Cambridge Associates Expands Global Business Development Team
BOSTON, June 11, 2020 – Global investment firm Cambridge Associates (CA) today announced a number of new additions to the global sales team. These new appointments span the firm’s core practice areas, global footprint, and reflect CA’s commitment to private investments.
Ben Gunnee has been appointed as Head of Business Development, London, effective May 4, 2020. Based in London, Ben will oversee new business strategy and lead growth efforts in the UK and Europe. This includes being responsible for the business development of the London office and sales and marketing efforts for CA’s pension, endowment, foundation, and private clients across Europe. Before CA, Ben spent nearly 18 years at Mercer, where he was a Partner and Head of Fiduciary Management.
John M. Merrill has been appointed Managing Director effective April 20, 2020. Based in New York, Merrill will lead new business development efforts for CA’s private client practice across North America. Merrill joined CA from Makena Capital where he had been working with an array of institutional investors on total portfolio and asset class specific mandates. Previously, he oversaw the OCIO business at The Investment Fund for Foundations (TIFF), and prior to that managed portfolios for families and other institutional investors at Credit Suisse.
Rita McCusker began her career at Cambridge Associates in 2004 and served as a member of the firm for 10 years. After pursuing roles at Catholic Investment Services and Meketa, she rejoined CA as a Senior Director on March 16, 2020. Based in Boston, McCusker will spearhead private investment business development to keep pace with client appetite for asset class mandates across private equity, private credit, private real assets, venture capital, secondaries and co-investments.
Dan Desmarais joined Cambridge Associates’ pension practice on February 20, 2020. As a Managing Director based in Boston, he will oversee the new pension and insurance business growth across North America. Desmarais joins the firm with more than 30 years of experience. His OCIO expertise will be especially essential for overseeing a seamless onboarding experience for the firm’s clients that continue to fully delegate management of their sophisticated multi-asset portfolios to Cambridge Associates.
Simone Balch started as the West Coast Regional Director in CA’s private client practice on February 3, 2020. Based in the San Francisco office, Balch is responsible for developing new private client relationships on the west coast of the United States. Balch has more than 20 years of investment and private wealth management experience, and held positions on Wall Street, in non-profits, and at private investment and impact investment firms. She has lived and worked on four continents and brings cultural context and knowledge to her client interactions.
About Cambridge Associates
Cambridge Associates is a global investment firm. The firm aims to help pension plans, endowments & foundations, healthcare systems, and private clients implement and manage custom investment portfolios to generate outperformance so they can maximize their impact on the world. With more than 45 years of institutional investing insights, the firm has helped to shape and implement investment best practices and built strong global investment networks with the purpose of driving outperformance for clients. Cambridge Associates delivers a range of services, including outsourced CIO, non-discretionary portfolio management, staff extension and alternative asset class mandates.
Cambridge Associates maintains offices in Boston; Arlington, VA; Beijing; Dallas; London; Munich, Menlo Park, CA; New York; San Francisco; Singapore; and Sydney. Cambridge Associates consists of six global investment affiliates that are all under common ownership and control. For more information, please visit www.cambridgeassociates.com.