Speakers

John is a Director in the NorthEdge portfolio team.
He is a chartered accountant having worked for KPMG earlier in his career, ahead of joining the Co-operative Group M&A team.
John then spent 8 years in industry, firstly as CFO of £80m turnover Individual Restaurants and latterly as CEO of NorthEdge portfolio company East Coast Concepts.
Initially joining East Coast Concepts as CFO following the NorthEdge investment, he then won CFO of the year in his category across both the 2018 North West Finance and the 2019 FD Excellence awards, before being promoted to CEO in 2020.

Bradley joined the Investment Team at Earth Capital Ltd in September 2022 and leads on deal origination and value creation.

Prior to joining ECL, he was Equity Portfolio Manager at The FSE Group, Corporate Finance Manager at Grant Thornton and is an experienced investor.

Bradley has received a Business Management degree from the University of the West of England and a Certificate in Investment Management from the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI).

Lorenzo Levi has been Managing Director and Operating Partner, Private Equity for Europe since January 2019. In this role, he oversees the direct private equity investment portfolio in the region. Based in London, he is also responsible for conducting operational due diligence on new investment opportunities.

Mr. Levi has over 25 years of experience in private equity, management roles and strategy consulting. Before joining CDPQ, he was Managing Director at Terra Firma Capital Partners and then Operating Partner for Apollo Global Management. Prior to that he worked in sales management and corporate development roles for IBM, Delta PLC and Nortel, as well as in strategy consulting at Bain & Company.

He holds an MBA from Harvard and a BSc in Electrical Engineering and Economics from MIT. He currently sits on the Boards of Directors of Delachaux, Foncia, Datamars and Fives. He is also a Board Observer on Techem.

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Robert joined Abris in 2018 and is the firm’s ESG Director responsible for developing and overseeing a comprehensive responsible investment policy, ESG areas and corporate governance. He has 13 years’ experience in sustainability, responsible investment, anti-fraud, business ethics, corporate governance, compliance, non-financial reporting and human rights advisory.

Prior to joining Abris, Robert worked at EY in the Forensic & Integrity Department and was a member of the Climate Change and Sustainability Services team. He worked also as Project Manager at Crido Business Consulting. Prior to this, Robert was CSR Manager at Grupa Zywiec, and helped the company achieve a listing on the Respect Index of socially responsible companies on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.

Robert has also worked with the Polish Prime Minister as a member of a CSR advisory board, and was Chairman of the Working Group on Responsible Investment. In addition, he is an author of publications on SRI including: Guidelines for Investors in the Scope of Responsible Investing; Building Goodwill by Reporting Non-Financial Data; and Guidance for Companies on the Disclosure of Non-Financial Data.

Robert is a member of the Invest Europe Responsible Investment Roundtable and the European Business Ethics Network.

In his personal life, Robert enjoys walking and is passionate about new ethical challenges related to, for example, artificial intelligence as well as philosophical and sociological concepts.

Robert holds a PhD degree in Business Ethics and Human Rights from the Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw. He is fluent in English.

Emma Flin joined Sovereign in 2020 after spending ten years with Capita plc as Corporate Development Director, leading the Group’s acquisition and disposal activity as well as supporting management teams to define and fulfil their strategic objectives.

Prior to this, she spent eight years working as a Corporate Finance Adviser initially with Dresdner Kleinwort Benson and latterly with Landsbanki where she focused on M&A for mid-market companies. She graduated from Durham University with a BA in Economics and whilst working for Capita she completed an MBA at Cranfield.

She is married with two energetic young daughters, so much of her spare time is spent keeping them amused! When time allows she also enjoys running, yoga and family holidays.

As Portfolio Director, I work with the talented management teams that we partner with to drive profitable growth and company value. I bring a holistic view across our network to ensure that we are leveraging knowledge and best practice, allowing management teams to spend their time where it’s most needed. I work closely with the investment team who remain integrally involved throughout GCP’s partnerships.

I have 13 years’ experience in the finance and technology industries. Most recently I worked for the fintech Afterpay, initially as Head of Strategy before moving to the UK to help drive their successful international expansion in this region. Earlier in my career I founded and sold a technology business servicing the construction industry. I know from personal experience the ups and downs of being an entrepreneur and hope to provide a friendly ear to owner managers as they pursue their growth ambitions.

I started my career in Sydney working in investment banking with UBS before moving into mid-market private equity.

Outside of work, I spend as much time as possible with my young family, typically chasing our disobedient Labrador across the countryside. I am a mad cricket fan, which has sadly not converted into any notable playing abilities.

Stine is an Impact Manager at Verdane, a leading European growth investor in sustainable tech-enabled
businesses. At Verdane, she is responsible for assessing the social and environmental impact of potential
investments and working with portfolio companies to develop and implement sustainability strategies.
Prior to joining Verdane, Stine was an Associate with UK-based not-for-profit Social Finance, where she
worked with social impact investors to identify investment opportunities and with government departments
to leverage social and institutional investment through public-private partnerships. Before that, she was a
Manager with Adam Smith International and a Researcher with CIL Management Consultants.
Stine holds an MA in International Relations from the University of Edinburgh and an MSc in Violence,
Conflict, and Development from SOAS University of London.

