Exponent makes six appointments

Exponent Private Equity, which is yet to make its first investment, has doubled the size of its investment team.
 
The London-headquartered firm founded by four ex-3i executives has announced the appointment of a finance director and five senior investment professionals.
 
Craig Vickery joins the firm as FD from PricewaterhouseCoopers where he was an assistant director in the corporate finance and recovery team.
 
The five new investment professionals are Simon Baines, Richard Lenane, Arthur Mornington, Kris Cudmore and Jack Edmondson.
 
Baines joins Exponent from Bain & Company, where he worked as a management consultant from 1995. His role there involved strategy development for clients, merger integration and organisational change.
 
Richard Lenane was most recently a member of the leveraged transaction group at global private equity firm Apax Partners, where he worked on the acquisition and IPO of UK directories business Yell Group.
 
Joining Exponent in June following completion of an MBA at Columbia Business School in New York will be Arthur Mornington. Mornington worked at European buyout house BC Partners since 2001 after joining that firm from Bain & Company.
 
Kris Cudmore previously worked at consultancy firms Booz Allen & Hamilton and Roland Berger, managing due diligence and corporate strategy projects and co-founded his own software company in 2000.
 
Finally, Jack Edmondson joins Exponent from the corporate finance and strategy practice of consultancy firm McKinsey & Co. Previously he worked as an assistant portfolio manager at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers.

Commenting on the appointments, co-founder Richard Campin said that the firm had used a number of firms of headhunters for the recruitment process and that 'we are selectively looking for one or two more professionals'.
 
Exponent closed its debut fund on £400 million (€568 million; $753 million) in August 2004, less than five months after launch. The firm will aim to invest the fund in large, complex mid-market UK buyouts, investing up to £100 million per transaction.
 
The firm was founded in March 2004 by ex-3i executives Richard Campin, Chris Graham, Hugh Richards and Tom Sweet-Escott.