A round-up of last week’s people moves at firms providing services to the alternative assets industry

Legal

  • Akin Gump has promoted Rich Rabin to Partner and Head of its New York office. He is currently Head of the New York Labor and Employment Practice, and will succeed Abid Qureshi, who is now Co-Chair Elect of the firm. Rabin has been at the New York office since 1998.

  • Baker McKenzie has hired Miju Damodar as a Partner in the Finance Team. He will operate out of the New York office and advise companies on global financing transactions. He was previously Counsel at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.

  • Clifford Chance has appointed Karalyn Mildorf as a Partner in Washington, DC. She advises clients on Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) issues, covering a variety of industries and investor countries. Mildorf joins from White & Case, where she spent the last six years as a Partner.

  • Dentons has hired Rick Pawluk as a Partner in the Corporate Group. He will be based in Calgary, Canada and advises public and private companies in corporate finance and securities transactions. He was formerly a Partner at Fasken. Andrew Clearwater has joined the firm as a Partner in Portland, Oregon, focusing on privacy and artificial intelligence governance. He joins from privacy and security software provider OneTrust.

    Tom Geudens has been hired as Head of Denton’s Banking and Finance Practice in Belgium, joining alongside Senior Associate Matthias De Cock and Associate Brandon Cheliotis. They all join from Lydian.

  • DLA Piper has recruited Juan Verdugo as a Partner in the Restructuring team in Madrid, joining the firm from Garrigues. Frances Mosley joins the Corporate Practice in Palo Alto as a Partner from WilmerHale.

  • Hogan Lovells has hired Andrea Pretti as a Partner in Milan. He will operate out of the Corporate and Finance team and advises across pharmaceuticals, financial services, technology, media, telecommunications, and energy. He was formerly a Local Partner at White & Case.

  • Linklaters has hired Jessica Radke as Senior Counsel in London, effective May 6. She will work in the Litigation, Arbitration, and Investigations Practice, as well as the Antitrust and Foreign Investment group. Radke was previously Deputy General Counsel and Senior Director of Litigation at the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).

  • Raj Karia has been promoted to Global Head of Corporate, M&A, and Securities at Norton Rose Fulbright in London. He joined as an Associate in 1993 and will continue as Head of Corporate, M&A, and Securities for EMEA. Karia succeeds Istanbul and New York Partner Ayşe Yüksel Mahfoud, who has held the role since 2021 and is remaining with the firm.

    Adam Arnett has joined as US Co-Head of Private Equity. He will be based in Chicago and work alongside New York partner Ward Atterbury, who also serves as Global Head of Private Equity. Arnett was previously a Partner at Mayer Brown.

  • Sidley Austin has appointed Andrew Colosimo, Shant Manoukian, and Patrick Greeley as Partners in the M&A and Private Equity Practice in New York. They all join from Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, and represent clients across asset management M&A-related matters. In Northern California, Michael Podolny has joined as a Partner in the Emerging Companies and Venture Capital group. He was previously a Partner at Latham & Watkins, based in the Silicon Valley office.

  • Simpson Thacher has appointed Zachary Hafer and Yonatan Levy as Boston-based Partners. Hafer will operate out of the Government and Internal Investigations Practice, and was previously a Partner at Cooley, having also spent 14 years at the US Attorney’s office in Massachusetts. Levy will be in the Private Funds Practice and previously spent over a decade at Ropes & Gray.

    The firm has also hired Anne Choe, Justin Browder, Neesa Patel Sood, and Bissie Bonner as Partners in the Registered Funds and Funds Regulatory and Investigations Practices. They will be based in Washington, DC and New York, and all join from Willkie Farr & Gallagher.

  • White & Case has hired Dylan Glazier as a Partner in New York. He will work across the Global Debt Finance Practice, Investment Funds Practice, and Global Financial Institutions Industry group, and focuses on advising lenders and borrowers on a broad range of structures. He joins from Haynes and Boone.

  • WilmerHale has added David Strong as a Partner in its Transactional department and Corporate Practice. He focuses on M&A, partnerships and joint ventures, and a range of debt and equity financing transactions. He was previously a Member at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.

