Altius Associates profits from PCG turmoil

Michael Russell is joining Altius Associates, the UK private equity investment adviser, in January.  He left Pacific Corporate Group’s asset management arm in September, where he had been European managing director. PCG has been hit by a number of senior management departures.

At Altius Russell will be responsible for the firm’s European investments and European client relationships. He will serve on the firm’s five person investment committee and join the board of directors.

Russell said: “My role is to act as a key resource for all client relationships and to help build Altius’s tailor-made custom approach to clients. We are not about cookie-cutter portfolios. Clients need to be really looked after. Planning and implementing portfolios is a lot of work.”

Russell joined PCG’s investment committee in 1998 and specialised in the design and implementation of private equity investment portfolio strategies for large pension funds and other institutional investors. At PCG he was the primary contact for European investment activities and portfolio management for European relationships. He was a managing director for six years.

Before PCG Russell worked from 1993 to 1996 in the investment banking division at CIBC Wood Gundy Securities, now CIBC World Markets, in Canada.

Altius Associates was established in 1998 to provide discretionary and advisory services to a select number of institutional investors. Altius currently manages and advises $8.4 billion of private equity mandates and commitments to US and European buyout, venture, and growth managers.