Looking back: top people stories of 2016

The last 12 months in secondaries people moves have been busy, with executives finding themselves on the wrong side of the law, moving firms, or departing the industry altogether. Here are the top five stories on the subject in the market this year:

1. Park Hill’s Caspersen arrested and charged with fraud

In March, federal prosecutors charged Andrew Caspersen, a fund restructurings expert and then partner at the advisory firm, with attempting to defaud investors out of more than $95 million. Caspersen, 39 at the time, was later banned from working in private equity and sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty to two criminal counts.

2. Coller Capital chief executive Tim Jones resigns

The London-headquartered secondaries powerhouse lost its chief executive and deputy investment officer at the end of January, in what founder Jeremy Coller called a “disappointing development”. Jones’s resignation was the first of several departures during the year that included fundraising professional Ashley Johansen, partner Luca Salvato and investment manager Martin Fleischer.

3. CPPIB hires Pantheon’s Nik Morandi

The former Pantheon partner spent about six months on gardening leave before joining Canada Pension Plan Investment Board in August to lead its secondaries and co-investments team. CPPIB had been without a London-based European secondaries and co-investment head since Neal Costello departed for AlpInvest Partners in early 2015.

4. UBS’s Gerald Cooper joins Campbell Lutyens

The Swiss bank lost its secondaries advisory co-head and a 12-year veteran, who jumped ship to Campbell Lutyens in New York. Cooper is working with London-based partner Thomas Liaudet to lead the Campbell Lutyens North American secondaries business, where the firm plans to increase its headcount to 20.

5. Morgan Stanley’s Jonathan Costello joins Park Hill

The bank’s Alternative Investment Partners unit lost its head of private equity secondaries in August. Costello, who has 22 years of industry experience, joined Park Hill’s advisory group to focus on secondaries including GP-led restructurings.

Other notable stories included:

• Adams Street Partners’ secondaries head Jason Gull retired after a decade at the investment firm
• Justine Gordon left AlpInvest Partners after less than a year and a half at the Carlyle fund of funds where she had focused on secondaries and co-investments in energy and infrastructure
• Fondinvest lost managing partner Hugh Dunkerley, who was charged with tribal bond fraud by the US Department of Justice
• Andrei Brougham joined Park Hill from Greenhill Cogent in London as a director