Operating Partners Forum Europe | London

Franck Abadia

Managing Director, Operating Team, LBO France

Franck Abadia joined LBO France in 2014. As Managing Director in the Operating Team of LBO France, he facilitates the development of a value creation strategy throughout the investment lifecycle, spanning from acquisition to exit, in collaboration with investment and portfolio company management teams.

With 20 years of operational experience, Franck's background includes two-years at AlixPartners, a consulting firm specializing in optimizing operational performance for B-to-B clients. Before that, he held various positions in sales, project management, and strategy in the industrial sector, specifically in the Automotive, Construction Materials, and Energy industries. Franck graduated from Arts & Métiers engineering school. He also holds a MSc from Cranfield University UK and an MBA from the HEC business school.

LBO France

LBO FRANCE was founded in 1985 and is a pioneer in private equity in France. With over 30 years of experience in private markets and €6bn of in Assets under Management, the firm employs more than 90 professionals and operates across several regions including France, Italy, Germany, and Africa. LBO FRANCE is an independent investment company that is 100% owned by its Partners. While initially focused on Mid Cap Buyout, the firm has gradually expanded its operations to encompass a wide range of strategies : Mid and Small Cap buyout, Digital Health Venture, Real Estate and Proptech and Listed Investments, each with a dedicated investment team. LBO FRANCE leverages the expertise of its Partners and strategies to provide unparalleled market coverage across a variety of asset classes. LBO France is one of the founding members of the international climate initiative and one of the first signatories of the France Invest charter for parity.

Ralph Friedwagner

Managing Director and Operating Partner, Private Equity, CDPQ London

Ralph is a Managing Director and Operating Partner in CDPQ’s Private Equity team. He has over 20 years’ experience as an executive, investor, and board director of private companies across a range of sectors, including business and financial services, technology, and industrials. Before joining CDPQ, he was a Partner at Montagu Private Equity, CEO of a PE-backed company, Partner at Bain & Co, and start-up entrepreneur and investor.

CDPQ

CDPQ is a global investment group managing funds for public retirement and insurance plans, that works alongside its partners to build enterprises that drive performance and progress. CDPQ is active in the major financial markets, private equity, infrastructure, real estate and private debt. As at December 31, 2023 CDPQ’s net assets total CAD 434 billion.

Maria Orlowski

Partner, Value Creation, GTO Partners

Maria is a Partner at GTO, where she leads Value Creation.

Prior to GTO, Maria spent 15 years working with businesses to drive value creation both in a private equity context and as a consultant. Most recently, she spent six years at Hg and then Inflexion. She worked closely with the investment team and portfolio companies focusing on a combination of growth initiatives and strategic projects throughout the deal lifecycle from diligence to exit.

Maria’s experience is primarily in B2B software and tech-enabled services. Highlights include information services business Chambers and InFront, tech services business team.blue, and software businesses Sovos and Miratech.

Maria is a Swedish national and has worked in the US and across Europe. She holds an MSc in International Management from the Rotterdam School of Management and a BSc from Universitá Bocconi.

GTO Partners

GTO Partners aspires to be the financial partner of choice for European B2B technology and services businesses with international ambitions, in the lower mid-market.

The companies we invest in have high recurring revenues, are growing, cash flow generative, and tend to operate in fragmented markets with buy and build potential. These are typically “good to great” stories – already successful and defensible companies with potential for value creation through access to operational best practice.

We work on situations where we have a proprietary operating angle. This typically comes in the form of people in our advisory panel – senior executives who “have been there and done that.”

Our past experiences have taught us that an integrated approach to origination, execution and value creation is crucial. It has also taught us the value of building a diverse team. We are a team of eight people with eight nationalities, based in London.

Wessel Schevernels

Operating Partner, PATRIZIA Infrastructure

Wessel is an Operating Partner at PATRIZIA-Infrastructure and leads the ongoing asset management of its investee companies in Europe.

He has worked for over 25 years in leading roles in both mature and emerging markets across Europe, the Middle East and Asia. He has strong managerial and investment experience in all segments of the infrastructure market, including logistics, midstream, energy, digital and social infrastructure sectors where he has been responsible for transacting, value creation and realization of many of PATRIZIA-Infrastructure’s direct equity investments.

