Wugen Announces CEO Transition

Abingworth

— Kumar Srinivasan Ph.D., M.B.A., Appointed President and Chief Executive Officer —

ST. LOUIS, MO and SAN DIEGO, CA, March 21, 2023 –Wugen, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing a pipeline of allogeneic cell therapies to treat a broad range of hematological and solid tumor malignancies, today announced that Kumar Srinivasan Ph.D., M.B.A., has been appointed President and Chief Executive Officer, effective March 13, 2023. Dr. Srinivasan succeeds Dan Kemp, Ph.D., who has stepped down from his CEO role and the Board of Directors to pursue other opportunities.

“We are delighted to welcome Kumar as Wugen’s next CEO and look forward to leveraging his global leadership, deep expertise in the biopharmaceutical industry, and strong track record of success in company building, corporate strategy, and business development. Under his leadership, the company will be well-positioned to advance our differentiated platform of memory NK and allogenic CAR-T therapies for patients,” said Natalie Mount, Ph.D., Chair of the Board of Directors at Wugen. “We’d like to thank Dan for his leadership and contributions to the company over the past two years and wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors.”

“I am thrilled to be joining Wugen at this exciting time for the company,” said Dr. Srinivasan. “Wugen has made incredible strides advancing treatments for cancer patients. I look forward to working with Wugen’s talented team as CEO and to continue to execute on our lead clinical-assets, WU-NK-101 and WU-CART-007. Wugen’s memory NK cell and allogenic CAR-T cell therapies have the potential to improve patient outcomes by helping to address the needs of patients with solid tumors, acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and T-cell malignancies.”

Dr. Srinivasan has over 25 years of experience leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies through critical stages of growth, M&A activity, and new product launches. Most recently, he served as executive vice president and chief business officer at Turning Point Therapeutics. Under his leadership, Dr. Srinivasan successfully executed a partnering strategy for reprotrectinib that ultimately led to the acquisition of the company by Bristol Myers Squibb. Before Turning Point Therapeutics, Dr. Srinivasan was vice president and global head of business development for the Biopharmaceuticals business unit at AstraZeneca, where he was instrumental in leading several in-licensing deals that significantly enhanced the strength of the company’s pipeline, established several high priority collaborations, and led all global and regional COVID-19 related business development efforts. Earlier in his career, he held corporate strategy and business development roles at Probiodrug AG, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, and TorreyPines Therapeutics. Dr. Srinivasan holds an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago, a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Case Western Reserve University, and a dual B.S./M.S. in chemistry from the University of Madras.

About Wugen

Wugen, Inc., is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing the next generation of off-the-shelf memory natural killer (NK) and CAR-T cell therapies for cancer. Wugen is leveraging its proprietary MonetaTM platform and deep genomic engineering expertise to pioneer a new class of memory NK cell therapies to treat hematological and solid tumor malignancies. For more information, please visit www.wugen.com.

Investor Contact:
Elsie Yau, Stern Investor Relations, Inc.
212-698-8700
elsie.yau@sternir.com

Categories: People

Tags:

Blume Ventures elevates seasoned investors Sajith Pai and Arpit Agarwal to Investment Partners

Blume ventures

Mumbai, India, March 20, 2023. Blume Ventures, one of India’s largest homegrown early-stage venture capital firms, is delighted to announce the elevation of two senior members of its investment team, Arpit Agarwal and Sajith Pai, to Investment Partners at the firm.

This announcement follows Blume’s emphatic close of its Fund IV late last year, where Blume raised $290M from high-quality institutional investors on the back of a strong investment track record and its demonstration of long-term institution-building. Arpit and Sajith’s elevation to Investment Partners is an acknowledgment of their valuable contribution to Blume’s founder journeys and strong underlying portfolio performance. They have been key ingredients to Blume’s own growth and institutionalization.

