PJT Park Hill’s Costello departs the firm to return to buyside – exclusive

PJT Park Hill‘s head of secondaries advisory is leaving the investment bank after almost four years at the firm, Secondaries Investor has learned.

Jon Costello has submitted his resignation and will move to the buyside, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

It is unclear which firm he is set to join or who will replace him at Park Hill.

Costello joined PJT Park Hill in 2016 from Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners where he was head of private equity secondaries. He was appointed to the top role at Park Hill the following year as former head Larry Thuet moved to a vice-chairman role, as Secondaries Investor reported.

A seasoned secondaries professional with more than two decades of industry experience, Costello had previously worked at Philadelphia-headquartered investment firm Susquehanna International and had led SSG Capital Advisors’ secondaries advisory business.

During Costello’s tenure at the firm, it advised on deals including the restructuring of three funds managed by Peruvian private equity firm Enfoca, one of the largest GP-led transactions to close in the Americas.

Costello set about building a team that included hiring Johanna Lottmann from Lazard and former Abu Dhabi Investment Authority secondaries investment professional Richard Chow, both last year. He also oversaw the tie-up with Nasdaq Private Market last year to launch a platform aimed at standardising procedures around GP-led processes and making them more efficient.

“If we could bring some standardisation and a technology interface to the execution of these deals, it should create more engagement with the market, which should make it easier for GPs to execute deals and propel the growth of the market even further,” Costello, told Secondaries Investor in October.

PJT Park Hill advised on $14.5 billion-worth of secondaries deals last year – a 20 percent jump on its previous year’s transaction volume, according to the Secondaries Investor Annual Advisory Survey 2020 published in April. The firm’s 27 transactions included three single-asset restructurings, one strip sale and one tender offer.

Costello is the second senior person to leave PJT Park Hill this year after London-based Sandro Galfetti‘s departure to UBS, as Secondaries Investor reported this month.

A spokeswoman for PJT Park Hill declined to comment.