Posner to lead real asset strategy at Ridgewood

Ross Posner, who in 2011 created Allstate Investments’ Infrastructure and Real Asset private equity business, has joined Ridgewood Private Equity Partners (RPEP) as senior managing director, according to a recent statement.

In his new role, Posner will lead the firm’s energy-focused real asset strategy “to provide unique access to best-in-class private equity opportunities for ultra high net-worth and family office investors,” according to the statement.

RPEP is part of the Ridgewood Companies, founded in 1982 by Robert Swanson. Since then, the companies have raised more than $4.5 billion in capital and commitments primarily focused on direct equity investments in energy, infrastructure and other real assets.

According to the statement, RPEP will have a distinct mandate that includes upstream, midstream, and related infrastructure and services. The dedicated investment team will be led by Posner.

“We are very pleased to be executing this new strategy under the leadership of Ross, who possesses a unique combination of investing and business building capabilities gained from over two decades of successful private equity experience,” Matthew Swanson, senior managing director of RPEP and Ridgewood Energy, said.

As global group head of the line of business Posner launched at Allstate Investments, he managed an investment portfolio of over $1 billion. Prior roles at the insurer included serving as a senior member of the private equity team that executed a multi-billion dollar global investment strategy, as well as the senior member overseeing its project finance and private placement businesses.

Michael Albrecht, one of the three members of Allstate Investments’ Infrastructure and Real Assets team, has been named interim group head at Allstate. Until Posner’s departure in July, Albrecht was associate director responsible for direct investments within the infrastructure sector. He joined Allstate in 2012.

In January 2014, Ridgewood Energy, which focuses on the exploration and production of oil in the deepwater US Gulf of Mexico, closed its Oil and Gas Fund II on its $1.1 billion hard-cap.

RPEP is run out of Ridgewood’s offices in Montvale, New Jersey and New York City.