(February 7 – 14:30 ET) – Royal Bank Capital Partners, the private equity arm of Royal Bank of Canada, has hired two veteran private equity fund managers.

Richard Black takes over the firm’s existing US$77 million Technology Fund and Paul McDermott heads a new US$100 million Energy Fund. Black is located in Toronto, and McDermott in Greenwich, Connecticut.

“Richard and Paul are outstanding additions to our team. Their arrival further strengthens our commitment to the technology and energy sectors,” said Alan Hibben, chief executive officer of Royal Bank Capital Partners.

Black graduated from the University of Western Ontario in 1991 with a Humanities B.A. and then joined Helix Investments. During his tenure with Helix, Black invested as a principal in nine companies and worked on additional six companies. Since 1998, Helix has been winding down their portfolio and Black has played a significant role in accomplishing this task.

McDermott graduated from Wesleyan University in 1976 with a B.A. in Economics followed by an MBA from the University of Chicago in 1978. In 1980, he joined First Reserve Corporation of Greenwich, Connecticut as vice president moving on to managing director in 1985, a position he held until 1995. McDermott founded the successful investment consulting organization Energy Investment Corp. of New Canaan, Connecticut in 1996. He has an in-depth knowledge of the energy sector based on more than 20 years experience in the investment industry focusing on private equity investing, corporate buy-outs and capital formation.

The Information Technology Fund focuses on growing North American companies involved with Internet infrastructure, embedded systems, networking, wireless applications and fabless semi-conductors.

The Energy Fund concentrates on growth companies in the service sector for hydrocarbon production and development, power, power exchange and assurance and technology.

Royal Bank Capital Partners has developed focused investment capabilities for five industry sectors as well as mezzanine financing and merchant banking. The five sectors are: information technology, advanced technologies, life sciences, energy and telecommunications.
-IE Staff