Houlihan Lokey added Reinhard Koester to the firm as a managing director and co-head of the Financial Institutions Group, where he will help grow the firm’s Specialty Finance practice.

Koester, based in New York, joined from Barclays Capital, where he was co-head of Specialty Finance. With more than two decades of experience, Koester previously co-led and helped build the specialty finance practices at Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase. He was also an attorney at Davis Polk & Wardwell.

“Reinhard’s experience in building strong specialty finance practices at several institutions, along with his client relationships around the world, will help further build on our FIG Group’s success,” said Scott Adelson, co-president and co-head of Corporate Finance. “His leadership and expertise represent an excellent fit with our client-centric culture, and I’m delighted that he has joined Houlihan Lokey.”

“I am excited to add Reinhard as my new partner,” said Jeffrey M. Levine, managing director and co-head of the Financial Institutions Group. “I look forward to continuing to grow our market-leading mortgage, commercial and consumer finance, insurance and asset management practices.”