Consultancy and advisory

  • UK-based pensions advisor Hymans Robertson has promoted Kathryn Fleming to Head of DC Consulting, effective April 2025. She will succeed Mark Jaffray, who will now focus on strategic investment advice and innovation, the firm said. She joined Hymans Robertson as part of the Graduate program in 2004 and has been a Partner since 2019. She is currently Head of DC At-retirement Services.

  • Isio, a pension, investment, employee benefits, and wealth advisory business, has appointed Chris Woodhouse as Chair and Michael Whitfield as a Non-Executive Director. Woodhouse previously led investment service Evelyn Partners and the RAC as CEO, and held C-suite and Chairman roles at Homebase, Halfords, and the Gondola Group. Whitfield was previously CEO of Thomsons Online Benefits, an employee benefits technology business.

Administration

  • Oak Group has appointed Siobhan Bousfield as Trust & Corporate Director, based in Guernsey. She was previously an Associate Director at Intertrust Group and has experience managing high-net-worth clients across the globe.

  • Ocorian has appointed Simona Watkis as Head of Private Client in the Cayman Islands. She was most recently President & CEO at Proven Wealth, and formerly CEO at NCB Capital Markets.

  • Jersey-based VG has hired Stacey-Anne Sunley as an Associate Director in its Private Wealth division. She was previously a Client Director at Intertrust Group. Mayfair Equity Partners acquired the fund administrator in July last year, according to Preqin data.

Investment bank

  • Barclays has appointed Isobel van Daesdonk and Scott Willard to Managing Director in the Financial Sponsors Group, based in New York. Van Daesdonk joins from Guggenheim Securities, where she was a Senior Managing Director in Financial Sponsors Investment Banking. Willard was previously a Managing Director at Nomura Securities, and has also worked at UBS and Deutsche Bank.

  • Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank (CIB) has promoted Alexandre Taieb to Head of Private Debt Solutions. He was previously Head of Financial Control for the Financing Bank and Investment Banking, and has been at Crédit Agricole CIB for over 19 years.

  • Lazard has hired Chris Miller as Managing Director, Power, Energy & Infrastructure Advisory. He will be based in New York and advise clients in the energy industry, primarily in the oil and gas sector. He joins from Citigroup, where he was a Managing Director and Vice Chairman of Energy Investment Banking.

  • Mesirow Investment Banking has added John Calcagnini as a Managing Director in its Investment Banking group. Based in Los Angeles, he will work closely with Lance Bell and co-lead healthcare sector coverage. Calcagnini was formerly a Managing Director in the Healthcare Practice of Stout’s Investment Banking group.

  • Piper Sandler has hired Ahsan Khan as a Managing Director, and Jonathan Hartland and Andrew Fair as Directors in its Private Capital Advisory Investment Banking group. Khan will be based in London and was previously a Director at Asante Capital Group covering limited partners across Europe and the Middle East. Hartland spent nine years at Rede Partners as a lead member of the European Advisory team and will be based in London. Fair joins the New York office from Connaught, where he was a Director and Co-Lead of the North American office.

  • Will Eide has joined Rothschild & Co’s advisory business as a Managing Director in the Technology Team, based in New York. He was previously Senior Managing Director at Guggenheim Partners, and before that, Director of the TMT Group at Houlihan Lokey.

  • US-based Sunflower Bank has hired Bo Scott as Chief Banking Officer to enhance middle-market growth. He will be based in the Dallas headquarters and joins from InBank, where he was President and Chief Banking Officer.

Platform

  • UK-based end-to-end wealth management platform FNZ has appointed Aashish Kamat as Group Chief Financial Officer. He was formerly a Managing Partner of the GCC Asia Growth Fund, and previously held roles at UBS, JP Morgan, and Bank of America.

  • US ratings and risk assessment firm Moody’s Ratings has promoted Marc Pinto to Global Head of Private Credit. He will lead research and rating initiatives on private credit and co-head the Insurance team. He was previously Global Head of Funds & Asset Management, and Chief Credit Policy Officer for North American banks.

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