Advent International, the global private equity firm, today announced the promotion of 18 members of its global investment team.
Fred Wakeman, head of Advent’s global TMT sector team, has been promoted to Managing Partner, based in the London office. Alfredo Alfaro, a founding partner of Advent’s Mexico City office, and Patrice Etlin, who started the firm’s Brazilian operation, were both promoted to Managing Partner – Latin America.
Advent also promoted seven professionals to Managing Director – Luiz Antonio Alves in Brazil, Ronald Ayles and Ranjan Sen in Frankfurt, Filippo de Vecchi in Milan, Stephen Hoffmeister in Boston, Monika Morali-Efinowicz in Warsaw, and Luis Solórzano in Mexico. An additional four team members were promoted to Director and four to Assistant Director.
Commenting on the promotions, Steve Tadler, a Managing Partner of Advent International and Chairman of its Executive Committee, said, “We are very pleased to advance these talented individuals, each of whom has made a significant contribution to the success of our firm. These promotions reflect our commitment to developing our organization to better enable us to make investments in an increasingly complex environment.”
Mr. Tadler continued: “Moving into 2009, we believe Advent is well-positioned in the current environment. Over the past 18 to 24 months, we have created additional investment team capacity by successfully divesting a considerable portion of our portfolio. In addition, we have ample capital to invest in new deals, having raised $14 billion in private equity funds globally during this period. Today, we have a large team of 140 investment professionals and nearly 60 operating partners to actively support existing companies and source new opportunities.”
Western Europe/North America (GPE Programme)
BOSTON
Stephen Hoffmeister, promoted to Managing Director. Stephen joined Advent in 2004 and is a member of the firm’s Industrial sector team. He played a key role in completing and exiting the Boart Longyear investment, named Buyouts Exit of the Year in 2007, and also co-led the investment in Bradco Supply. Previously, Stephen was with Bain Capital in Boston, where he worked on buyouts in several industries. His other experience includes strategy consulting at Bain & Company in Toronto and Sydney.
FRANKFURT
Ronald Ayles, promoted to Managing Director. Ron spent ten years at Degussa, the German Speciality Chemicals company and four years at 3i before joining Advent in 2005. He leads our Chemicals and Materials sector team. He led Advent’s investment in OXEA and played a key role in Boart Longyear, RWE Solutions and H.C. Starck.
Ranjan Sen, promoted to Managing Director. Ranjan joined Advent in 2003 from DB Capital Partners, UBS Capital and Dresdner Kleinwort Benson. Ranjan has been a key participant in several successful German and European deals including Vinnolit, Casa Reha, Sportfive, HT Troplast, H.C. Starck and Takko.
LONDON
Fred Wakeman, promoted to Managing Partner. Fred joined in 1998 from GE Capital’s equity capital group where he specialised in later-stage growth capital investments. With over 15 years of PE experience, Fred leads Advent’s TMT sector team and has held directorships at Radio 538 and Venere.com.
Nick Rose, promoted to Director. Nick Rose joined Advent in 2005 and is a key member of the Financial Services team. Previously, he was at Bain and Company. Since joining Advent, Nick has been active in the Financial Services sub segments of Asset Management, Consumer Finance and Insurance and has been involved in Equiniti, Domestic and General and Financial Dynamics.
Johanna Reineke, promoted to Assistant Director. Johanna joined Advent’s Limited Partners Services Group in 2007 after four years in the M&A and Corporate Broking departments at Deutsche Bank, both in London and Frankfurt. She is primarily focused on fundraising and investor relations activities.
Thomas Weisman, promoted to Assistant Director. Thomas Weisman joined Advent in 2006. He previously worked in the UBS Financial Sponsors Leveraged Finance Group in New York. Thomas is a member of the TMT sector team.
MILAN
Filippo de Vecchi, promoted to Managing Director. Filippo joined the Latin American team in Brazil in 2000 from Value Partners, a leading management consulting firm. Returning to Milan in 2003, Filippo played key leadership roles in Venere.com, Gruppo Argenta and Atrium Telecom.
