Hercules Technology Growth Capital, the leading specialty finance company focused on providing senior secured loans to venture capital-backed companies in technology-related markets, including technology, biotechnology, life science, and energy and renewables technology industries, at all stages of development, announced that it has hired three new senior professionals to its origination platform and credit teams.

"As we expect the demand for venture debt to expand, we continue to add thoughtful, high-caliber investment professionals to our team who understand the specific sectors we focus on and the businesses of the companies we work with on a daily basis," said Manuel A. Henriquez, co-founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Hercules. "We believe finding the right people is equally as important as identifying the right companies to invest in. This remains an important tenet of ours as we continue deploying our available liquidity into new, interest-earning assets and position Hercules for anticipated growth as we move into 2014."

The following executives have joined the firm:

• Mark Roesler, Portfolio Credit Manager, Boston, MA - Roesler is a senior risk and credit professional with 25 years of experience across a variety of industry segments and lending platforms. Prior to joining Hercules, Roesler served as a senior credit officer with CapitalSource Bank. Roesler also held senior positions with GE Capital Healthcare Financial Services, GE Capital Vendor Financial Services, and Firestone Financial.

• Tony Pandjiris, Managing Director, Technology Group, Palo Alto, CA - Pandjiris, a former investment banker, has more than 15 years of experience in identifying and working with promising, emerging technology companies, corporate strategy, and transaction leadership. Prior to joining Hercules, Pandjiris was a vice president with Morgan Stanley where he originated and executed scores of corporate finance and M&A transactions. Prior to that, Pandjiris was an investment banker with UBS where he executed investment banking transactions for companies in the electronics, hardware, software, and semiconductor industries. Earlier in his career, Pandjiris was an associate with Comdisco Ventures where he was part of a team that managed high-tech portfolio structuring debt and equity investments to various venture capital backed technology and life sciences companies.

• Christopher Parham, MD & PhD, Principal, Life Science Group, Palo Alto, CA - Parham has over 15 years of experience in clinical medicine. As a board-certified medical doctor in radiology, Parham has extensive practical and operational healthcare experience in both hospital and outpatient settings. In addition to his medical experience, Parham is a biomedical engineer specializing in medical imaging hardware design and development, and has three device patents. Previously, he co-founded a medical device company called NextRay to further develop Diffraction Enhanced Imaging technology.