StepStone hires former Citi Private Equity exec

StepStone Group has hired Johnny Randel, a former executive with Citi Private Equity, to serve in the newly created roles of chief financial and chief operating officer.

Randel will lead the firm’s monitoring and reporting division and oversee the firm’s financial activities and general administration. Prior to Citi Private Equity, Randel was assistant treasurer for Citigroup, managing the company’s relationship with rating agencies and fixed income investors.

StepStone, which works with institutional investors to build portfolios that include private equity, co-investments and secondaries, also opened an office in New York that reflects its stronger focus on the city. StepStone is based in La Jolla, California.

“New York has always been a key market for us, and our enhanced presence there will allow us to better serve the private equity community, particularly as limited partners continue to invest in private equity partnerships or as they look to capitalise on discounts in the secondaries market,” Jose Fernandez, managing director with StepStone, said in a statement.

Johnny Randel

The New York office will be staffed by Randel, Fernandez, Jim Gamett, managing director and head of secondaries and associate Judy Kuan. The firm hired Gamett in late 2008 to help steer StepStone into the secondaries market.

StepStone had opened an East Coast office in 2008 based in Princeton, New Jersey, headed up by Steve Moseley. Moseley left the firm last year after what he said was unfair media attention connecting him to a national pension pay-to-play scandal.

Moseley was not charged in the scandal investigation being led by New York’s attorney general, Andrew Cuomo. “I have been assured by the Attorney General of New York that I am not a target of the ongoing industry investigation. However, press reports have raised my name, creating an unfair and unnecessary distraction for all of us,” Moseley said at the time.

StepStone has won several high-profile mandates in the last few years, including representing limited partners in the Lehman Brothers Merchant Banking funds to help guide investors through the bankruptcy sales process.

Other StepStone clients include the Kuwait Investment Authority, the George Kaiser Family Foundation, the Los Angeles Fire and Police Pensions, the State of Wisconsin Investment Board and AMP Capital Investors, a specialist manager with more than $101 billion in funds under management. AMP is a wholly owned subsidiary of Australian Stock Exchange-listed AMP Limited.