This senior Apollo Global Management partner has just departed

Turnover among the senior ranks of private equity firms is, compared to banking, rare. This year, however, big buy-side firms have been losing some key employees.

The latest exit is Ralf Ackermann, a partner and head of the European opportunistic fund at Apollo Management. He left the buyout firm yesterday, after more than ten years and is currently on gardening leave.

Ackermann left Goldman Sachs in 2007, where he was an associate in its bank loan distressed investing desk. He spent three years at the bank and joined from boutique investment bank Greenhill, where he was an analyst, in 2004.

Ackermann said he was “now looking forward to the next chapter” when he announced his departure on LinkedIn. He became a partner at Apollo in December 2013, and led a team of eight analysts.

Senior private equity professionals, tied in by lucrative promises of carried interest, rarely leave. However, this year the large buyout firms have lost a number of senior staff who went on to new ventures.

At KKR, Asís Echániz, who was a principal in the European infrastructure team, left in June. Philip Wack, a director focused on industrials and chemicals at the firm, left in May and has now started his own private equity venture called Moonlake Partners.

Other KKR employees have also ventured out on their own. Alexander Bruells, who headed up its EMEA financial services division, left in April to launch an investment manager aimed at millennials called Builders Union.

Contact: pclarke@efinancialcareers.com

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