Chris Witkowsky

Talk to any limited partner and one of the major concerns about GP relationships you will hear is team stability. There’s nothing like a major departure from a private equity firm to keep LPs up at night. As it turns out, turnover may be good for firms, as a way to flush out underperformers and […]

Longtime limited partner Janet Kruzel is retiring from Washington State Investment Board at year’s end, spokesman Chris Phillips confirmed. Kruzel was assistant senior investment officer on the eight-member private equity team. The team is led by Senior Investment Officer Tom Ruggels. WSIB Chief Investment Officer Gary Bruebaker said the system will start recruiting for an investment officer […]

Andy Hayes, a private equity investment officer with the Oregon State Treasury, is leaving the system for the private sector, James Sinks, a spokesman for the Treasury, confirmed. Hayes is taking a role at placement agency FIRSTavenue, a source said. He will start at the placement agency at the beginning of the year as a principal, said Ayesha […]

A tiny early-stage fund raised by Chicago-based Origin Ventures has produced giant returns. Origin Ventures raised $15.5 million for Fund II, which launched in 2005. This includes a $3 million GP commitment. Fund II made gross distributions of about $194.5 million to LPs, and net distributions of $156.2 million to LPs as of June 30, 2016, […]

Florida’s State Board of Administration is shopping a portfolio of venture capital and private equity stakes with an overall net asset value of about $1.1 billion, according to four people with knowledge of the process. The funds that are included in the portfolio are unclear, but sources described them as high-quality. Because of that quality, pricing […]

All eyes are on the Securities and Exchange Commission. While many point to a potential rollback of the Dodd-Frank financial reform act as a factor in what could be an easing of scrutiny on the industry, a few sources see a more immediate impact. Several industry people said they’re watching closely to see whom President-elect […]

Dan Townsend, former secondaries chief at Top Tier Capital Partners, joined a new shop launched by onetime AlpInvest Partners secondaries heavyweight Tjarko Hektor, who confirmed the hire. Townsend worked at Top Tier for nine years leading secondary and co-investment programs. Prior to the fund-of-funds, he spent nine years at GE Asset Management, where he was responsible […]

Two senior-level private equity officials leftOMERS Private Equity this year for undisclosed reasons. The officials are Don Morrison, executive vice president and senior managing director in asset management and operations in the private markets team at OMERS PE; and Lisa Melchior, managing director. Melchior sent a “friends and family” email about her departure from the team […]

Silicon Valley Bank is in the hunt for the next crop of superstar venture capital managers. The bank created, and is looking to fill, the role of managing director in the emerging-manager practice, working out of New York City to help the bank build ties to the young-manager community on the East Coast. The bank formally […]

PEI Funds, a small secondary shop formed in 1992, in recent months has been roiled by a series of departures. One of its longtime managing directors, Gunnar Fremuth, left in December, according to his LinkedIn profile. It’s unclear whether his departure was part of a planned succession. Other departures include Chief Compliance Officer and Controller Ed Muradian, who left […]