Barclays appointed Martin Douglass as head of financial sponsors M&A. Douglass will be based in New York, and will report to Dan Grabos, head of Americas M&A. Douglass will work in close partnership with JF Astier, global head of financial sponsors group, and Christian Oberle, head of Americas financial sponsors group.
Douglass has close to 15 years of investment banking experience and joins Barclays from Morgan Stanley, where he was a managing director in the M&A team in New York. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley in 2014, Douglass was on the healthcare investment banking team at Jefferies.
During his career, Douglass has executed over $300 billion of transactions advising on mergers, acquisitions, company sales, divestitures, separations, cross-border transactions, dual-track processes and takeover defense assignments. During his tenure at Morgan Stanley, he played a key role in a number of significant M&A transactions including the sale of MGM Studios to Amazon, merger of Baker Hughes and GE Oil & Gas, sale of Culligan by Advent and Centerbridge to BDT, sale of Champion Petfoods by HOOPP to Mars, merger of Vantiv and Worldpay and subsequent sale to FIS and take-private of Kindred Healthcare by TPG, WCAS and Humana.
In his role at Barclays, Douglass will be responsible for identifying new M&A business opportunities with financial sponsor clients, working in close partnership with the financial sponsors group and the broader investment banking industry coverage and M&A teams. Douglass will also work in close coordination with the M&A sell-side advisory team that is responsible for executing Financial Sponsor sell-side transactions.
“Financial sponsors M&A is a critical area of focus within our Investment Banking business, and one where we see significant opportunity given our expectation for increased levels of market activity,” Grabos said. “Martin’s addition to our M&A platform will help best position Barclays to capture a large share of the advisory opportunity. His exceptional industry knowledge, deep roster of key relationships and extensive transactional experience with private equity firms will generate tremendous value for our clients, and his appointment is further evidence of our dedication to investing in top-level talent.”
