Angelo, Gordon develops succession plan

The firm added a real estate executive to a new four-person management committee, among other changes, less than a year after its co-founder died.

While he has no plans to retire soon, Angelo, Gordon & Company’s co-founder laid out a succession plan in a letter to employees Friday, creating a new management committee that includes a real estate investment professional.

Michael Gordon started the alternatives investment firm in 1988 with John Angelo, who died in January. In the letter that PERE obtained, Gordon wrote that the firm will continue to be fully owned by its founders and employees.

In the next five years, senior employee partners will acquire the controlling equity interests of the founding partners, who will retain non-controlling stakes. Senior employee partners will also invest “substantial additional capital” in the firm.

To put the ownership structure in place, Angelo, Gordon’s plans include “the granting of restricted stock units and some further strengthening of our already strong restrictive covenants designed to retain employees and promote the long-term stability of the firm.”

Gordon also addressed governance issues through the creation of a management committee, which will meet on a weekly basis. In addition to Gordon, the four-person group is comprised of Adam Schwartz, head of the US and European real estate; Kirk Wickman, chief operating officer; and Josh Baumgarten, deputy chief investment officer.

“Since the founding of the firm, John and I regularly sought input from the Firm’s most senior partners on management issues,” Gordon wrote, noting that the committee is a continuation of that collaboration.

A spokesman for the firm declined further comment.

Angelo, Gordon has a total of about $26 billion in assets under management.