2022 Speakers

Katie has spent the last 20 years investing in, advising and working with UK growth businesses. Previously, a Partner and Head of Portfolio at August Equity LLP, Katie now has a portfolio or Non-Exec and advisors roles, including Chair of the private equity search firm, Finatal, and advisor and Investment Committee member of lower-mid market fund, Agathos Management LLP.

Andrew is an Operating Partner at Frog Capital. He works closely with the CEOs, CTOs and technology leaders in the Frog portfolio. He also leads technical due diligence.

Previously, Andrew was a CTO and software engineer. He has an MBA from Henley Business School.

Richard is the Chief Sustainability Officer, Board Director and Investment Committee member for Earth Capital Ltd. In his 35 years in international banking and finance, he spent 20 years at ABN AMRO working in corporate and structured finance. As Global Head of Project Finance, he was involved in the creation of the Equator Principles. Latterly he chaired the group’s Sustainability Council. He is an Independent Non-Exec Director of Triodos Bank UK and a Senior Adviser to the Earth Security Group. He is former Chair of the UNEP FI and a Fellow of the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership.

Violette joined LDC in 2017 and is passionate about the role businesses can play to support a more sustainable and equitable future. She has played a leading role in developing LDC’s ESG strategy and supporting its portfolio companies to further advance their own strategies and reporting.

Violette also has extensive experience in supporting growth through digital technology and data driven solutions. She joined LDC from McDonald’s, where she was digital marketing director for Europe. She provides support to the LDC portfolio to unlock value creation opportunities from digital transformation.

Violette holds an MBA from Essec Business School Paris.

Marc Ciancimino – Co-Founder: Marc co-founded All Seas Capital in 2019 and sits on the Investment Committee. He also focuses on origination, capital raising and management of the firm

Prior to starting All Seas, Marc was a partner (“Member”) of KKR & Co where he spent a decade and started the European dimension of the firm’s private credit activities with a special emphasis on hybrid transactions. He sat on the Global Private Credit Committee and was a Portfolio Management Committee member. He started his career in 1995 at Citibank and also worked at Bankers Trust before moving to the buyside in 1999. He has invested over $1.9Bn since he started his career

Jenny Collins joined Mayfair Equity Partners to oversee their people function and is responsible for their innovative integrated staffing model and the development of culture. Her work includes the delivery of team growth strategies and the creation of streamlined and effective processes to achieve scale.

Previously, Jenny spent 14 years at Google where she oversaw the expansion of AI Research, managing recruitment across the EMEA region and opening new sites from Amsterdam to Accra. Jenny has worked for a range of large and small organisations and run her own consultancy, developing people plans and recruiting executive roles for start-ups, scale-ups and global businesses.

Walid Fakhry – Co-Managing Partner: Walid leads Soho Square’s fundraising activities and has overall responsibility for the operations of the firm. Prior to Soho Square, he co-founded the private equity firm Core Capital in 2004, having worked previously in strategy consulting, operations and investment banking. Walid also founded and sold one of the largest internet service providers in the Middle East.

He has a BSc in Mechanical Engineering, a BSc in Finance and an Msc in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of technology (MIT).

As Head of Analytics, Peter leads the firm’s 10 person data science team and oversees data strategy, data analytics and data warehouse activities with a vision of enabling data-driven decisions at Verdane and through the Verdane ecosystem of holdings. Peter provide significant support in the portfolio to enhance Data Maturity by focusing on data capabilities and data strategy

Jacopo joined PAI in 2016 as a member of the Investment Group and the Italy Team. He has been involved in the Marcolin, Scrigno and Tendam investments and became a member of the Mid-Market Fund Team in 2021.

He started his career at Bahlsen GmbH in Hannover (Germany) covering a number of roles in Sales & Marketing as well as Business Development.

Jacopo holds a degree in Business Administration from the University of Miami and an MBA from INSEAD. He is fluent in Italian, English and Spanish as well as conversational in German.

CEO Insights Driven a strategic consultancy focused on removing the hype to drive real growth through digital, data analytics and AI.

Non-Executive Director for Travis Perkins and the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Executive roles include: Chief Digital Officer for The Economist, CTO for Standard and Poor’s, CTO Elsevier.

John Gilligan has worked in the private equity and venture capital industry for over 25 years.

He started his career in 1988 at 3i Group plc as a financial analyst. He was a Corporate Finance Partner of Deloitte and latterly BDO for twenty years. He is the Director of the Oxford Saïd Finance Lab at Saïd Business School, a non-executive director and Investment Committee member of Big Issue Invest, one of the largest social impact investors in the UK.

John is also a Visiting Professor at Imperial College Business school and has degrees from Southampton University, Nottingham University and London Business School.John Gilligan has worked in the private equity and venture capital industry for over 30 years.

