Lone Star promotes Collin to president

Lone Star Funds has named André Collin to the newly created position of president at the Dallas-based private equity firm, which specializes in investing in distressed assets. He will be responsible for Lone Star’s global operations, which span the US, Europe and Asia, allowing chairman and founder John Grayken to focus more on sourcing investments and developing the overall strategy for the firm.

Sam Loughlin has succeeded Collin as president of the Americas, where he will be responsible for overseeing origination activities on behalf of the firm’s funds, according to the firm’s website. Collin assumed those duties after previous Americas head Len Allen retired from the firm last October. Loughlin, along with all of Lone Star’s regional heads, will report to Collin, while Collin will report to Grayken.

Lone Star confirmed the promotions of Collin and Loughlin but declined to comment on the factors leading to the senior management changes. However, the lack of a successor for the 57-year-old Grayken has concerned limited partners such as the Oregon Public Employees’ Retirement Fund, which has invested in all of Lone Star’s funds. “I want to have a succession strategy in place,” State Treasurer Ted Wheeler, said at a board meeting last May. “That’s important to me.” 

At 52, Collin is only five years younger than Grayken. He joined Lone Star in 2007, after three years at Montreal-based PSP Investments, where he was responsible for 10 percent of the total fund and managed more than $8 billion of commercial real estate assets in Europe, Asia and the Americas. Before PSP, he served as president and chief operating officer of a real estate subsidiary of another Canadian pension plan, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, from 2004 to 2007.

The senior management changes closely follow the completion of two rapid and massive fundraises at the firm. Last October, Lone Star gathered $6.6 billion in third-party capital for its commercial real estate debt and equity fund, Lone Star Real Estate Fund III, after only about four months on the fundraising trail. The firm also raised $5.1 billion for a residential real estate-focused fund, Lone Star Fund VIII, about six months, holding a final close last May.