UPDATE: Piper Jaffray appoints PE group partner

Minneapolis-based investment bank and asset management firm Piper Jaffray has hired Stuart C. Harvey Jr. as partner in the firm’s merchant banking group that manages private equity investments in commercial businesses, according to a statement.

Harvey was previously with the firm as managing director between 1993 and 2003. His return is concurrent with the merchant banking group’s preparation to raise a new fund next year, according to the statement.

“Stuart established a very successful track record. He'll be part of our team going forward,” the merchant banking group vice chairman and managing director Tom Schnettler told Private Equity International. “We do intend to add another partner in conjunction with raising Fund II.”

Harvey served as chief executive officer of the US Bancorp subsidiary Elavon Global Acquiring Solutions from 2003 to 2010, and as chairman, CEO and president at Ceridian Corporation. At Ceridian he led a $3.45 billion acquisition of Ceridian subsidiary Comdata by FleetCor Technologies.

Harvey earned his BA from St. John’s University, his law degree from George Washington University Law School and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He is a board member of Trustwave Holdings and a trustee of St. John’s University.

In 2012 the group closed Piper Jaffray Merchant Banking Fund I on its target $100 million and last year closed the growth equity fund PJC Merchant Banking Partners IV on its $3.5 million target. Both are currently investing, according to PEI’s Research & Analytics division. Schnettler said the latter is an affiliate, or side-by-side, fund within Piper Jaffray.

“We from time to time organize affiliates strictly for senior Piper Jaffray employees,” he said. “They invest alongside Fund I and are not for outside investors.”

The merchant banking group of Piper Jaffray was established in 2008 and for the first four years used the firm's corporate balance sheet resources instead of raising a fund, Schnettler said, until Fund I launched in 2012. Fund I focuses on healthcare, TMT, consumer, business services and clean tech and renewables sectors in North America, Schnettler said.

Piper Jaffray previously operated Piper Jaffray Private Capital, which managed fund of funds such as Piper Jaffray Cleantech Fund IV, which closed on $29.61 million, short of its $200 million target; Piper Jaffray LBO Fund IV that closed on $26.33 million, short of its $100 million target and Piper Jaffray Venture Fund IV that closed on $21.80 million, short of the $100 million target. In December 2010 the fund of funds business spun out into an independent firm now known as North Sky Capital.

Piper Jaffray offers asset management through three different investment advisory affiliates: Advisory Research, Piper Jaffray Investment Management and PJC Capital Partners.

At press time, Piper Jaffray Companies (NYSE: PJC) share prices on the New York Stock Exchange were listed as $42.37, at the price of the previous day’s close. PJC market capitalization was $639.91 million.