Deals

Quadrangle continues transformation with Goldman hire

Former Goldman Sachs partner Doug Kramer has been named COO and will help launch the firm’s asset management business, which was recently chosen to invest billions for New York mayor and media mogul Michael Bloomberg.

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Quadrangle Group continues its metamorphosis with the appointment of Doug Kramer, formerly the head of Goldman Sachs’ Global Manager Strategies Group, to chief operating officer. He will help develop Quandrangle’s push into gatekeeping for “founding investors” including New York City’s billionaire mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose capital alone will cause the firm to hire a dedicated chief investment officer and around 20 investment professionals, an industry source told PEO.

At Goldman, Kramer oversaw the identification, evaluation, selection and monitoring of managers across all traditional asset classes. He joined the investment bank in 1999, became a managing director in 2003 and made partner in 2006.

Kramer will be based in Quadrangle’s New York office and will oversee non-investment operations and strategic development, including development of its newest initiative, Quadrangle Asset Management (QAM). QAM was formed “to provide comprehensive asset allocation and manager selection, plan implementation and on-going risk management” services to “founding investors”, but not to additional third parties, the firm said.

Though nascent, QAM is already believed to be managing several billion dollars, as it was selected earlier this month to manage Michael Bloomberg’s investments. The New York City mayor, media mogul – and, speculators think, a possible US Presidential candidate – is a longtime friend of Quadrangle co-founder Steven Rattner.

Launch of the asset management division and hire of Kramer are Quadrangle’s latest expansion moves. Last week it promoted Sachin Khajuria to principal and Daniel Fine to vice president amid plans to continue its global push.
 
“This is a very exciting time at Quadrangle,” Rattner said in a statement. “In just the last year we have opened offices in London and Silicon Valley and announced plans to open an office in Hong Kong, in addition to our major new initiative, QAM.”

Eight-year old Quadrangle has more than $6 billion of assets under management. The firm’s distressed debt team, led by Michael Weinstock, one of Quadrangle’s four founding partners, recently spun out and rebranded itself Monarch Alternative Capital Management.