Owayda resurfaces at Siguler Guff

Private equity fund of funds veteran Solomon Owayda has joined Siguler Guff, the New York-headquartered private equity investor, as managing director. Owayda left his previous position as chief investment officer of SVG Advisers in March last year, as exclusively revealed by PEO.

Owayda has been in the private equity industry for 23 years. Prior to his tenure at SVG Advisers he was director of private equity at the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, where he helped establish the $120 billion pension scheme’s private equity fund, secondary and co-investment programmes.

Solomon Owayda

SVG Advisers, a division of UK-listed private equity investor SVG Capital, was started in 2001 to diversify the business away from investing from its own balance sheet primarily in funds managed by London-based private equity house Permira towards third-party capital management. SVG Advisers now has around €4.2 billion of committed management. Owayda was based in the firm’s Boston office.

Siguler Guff manages more than $8 billion of assets across three lines of business: fund of funds, advisory activities and direct investment funds. The firm is particularly active in emerging markets, such as Russia via its Moscow-based subsidiary Russia Partners. In his new role at the firm, Owayda will “cultivate and manage advisory relationships”, the firm said in a statement Friday.