Crocker leaves Atlantic-Pacific for Deutsche Bank

John Crocker, one of the prime builders of the alternatives fund of funds business at Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette prior to its acquisition by Credit Suisse, has left placement agency Atlantic-Pacific Capital and joined Deutsche Bank's RREEF alternative investments group.

Crocker was hired as a managing director and is working in sales and marketing of the alternatives products offered by the bank's RREEF platform, which include real estate, direct private equity, private equity fund of funds, secondary funds, commodities and infrastructure products.

It's not clear when Crocker officially joined Deutsche Bank, but he has started working, a bank spokesperson said. RREEF has more than $90 billion in alternative assets under management.

Crocker will report to Christopher Burnham, vice chairman with Deutsche Bank Asset Management. He will focus on sales and marketing of all the products offered by RREEF, not just private equity, the bank spokesperson said.

Crocker left Atlantic-Pacific Capital about two months ago, according to a person with knowledge of the move. Crocker will retain a relationship with the placement agent as a senior advisor.

John Crocker

At Atlantic-Pacific, Crocker worked on general partner origination. He joined the placement agency in 2010, prior to which he worked as a managing director in Citi’s Private Funds Group, where he worked in origination, project management and distribution. Citi decided to shut down its third-party private equity fund placement platform in 2009.

Prior to joining Citi in 2005, Crocker was a partner at Capital Z Investment Partners, and earlier he was a partner in Credit Suisse’s Customized Fund Investment Group. He had helped build up the alternative investment fund of funds business at DLJ from $200 million in assets under management to more than $6 billion in 2000, according to Crocker’s biography on Atlantic-Pacific’s web site.

Meanwhile, Atlantic-Pacific earlier this year hired four people to run its newly formed secondary advisor business. The firm brought on Michael Pilson, former director and senior portfolio manager in the private markets group at DuPont Capital Management; Kevin Imhoff, who most recently worked at Goldman Sachs; Alexander Mejia, formerly of Credit Suisse in the private equity customised funds group, and John Pilson, most recently at Barclays Capital.