Former Riverstone European General Counsel and Head of ESG Joins Petra as Head of Europe.
Industry Recognized Regulatory Compliance Expert Joins Petra as Director of Compliance.
NEW YORK AND LONDON; JULY 21, 2022: Petra Funds Group (“Petra”), a leading independent private funds administrator, today announced the opening of its London office, which will be led by former Riverstone European General Counsel and Head of ESG, Charlie Chipchase.
Mr. Chipchase, an experienced in-house private equity lawyer with over 20 years of experience, will focus on expanding Petra’s European footprint with an emphasis on maintaining the same commitment to delivering a best-in-class fund administration solution for private equity, venture capital, and private debt funds.
Mr. Chipchase joins Petra from Riverstone, where he managed legal, compliance, and regulatory matters across multiple funds, capital strategies, and jurisdictions. At Riverstone, he built out and led all aspects of Riverstone’s ESG program and was a member of the firm’s ESG and D&I committees.
“It is an exciting time to be joining Petra and great to be teaming up with my former Riverstone colleagues,” commented Charlie. “There are obviously a number of outsourced fund administration providers, but I feel Petra offers something unique to GPs, namely an outsourced fund administration business provided by seasoned professionals who think like private equity CFOs and COOs because that is their background – at a time that the weight of middle and back-office burdens is set to grow.”
Petra is also excited to announce that Louis Sweeney has joined the firm as its Director of Compliance. Mr. Sweeney has over a decade of US regulatory compliance experience, which he obtained from a combination of working in-house, at FINRA, and in a compliance consulting capacity. Prior to joining Petra, Mr. Sweeney advised a wide range of broker-dealers and investment managers on various regulatory and compliance matters, including developing and maintaining compliance programs reasonably designed to achieve compliance with complex federal securities laws and regulations.
“Back-office services such as compliance are an integral part of an investment manager’s overall success in the ultra-competitive private markets sector,” said Louis. “Over the past several years, the SEC has heightened its scrutiny of private fund managers and has proposed sweeping changes to the regulatory landscape. I am very excited to join an all-in-one fund solution provider that enables us to work seamlessly across business units to support investment managers in meeting their reporting and compliance obligations.”
Petra is led by former Riverstone General Counsel and CAO Stephen Coats and CFO Peter Haskopoulos, who head a team of over 50 fund administration professionals across the US and Europe. Petra works with GPs from first-time funds to large established managers seeking to build or improve their operational infrastructure to allow their businesses to scale.
“We are thrilled to have two industry-heavy hitters join Petra,” said Stephen, Managing Partner. “Charlie’s legal background, private equity experience, and understanding of what it takes to build out a comprehensive ESG program for a $40+ billion fund will be incredibly valuable to Petra’s clients. Louis brings our firm additional expertise in the compliance space. At Petra, we are focused on hiring talent that has honed their craft for years on the field of play.”
