NEW YORK, November 2, 2005 -- Castle Harlan, Inc., a leading New York-based private equity firm, announced today the appointment of Gary Appel, who has more than two decades of experience as a private equity investor, to the position of vice chairman of the firm.
The firm said Appel would expand the capabilities of Castle Harlan in identifying and developing new business opportunities and working with existing portfolio companies.
Appel spent 17 years with Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, the Wall Street investment bank, where he was a founding partner and managing director of DLJ Merchant Banking, DLJ's private equity investing arm. While he was with DLJ Merchant Banking, Appel completed investments with a total value of more than $5 billion.
Appel was a member of the DLJ Merchant Banking Group's Board of Directors and its Investment Committee. He served on the boards of directors of several of its investments, including CNW Holdings, Essex International, Musicland Stores and Nimbus Manufacturing. He left DLJ in 1995.
Most recently, Appel had been vice chairman of Glencoe Capital, a Chicago-based private equity firm, from 2001 to 2005, and prior to that served as a senior managing director at Bear Stearns & Co. in New York.
Castle Harlan, founded in 1987, invests in controlling interests in the buyout and development of middle-market companies in North America and Europe. Its team of 11 managing directors, including its founders, has completed 45 acquisitions since its inception with a total value in excess of $7 billion. The firm traces its roots to the start of the institutionalized private-equity business in the late 1960s.
Castle Harlan's portfolios companies, which employ more than 31,000 people, include Ames True Temper, a leading manufacturer of lawn and garden tools and accessories; Horizon Lines, one of the largest U.S. container shipping companies; and Caribbean Restaurants Inc., which operates the exclusive Burger King franchise in Puerto Rico with 165 units.