Great Hills Partner said Friday that Charlie Papazian, a Vice President on its investment team, passed away due to complications from an injury. Papazian joined Great Hill in 2001 and returned to the firm after graduating from Harvard Business School in 2008. “He was an incredibly smart, diligent and humble professional, but most importantly, he was a wonderful person with a big heart and a great sense of humor,” Great Hill said of Papazian.

San Francisco-based awe.sm said Thursday that Fred McIntyre has joined the company as CEO. Jonathan Strauss, awe.sm’s co-founder and founding CEO, has taken on the role of head of product development. Strauss will continue to lead the company’s product, strategy, and engineering efforts. The company’s software is designed to allow developers to add social-media performance tracking to their websites and online applications.

David Spaulding, founder and chief executive officer of The Spaulding Group, has promoted Patrick W. Fowler to the position of president. Spaulding relinquishes the title, which he has held since the founding of the firm nearly 23 years ago, while retaining the role of CEO. Patrick will also continue to hold the title of COO.

VTB Capital has appointed Xin Lin and Wei Chen to its Hong Kong office, as part of VTB Capital’s growing business in the Asia-Pacific region. Lin has been appointed as VTB Capital’s head of multiproduct sales for China, where she will be responsible for sales & origination and fixed income across Chinese corporate, investor and financial institutional clients.

HFO Investment Real Estate has appointed Tyler Johnson as a partner specializing in multi-family investments.
Tyler has been working in commercial real estate as an apartment broker for over a decade.

NBGI Private Equity has appointed food and drinks industry veteran Tim Kelly as the second member of a panel of senior industry advisers. Kelly began his career with Unilever, before joining Coca-Cola Enterprises Europe. He was subsequently marketing director at Diageo plc in Ireland and president of Guinness Bass Import USA.

Deutsche Bank on Wednesday said it named Jerry Miller head of asset & wealth management Americas, effective immediately. He will be based in New York and will report to Michele Faissola, Deutsche Bank’s head of asset & wealth management. Most recently, Miller was a Lightyear Capital senior advisor responsible for the acquisition of financial services companies.

Merex Group, a Dubin Clark portfolio company, has named Christopher R. Celtruda as its new CEO. Merex is based in Camarillo, Calif., and is a provider of defense platforms.

Advent International has named Michael Ming-Yue Zhu as an operating partner. Zhu is country general manager of Solvay China. Advent has also tapped William Tsao as an industry advisor for China’s chemical sector. Advent International is a global private equity firm with offices in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia

Pinebridge Investments has named Wael Aburida as its CIO. Aburida will helm PineBridge’s MENA private equity team. Previously, Aburida was a director of M&A at Waha Capital.