Ark Totan co-founder and former chief exec departs – updated

Ark Totan Alternative, a Japanese secondaries advisory firm and placement agent, has lost one of its co-founding partners and former chief executive, Secondaries Investor has learned.

Shunsuke Tanahashi left the Tokyo-based firm at the end of November due to management differences, an Ark spokesman confirmed.

Tanahashi told Secondaries Investor he was taking a short break and plans to return to private equity as early as April. He joined Ark in 2010 from Japanese private equity and secondaries specialist Ant Capital Partners, where he co-headed the firm’s investor relations team.

At Ant, where he spent almost two years, Tanahashi was mainly responsible for working with Japanese pension funds, trust banks and insurance companies in Japan. He began his career at Mitsubishi UFJ Trust bank and later had a 10-month spell at Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

Tanahashi was replaced in May as chief executive and remained as a partner until his departure, the spokesman said.

In August Ark lost its head of secondaries, Hiro Hatayama, who executed the firm’s first fund liquidation and helped establish the its secondaries business, as Secondaries Investor reported. Hatayama is now a principal at Ant spin-out AB Value Capital Partners.

Ark Totan is now led by co-founding partner Tuck Furuya, also an Ant and Goldman alumnus. Furuya focuses on investment due diligence, GP origination and advisory, capital raising and fund liquidation.

Founded in 2010, Ark operates three business lines: private fund placement and investor relations, secondaries advisory, and illiquid asset portfolio construction, according to its website.

– This story was updated to show Tanahashi was replaced as chief executive in May and that he co-led Ant’s IR team.