People and Company News, Week of November 8, 2024
- James McTiernan, formerly a Principal at BNY Mellon Wealth Management, has joined Bison Wealth, bringing over $450M in assets. McTiernan serves high-net-worth individuals, retirees, and small business owners. Bison has onboarded multiple teams this year and more growth is expected for 2025. Bison brought Tom Scaturro, senior managing director and partner, onboard late last year to help drive growth through expansion and acquisition.
- Joshua Schultz was hired as an operating partner by Arsenal Capital Partners, a private equity firm focused on healthcare and industrials companies. Schultz will focus on pharma services and medical technology strategies and portfolio companies. Schultz was most recently CEO of Cytel, an advanced analytics provider for the life sciences industry. Prior to Cytel, Schultz was SVP of PAREXEL International.
- Michael Bernier has joined LPL Financial LLC’s employee advisor channel, Linsco by LPL Financial, to launch GWC Financial Advisors. He reported serving approximately $165 million in advisory, brokerage and retirement plan assets and joins LPL from Canter Wealth. Bernier specializes in tax strategy, investment management and retirement and estate planning.
- Ilya Blanter was added as a managing director and head of equity-linked capital markets in NY by William Blair, an investment banking boutique, investment management, and private wealth management firm, to expand its equity capital markets investment banking team. He will lead convertible debt origination, structuring and execution. Blanter spent the past 15 years at Barclays, most recently as a managing director focused on complex equity-linked origination processes and advisory services.
- Esteban Diaz was added as SVP by wealth manager Insigneo. Diaz joins under the guidance of Chile market head Jose Luis Carreño, aiming to further strengthen the firm’s commitment to serving high-net-worth clients in Latin America. His career began in Santiago, Chile, where he served at major financial institutions including Banco Penta, and Banco BICE. In 2008, Diaz moved to Miami to join Credit Suisse. In 2013, he joined Merrill Lynch, focused on structured notes, alts, and client-specific portfolios.
- Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has acquired Fenton, MI-based Peabody Insurance Agency, Inc for an undisclosed amount. Peabody Insurance serves commercial and personal lines clients primarily in southeast Michigan with specializations in construction, manufacturing and multifamily real estate. Jim Peabody, Grace Peabody-Ljoljic, their family and team will remain in their current location under the direction of Sean Gallagher, head of Gallagher’s Great Lakes region retail property/casualty brokerage operations.
- FIS, a financial technology company, has bought Dragonfly Financial Services from One Equity Partners. OEP carved the ACI digital business banking solutions unit out of parent company ACI Worldwide in September 2022 and rebranded the independent company as Dragonfly Financial Technologies. The Dragonfly platform was designed to meet the demanding standards of financial institutions supporting businesses for cash management. Its digital business banking offerings serve over 1.4 million businesses.
- EP Wealth Advisors LLC, an independent RIA, has acquired Gather Financial Planning in Maine and Riley Private Client LLC in Texas. The acquisitions add over $240M to EP Wealth’s assets. Gather Financial Planning will contribute to EP’s rapid growth in Northern New England. Riley Private Client has been led by Doug Jones since the passing of founder Bill Riley in 2022. EP Wealth has now completed seven acquisitions in 2024.
- H.I.G. Capital and Thoma Bravo have agreed to acquire the brand and IT certification and training business and products of the Computing Technology Industry Association for an undisclosed amount. CompTIA offers IT certifications and training across cybersecurity, emerging technologies, networking, cloud computing and technical support.
- Franchise Group Inc., the owner of brands including the Vitamin Shoppe, Buddy’s Home Furnishings and Pet Supplies Plus, filed for bankruptcy protection after months of losses and turmoil surrounding its backer B. Riley Financial, Bloomberg reported. The company filed under Chapter 11 in Delaware, listing almost $2 billion of debt. The company has been the focus of controversy regarding Los Angeles-based B. Riley, the firm that helped negotiate the company’s $2.8 billion purchase last year.
- Saw Mill Capital, a mid-market private equity firm focused on partnering with North American industrial services, professional services, and engineered products companies, closed its $435M Saw Mill Capital Partners III, LP. Saw Mill’s investment team committed $50 million to Fund III. The oversubscribed fund is over 25% deployed to date in three portfolio companies: RAFTRx, a residential roofing provider; Southern Aluminum, a manufacturer of specialty hospitality furniture; and Pro Max Fence Systems, a commercial fencing contractor.
- Capital Dynamics has raised about $1.1B for its sixth flagship secondaries fund – a 40% jump compared to its last fund in the strategy. Global Secondaries VI will target smaller, often complex secondary transactions. The firm added it plans to construct diversified portfolios using the fund, ranging from single LP positions to sophisticated GP-led structures. Fund Vi has already been used to invest in 41 projects representing about $875M in total exposure.
- Vitrian, a provider of investment capital and capacity building services for biomanufacturing, closed a $50M investment, with ability to scale to $65M, into AmplifyBio’s Manufacturing Enablement Center (AMEC) as a first step of a larger commitment to support biomanufacturing in Central Ohio.
- Insider, a NYC-based AI-native omnichannel experience and customer engagement platform, raised $500M in Series E funding led by General Atlantic. As part of the transaction, Sascha Guenther, Alex Crisses, and Christopher Apfel, VP at General Atlantic, will join the Insider Board of Directors. The startup is led by Hande Cilingir, co-founder and CEO.
- Ellipsis Labs, a NYC-based verifiable finance company, raised $21M in funding led by Haun Ventures, with participation from existing investors Electric Capital, Anatoly Yakovenko, and Paradigm. The company intends to use the funds to hire engineers and accelerate the development of the blockchain purpose-built for verifiable finance.
