Several executives in the US and UK have left DigitalBridge including Senior Managing Director Steven Sonnenstein, said three sources familiar with the situation.

US Managing Director Christian Velasco in New York is also among those leaving, the sources said.

In London, Managing Directors James Burke, Alice Franks and Manjari Govada have left, said the sources, adding that Govada is taking up a new role at Ares Management Corporation.

Nikki Smart, a managing director for human capital, became KKR’s head of talent for infrastructure in Europe in April, according to her LinkedIn profile.

The exits take place amid rapid change at DigitalBridge, as the digital infrastructure investor awaits completion of its takeover by SoftBank and is in the process of acquiring power and energy-focused investment manager Arclight.

The departures however are largely due to the leavers seeking new opportunities rather than any reorganisation at DigitalBridge, according to one of the sources.

DigitalBridge and Ares declined to comment.

Boca Raton, Florida-based Sonnenstein led DigitalBridge’s tower strategy and was also active in other areas of the business including fundraising. The Canadian national joined Digital Colony from Canada’s PSP Investments and has also worked for Brookfield.

Velasco, Burke, Franks, and Smart were all previously at AMP Capital, the asset manager whose infrastructure equity business was acquired by DigitalBridge in 2023. Govada’s departure comes after nearly 10 years at DigitalBridge, having joined as an associate in 2017.

Burke was co-head of InfraBridge, the DigitalBridge arm established to hold assets inherited from the AMP takeover, including non-digital ones, while New York-based Velasco was also a member of the InfraBridge team. The other InfraBridge co-head is Sadiq Malik, who is based in New York and remains at DigitalBridge.

Franks was head of Europe for capital formation at DigitalBridge, while Smart was a managing director for human capital.

The London departures follow those of DigitalBridge’s Head of Europe Matt Evans and InfraBridge Managing Partner Damian Stanley, both AMP veterans, in 2025.

DigitalBridge emerged in its current form from the merger of Digital Bridge, a digital infrastructure investment manager founded by Marc Ganzi, with real estate investor Colony Capital. It recently agreed to be acquired by the Japanese technology investor SoftBank for an enterprise value of USD 4bn, a transaction that has yet to close.

Subsequently, in a major development in its strategy, DigitalBridge agreed to acquire energy infrastructure investor ArcLight Capital Partners for up to USD 1.05bn, increasing its headcount to 410 employees from 350.

On the hiring side meanwhile, DigitalBridge recently announced the appointment of Brent Mayo, formerly head of data centres at real estate advisor Newmark, as a managing director and of Nicholas Beatty, one of the founders of UK battery company Zenobē, as an operating partner.

The USD 16 a share Softbank is paying for DigitalBridge is ahead of its recent share price, but below levels in excess of USD 30 in the earlier part of this decade.

While fundraising continues at DigitalBridge, with its third digital infrastructure fund closing at around USD 7.2bn of commitments last year, this was below a previous target of USD 8bn. However, the total raised was USD 11.7bn including LP co-investments.

[Editor’s note: The article has been updated to include details on DigitalBridge’s recent hiring of Brent Mayo and Nicholas Beatty.]