Prior to joining Mayfair, Paul was an equity partner at EY where he led the UK mid-market private equity value creation team. Paul has also been CFO and COO of two private equity backed businesses, as well as working in the portfolio and investment teams at LDC where he completed the successful investments in uSwitch and Blue Rubicon.

Paul has an MSc in Accounting & Finance from the London School of Economics and an BA (Hons) in Law from the University of Nottingham.

Diana has 21 years of experience in private equity and corporate finance. She is responsible for managing the investment process, including the sourcing, analysis, monitoring and exiting of investments, and for conducting general market research. Before joining Keyhaven, Diana was a Managing Director in the M&A team at BDO Corporate Finance leading M&A transactions in technology and media, business services and consumer sectors. Prior to this, she was a corporate finance advisor at Clarges Capital Limited and Bridge Europe Consulting in London. Diana started her career at New Europe Fund, American International Group Capital Management’s private equity fund based in Poland and Romania.

Diana has BA degrees in Business Administration and Political Science/International Relations from the American University in Bulgaria and an MSc in Finance from Cass Business School in London. She is fluent in English, Romanian, French and speaks Italian.

Jane joined as an Operating Partner with focus on commercial improvement and has an emphasis on the healthcare and consumer sectors.

Previously, Jane worked for McKinsey where she was an Engagement Manager with a focus on commercial improvement assignments. Jane started her career as a qualified doctor with the NHS.

Dr. Grewar received a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB.) and Acute Medicine from the University of Edinburgh.

James is responsible for the sourcing and execution of transactions across the UK and Europe. Before Soho Square, James was a Partner at Core Capital responsible for sourcing, making and managing investments in the UK lower mid-market. James was also an Investment Manager at RJD Partners, a UK lower mid-market private equity investor. James spent nine years with KPMG within its corporate finance team in London.

He holds a BEng (Civil) (Hons) from The University of Bristol and is a Member of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investments.

Aidan is one of the founders of Endless and is currently a Partner in the Investment Team and a member of Endless LLP. Based in our London office, he is in charge of sourcing and executing investments, whilst managing his own portfolio at board level.

Aidan has been on the deal team and responsible for some of Endless’ biggest projects, 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 highly successful.”

Aidan spends his spare time with his five children in the great outdoors – his regular haunt being the Lake District for some fell running and walking.

Michał Kędzia concentrates on the FMCG, financial services and healthcare sectors. His most important projects to date include Dino, Intersport ISI, Modular System, Nu-Med Grupa, Snap Outdoor and Studenac. He is i.a. responsible for the firm’s investments in Slovenia and Croatia. Prior to joining EI, Michał worked in the mergers and acquisitions team at Ernst & Young (today EY) in Warsaw.

Giancarlo is a Partner at Ambienta and is based in Milan. He joined Ambienta in 2010.
He has been involved in a number of transactions including Namirial, Next Imaging, Pibiplast, Lakesight, FoundOcean and SPIG.

Prior to this, Giancarlo was with the mid-market private equity firm Rhône Capital in London and in the Milan office of Bain & Company. Prior to Bain & Company, Giancarlo worked for Siemens.

Giancarlo graduated in Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Illinois at Chicago and in Computer Engineering at Politecnico di Torino. Giancarlo received an MBA with distinction from INSEAD.

Giancarlo speaks Italian (native) and English (fluent).

James joined Graphite Capital in 2002 and heads up the Value Creation team. Currently, he is on the
board of three portfolio companies and works on a number of others. He focuses on value creation
impact and implementing best practice across Graphite’s portfolio which can involve operational
improvement projects and, where necessary, effecting change programmes. He plays a lead role in
the development of and recruitment of portfolio company management teams. He maintains an
advisory network to deploy as appropriate on operational and performance improvement initiatives.

As MD of O’Donovan Waste, Jacqueline is one of the waste, construction logistics sectors’ most passionate pioneers of safety, sustainability and industry best-practice. Under her steer, the multi award-winning business operates with 185 employees and a fleet of 100 lorries. Jacqueline is the only female MD of an independent waste management business in the UK and is recognised as an innovator and a leading force in the industry, strongly advocating sustainable operations as well as encouraging diversity and inclusion. She became the first female CEO in the world to earn a Master’s Degree in Demolition Management. She has received numerous accolades for her work and holds a number of respected fellowships and affiliations with professional organisations and bodies in the sector. Her awards include PwC ‘Private Businesswoman of the Year’, Growing Business Awards ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ and has twice been awarded the ‘Director of the Year’ title by the Institute of Directors (IoD). Jacqueline has also been named as the Women’s Economic Forum ‘Woman of the Decade in Enterprise and Leadership’.

Jasmine is the Head of Origination and Talent at CGE Partners, a mid-market PE firm investing in purposeful businesses across Europe.