Arpit joined Blume in 2014. He was always an ecosystem enabler through his roles as a founding member of the Headstart Network and the TLabs teams. Arpit has been instrumental in shaping portfolio construction since his first investment for Blume in Cashify in 2015. He also led the formation and growth of MetaMorph (previously Passion Connect), one of Blume’s key partners in Talent Management at our portfolio companies. He has established himself as a thought and community leader in emerging fields such as DeepTech, Health tech, and EVs/Clean Tech and has played a key role in fostering a vibrant B2B / Enterprise practice at Blume. His EV Primer from 2022 became one of the VC market’s definitive learning docs on the burgeoning EV ecosystem in India. Arpit’s commitment to building community – not just in form but in spirit – has been the guiding force for Blume’s community initiatives with early-stage founders, finding innovative ways to engineer serendipity for their portfolio companies.

Sajith joined Blume in 2018 after almost two decades at The Times Group, where he was involved in strategy and corporate development. Known for his sharp thought leadership even before he came into Blume, Sajith’s passion for content and writing brought a distinctive advantage in the VC ecosystem. At Blume, he has invested in companies across EdTech, HRTech, B2B Marketplaces, Workforce enablement, and other consumer Internet business models. He has additionally exemplified one of our core values of high ownership by leading and deepening our Research as well as Marketing & Content efforts, helping grow our team and leadership in these areas. His work on the Indus Valley Annual Report has helped position Blume firmly as a thought leader in the Indian startup ecosystem.

While Blume has raised its largest-ever fund, it has been with the implicit nod by our investors that we have five strong investment leaders now, each with a strong grip on the sectors they specialize in. Sanjay Nath leads our strength in cross-border SaaS, while Arpit Agarwal heads Emerging Tech (including EVs and Climate Tech). Ashish Fafadia heads Fintech and Agri, while Sajith Pai and Karthik Reddy lead Domestic Consumer Internet and B2B Marketplaces (including EdTech, Health, Commerce, and Brands). Blume’s multi-sectoral expertise across tech comes from the evolution of the fund into these sectoral buckets managed with ~$50 million of capital per Investment lead and their respective underlying teams.

Additionally, Blume’s strength in backing its best companies in later-stage rounds has led to an extension of reserves for Series A/B rounds in this $290M fund. And finally, repeat founders are raising compelling seed rounds, and Blume is a preferred seed round participant for a lot of them.

In the absence of strong >$200 million funds historically, Blume has also been raising Continuity funds since 2018 for its Fund I and II winners. Blume has completed its first close of its $60 million Continuity Fund, Fund 1Y, which will invest in Purplle, Carbon Clean, Cashify, Zopper, and other breakout stars. With over 25 companies at more than a $100 million valuation and 10 ‘soonicorns’ (>$500 mill in the last valuation) and Unicorns, the Blume team is prepared to back another generation of transformational startup founders with the widening leadership team.

Categories: People

CapMan Buyout appoints Maija Joutsenkoski as Partner

Capman

CapMan Buyout press release

14 March 2023 at 08:30 AM EET

CapMan Buyout appoints Maija Joutsenkoski as Partner as of April 1st. Ms. Joutsenkoski has made a swift integration into the team since joining in 2022. Her strong drive and experience from both industry and private equity have proven essential to the team where she has established herself as a key leader.

Ms. Joutsenkoski brings with her over a decade of senior-level industry and private equity experience. Before joining CapMan Buyout she spent the last decade at UPM-Kymmene where she most recently headed their corporate strategy team, working with a wide variety of businesses, stakeholders and topics. Prior to this she worked as an Investment Manager at Nordic Capital in Stockholm and Helsinki, and as an Analyst at Goldman Sachs Nordic Investment Banking Team in London.

Ms. Joutsenkoski played a valuable role in CapMan Buyout’s investment in Hydroware last spring and has made significant contributions to deal flow development. She has also established herself as a key leader within the team from an operational and leadership perspective. She is currently a member of the board at MM Sports, DEN Group and SARC Architects.

