31 October 2006, Boston - Advent International, the global private equity group, today announced the addition of six new members to its Boston-based North American deal team. Jeff Case and John Maldonado join as Principals, and David Chen, Bryan Doherty, Kevin McQuarrie and Thomas Weisman as Associates.
All six appointments support the ongoing activity of Advent’s $3.3 billion GPE buyout program, which invests primarily in North America and Western Europe. 2005 was a record year group-wide for Advent, which raised three new buyout funds totaling $4 billion, completed over 30 full and partial exits and received numerous industry awards including Financial Sponsor of the Year from the European Venture Capital Journal and Mid-Market Buyout of the Year from the EVCA.
Recent transactions in North America include the successful sale of a majority stake in Boart Longyear, the world’s leading provider of drilling services and products, to a consortium led by Macquarie Bank Limited; the buyout of BondDesk Group, the leading alternative trading system for odd-lot fixed-income; and the purchase of lululemon athletica, a premier athletic and yoga apparel retailer.
Additionally, GFI Group, one of the world’s leading inter-dealer brokers of OTC derivatives, completed a secondary public offering in May 2006, following its successful flotation in 2005 – one of the Top 10 performing IPOs of last year.
“We are very excited to bring these talented investment professionals into the Advent organization,” said David Mussafer, Managing Director and Head of Advent International, North America. “These appointments add valuable sector depth and significantly increase our deal-making capacity in North America as we continue to put our GPE V fund to work.” Mr. Mussafer added: “We see increasing cross-border and multinational buyout activity here in the US – all of which leverages the strength of the Advent platform. Today, our global buyout team of over 100 investment professionals is one of the largest and most experienced in the industry, and with these hires, we have additional depth to support our worldwide activities.”
Jeff Case rejoins Advent following the completion of his Harvard MBA. Before originally joining Advent in 2001, Jeff worked as an analyst at Bowles Hollowell Conner/First Union Securities. He also worked for Danaher Corporation’s corporate development group. Going forward, he will focus on buyout opportunities in the retail and consumer sectors. John Maldonado joins Advent from Parthenon Capital. Prior to that he was with Bain Capital, where he worked on large buyouts across several industries. At Advent, John will focus on the business/financial services and healthcare services sectors.
Joining the Advent Associate Program, is David Chen who comes to Advent from Merrill Lynch’s financial institutions group, while Bryan Doherty joins from William Blair’s financial sponsors group, Kevin McQuarrie, from Lazard Frère & Co.’s life sciences group, and Thomas Weisman, from UBS Investment Bank’s financial sponsors leveraged finance group. Each Associate will work for one of Advent’s four sector teams focused on business and financial services, retail and consumer, industrial and healthcare.