Moelis Just Hired Jefferies' Top GP-Led Banker and Its Own Q2 Numbers Show Exactly Why
Rich Saltzman's move to run GP-led Advisory landed just after Moelis's Q2 2026 print showed Private Capital Advisory pulling in more new managing directors since 2023 than any other product line.
Moelis & Company (NYSE: MC) named Rich Saltzman Managing Director and Head of GP-led Advisory on August 5, poaching one of Jefferies’ senior secondaries bankers to run the GP-led corner of its Private Capital Advisory (PCA) business. On its own, a single senior hire is a footnote. Read against the numbers Moelis put out for the second quarter of 2026, it looks like the visible edge of a build-out the firm has been running for years.
The hire
Saltzman brings more than 20 years advising financial sponsors on strategic alternatives and liquidity in the secondary market, single- and multi-asset continuation vehicles, strip sales, tender offers and other structured solutions. His path to Moelis runs through three of the desks that have spent the past few years building out GP-led secondaries franchises of their own: Houlihan Lokey, then Guggenheim, then Jefferies, where he helped stand up the GP-led advisory practice from the ground up. Matt Wesley, Moelis’s Global Head of Private Capital Advisory, described the hire as a chance to “work alongside Rich again” and said it would “further strengthen our secondaries capabilities.” CEO and co-founder Navid Mahmoodzadegan framed it as reflecting “both the strength of our platform and our ongoing commitment to investing in exceptional talent to better serve clients globally.” Full announcement below.
THE ANNOUNCEMENT
Moelis Continues Expansion of Private Capital Advisory Business with Appointment of Rich Saltzman
Reinforces the Firm’s continued investment in its secondaries and sponsor-led capital solutions
New York, August 5, 2026. Moelis & Company (NYSE: MC) today announced the appointment of Rich Saltzman as Managing Director and Head of GP-led Advisory. He joins the Firm’s Private Capital Advisory team as Moelis continues to expand its capabilities across secondaries advisory and sponsor-led capital solutions.
Saltzman, based in New York, brings over 20 years of finance and banking experience, including deep expertise advising financial sponsors on strategic alternatives and liquidity solutions in the secondary market — single- and multi-asset continuation vehicles, strip sales, tender offers, and other structured solutions. He joins from Jefferies, where he was instrumental in building the GP-led advisory practice, and previously held senior secondary advisory roles at Guggenheim and Houlihan Lokey.
“We’ve made significant strides in building a premier franchise in private capital advisory, and the addition of Rich represents a milestone for our business,” said Matt Wesley, Global Head of Private Capital Advisory at Moelis. “I’m delighted to have the opportunity to work alongside Rich again. His expertise and strong relationships with investors and across private markets will enhance our ability to deliver exceptional outcomes for our clients and further strengthen our secondaries capabilities.”
“We have built a scaled and differentiated Private Capital Advisory business that is well positioned for continued growth. Rich’s appointment reflects both the strength of our platform and our ongoing commitment to investing in exceptional talent to better serve clients globally,” said Navid Mahmoodzadegan, CEO and Co-Founder of Moelis.
What the Q2 print actually shows
Moelis’s July investor presentation, covering the quarter ended June 30, 2026, puts GAAP revenue at $409.4 million, with an 18% adjusted operating margin and a 65.8% compensation ratio. Trailing-twelve-month revenue through Q2 2026 is $1,574 million, up 203% since FY2014. None of that growth is specific to secondaries, but the hiring behind it is.
Moelis grew its managing director ranks from 94 in 2014 to 182 as of June 2026, adding 31 product-line MDs since 2023. Private Capital Advisory got 8 of those — more than M&A (6), Capital Markets (5), Sponsors coverage (5), or Capital Structure Advisory (5). That’s the real story inside for us, from our Secondary Scoop angle: PCA is the one product line where Moelis has been adding senior secondaries and capital-solutions bankers fastest, and Saltzman is simply the highest-profile name to land inside that pattern.
The firm can afford to keep making that bet. Moelis is debt-free, sitting on $481.1 million in cash, and has returned roughly $3.3 billion to shareholders since its 2014 IPO, 110% of GAAP net income in 2025 alone. That capital-light model is what lets Moelis keep funding its PCA build-out even though secondaries revenue never shows up as its own line item in the disclosures. Put simply: the firm has the balance sheet to keep buying senior GP-led talent, and the Q2 numbers show it’s choosing to spend that flexibility on secondaries.
The franchise Saltzman is joining
PCA at Moelis is built around three capabilities: Secondary Market Advisory (continuation funds, LP liquidity, equity recaps, NAV loans and preferred equity), Tailored Capital Raise (co-investments, managed accounts, seeded fundraises, stapled primaries), and Primary Fundraise (global fund placements, first-time funds, top-up raises, vertical extensions). The team carries an average of 20+ years of experience per managing director and cites more than 1,500 global LP relationships spanning secondary firms, consultants, pension plans, insurers, sovereign wealth funds, endowments and family offices.
The deal list in the presentation is a fair cross-section of where GP-led activity is concentrated right now: a $570 million continuation vehicle for Carlyle’s Content Partners, a $1.7 billion vehicle for Antares Capital extending ownership of loans, a $1.2 billion continuation vehicle tied to TowerBrook’s stake in EisnerAmper, a continuation vehicle for Charlesbank’s Bridgepointe, a continuation vehicle transaction for Ethos Capital’s Identity Digital, and a $1 billion continuation fund transaction for One Equity Partners covering underlying assets at USCO S.p.A. and DWK Life Sciences. Zoom out further and roughly half of all Moelis transactions now involve a financial sponsor on one side of the table, with cumulative sponsor deal volume climbing from roughly $100 billion in 2014 to $1.5 trillion by the end of 2025.