Private Advisors hires former Rho executive

The Virginia-based fund of funds has hired Gordon Hargraves from New York-based Rho Fund Investors, where he spent 12 years focusing on venture capital and smaller buyout funds.

Private Advisors has hired Gordon Hargraves as a partner at the firm.

His responsibilities will include manager selection, portfolio construction and monitoring of growth equity, buyout and turnaround private equity funds in the North American lower mid-market. Hargraves joins Private Advisors after working for 12 years at Rho Fund Investors, the fund of funds division of New York-based private equity firm Rho Capital Partners. At Rho, Hargraves was a partner focused primarily on venture capital investments and smaller buyout funds in Europe and North America.

Prior to working at Rho, Hargraves headed up the National bank of Kuwait’s private equity activities in New York, responsible for both direct investing and fund investments in the US. He began his private equity career at GCC Investments in Boston, where he worked on growth investments in the US and Western Europe.

Gordon Hargraves

Hargraves’ hire at Private Advisors comes roughly three months after the Virginia-based fund of funds closed its $212 million fund that had a $200 million hard-cap. The fund invests in underlying small-cap and growth equity funds. Private Advisors had been marketing the fund since August, 2008, according to US Securities and Exchange Commission filings. Its third fund raised $300 million in 2007.

Hargraves is the seventh partner at Private Advisors focused on private equity. Lou Moelchert, who managed the endowment for the University of Richmond for over 30 years, founded the firm in 1997.

Private Advisors manages over $3.5 billion in assets, according to its website. In December, 2010 it was acquired by New York Life Insurance.

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