Z Capital hires former FBI officer as operating partner

Z Capital Partners has appointed Jerome Pender as an operating partner to advise it on digital and cybersecurity issues and to work with its portfolio companies on information technology analysis. He will also assist with due diligence on new investments, the firm said.

Prior to joining Z Capital, Pender worked as chief information officer at the US Federal Bureau of Investigation for three years. In this position Pender oversaw the FBI’s global information technology and managed a budget of $1.2 billion, the statement said.

Before that he was director of the Justice Federal Credit Union and deputy assistant director at the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division.

He had served as executive director for information technology at UBS Investment Bank for almost 13 years, from 1990 to 2003, according to his FBI biography and LinkedIn.

Z Capital Partners is the private equity arm of Z Capital Group, which manages $2.3 billion in assets and is based in Illinois, according to PEI’s Research & Analytics division. It has two other offices in New York and Switzerland.

Investors in Z Capital’s funds include sovereign wealth funds, endowments, pension funds, insurance companies, foundations, family offices and other institutions from North America, Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East, according to the statement.