He started his career in 1988 at 3i Group plc as a financial analyst. He was a Corporate Finance Partner of Deloitte and latterly BDO for twenty years. He is currently the Director of the Oxford Saïd Finance Lab at Saïd Business School, a director and Investment Committee member of Big Issue Invest, one of the largest social impact investors in the UK, where he is responsible for their £100m Social Debt Fund. He has co-authored with the late Prof Mike Wright, 4 editions of “Private Equity Demystified” a highly regarded textbook on the industry. John is also a Visiting Professor at Imperial College Business school.

Jane leads the Value Creation Team at Limerston which spans functional areas such as deal originations and lean, commercial excellence, big data analytics, technology and coaching. She works with management teams across the portfolio from origination to exit in order to develop and deliver above market growth and profitability. Prior to Limerston Jane spent nearly a decade in consulting with McKinsey having trained as a medical doctor.

Tracey is co-Founder and co-Managing Partner of the Future Business Partnership, Europe’s only dedicated consumer-specialist impact investment firm, built to enable the growth of the next generation of eco-friendly and socially responsible consumer businesses. Previously, Tracey invested with NEO Investment Partners, Terra Firma and MidOcean Partners where at a board-level, she accumulated first-hand experience of both the opportunities and complexity faced by brands at every level. With the Future Business Partnership, Tracey brings her business expertise to the sustainable consumer industry to nurture mission-driven entrepreneurs and equip them to build successful consumer brands that are also sustainable and ethical leaders.

Tracey is South African and a Chartered Accountant (SA)

Edgar joined Abris in 2014 and is a Partner with a focus on the industrial, consumer retail, financial services and infrastructure sectors. Prior to joining Abris, Edgar worked as a management consultant at Kearney and before this held roles at Highlander Partners, ING Investment Management, the National Bank of Poland, and the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania. Edgar is an active founding member of Next Gen Committee of Polish Private Equity and Venture Capital Association. He holds an MBA with distinction from INSEAD and is fluent in English, Polish, Lithuanian and Russian.

Ben has led onefourzero’s consulting division since 2018, and became Managing Director of the company in 2021. Previously, he spent 15 years producing actionable insights for brands, publishers, and agencies. Fluent in English, French and German, his experience encompasses a range of industries spanning 40+ countries, where he has found audience, marketing, and performance patterns in first and third-party data. With a multi-disciplinary skillset, his expertise has aided onefourzero’s growth from sub million-pound, boutique proposition, to a multi-million-pound, award-winning consultancy. Specialising in delivering insight and recommendations rather than data, previous employers include AOL, The Telegraph and Comscore.

Torbjorn Midsem was part of the Agilitas founding team. Agilitas was built around a clear ethical framework, pursuing an investment strategy where shareholder value is aligned with providing a better answer to human or environmental needs. By putting sustainability and purpose at the heart of its strategy, Agilitas is able to drive human and planetary flourishing while delivering superior returns to its investors.

With 20 years of private equity experience, Tor is mainly involved in overseeing Agilitas’s private equity investment activities and stewardship. He holds an MSc in Economics and Business Administration from NHH (The Norwegian School of Economics) and speaks Danish, English, German, Norwegian and Swedish.

Robin Oldham is the founder of Cydea, a positive cyber security consultancy, and previously led BAE Systems’ Security Advisory & Technical Services business, recognised by Forrester as one of the world’s leading information security consultancies. His information security newsletter informs hundreds of subscribers on the most relevant, interesting and useful stories and developments each week.

Robin helps businesses defend themselves from cyber attack and thrive in the digital world and has over fifteen years of experience including advising numerous boards on how to manage crises resulting from cyber-attack, including high-profile attacks in the telco and financial services sectors.

Ashim is Head of Sustainable Investing at Triton. Previously, he was a Managing Director at HSBC’s investment bank, as Global Co-Head of ESG Research, with a focus on climate and energy transition. Ashim also held related roles at Newton Investment Management, PIRC and Magnetar Capital, following early-career experience in government and a non-governmental organisation.

He holds several post-graduate qualifications, including an MSc. in Environmental Policy and Regulation from the London School of Economics, and is a CAIA charterholder.

Sam is the Director of Strategic Alliances & Private Equity at Globalization Partners. He has extensive experience in private equity value creation, business development, value selling SaaS, creating strategies, and partnering with leaders to provide business transformation solutions. He has spent most of his career in London and New York. At Globalization Partners, Sam leads the European Private Equity business solutions channel, focusing on helping firms, and their portfolio companies shape their global workforce strategies while driving growth and value.

Benjamin joined Paragon Partners in 2021. He is responsible for driving value creation within the portfolio companies.

