Searchlight hires former Heinz exec as operator

Searchlight Capital Partners has hired former Heinz executive Mitchell Ring as a senior advisor in its global consumer packaged goods group, according to a statement.

At Heinz, Ring was a senior vice president of business development focusing on expanding the business in developed and emerging markets. Ring previously worked as a business unit director at M&M/Mars and held marketing and financial positions at General Foods. His addition brings the number of senior advisors at Searchlight to three, according to the firm’s website.

“We believe Mitch’s breadth and depth of global experience is an excellent fit with Searchlight’s consumer efforts and investment philosophy,” Searchlight founding partner Eric Zinterhofer said in the statement.

Searchlight closed its debut fund on $860 million in April 2012. The fund had a $750 million target and received commitments from The Second Swedish National Pension Fund, AP Fonden 2, and the New York State common Retirement Fund, according to Private Equity International’s Research and Analytics division.

Searchlight was co-founded in 2010 by Oliver Haarmann, a former partner at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Erol Uzumeri, who previously led the global private equity business at the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, and Zinterhofer, a former co-head of the media and telecommunications investment platform at Apollo Management. The firm focuses on mid-market businesses in North America and Europe and has offices in London, New York and Toronto.