Apollo hires ex-Goldman investment chief

The recently retired co-head of investment management for Goldman Sachs, Marc Spilker, has been named Apollo Global Mangement’s first-ever president. 

Spilker, 46, spent the bulk of his career at Goldman, where for 20 years he co-led the bank’s $1 trillion investment management division. He retired from the role this past May.

Aside from help running “the day to day operations of Apollo”, Spilker’s responsibilities will also include sitting on Apollo’s five-member executive committee, according to a statement. The board includes chief executive officer Leon Black and recently appointed chief operating officer Henry Silverman, a former Blackstone partner who joined in early 2009. 

Apollo has been steadily strengthening its management team as it prepares for a public listing on the New York Stock Exchange. In July, the firm appointed Gene Donnelly, a veteran executive at PricewaterhouseCoopers, as chief financial officer. Last year, it hired Sanjay Patel, former European co-head of private equity and junior debt within Goldman Sachs’ principal investment unit, as its international head of private equity. And in 2008, Apollo hired former NYSE Euronext executive Gary Stein as its head of investor relations.

Other firms have undergone similar institutionalisation processes ahead of a public listing. For example Kohlberg Kravis Roberts notably restructured some of its operations and made a number of hires and in-house promotions preceding its July listing on the NYSE.

Apollo, which last month agreed  the £888 million (€1 billion; $1.4 billion) takeover of Brit Insurance alongside CVC, has assets under management of approximately $54 billion.