PCG AM spin-out hires chief compliance officer

TorreyCove Capital Partners, the spin-out from Pacific Corporate Group Asset Management,  has hired Craig Occhialini as controller and chief compliance officer as it builds up its staff.

The firm, which took over the private equity advisory mandates formerly held by consultancy group PCG AM, including those with the Oregon state treasury and the Illinois Teachers’ Retirement System, also promoted Thomas Martin to managing director and Jeffrey Goldberger to vice president. Goldberger and Martin both joined TorreyCove from PCG AM.

Occhialini will be responsible for “maintaining a culture of integrity while supporting the investment team in the growth of [the firm]”, according to a statement from David Fann, head of TorreyCove. Prior to joining the firm, Occhialini worked at KNN Public Finance, a municipal advisor firm, where he was director of operations.

TorreyCove spun out of PCG AM in a deal backed by Mitsubishi Corporation, which bought out PCG’s founder and chief Chris Bower’s 70 percent stake. PCG AM’s team kept a 30 percent stake in the firm. All of PCG AM’s employees joined TorreyCove.

“The private equity market is now global requiring scale, resources and presence,” Fann told sister publication Private Equity International in an email at the time of the spin-out. “With this transaction and our partnership with Mitsubishi, we believe that we have the resources and global perspective to take our private equity consulting business to the next level.”

PCG was dismantled last year when the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the firm’s anchor client, severed its 20-year relationship with PCG. The firm started in the private equity consulting business in the 1990s through its initial work with the massive public pension system.

Despite the spin-out, PCG continues to “operate some discretionary fund of fund businesses”, a source with knowledge of the situation told PEI.