Cogent research heads resign

Katita Palamar and Bill Farrell have left their positions as co-heads of Cogent Partners’ research department with plans of launching a new alternative assets firm, according to emails sent to friends and colleagues. 

In an email notifying her contacts that she would be leaving the firm, Palamar said:  “My partner, Bill Farrell, and I are looking to do something entrepreneurial in the asset class and plan to take the next few months to figure out what that may be.”

Palamar, Farrell and Cogent did not return requests for comment. The nature of their new enterprise remained unclear at press time. 

At Cogent, Palamar and Farrell were responsible for overseeing the firm’s monitoring, due diligence and valuation services, as well as business development. The pair joined the firm about eight years ago, according to their LinkedIn profiles. Both profiles indicate they left Cogent in August. 

The pair's split with Cogent was amicable, according to a source close to the firm. Farrell and Palamar remained with the firm through the summer and assisted transitioning in their replacements, Stephen Cravens and Adam Tauzel, the source said. 

Prior to Cogent, Palamar was an analyst at Goldman Sachs’ fixed income trading desk. In January, she joined the board of Citizens National Bank. Farrell was previously an analyst at Bear Stearns, where he focused on debt and equity offerings and mergers and acquisitions. 

Cogent acts as an intermediary in secondary transactions and provides monitoring, due diligence and valuation services. The firm has won secondary broker mandates from North Carolina’s investment management division and the New Jersey Division of Investment. 

Founded in 2001, the firm is headquartered in Dallas, with offices in New York, London and Tokyo, and has advised on more than $55 billion in private equity commitments, according to its website.