Thompson Dean, head of the leveraged buyout unit at Credit Suisse First Boston, is leaving the firm and plans to take 15 colleagues with him to start a new fund.

He will start the new fund, Avista Capital Partners, with Steven Webster, a Houston-based energy specialist, OhSang Kwon, David Durkin, Larry Pickering, David Burgstahler and Jimmy Finkelstein, Bloomberg reported, citing people close to the situation.