Wessel currently serves as a director on the board of several of PATRIZIA’s investee companies, including Corymbia, Kinland, Vopak Terminal Eemshaven, SAREN Energy and the Smart City Infrastructure Fund.

Wessel is fluent in English, German, Dutch and Swedish. He holds a MSc in Economics from Maastricht University and is an IoD certified director (CertIOD).

PATRIZIA: A leading partner for global real assets

As a leading partner for global real assets, PATRIZIA offers investors a broad variety of attractive investment opportunities underpinned by its experience and rock-solid, up-to-the-minute research. With operations around the world, PATRIZIA has a strong track record of over 38 years in offering real estate and infrastructure asset investments for institutional, semi-professional and private investors. PATRIZIA manages more than EUR 57 billion in assets and employs over 1,000 professionals at 28 locations worldwide. PATRIZIA is aware that the built environment is one of the largest contributors to worldwide energy consumption and CO2 emissions that drive climate change. We understand our role and responsibility as an investment and asset manager to create a more sustainable environment by reducing environmental harm and contributing to society in a positive way. Through its PATRIZIA Foundation, PATRIZIA is committed to social responsibility. The Foundation has helped around 250,000 children in need worldwide gain access to education and thus, has given them the chance of a better life over the last 23 years. You can find further information at www.patrizia.ag.

PATRIZIA-Infrastructure

As a department within PATRIZIA, the PATRIZIA Infrastructure team has been investing in infrastructure assets globally for over 25 years. PATRIZIA Infrastructure invests in assets with clear and measurable cashflows that protect against inflation, while providing predictable cash returns and adding value through active asset management. PATRIZIA Infrastructure offers investment capabilities across unlisted infrastructure, listed infrastructure, and infrastructure debt.

Lisa Telford

Partner, Montagu Private Equity

Lisa joined Montagu in February 2017. Previously, she spent twenty years in commercial and general management roles at Lucent Technologies, Warner Brother and Canal Plus, followed by 4 years in executive search specialising in board-level executive and non-executive appointments across technology, media, entertainment and communications. She holds an MBA from Cranfield School of Management and has a degree in French and German from Newcastle University.

Montagu

Montagu is a leading mid-market private equity firm, committed to finding and growing businesses that make the world work. Focussing on businesses with a must-have product or service in a structurally growing marketplace, Montagu brings proven growth capabilities to help companies achieve their ambitions and unlock their full potential. Montagu specialises in carve-out and other first time buyout investments and has deep expertise in five priority sectors: Healthcare, Financial Sector Services, Critical Data, Digital Infrastructure and Education. ESG forms an integral part of its strategy, and its commitment to responsible investment is fully integrated into its investment and value-creation process. Montagu partners with companies with enterprise values between €200 million and €1 billion and has €11bn assets under management.
For additional information on Montagu, visit www.montagu.com

Ikepo Abiru

Associate – Milestone Performance Partners, Bregal Milestone

Ikepo Abiru is an Associate on the Milestone Performance Partners team at Bregal Milestone, where she works with portfolio companies across the investment life cycle, supporting boards and senior management on high impact strategic and operational topics – Business Strategy, People, GTM Effectiveness and Long-term Value Creation (e.g., ESG).

Prior to joining Bregal Milestone, she was a Business Analyst at McKinsey & Company. At McKinsey, she delivered transformations for private and social sector clients across industries in emerging markets, built new green and digital businesses and contributed to thought leadership on the digital ecosystem in Africa.

She holds an LLB from the University of Warwick and has been called to the Nigerian Bar.

Bregal Milestone

Bregal Milestone is a leading technology growth capital firm focused on providing flexible growth capital and strategic assistance for market leading technology companies in Europe. Bregal Milestone is currently managing over €1 billion of committed capital.

Daniel Alsén

Investment Professional, Lead Digital ＆ Tech, KLAR Partners

Daniel Alsén leads Digital ＆Tech at KLAR Partners, an emerging force in mid-market private equity, with a focus on the Business Services and Industrial Technology sectors. In his role on KLAR's investment team, Daniel not only makes new investments but also drives Digital and Operational Transformations across KLAR’s portfolio companies.

