Kline Hill promotes Danielle Buccola to CFO

Kline Hill Partners has promoted Danielle Buccola to CFO as the smaller and niche-focused firm seeks to raise almost $1 billion across three strategies.

Buccola joined Greenwich-headquartered Kline Hill in 2016 and previously served as vice-president of finance and operations.

“Danielle has been instrumental in running the numbers of the firm and preparing our financials and the necessary information for our clients. This promotion is a recognition of her excellent ability and all she has done for us for a long time,” Kline Hill managing partner Michael Bego said in a statement.

The firm has made several senior and mid-level hires in recent months as it has grown and expanded into Europe. In September, Kline Hill hired Elena Laleh as managing director of the firm’s newly established office in Zurich.

Laleh was one of 12 hires in the second half of 2021 that saw Kline Hill add talent to its finance, operations and investment teams, bringing its total staff to 32 professionals.

Buccola’s promotion and Laleh’s hiring also adds to Kline Hill’s roster of women in leadership positions. Last year, the firm promoted Priya Pradhan Karkar, who oversees Kline Hill’s investor relations and business development efforts, to managing director.

“We are pleased to recognise the achievements of our talented team and their significant contributions to our firm, and we’re proud to see our women executives be successful as they continue to advance their careers at Kline Hill,” Bego said.

Kline Hill wants to raise as much as $250 million for a fund to invest in GP-led deals such as restructurings, as much as $525 million for its fourth flagship fund and $175 million for an overage fund, affiliate title Buyouts reported in July.

Bego said the firm has been very busy in recent years and Buccola’s promotion and the new hires are a result of the high volume of deals, the increasing demand for Kline Hill as a buyer in secondaries transactions and the overall growth of the firm.

“We sourced over 30 deals on average per week in 2021, closing on over 85 between LP and GP-led secondary transactions, and we expect 2022 to be again a record year for us given Kline Hill’s focus on the historically neglected, small-deal section of the secondary market,” Bego noted.

Bego added that Kline Hill will continue to grow to offer solutions to sellers in secondaries transactions.

– A version of this report was originally published on affiliate title Private Funds CFO.