Houlihan Lokey announced an additional expansion of its Private Funds Group (PFG) with the appointment of a team of four managing directors from Greenhill & Co. to significantly strengthen its U.S. Primary practice. The additions establish Houlihan Lokey as one of the only investment banks in the industry with a single integrated team focused on primary capital raising, secondary capital advisory, direct equity fundraising, and GP stakes advisory.
These hires follow the announcement in December 2023 of the acquisition of Triago Management Development in a major expansion of Houlihan Lokey’s Private Funds Group, led by Global Co-Heads Andy Lund and Cristina Forcina Westermann.
With more than 20 years’ experience in raising private capital, Tom Donovan has joined the firm as a Managing Director and Head of U.S. Primary, based in Chicago. At Greenhill & Co., he built and led the Primary Private Capital Advisory business, having joined the firm in 2021 from Mercury Capital Advisors, where he was Head of North America. Mr. Donovan formerly held a senior role in the private capital advisory team at Lazard and started his career and spent eight years with Credit Suisse in New York and Chicago.
Ryan Carey and Sean Joffe have joined as Managing Directors and Co-Heads of U.S. Primary Distribution, based in New York, having worked previously together at Greenhill helping to lead the U.S. distribution effort. Mr. Carey has worked for the past 19 years in capital raising and distribution roles at Jefferies, Sixpoint Partners, HSBC, and Merrill Lynch. Prior to joining Houlihan Lokey, Mr. Joffe was a Managing Director at both Greenhill and Sixpoint Partners and worked in senior distribution roles focused on institutional capital raising. Mr. Joffe began his career in the Financial Sponsors Group at Credit Suisse.
Paul Tam has joined as a Managing Director to lead U.S. Primary distribution on the West Coast, based in San Francisco after three years at Greenhill with a similar role. Prior to this, Mr. Tam was a Partner at Mercury Capital Advisors, where he focused on institutional capital raising in the western region of the U.S. and Canada. During his 30-year career, he has also held senior roles at Brookfield Asset Management, J.P. Morgan, and UBS, having started his banking career with Morgan Stanley.
“Bringing on board such experienced and well-respected industry professionals to head our U.S. Primary practice will be of tremendous benefit for our team and, most importantly, our clients. With these hires, we have realized our goal of establishing a truly integrated set of advisory services across the alternative capital universe, from primary to directs and secondaries and GP private equity advisory. This unified team, alongside our leading Capital Markets and Financial Sponsors groups, now offers our clients an unmatched suite of solutions for our private capital clients,” commented Andy Lund, Global Co-Head of Houlihan Lokey’s PFG.
Tom Donovan commented: “This is an exciting time to be joining the firm and to be part of the scaling of Houlihan Lokey’s Private Funds Group. With the recent acquisition, the firm has shown its clear commitment to being the leader in private capital advisory. Allied to its global presence, deep sector expertise, senior team, and a truly dynamic culture, we see Houlihan Lokey as ideally placed to deliver outstanding outcomes for all of our clients.”
“We are delighted to welcome our four new managing directors to the firm, all of whom share our ambition to be the leading private capital advisor by not only providing the highest-quality advice but also pursuing a fiercely client-centric approach through close collaboration across all of the Houlihan Lokey businesses, which is the trademark of our culture,” commented Scott Adelson, Co-President and Global Co-Head of Corporate Finance at Houlihan Lokey.
As a result of the recently announced acquisition and these appointments, Houlihan Lokey’s Private Funds Group will be one of the few truly fully integrated advisory platforms that can offer clients primary, secondary, direct, and GP advisory services on a global basis. The global PFG team now comprises more than 70 financial professionals with senior officers in London, New York, Paris, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Frankfurt, and Dubai.