Petra hires head for newly opened London office

Petra Funds Group announced it has named Charlie Chipchase, former European general counsel and head of ESG at Riverstone, to lead its new London office. Chipchase will be tasked with building out the private funds administrator’s European presence.

Chipchase is not the first with Riverstone ties to join Petra: co-founders Stephen Coats and Peter Haskopoulos are also alumni of the company, where they held senior roles. He joins with more than two decades of experience as an in-house private equity lawyer and previously oversaw all ESG aspects at Riverstone, Petra noted.

Petra, which administers funds and structures holding assets worth over $40 billion, counts London as its fourth office; its others are in New York, Los Angeles and Amsterdam. The service provider’s fund administration group is comprised of more than 50 professionals, it said.

US compliance strengthening is a top priority

The firm also announced that Louis Sweeney has joined as its director of compliance, a move intended to support its US compliance operations. Sweeney started at Petra last October and previously worked for ACA Group, a spokesperson told Private Funds CFO.

Petra, in its announcement, noted that Sweeney’s US regulatory compliance background has spanned time at FINRA and in-house compliance. Sweeney has advised both investment managers and broker-dealers, the service provider said.