UBS’s Gerald Cooper departs for Campbell Lutyens

UBS‘s global co-head of secondaries has left the bank to join Campbell Lutyens in its New York office, Secondaries Investor has learned.

Gerald Cooper, a 12-year veteran and managing director in the bank’s private funds group, will join Campbell Lutyens to help develop its North American secondaries activities with a focus on GP-led restructurings, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Fortune first wrote that Cooper had left.

Cooper has been on gardening leave since Monday and is still a UBS employee, Secondaries Investor understands. The sources said Cooper will join Campbell Lutyens in two months and will work with London-based partner Thomas Liaudet to lead the firm’s North American secondaries business.

It is understood Campbell Lutyens will have six professionals in its New York secondaries team when Cooper joins. The firm plans to grow its US headcount to 20 by early next year, as sister publication Private Equity International reported in July.

Cooper has extensive experience in GP-led deals and led the restructuring of two funds managed by Canadian private equity firm Edgestone Capital Partners that closed in 2015. Prior to joining UBS in 2004, Cooper focused on equity and mezzanine investments at Advantage Capital Partners, according to his LinkedIn.

UBS has 19 professionals globally on its secondaries advisory team and most recently hired a former Citi veteran as a director in its New York office, as Secondaries Investor reported.

UBS and Campbell Lutyens declined to comment. Cooper didn’t return a request for comment.