People and Company News, Week of February 7, 2025
- Kathryn Bittner was appointed SVP, COO, Commercial Banking by WSFS Bank, the primary subsidiary of WSFS Financial Corporation. She will report to James Wechsler, EVP and chief commercial banking officer. Bittner will oversee operations, finance, sales strategy, and the credit development program for commercial banking. Bittner joined WSFS in 2022 as part of the integration with Bryn Mawr Trust. She has over 30 years of banking experience including leadership and business development roles at M&T, Citizens, and Mellon.
- Jason Dubinsky will join financial services firm Focus Financial Partners as CFO, effective March 10. He will replace James Shanahan, who will retire and serve as a consultant through the fall. Most recently, Dubinsky served as CFO of Morningstar, Inc., a role he held from 2017 through 2024. Prior to Morningstar, he held several senior finance roles at Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc., and its predecessor, Walgreen Co. Earlier in his career, he was an investment banker at Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers. As CFO of Focus, Dubinsky will also join the operating committee.
- Constantine S. Hatzivassiliou was promoted to partner from managing director by Certuity, a multi-family office that serves high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth individuals and families. Over the last 10 years, Hatzivassiliou has been instrumental in establishing Certuity’s presence in North Palm Beach, where the firm is headquartered.
- Galen Fu was appointed director, business development, by Monroe Capital, an asset management firm specializing in private credit markets. Fu will be based in the firm’s Sydney, Australia office and will be responsible for client servicing and capital raising across the country. Prior to Monroe, he was a director in the capital markets team at Hines Investment Management. He previously held roles at MaxCap Investment Management (a subsidiary of Apollo Global Management), Westpac Bank and ANZ Bank.
- Emily Shiau and Nolan Pauker were prompted to partners on the private credit team by Adams Street Partners LLC, a private markets investment management firm with over $61B in assets. Shiau joined the firm in 2016. Prior to Adams Street, Shiau held positions at Alvarez & Marsal within their restructuring investment banking team and was in leveraged finance at Citigroup. Pauker joined Adams Street in 2019. Prior to Adams Street, he worked at SLR Capital Partners LLC. He began his career in the financial restructuring group of Houlihan Lokey.
- Alex Pape was appointed chief technology and product officer by AssetMark, a wealth management and technology solutions provider for financial advisors. Pape most recently served as global head of product for BlackRock’s Aladdin wealthtech business. Pape will report directly to Lou Maiuri, Chairman and Group CEO of AssetMark.
- Paul Majerus and Chelsea Reed have joined Republic Capital Group, an investment banking firm that specializes in serving the wealth and asset management industry, as a partner and MD, and MD, respectively. Majerus is an M&A Advisor with over 30 years of experience, including senior roles at BMO Capital Markets and BMO Private Bank, founder of Cedar Glen Group, MD at Creative Health Capital, and managing partner of First Chicago Advisors. Reed roles, including director of marketing and business development at Palm Beach Spine Institute and director of business development at North American Spine Foundation.
- Warburg Pincus and Berkshire Partners have agreed to acquire Triumph Group Inc. for a total enterprise value of approximately $3B. Founded in 1993 and headquartered in Radnor, PA., Triumph designs, develops, manufactures, repairs and provides spare parts across a portfolio of aerospace and defense systems and parts.
- LPL Financial has added Jackson/Roskelley Wealth Advisors to its broker-dealer, RIA, and custodial platforms from Ameriprise. The Scottsdale, AZ-based team, led by Jared Roskelley and Kyle Robertson, brings approximately $345M in assets. Founder Bob Jackson started the firm in 1994, bringing Roskelley on board as a shareholder in 2006. Roskelley later became president and CEO upon Jackson’s retirement. Robertson joined the practice in 2015 and now serves as managing director.
- Allvue Systems, LLC, has launched Allvue University for partners, a training program designed to enhance the expertise of the company’s partner ecosystem. Allvue University for partners is composed of self-serve learning materials, instructor led bootcamps, hands-on workshops and practical examinations. The program includes learning paths for the Allvue product suite covering front-, middle-, and back-office workflows across the entire deal lifecycle and in multiple asset classes for private equity, credit markets, and fund administration.
- Osaic announced the addition of $360M Tampa, FL-based Payant Wealth Management Group to its W2 employee affiliation channel. The Payant Wealth Management Group team, led by Tom Payant, Chairman and CEO, including financial advisors Glenn Krcmaric, Jay Mulligan and Jonathan Wilkins will be joining Osaic. Osaic’s W2 channel was launched in 2023 to accommodate independent RIAs who choose to affiliate with Osaic’s corporate RIA.
- Greenhall Capital Partners LLC, an operationally focused control private equity firm, has agreed to buy Johnson Communications LLC, a digital infrastructure wireless service provider that focuses on rural fiber-optic telecom deployment. Johnson Communications serves as a telecom service provider to two federally backed cooperatives, including the $42.45B Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program and the $20B Rural Digital Opportunity Fund.
- T. Rowe Price Group Inc. entered an asset-management partnership with Aspida Holdings, a life insurance and annuity provider that’s also backed by alternative-investment firm Ares, Bloomberg has reported. T. Rowe and its alternative credit unit, Oak Hill Advisors, are reportedly expected to oversee some of Aspida’s public and private assets. The firms will also look into developing new products together.
- Växa Partners has launched as an independent strategic and M&A advisory firm. Växa Partners advises an array of alternative asset managers and the large global financial institutions that are increasingly investing in and acquiring them. The firm aims to provide services ranging from capital raising strategies, new product viability and launches, to transaction-oriented advice, including succession planning, strategic alternatives, M&A preparation and holistic firm-wide assessments. Sector focused buy-side and sell-side M&A support includes GP stake sales and non-dilutive financing services, fund finance and valuations.
- Silver Point Capital has closed a new fund at $250M that will focus on investing in the equity tranches of Silver Point-managed broadly syndicated loan (BSL) CLOs. The credit investor launched its CLO strategy in 2022 and has issued seven CLOs, totaling approximately $3.1B of BSL CLO assets as of the end of 2024.
- Semgrep, an application security platform for scanning code for security, reliability, & other issues, announced $100M in Series D funding led by Menlo Ventures. With added participation from existing investors including Felicis Ventures, Harpoon Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures, and Sequoia Capital, this round brings the company’s total funding to $204M to date.
- Pearl Energy Investments reached its hard cap, within four months of launch, and held the oversubscribed closing of Pearl Energy Investments IV LP with total commitments of $999.9M. Founded in 2015, Pearl is a provider of investment capital and sponsorship to the energy industry, concentrating on the upstream and midstream sectors. Pearl typically focuses on investments requiring between $50M and $150M of equity capital and has led investments exceeding $400M of equity capital.