With more than 25 years of experience in Technology and Digital, Daniel held operational roles as CTO and worked as a consultant at McKinsey ＆ Co, Accenture, and Razorfish after completing his Master of Science degree in Computer Science. Daniel is based in Stockholm, Sweden, and enjoys the thrills of skiing and outdoor adventures on his free time.

KLAR Partners

KLAR Partners makes control investments in companies primarily in the Nordic, Benelux, and DACH regions, partnering with management to build sustainable, market-leading businesses through a values-driven and responsible investment approach. For more information, visit https://klarpartners.com/.

Gilad G. Amir

Digital Operating Partner, Pollen Street Capital

Gilad joined Pollen Street in May 2018 as an EIR and came on board as Digital Operating Partner in September 2020 with a focus on supporting the digital transformation of the portfolio companies and supporting the Private Equity team with the pre/post deal tech-related activities.

Prior to PSC, Gilad was the Head of Fintech at Lloyds Banking Group. Prior to joining Lloyds, Gilad worked in a variety of roles as a founder, CEO, CFO, Board member and advisory board member in multiple fintechs and cyber including EZBOB, Satago, Paze, Insightix and others.

Gilad is a Chartered Accountant and an E＆Y alumni (hi-tech and M＆A practice).

Pollen Street Capital

Pollen Street is an independent alternative investment management company, focused on accelerating the progress of the financial, business services and technology sectors. It was established in 2013 and manages over £4bn AUM across private equity and credit strategies on behalf of investors including leading public and corporate pension funds, insurance companies, Sovereign Wealth Funds, Endowment and Foundations, asset managers, banks, and family offices from around the world. Pollen Street has a team of over 70 professionals with offices in London and New York City.

Paul-Louis Andrés

Principal - Value Creation, Seven2

Paul-Louis started his career in the electric car industry at PSA (now Stellantis) before moving to strategy consulting at Roland Berger. He then joined Verescence (Oaktree investment) to coordinate the glassmaker's restructuring and help it achieve operational excellence. In 2014, Paul-Louis joined Shippeo, a French technology scale-up in the logistics sector, where he contributed to the company's success (20x over four years) by developing its customer base. He joined Apax Partners (now Seven2) in 2022. A French and Colombian national, he graduated from HEC and obtained a Master in Research from École Polytechnique in 2011.

Seven2

Seven2 (fka Apax Partners SAS) is an independent investment company, wholly owned by its partners, specializing in the financing of SMEs and SMIs in continental Europe. Seven2 invests in high-potential companies in two sectors of specialisation: Tech&Telecom and Services. Seven2 works with entrepreneurs to provide them with the expertise, support and financial backing they need to achieve responsible growth.

Andy Archer

CTO, CVC

Managing Director, Chief Technology Officer; joined CVC in 2020. Andrew is responsible for business systems and data across the group and is based in London. Prior to joining CVC, he was Head of Technology for GLG Partners, Man Group and BlueBay.

CVC

CVC is a leading global alternative investment manager focused on private equity, secondaries and credit with a global network of 29 local offices and €186 billion of assets under management. CVC is a leading global alternative investment manager focused on private equity, secondaries and credit with a global network of 29 local offices and €186 billion of assets under management

Hernan Arrigone

Principal – Operations team, Actis

Hernan joined Actis in 2019 as part of the Energy and Infrastructure Operations team. Since joining, Hernan has been a team member on a number of Energy and Infrastructure deals and has provided support to platform management on matters, such as construction of thermal and renewables projects, acquisition due diligence and contract negotiations. Hernan also sits on the Board as an observer and Technical Steering Committees of a number of portfolio companies, including Azura Power, Valia Energia and Bridgin Power.

Prior to joining Actis, Hernan worked at Pampa Energia for eight years, the largest integrated energy company in Argentina, where he worked as Engineering Manager for the New Ventures Department and Deputy Project Manager on several thermal and renewable power plants projects.

Hernan holds two BSc degrees with honours on Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the Instituto Tecnológico de Buenos Aires and an MBA with honours from the London Business School.

