UBS to lose secondaries chief

Nigel Dawn, well known in the industry for heading up UBS’s private equity secondary advisory business, is leaving the bank, according to several sources in the market.

Dawn, who will leave UBS by the end of July, could not be reached for comment. It’s not clear if Dawn is being directly replaced, but team co-heads Jake Elmhirst and James Moore will continue heading the practice, according to a person familiar with the operation.

The person said UBS remains committed to the secondary advisory business.

Dawn, co-head of UBS’ Private Funds Group, ran the secondary advisory team that secured numerous high profile mandates to sell big portfolios of private equity stakes. UBS helped New York City Retirement System sell an about $1 billion chunk of its private equity portfolio last year, as well as the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, which pursued its first-ever private equity secondary sale with UBS’ help.

Dawn has worked at UBS for 16 years, with nine of them on the private equity secondary side.  He also worked as chief of staff in global trade finance in Citibank and as an associate Booz Allen Hamilton.