“I am very happy and proud to welcome Maija into our Partnership. Her combination of long private equity and industry experience together with her excellent leadership skills are very valuable to our team. Moreover, Maija is a great cultural fit with the team, was a valuable member of the Hydroware investment team and is a key case team member in several of our portfolio companies”, shares Johan Pålsson, Co-Managing Partner at CapMan Buyout.

“I am truly delighted and honoured to join the Partnership and look forward to continuing working actively with our portfolio companies and team goals together with my fantastic colleagues.  We have a great, unique team and culture at CapMan Buyout and I am thrilled to be part of it”, says Maija Joutsenkoski, Investment Director at CapMan Buyout.

The CapMan Buyout team comprises of investment professionals working in Helsinki and Stockholm. The funds managed by CapMan Buyout invest in small and medium-sized companies in the Nordic countries. The team manages Buyout funds and looks for interesting growth stories, niche market leaders, winning company cultures and passionate entrepreneurs.

For more information, please contact:

Johan Pålsson, Co-Managing Partner, CapMan Buyout, tel: +46 70 595 62 24

Maija Joutsenkoski, Investment Director, CapMan Buyout, tel: +358 40 5756 922

About CapMan

CapMan is a leading Nordic private asset expert with an active approach to value creation and over €5 billion in assets under management. Our objective is to provide attractive returns and innovative solutions to investors. We are dedicated to set science-based targets to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Paris Agreement. We have a broad presence in the unlisted market through our local and specialised teams. Our investment strategies cover minority and majority investments in portfolio companies and real estate, and infrastructure assets. We also provide wealth management solutions. Our service business includes procurement services. Altogether, CapMan employs approximately 190 professionals in Helsinki, Jyväskylä, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Oslo, London and Luxembourg. We are listed on Nasdaq Helsinki since 2001. www.capman.com

Categories: People

Altas Welcomes Hannah Currie

Altas Partners

Altas is pleased to announce that Hannah Currie has joined the firm as Vice President, Human Resources and Talent.

Prior to joining Altas, Hannah held senior human resources leadership roles at Shopify and Canada Post, where she focused on talent strategy, deployment, and advisory support.

Hannah holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science (with Honours) and a Master of Industrial Relations from Queen’s University.

Categories: People

August Equity appoints new Managing Partner

August Equity

August Equity is pleased to confirm the appointment of David Lonsdale as its new Managing Partner. After nearly 15 years in the role, Philip Rattle will become Chairman of August Equity where he will focus his attention and experience on investment and portfolio related matters.

Following the announcement, David and Philip both commented:

 

David Lonsdale

“I am delighted to make this announcement today. This transition is something we have been operationally moving towards over the last year or so. The talent in our Partnership base is deeper and broader than ever and we believe now is the right time to finalise our plans ahead of closing our new Fund – AEP VI – later this year. 

“I would like to personally thank Phil for his leadership, guidance and friendship over the last 15 years which leaves August extremely well positioned in terms of track record and a very clear investment philosophy. 

“I look forward to leading the firm in the next phase of its growth and further harnessing the considerable people talent we have to take advantage of the market opportunity before us.”

 

Philip Rattle

“Having been Managing Partner for 15 years and working closely alongside David for many years as friends and colleagues, I am delighted for him to take over as Managing Partner and have every confidence that he will lead August into further success in the future.

“In my new capacity as Chairman I will be using my 30+ years of private equity experience to focus more on our new and existing investments.  Through Chairing the Investment Committee I look forward to giving David and the team my uncensored and objective opinions and working with them to help take August to the next level.“ 

 

For any further information regarding this or other August Equity announcements please contact Daniel Venn (Daniel.venn@augustequity.com)

Both appointments are subject to regulatory approval and will take effect upon FCA consent.

