Owl Rock hires from Goldman and CPPIB

Owl Rock Capital Partners, the new private debt firm set up by Doug Ostrover and Marc Lipschultz, has named several senior investment and administrative executives at the firm.

The new hires in underwriting, origination, compliance and technology were revealed on the firm’s recently launched website.

Owl Rock has named Alexis Maged head underwriting and portfolio management for its investment advisor. Maged, also a managing director at Owl Rock, spent seven years with Goldman Sachs, where he held several senior roles, including chief operating officer of the investment bank’s global credit finance business, co-chair of the credit markets capital committee and a member of the firm-wide capital committee. Maged left Goldman in September 2014 and spent the following year as chief financial officer of Barkbox, a New York-based provider of pet-themed products and technology.

Nicole Drapkin also joined as principal and a member of the origination team for the advisor. She was previously a principal at Canada Pension Plan Investment Board’s private credit investments team for two years. Before that, she worked at Goldman Sachs as a vice president in its leveraged finance group.

Principal Rebecca Tabb has come on board as chief compliance officer for the investment advisor and the Owl Rock Capital Corporation business development company. Before Owl Rock, Tabb was an associate at law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton in its New York office.

Michael Grande was appointed chief technology officer and chief information security officer. Before Owl Rock, he held a similar role at EnTrust Capital, a fund of hedge funds that was recently acquired by Legg Mason and is merging with Legg’s existing fund-of-funds, Permal. Prior to working at EnTrust, Grande spent fifteen years as a senior vice president of information technology for Natsource, a provider of asset management services in global emissions and renewable energy markets.

In addition to these hires, Craig Packer, Goldman Sachs’ former co-head of leveraged finance in the Americas, and Alan Kirschenbaum, TPG Specialty Lending’s former chief financial officer, are joining Owl Rock, as pfm's sister title PDI previously reported.

The New York-based firm, which is named after a distinctively shaped outcrop of rock in Arizona, is setting up a private equity-style closed-end fund and a BDC. Ostrover is the former co-founder of GSO Capital Partners, while Lipschultz served as the head of energy and infrastructure at KKR before leaving to start Owl Rock at the end of February.

According to SEC filings, the firm has its offices on the 41st floor of 245 Park Ave at 46th street in Manhattan. Owl Rock joins several other established and newer private debt players in the building, including Ares Management, Angelo, Gordon & Co. and the new private credit arm of Adams Street Partners.