Placement agent and alternative investment advisory firm Probitas Partners has promoted Reidan Cruz to partner. Cruz helped open the firm's New York office in early 2002 and has been serving as a principal on the relationship management team. He has been and will continue to be responsible for placing funds with institutional investors, sourcing new general partner clients and offering liquidity and portfolio management services.

Before joining the San Francisco-headquartered firm, Cruz served as a vice president in Merrill Lynch's private equity gr

Peapack, N.J.-based Venture Investment Associates has named Eliot Powell as a managing director on its investment team.
Powell joins the firm from JPMorgan, where he worked on the private equity investment team.

The firm is currently managing its fifth fund, which has $182.5 million in committed capital and is investing in venture capital, buy-out and growth equity partnerships.

Boston-based State Street Global Advisors is reportedly aiming to expand its hedge fund business and may quadruple its staff, which currently stands at 10. According to media reports, the new hires would be based in the firm's London offices.

Clarus Ventures, a global life sciences venture capital firm with offices in San Francisco and Cambridge, Mass., has filled out its investment team to manage its first fund, which closed in December with $500 million in committed capital. The firm has hired three principals and a controller to help manage the fund and Robert Liptak, managing director, said the firm is looking to make one additional hire.

The Blackstone Group has hired Joseph Russick to serve as a principal in the firm's distressed debt hedge fund group. Russick's appointment is an addition to the team, which was established in July.

Russick was previously a vice president at Bennett Restructuring Funds, a billion dollar hedge fund, where he specialized in public and private investments focused on the distressed debt of companies in or near bankruptcy.

Private equity firm Genstar Capital has named Keith Oster as managing director. Oster's responsibilities with the San Francisco-based investment management firm will include sourcing and executing acquisitions, divestitures and oversight of portfolio companies.

Before joining Genstar, Oster was with Fremont Partners and prior to that he was a general partner with Thomas Weisel Capital Partners and J.F. Lehman & Company.

Alternative asset manager GSC Partners made a series of promotions in its senior executive team this week. Carl Crosetto, spokesman for the Florham Park, N.J.-headquartered firm, said the move was in line with the firm's previously announced plans to broaden ownership among the firm's employees.

Deutsche Asset Management is building up its North American team with the addition of Eddie Vandiver and Stephane Amara, each of whom will serve as director of the alternative and quantitative business development groups in the U.S. and Canada, respectively. Vandiver will report to Marco Veissid, head of DeAM's alternative and quantitative business development group for North America, while Amara will report to Geoff Moore, head of DeAM's business development and client service group in Canada.

Fixed-income fund manager PIMCO has named former Assistant U.S. Treasury Secretary Richard Clarida as executive vice president and global strategic advisor. Clarida, who joins PIMCO from hedge fund firm Clinton Group Investment Advisors, served in the Bush administration from 2001 to 2003. He has also served as chair of the economics department at Columbia University, where he will continue to teach.

Babson Capital Management has closed Tower Square Capital Partners II, a $1 billion mezzanine and private equity fund, which will invest in companies in the small end of the middle market. The firm's first fund, Tower Square I, has $265 million in assets and closed in October 2002. With the closing of Tower Square II, the 11-member Babson Capital team is now managing about $3 billion in mezzanine and private equity assets.