Categories: People

Ufenau Capital Partners promotes Adrian Hess to Partner

Ufenau

Dear Investors, Pfaeffikon SZ, February 2023

Partners and Friends of Ufenau Capital Partners,
Ufenau Capital Partners is delighted to announce the promotion of Adrian Hess to Partner.
Adrian joined Ufenau Capital Partners in 2012. Over the last 11 years, he has been involved in close to 50 transactions. He has gained broad experience in IT / tech-enabled Services as well as Business Services and currently serves on the Board of Directors of collana IT, The Relevance Group and Doktorhuus.

Ralf Flore, Managing Partner of Ufenau, comments: “Adrian has been a valuable member of our team. Throughout his tenure at the firm, he has consistently demonstrated an exceptional performance. Adrian has a strong history of delivering results and has been instrumental in driving the company’s growth and success. His dedication to Ufenau and portfolio companies has not gone unnoticed, and this promotion is a well-deserved recognition of his hard work and achievements.”
The entire Ufenau team wishes Adrian all the best and is looking forward to working closely with him in his new role.
About Ufenau Capital Partners

Ufenau Capital Partners is a privately-owned Swiss Investor Group headquartered at Lake Zurich which advises private and institutional investors with their investments in private equity. Ufenau Capital Partners is focused on investments in service companies in German-speaking Europe, Iberia and the Benelux region and invests in Education & Lifestyle, Business Services, Healthcare, IT Services and Financial Services sectors. Since 2011, Ufenau invested in 280 service companies in Europe. Through a renowned group of experienced Industry Partners (owners, CEOs, CFOs), Ufenau has an active value-adding investment approach at eye-level with entrepreneurs and managers. Ufenau raised its seventh flagship fund and its third Continuation Vehicle last year with a volume of EUR 1.6bn and advises capital of EUR 2.5bn.
Ufenau Capital Partners promotes Adrian Hess to Partner

Ufenau Capital Partners AG
Huobstrasse 3
CH 8808 Pfäffikon, Schwyz
www.
ucp .ch
Tel: + 41 44 482 66 66
Fax: + 41 44 482 66 63
info@ucp.

Categories: People

KKR Appoints Pete Stavros and Nate Taylor as Global Co-Heads of Private Equity

KKR

New Role to Enhance Global Connectivity and Support KKR’s Local & Global Investment Model

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)– KKR, a leading global investment firm, today announced that Pete Stavros and Nate Taylor have been named Global Co-Heads of KKR’s Private Equity (“PE”) business. Since 2019, Stavros and Taylor have served as Co-Heads of Private Equity in the Americas.

As Global Co-Heads, Stavros and Taylor will work closely with regional PE leadership and teams around the world to support alignment on global investment themes, share best practices and operational playbooks and facilitate greater mobility of talent.

Of the appointment, Joe Bae and Scott Nuttall, Co-Chief Executive Officers of KKR, stated: “We are incredibly proud of our strong track record in Private Equity and the firm’s leadership positions in the US, Europe and Asia. This new global role will further optimize the culture of collaboration that underpins the success we deliver for clients.”

KKR’s Private Equity business has nearly doubled in assets under management since 2019. As of December 31, 2022, the $165 billion PE business includes approximately 300 investment professionals looking after a portfolio of more than 200 companies in KKR’s flagship Private Equity, Middle Market, Core Private Equity, Healthcare Growth, Technology Growth, Impact, and Customized Portfolio Solutions strategies.

In the flagship PE business, the firm manages three regional funds and operates with local leadership and global connectivity.

Bae and Nuttall added: “Over their nearly two decades at KKR, Nate and Pete have proven themselves as not only extraordinary investors, but true role models and leaders within the Firm. They have also instituted a number of innovative frameworks for value creation, including broad based employee ownership and operational toolkits that have been instrumental in delivering value to our portfolio companies, their employees and communities, and for our clients.”

“We are honored by this appointment and look forward to supporting KKR’s local investment teams by delivering the Firm’s global network, resources and expertise to highly localized investment opportunities worldwide,” Pete Stavros and Nate Taylor, Global Co-Heads of Private Equity, said.