Jasmine leads the firms pre deal origination strategy as well as talent management across their portfolio. Prior to CGE, Jasmine worked at Inflexion Private Equity where she focused on developing their network of senior executives and finding ways to support entrepreneurs at all stages of their growth and ambitions.

Jasmine has a master’s in mechanical engineering from UCL and a master’s in finance from Hult International Business School.

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Ash has more than 25 years of experience in IT Management and Cyber. As joined ECI in 2000, where he is IT Director and Head of Cyber. Ash’s role involves directing and controlling the development, implementation, and maintenance of ECI’s information and communications strategy and systems against business objectives. Ash also works with ECI’s portfolio using his cyber expertise to help build their cyber roadmaps based on gap analysis. Prior to joining ECI, Ash worked at an independent IT consultancy working for the likes of Boots and Cadburys.

Ruby is part of Livingbridge’s growth acceleration team and leads the portfolio Talent capability, helping investees to design people strategies and creating employee engagement propositions central to building high performing businesses. Before joining Livingbridge Ruby spent 15 years in executive search, previous roles including global managing director at Sheffield Haworth and partner, head of financial services & banking, at Marlin Hawk.

Marco is an Operating Partner focused on technology enablement, digital transformation, and product development.

Previously, Marco spent 12 years as Director of equity sales & trading with Wells Fargo and Baird in London and San Francisco. He has founded several technology start-ups.

Marco received an MBA from IESE in Barcelona and a Masters in Astrophysics from University College London.

He speaks fluent Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.

Jovana Stopic joined IK Partners in 2019 and works as an ESG Director 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.

Hugh is an Investment Director based in our London office. Prior to Foresight, Hugh worked at FCFM Group.

Hugh holds an undergraduate degree in History from the University of Exeter and an MBA from MIT Sloan.

Ben is a Director at FPE Capital. He joined the firm from Skillcapital, where he spent four years advising investors and management teams in the TMT sector. He was fortunate enough to work closely with a number of highly successful entrepreneur-led businesses, and naturally found his interest swayed by FPE’s track record of supporting UK SMEs to ambitiously develop and scale.

At FPE, Ben has a particular focus on coordinating the firm’s origination and talent activities, which includes engaging and expanding FPE’s differentiated network of business leaders, intermediaries, and investors.

Laura Heely joined Three Hills in November 2021 as a Principal on the Value Creation team. She started her career at J.P. Morgan, where she spent six years across strategy and investment advisory functions. After completing her MBA, Laura transitioned to the technology sector, working in strategy and operations at Moonfare and Titanbay, where she was Chief Operating Officer. In addition, Laura frequently collaborates with INSEAD business school, and is an award-winning author in strategy.

Laura holds an MBA from INSEAD and a BA from Northwestern University where she double majored in Economics and French. She speaks English and French fluently, in addition to intermediate Spanish.

Dennis Hall is a Partner with Baird Capital. Based in London, he leads Baird Capital's Global Portfolio Operations team, focusing on assisting our investment and management teams drive the value of our investee companies.

Dennis joined Baird Capital in 2006 and has over 30 years of relevant operational and financial experience. With a Joint Honours degree in accounting and law plus an MBA from Warwick Business School, Dennis trained with Singer & Friedlander before moving into operational and then portfolio management roles where he has served on the boards of a large variety of businesses during a private equity career that spans in excess of 25 years.

Dennis sits on the Global Valuation Committee, chairs the new transaction assessment Partner Meetings and currently represents Baird Capital on the board of directors of bfinance, the SR Group and Collage.

Victoria is the is the General Counsel at AnaCap, responsible for all legal, regulatory and compliance related activities across the AnaCap group. She is also responsible for wider operational matters, including the development, implementation, and execution of AnaCap’s ESG and DE&I strategy, policy, and initiatives, as well as HR and training.

Victoria joined AnaCap in 2015 as a Senior Legal Counsel, prior to which she spent 9 years at Linklaters LLP in the Corporate department in London and Hong Kong where she advised clients on a broad range of transactional and other legal matters.

She holds an honours degree in Jurisprudence from Oxford University, a joint honours degree in English and History from Queen Mary, University of London, and a distinction in the LPC from BPP Law School in London.

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.

Archer joined the Actis Energy team in 2018 and has played a leading role in the set-up of Actis’s investment activities in Central and Eastern Europe having previously worked on a range of transactions in Africa. Prior to joining Actis, Archer worked for Green Hedge, an independent European solar developer, where he played a prominent role in the development and financing of 10 projects and also served as part of the management committee. Archer started his career at Lloyds Bank where he was part of the Energy Project Finance team and was involved in the financing of CCGT, wind and transmission projects.

Sam is a Portfolio Manager within the Value Creation Team at Bowmark Capital, a leading private equity firm investing in technology and services companies valued at up to £300 million. Sam joined the firm in 2012, and has worked across the portfolio on a variety of financial and data-led projects. He is responsible for the development, monitoring, and reporting of key performance indicators for all portfolio companies, and overall portfolio oversight.
He has a degree in accounting and finance from The University of Southampton and is a Chartered Accountant.