the highest quality of services targeted to clients in the investment funds sector as well as corporate and commercial.
“These promotions reflect the outstanding contributions these individuals have made in their respective areas of expertise,” says Peter Cockhill, Managing Partner,
Graphite Capital, a UK mid-market private equity specialist, has added to its team with the appointment of Simon May (pictured) as investment manager.
May joins Graphite after six years at PwC, most recently as a manager in the Business Recovery Services division where he focused on the manufacturing, distribution and healthcare sectors. He is a chartered accountant and holds a first class degree in mathematics from the University of Bath. As well as working with portfolio companies, May will look at investment opportunities and specifically cover the Midlands region.
Rod Richards, Graphite managing partner, says: “We are delighted to welcome
Cayman Finance Chairman Anthony Travers, OBE has stepped down from his post after two years in office.
According to Cayman Finance, Travers want to spend more time attending to his other business ventures and with his family. During this transitional period, the remaining board members will share directional responsibilities, and an interim Chairman is expected to be announced imminently. Further announcements will be made in due course.
“I was asked to take on the role at a time when our public relations were at a low ebb," says Travers. "At the time the UK and US Governments were extremely hostile to the Cayman
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12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