Roberto Torrini, promoted to Director. Roberto Torrini joined Advent in 2005 from McKinsey & Company in Milan where he worked for the telecoms and financial services practices. He also gained hands-on industrial experience as a research engineer with Philips in the Netherlands. Roberto played a significant role in the exits of Gruppo Argenta and Venere.com.
Francesco Casiraghi, promoted to Assistant Director. Francesco Casiraghi joined Advent in 2007 from Merrill Lynch, Investment Banking, where he worked for five years across their London, Hong Kong, Rome and Milan offices. Prior to that, he worked at Procter & Gamble as a process engineer. At Advent, he is part of the deal team managing AVIP.
PARIS
Damien Lestang, promoted to Director. Damien Lestang joined Advent in 2003. Prior to Advent, worked at BNP Paribas where he was involved in the arrangement and underwriting of LBO transactions. Before then, he worked for Allianz’ private equity arm in France, AGF PE. Since joining Advent, Damien has been involved with Sportfive, Parques Reunidos, Stokomani and Gérard Darel.
Central & Eastern Europe (ACEE Programme)
PRAGUE
Milan Kulich, promoted to Assistant Director. Milan joined Advent in 2007 and has over six years of corporate finance experience. Prior to Advent, he worked at Deloitte as Assistant Director focusing on M&A and valuations primarily in the Consumer and Industrial sectors across several CEE countries. He also headed Deloitte's Central European Transport and Logistics sector team.
WARSAW
Monika Morali-Efinowicz, promoted to Managing Director. Monika joined in 2005 from Apax Partners in Germany where she focused on leveraged buyouts, predominantly in the European media sector. At the beginning of this year she became Head of the Warsaw office. She has been involved with KAI, Bolix and Axtone. Monika also contributed to the fundraising effort for ACEE IV.
Christian Senye, promoted to Director. Christian joined Advent in 2005. He previously worked for McKinsey & Company in their offices in Poland and Russia advising clients across a broad range of sectors, including Finance, Petroleum and TMT. He has been responsible for the exit from Bolix and plays a key role in Advent’s investment in Ultimo where he is on the board.
Latin America (LAPEF Programme)
MEXICO CITY
Alfredo Alfaro, promoted to Managing Partner – Latin America. Alfredo joined Advent at the inception of its Latin American program in 1996. He is respected as one of the leading private equity executives in Mexico, having worked on dozens of deals. At Advent, he has led or co-led 11 investments and is a director of Gayosso, Grupo Aeroplazas, La Mansión, Hipotecaria Casa Mexicana, IFC Medios, Milano and Scitum. Previously, he spent 14 years with Grupo Financiero Probursa, a leading Mexican financial bank.
Luis Solórzano, promoted to Managing Director. Luis joined Advent in 2001 and has been a core member of its airport sector team, while working on many of the deals done by the Mexico City office. He has co-led or participated in investments in Aerodom, Brasif, Dufry, Hildebrando and Fumisa among others. Luis was previously with BancBoston Capital, working on private equity investments in Latin America, and before that was a member of BancBoston’s Latin American corporate banking group.
SÃO PAULO
Patrice Etlin, promoted to Managing Partner – Latin America. Patrice joined Advent in 1997 and started the firm’s investment activities in Brazil. He has led or co-led Advent’s investments in 10 companies, including CSU CardSystem, J. Malucelli Seguradora, Microsiga, Quero-Quero and Viena. Prior to Advent, he was a partner at International Venture Partners in São Paulo and earlier spent five years with Matra Marconi Space, first as a systems engineer and then as general representative for Brazil.
Luiz Antonio Alves, promoted to Managing Director. Luiz joined Advent in 2004 and has co-led or participated in the firm’s investments in Atmosfera, Grupo RA, J. Malucelli Seguradora, Quero-Quero and Proservvi. Previously, he spent seven years with Booz Allen Hamilton, based in São Paulo and London, and before that was a strategic planning analyst with Motorola.