The placement agent in private investments firm has opened for business in the US Northwest.

Mercury Capital Advisors, the global placement agent specializing in private investments, has opened a Seattle, Washington office, continuing the firm’s build-out in North America and further afield. 

The office is in the Two Union Square building and led by Brian Hanson, executive director, iFunds Distribution, who reports to Donal Mastrangelo, executive director and head of US iFunds Distribution. Mastrangelo was, as previously reported here, named to his post earlier in October.

Earlier this year, the firm opened an office in Palm Beach, Florida led by Robert Silvani, executive director, iFunds Distribution, and made a handful of new hires at their New York headquarters.

“iFunds provides digital access to an ecosystem of the same leading-edge alternatives managers and pre-IPO that we source for our most sophisticated institutional clientele. Through this simple and intuitive platform, the private client community are now provided with an investible solution offering smaller bite sizes coupled with a compelling fee structure,” Michael Ricciardi, chief executive and co-founder of Mercury, said.

Before Hanson joined Mercury was director of business development at Silver Creek Capital Management, an organization with $7 billion of assets under management, focused on the alternative assets space.  Previously, Hanson spent nine years at Quellos Group, an alternative fund of funds manager (purchased by BlackRock in 2007), on both the wealth and investment management sides of the business. 

In another recent hire, Mercury appointed Tyler DeCotis and Tristan Sperry as analysts in the iFunds distribution team. DeCotis previously worked for Eaton Vance Investment Managers as an internal business developer covering the major wirehouse firms, and Sperry’s prior role was as a business developer for W P Carey’s retail fundraising arm specializing in non-traded and private alternative investments.

Earlier this year the firm opened an office in Palm Beach, Florida, led by Robert Silvani, executive director, iFunds Distribution. Mercury’s New York headquarters has also seen headcount grow this year, and further plans for expansion throughout major US wealth hubs are scheduled for Q4 2017 and into 2018.