People

Pantheon nabs Coller partner for PE secondaries top job

The hire comes 10 months after former secondaries co-head Matt Jones left the firm to co-head TPG's secondaries business.

-

Pantheon has shored up its secondaries leadership by hiring a long-time executive from one of the few remaining independent secondaries firms of scale.

The London-based firm has hired Coller Capital partner Amyn Hassanally as partner and global head of private equity secondaries, according to a statement. Hassanally will join in the New York office, reporting to Jeff Miller, global head of private equity.

In his role, Hassanally will lead a team of 22 private equity secondaries professionals at Pantheon, including seven partners, and will become a member of its secondaries investment committee. The official start date is still being finalised and is expected to be in early fall, according to a Pantheon spokesperson.

Hassanally previously spent 16 years with Coller in New York and London, where he was most recently a partner and global co-head of investment execution.

The hire comes 11 months after Secondaries Investor reported that Pantheon secondaries co-head Matt Jones was departing to lead TPG‘s secondaries unit in Europe. Jones had been leading Pantheon’s secondaries presence in Europe.

Co-head of secondaries Rudy Scarpa has been leading the US effort and will work closely with Hassanally, according to the spokesperson. Hassanally’s is a new role that will provide strategic oversight for the PE secondaries business, while Scarpa will continue to lead deal teams and transactions as well as focus on fundraising, the spokesperson added.

Hassanally has experience transacting on the GP-led and LP side of the market, according to the statement.

In October, Pantheon held a $624 million final close on its first fund dedicated to GP-led secondaries transactions, Pantheon Secondary Opportunities Fund. The firm has been in the market since June with its seventh flagship secondaries fund, Pantheon Global Secondary Fund VII. The fund is sized “to fill the void” left by competitors raising larger funds, according to materials from Ventura County Employees Retirement Association.