Prior to Paragon he was in leadership and strategy roles for a leading testing, inspection and certification player.

Before that, he built a team for buy & build platform sourcing for the leading German small-cap buy & build PE investor. He started his career in restructuring at Roland Berger.

Benjamin holds a PhD in Finance from Technical University Munich (TUM) and a Masters degree in Business Administration from the University of Passau. He is still an active lecturer on Private Equity in the executive education program at TUM.

Martin joined FSC with a 20-year career in the financial services industry behind him. He has held senior management roles in UniCredit Group, including a number of executive board positions, where he worked across Munich, London, Vienna and Moscow with a focus on growing and restructuring businesses. Martin co-founded Ithuba Capital AG, a financial markets advisory and technology-enabled portfolio wind-down specialist. After a successful exit, he joined Oliver Wyman as a Partner for financial services to drive the transformation of financial services companies. Martin graduated from the University of Santander, Spain, and has an MBA specialising in banking and insurance from the Karl Franzens University in Austria.

Aidan is one of the founding Partners of Endless and is responsible for some of Endless’ biggest investments, including BSW Timber, Menzies Distribution, Karro Food Group and Imtech. “The most enjoyable part of my job is seeing individuals come together as a team with a clear objective and take a troubled business and make it hig

Jose is co-founder and joint Managing Partner of Queen’s Park Equity. He has over 20 years of experience in the private equity and financial services industry.

Before QPE, Jose spent 15 years at Sovereign Capital, sourcing, executing and leading investments in the education and healthcare sectors. Jose co-led Sovereign’s education team for over a decade and backed many founders and management teams, helping them grow their businesses, implement buy & build strategy and expand internationally.
He also sits on the board of Learndirect, DCSL and Sagacity as a non-executive director on behalf of QPE.
Jose holds an MBA from London Business School and a BSc in Economics from ITESM.

Karl currently works in the Value Creation team of Bregal Milestone. His role is to lead Bregal Milestone’s Data Science capabilities, both to enhance the firm’s sourcing capabilities through a data-driven approach, and to support Bregal’s portfolio companies with data and analytics to generate value.

Prior to joining Bregal, Karl spent several years working as a Lead Product Manager / Data Analyst at Boston Consulting Group (Gamma), building data strategies and analytics solutions for clients in the EMEA and APAC region.

Before that, Karl was a Senior Data Analyst at Deloitte, where he helped develop a Data Analytics function in the Financial Division of the firm. He has also worked at Walmart (US) for two years, where he led end-to-end analytics projects around store remodels, merchandising initiatives, demand forecasting and other ad-hoc projects that led to +$7M in savings.

Karl holds a M.Eng in Industrial Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley and a B.S in Industrial Engineering at the University of Miami.

Henry is joint Managing Partner and co-founder of FPE Capital. He is passionate about building businesses and has spent all his career with growth companies both as an investor and as an operator. Prior to FPE Capital he was a Director of Quester, one of the largest growth capital investors in the UK. This followed eight years at AFA Systems, a financial services software company which he co-founded and joined full-time immediately prior to its IPO in 1996. From its foundation, Henry was part of a small team that drove the development of the group, both organically and by acquisition, resulting in an 8-fold increase in revenues. He returned to private equity, following the sale of AFA in 2004 to a trade buyer.

Justin is a principal within Eurazeo’s buyout strategy and covers the technology and financial services sectors; he has been involved in the firm’s investments in Planet, a global connected commerce company focused on integrating mission critical software with payments within the hospitality and retail industries, Elemica, a global supply chain management software company and Trader Interactive, the leading specialty vehicle online marketplace in North America.

Justin Schlegel joined Eurazeo in New York in 2016. Prior to joining the firm, Justin was an investment associate with Boston-based private equity firm BV Investment Partners, where he focused on investments in the information & business services and communications sectors. Prior to that, he worked in investment banking in Jefferies LLC’s New York office in the media and telecommunications group where he advised clients in M&A, debt and equity transactions.

Jovana Stopic joined IK Partners in 2019 and works as an ESG Manager in London. She leads the ESG team’s engagement on ESG matters with internal teams, portfolio companies and our investors.

Before joining IK, Jovana worked as an independent Business and Human Rights Consultant, after spending a decade at the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights. She holds an LLM in Transnational Law (Distinction) from the Dickson Poon School of Law at King’s College London in addition to an LLM and LLB from the University of Belgrade.

Valerie is a Director in the Operations team with AnaCap Financial Partners, a private equity firm specialising in the financial services sector. Prior to AnaCap, she was an Associate Partner at Oliver Wyman as a management consultant specialising in risk management within the European financial services sector. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In her spare time, she enjoys running ultra marathons and spending time with her family.