2023 Speakers

Justin brings over 25 years’ experience of supporting growing private businesses to his role leading portfolio management at Mobeus. He trained as banker, spent nearly 19 years at 3i and then 5 years at Mobeus, where he and three fellow partners undertook their own buyout in 2021. He represents Mobeus directly on the boards of Star Brands, Inbox Insight, Active Travel Group and The Boundary and is a member of Investment Committee. Outside of work he plays tennis and follows Arsenal and the NFL.

Tim He is a Partner at Summa Equity, a Nordic private equity firm founded in 2016 that manages close to EUR 4 billion in assets. Summa was the first PE-firm to align its strategy with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Tim focuses on Summa's growth investment strategy and Summa's Tech-Enabled Business thesis. Previously to Summa, Tim was with Kinnevik and Northzone investing in category defining companies like Livongo Health, Budbee, Vivino, Pleo, and Lunar. Tim holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, MFE from Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, and a BSc in Economics from the University of Copenhagen.

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.

Antenor is responsible for value creation in WovenLight portfolio companies. He leads the day to day of WovenLight deployment teams and works closely with the portfolio companies’ management teams to ensure the value plays are addressing the right business needs. He is passionate about translating complex analytics concepts into intuitive applications in the business world.
Prior to WovenLight, Antenor was Senior Engagement Manager at QuantumBlack, leading data scientists and data engineers in the development of advanced analytics projects. He has experience in multiple industries including financial services, oil and gas and motorsport.

Amy Newlan is SVP, Global Head of Client Development at Maestro with 15+ years of experience helping private equity professionals optimize the performance of their investments by leveraging technology solutions.
Amy spent the early part of her career at Portfolio Advisors, a private equity fund of funds, where she gained a deep foundation in private equity operations. She then moved to Sydney, Australia where she led the launch of J.P. Morgan’s Private Equity & Real Estate Services division in Asia. Amy returned to New York and joined iLEVEL in 2013, heading up the Americas Sales Team following Ipreo’s acquisition of the company.

Steven is responsible for Soho Square’s overall Portfolio management provision and provides valuation oversight across the portfolio. Steven sits on a variety of portfolio company boards. Prior to joining Soho Square, Steven was Head of Asset Management at ESO Capital and earlier in his career worked at both KPMG and PwC in valuations and corporate finance.
Steven is a Chartered Accountant, has a B.Acc (Hons) in Accountancy from the University of Dundee, an MSc in Accounting & Finance from The London School of Economics, and has a Chartered Institute of Securities & Investment Diploma.

Parminder has built a solid reputation as both an investor and operator, taking VGC Partners from a deal-by-deal investor to private equity and growth capital investor with a track record of generating superior returns for investors whilst driving operational performance in the portfolio. Parminder has a BA Management Studies from The University of Leeds and an MBA from London Business School.

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 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.

Ashim is part of the ESG team. Before joining, he was a Managing Director and Global Co-Head of ESG at HSBC Global Research, with a focus on climate and energy transition. Ashim also held related roles at Newton Investment Management, PIRC and Magnetar Capital. He holds several post-graduate qualifications, including an MSc in Environmental Policy and Regulation from the London School of Economics, and is a CAIA charter holder

Recently appointed as Managing Partner for Eton Bridge Partners, Steve is leading the business to deliver his vision of being the most trusted partner in executive search, interim management and consulting. He is passionate about leading and growing the already outstanding team of people to take the business through the next phase of growth.
Having successfully built the Business Transformation practice from a start-up into a market leader, Steve has extensive experience of supporting PE backed portfolio companies and their management teams in value creation activities. Steve brings an interesting perspective to the topic of ‘How to get the best from management teams’ as Private Equity firm, Elysian Capital are investors in the business.

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.

Since 2020, Johanna is Director at FSN Capita and part of the operational team. She is working closely with FSN portfolio companies to improve their value creation process through implementing a strategy plan and applying systematic processes for value creation. Prior to FSN, she was Head of DACH for a tech start-up in Munich, building and leading the sales and account management teams. Before that, she worked for more than five years at Booz & Company and Strategy& (part of PwC network) as Project Manager in Strategy consulting. Johanna holds an MBA from INSEAD Business School from France and Singapore and an M.Sc. in Business Sciences from the Johannes Kepler University in Austria. During her M.Sc. studies, she also spent one year at the Goizueta Business School of Emory University in Atlanta.

Vish 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 brands. Prior to the Future Business Partnership he was a Partner at Bluegem Capital Partners and through his directorships of brands such as Liberty London, Mamas & Papas, and Christys’ London, he has seen the consumer sector start to undergo a transition towards a greater focus on ethics.

Avent is Head of Investment and Director at Earth Capital and a member of the Investment Committee.
Avent is responsible for new investments with a particular focus on innovative high growth technologies in the sustainability sector, as well as working with the management teams of portfolio companies to develop and deliver on their strategic plans.
Earth Capital is a private equity investment group focused on deploying capital into sustainable technology businesses across the energy, food and water sectors. Avent has over 25 years’ experience in investing, portfolio management and corporate finance advisory, with a strong track record of private equity technology deals.
Prior to joining Earth Capital, Avent was a Senior Fund Manager at The FSE Group and before moving into investment management, was an Assistant Director in the London Corporate Finance team at BDO UK.

Rupert has worked at Puma for over ten years. He heads the Puma Private Equity business and sits on the Puma Investments Leadership Committee.
Rupert oversees all aspects of investment and portfolio management but is most active in helping management teams define strategy, or supporting during periods of fundamental change. ​
Rupert has broad experience within financial markets having trained within the Standard Bank global graduate programme and then moved to Barclays Capital. At Puma he led a series of funds before developing Puma Private Equity as a standalone division of the group in 2018.​
Rupert read Philosophy and Economics at the University of Bristol before an MSc in International Policy Analysis at the University of Bath. He used to have interests out of the office but now has young children, however, he fondly remembers a time when he did some exercise, enjoyed cooking, and read a lot about economics.

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.

Suzie Ruffley joined Foresight Group in 2017, as Director and Head of People. She joined to set up the HR Function at Foresight and is responsible for all aspects of the People Strategy across the group. Prior to this, she was Head of HR Operations at Kew Gardens, and before that, held several HR roles within State Street.
Suzie is an Occupational Psychologist, with over 18 years of HR experience. Continually driven to understand how to support shaping individuals to perform at their best, she is currently studying her second MSc, this time in Coaching Psychology at Birkbeck University. Complimentary to her BSc in Applied Psychology and MSc in Occupational Psychology.

James is the CEO and a co-founder of Palladium, a BVCA course director and former specialist digital advisor to KPMG, Boxwood and ATOS. James is a true digital native; working within businesses to deliver an understanding of the impact digital can have to both internal and external business functions. Delivering measurable, long lasting results through digital change.

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.

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Emma covers FinTech and crypto at Target Global. Originally from Shanghai, Emma has lived and worked in different parts of the world. She previously worked at Alibaba Group in investments in Shanghai and spent time at Softbank Vision Fund in London, Fidelity Investments in Toronto and Ryan Labs Asset Management in New York.
Emma holds a MBA from Harvard Business School and studied Economics and Math at New York University (NYU).