In-demand Goldman Sachs London MD leaves for Abu Dhabi fund
Everyone wants to work in private credit. Everyone wants to work in the Middle East. What happens if you can do both?
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Alexander Vavalidis joined the Abu Dhabi Investment Council (ADIC) earlier this year as head of its hybrid & capital solutions team. ADIC is a subsidiary of the primary Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, Mubadala. He joined the firm from Goldman Sachs, where he spent eight years, and was most recently a managing director in its new Capital Solutions Group – an umbrella that cover bankers specializing in private equity and credit work.
Before Goldman Sachs, Vavalidis was a partner at Menhaden Capital. He was a co-founder of the firm back in 2015, leaving an associate position in Credit Suisse’s leveraged finance team to do so. One of his fellow Menhaden Capital founders was Ben Goldsmith – of the famous Goldsmith family, and son of billionaire James Goldsmith.
Bankers with leveraged finance experience have been in high demand. Private credit as an asset class is having its time in the sun, and banks are scrambling to get a slice of the growing pie. The GCC’s investment funds are getting in on the action it seems, too.
It’s also interesting to note that Alexander Vavalidis’ father, Stefanos Vavalidis, was also a banker. He sat on the boards of directors for both the National Bank of Greece and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Vavalidis senior's death in 2017 led to a lawsuit against his doctor, who was also Princess Diana's.
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