About Pete Stavros

Pete Stavros, 48, joined KKR in 2005. Prior to becoming Global Co-Head of Private Equity (PE), he Co-led KKR’s Americas PE business and, before that, led the industrials investment team where he pioneered an innovative employee engagement and ownership model which has been central to a portfolio of successful investments including Ingersoll Rand, Capsugel, Capital Safety, CHI Overhead Doors and Minnesota Rubber & Plastics, among others. A longtime advocate of employee ownership as a key to improving the value of a business and the lives of employees in it, Stavros is Chairman of a labor center of excellence at KKR and is the founder of Ownership Works.

About Nate Taylor

Nate Taylor, 46, joined KKR in 2005. Prior to becoming Global Co-Head of Private Equity (PE), he Co-led KKR’s Americas PE business and, prior to that, held a number of leadership roles, including helping build and grow KKR’s PE business in Asia Pacific, establishing the firm’s presence in India and leading the firm’s investments in Academy, Bountiful Company, National Vision, US Foods, and 1-800 Contacts, among others. Taylor has been a key driver of KKR’s efforts in employee ownership and engagement and serves on the Board of Ownership Works.

About KKR

KKR is a leading global investment firm that offers alternative asset management as well as capital markets and insurance solutions. KKR aims to generate attractive investment returns by following a patient and disciplined investment approach, employing world-class people, and supporting growth in its portfolio companies and communities. KKR sponsors investment funds that invest in private equity, credit and real assets and has strategic partners that manage hedge funds. KKR’s insurance subsidiaries offer retirement, life and reinsurance products under the management of Global Atlantic Financial Group. References to KKR’s investments may include the activities of its sponsored funds and insurance subsidiaries. For additional information about KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE: KKR), please visit KKR’s website at www.kkr.com and on Twitter @KKR_Co.

Media
Julia Kosygina or Miles Radcliffe-Trenner
212-750-8300
media@kkr.com

Source: KKR

Categories: People

General Atlantic Vice Chairman Ajay Banga Nominated for President of the World Bank

General Atlantic

“Ajay is an outstanding choice to lead the World Bank through a pivotal period and take on the challenges of climate and sustainability in addition to economic development. We share the values of inclusion and long-term thinking, and as Vice Chairman of General Atlantic, Ajay had a profound impact on our people and our portfolio. We congratulate him on this recognition.”

Bill Ford, Chairman and CEO, General Atlantic

Categories: People

Quadrum Capital Home Portfolio News Vacancies Contact Investor Portal Nederlands André de Koning new CFRO of Quadrum Capital

Quadrum Capital

As of February 1, 2023, Andre de Koning has joined Quadrum Capital as CFRO. This new role within Quadrum in the area of Finance & Risk management reflects the successful growth of organization in recent years.

image

André de Koning

André gained extensive experience in the financial sector and various other segments as an accountant at KPMG. In addition, he has held several CFO positions during his career.

In the past 10 years André was responsible for Finance & Risk management at an investment management company in the role of CFO and board member. The addition of André’s valuable knowledge and experience within the financial sector provides a solid base for the next steps of growth in which Quadrum is developing.

André enjoys working with driven professionals and gets energy from realizing ambitious goals. He values workable and appropriate solutions within the entrepreneurial organization.

Working on further growth and expanding the organization in line with Quadrum’s ambitions and DNA are the reasons for André to make this step.

Categories: People

Rutger Alberink appointed to Partner

Fields Group

FIELDS Group is pleased to announce the appointment of Rutger Alberink to Partner. During his 8 years tenure at FIELDS, Rutger has built up a strong track record. As Investment Director he was the driving force behind multiple creative deals and building outstanding business services and IT companies, most recently the buy-and-build of Archive-IT, Logistic Force and Opus People. He has built deep relationships with and is highly respected by founders and management teams of FIELDS’ portfolio companies. It is impressive to see the strong connections he makes to help drive business successes. We are looking forward to further build FIELDS coming years together.

Categories: People