Firms & Funds

First Reserve loses 2 fundraising execs: Updated

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  • IR Manager Neil Horn goes to Hycroft
  • VP William Pearce goes to Triton Pacific
  • MD David Posner left over the summer

Horn left in June and joined specialty investment bank Hycroft as a managing director this month, according to his LinkedIn profile. He had worked at First Reserve since 2012.

It’s not clear when Pearce left. He is no longer on the firm’s website, and he changed his LinkedIn profile to reflect his new role: vice president at Triton Pacific Capital.

Meredith Mitchell, a spokeswoman for First Reserve, did not return a request for comment.

Pearce worked at First Reserve for five years, according to his LinkedIn profile. Prior to First Reserve, he worked as a senior consulting associate/team lead at Cambridge Associate, his profile said.

Pearce and Horn are the latest in a group of several fundraising/investor relations executives who have left the firm recently. David Posner, a managing director who ran the firm’s international fundraising and investor relations, left over the summer. Posner took a role at Farallon Capital Management LLC, where he is global head of investor relations and business development.

Caitlyn MacDonald, director of marketing and communications at First Reserve, left in March, according to her LinkedIn profile. Buyouts previously reported MacDonald’s departure.

Among those who remain in fundraising and investor relations at First Reserve are Cathleen Ellsworth, managing director and head of marketing, who runs the firm’s investor relations activities; Lauren De Paola, a vice president who focuses on marketing, communications and IR, and Jared Gardner, an associate who works on fundraising, IR and co-investments, according to the firm’s website. Ellsworth said the marketing and IR group has about 10 to 12 members. 

First Reserve closed its 13th flagship energy fund on $3.4 billion last year, well below its original target. The firm also closed its second infrastructure fund on $2.5 billion last year. A top executive on the infrastructure team, Chris Hearn, left earlier this year and has started his own firm, Strata Energy Investments, along with co-founders John Shepherd and Robert Wholey.

Update: This story has been updated to include the role of Cathleen Ellsworth.