Chicago-headquartered investment bank William Blair has launched a new private capital advisory (PCA) practice. The new effort expands William Blair’s existing financial sponsor advisory platform, and it will be active in providing fund placement, direct equity capital-raising (direct and co-investment), and secondary transactions.
The PCA will be led by Mike Custar, who joins William Blair as a managing director based in New York City, and also Quinn Kolberg as a director. Before joining William Blair, Mr. Custar was a partner at M2O Private Fund Advisors in New York, where he was the head of its secondary advisory business. Earlier, he was a managing director in the private funds group at Credit Suisse. Like Mr. Custar, Mr. Kolberg also comes to William Blair from M2O Private Fund Advisors, where he most recently served as a principal focused on executing GP-led secondaries.
“I’m thrilled to join William Blair,” said Mr. Custar. “The opportunity to collaborate on and develop a full suite of private capital advisory solutions with a world-class firm like William Blair is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I look forward to fully integrating into the firm to develop solutions that address our clients’ private capital needs.”
“William Blair’s deep sector knowledge, execution excellence, buyer and investor relationships, and extensive global reach delivers a valuable platform to financial sponsors. The addition of private capital advisory enables us to provide financial sponsors with holistic solutions tailored to their unique needs and address all stages of the private equity lifecycle,” said Brandon Lower, the head of the financial sponsors group at William Blair. “Mike and Quinn share our vision of being the most trusted advisor and partner to private equity firms and the management teams at their portfolio companies. We are excited to have them join our world-class team.”
William Blair is a global investment banking and asset management firm headquartered in Chicago. The independent and employee-owned firm has offices in 19 other cities, including London, New York, Shanghai, and Zurich.
© 2022 Private Equity Professional | May 10, 2022
