Advent fundraising head to depart

Advent International’s Bruce Barclay, managing director of the firm with responsibility for fundraising, will leave the firm to focus on more direct private equity investment activity. It is not yet known whether he will join a competing firm or found a new venture.

London-based Barclay, who joined in Advent in 1997, will be replaced as global head of limited partner services by Robert Brown, a former managing director at The Carlyle Group focusing on North American fundraising and investor relations.

Barclay managed the fundraising process for Advent’s €6.6 billion global fund, Global Private Equity VI, which closed in April 2008. Before turning his attention to fundraising, he was involved in over €2 billion of completed transactions at the firm, including HMV and Italtel. Prior to Advent, Mr. Barclay worked for KPMG Corporate Finance, specialising in private equity transactions, and Hill Samuel Investment Banking, moving from previous roles in the computing and high technology industries.

His New York-based replacement, Brown, previously spent 11 years at Carlyle, raising capital for funds and co-investments, as well as participating in product development, fund formation and marketing strategy. Prior to his time at Carlyle, he worked in the private equity group at Merrill Lynch, where he was responsible for raising private equity, real estate, hedge fund, co-investment capital and direct private placements for approximately 100 transactions.

Advent has raised around $24 billion since its inception in 1984. Earlier this month it was named as the best mid-market firm in Europe in the Private Equity International Awards 2009. It was also crowned best private equity firm in Latin America.

Barclay will leave Advent at the end of the month. He was unavailable for comment at press time.