Actis

Actis is a leading global investor in sustainable infrastructure. We deliver competitive returns for institutional investors and measurable positive impact for countries, cities, and communities in which we operate. Our global experience, operational know-how and strong culture allow us to create global sustainability leaders. We do it at scale. And have been doing so for decades. Since inception, we have raised US $24 billion to invest in a better tomorrow.

We are builders and operators. We apply a pragmatic industrialist mindset to every challenge and opportunity. We bring together complementary skills and experience to drive a deep understanding of our companies and the context they operate in. To build value for a better tomorrow. We create sustainability leaders. Decades of sustainable investing, a culture of accountability, and taking action for a carbon free world. We build value for a better tomorrow. We unlock global opportunities. We invest in global themes and through our footprint and extensive networks we are able to pursue and unlock opportunities wherever we find them.

Nicholas Bahr

Global Director Risk & Resilience, dss+

Mr. Nicholas Bahr is the dss+ Global Director for Risk & Resilience. He brings over 35 years of international experience in operational and enterprise risk management, process safety, safety management systems, reliability, security, and resilience. His client engagements range from operational risk strategy, value creation, implementation, and operations for Private Equity firms and investors, Portfolio Company Boards, executives and senior government leaders, to detailed risk assessments for complex technology and industrial programs. Mr. Bahr has worked extensively with portfolio companies in the oil and gas, manufacturing, aerospace, utilities, and transport industries around the world, with deep experience in the Americas, Europe, Middle East, China, and Australia. He has conducted targeted training for Private Equity partners and investors, and worked closely with implementing change in their portfolio companies. He is author of the book System Safety Engineering and Risk Assessment, used as a graduate-level textbook around the world. The US FAA Flight Standards uses his book as the primary system safety model for US civil aviation. Mr. Bahr led NASA safety and reliability programs for 15+ years and has represented the US on numerous global standards bodies.

Matt J. Baird

Managing Director, Operations ＆ Strategy, OMERS Private Equity Europe Limited

Matt is Managing Director, Operations ＆ Strategy for OMERS Private Equity in Europe, and joined OMERS in 2017. He works with the management teams leading OMERS portfolio companies to help them generate maximum value through the lifetime of the investment.

Matt has 20+ years’ experience working with and supporting senior executives in PE-backed businesses to deliver results. Prior to joining OMERS, he was a Managing Director in Alvarez & Marsal’s Private Equity Performance Improvement practice, where he served in interim CFO/COO roles in client businesses as well as advising management teams. Prior to this, he was with McKinsey & Company and he started his career with Arthur Andersen.

Matt holds a Masters in Engineering, Economics & Management from Oxford University and is a Chartered Accountant.

OMERS Private Equity Europe Limited

OMERS Private Equity is the private equity investment arm of OMERS, the defined benefit pension plan for more than 600,000 municipal employees in the Province of Ontario, Canada. OMERS Private Equity has more than 50 investment professionals based in Toronto, London, New York and Singapore. Investment sectors include healthcare, business services, industrials, technology and software, in companies predominantly headquartered in Europe and North America.

Lewis Bantin

Partner, ECI Partners

Lewis joined ECI Partners to build out ECI Partners’ value creation model, founding the Commercial Team in 2008. The Commercial Team helps management shape and execute their growth strategies. Through the ECI platform, teams now have access to a team of fifteen professionals supporting growth through M&A, Sales, Tech, Cyber and People expertise. Prior to ECI, Lewis worked in growth strategy at The Monitor Group and started his career in the chemicals industry at Shell and ICI.

ECI Partners

ECI Partners are a leading growth investor in middle market companies across the UK. With offices in London, New York and Manchester, ECI seeks high growth companies with resilient earnings streams and ambitious management teams. With its origins in 1976 ECI has successfully raised twelve buyout funds, most recently raising £1bn in 2023 and currently managing a total £2.5bn on behalf of its LPs. ECI invested in the first internet buyout in the UK (LateRooms), the first SaaS platform (Fourth) and most recently invested in TAG, a travel management company focused on the global entertainment industry.

Christina Barakett

Managing Director, Alvarez ＆ Marsal

Christina Barakett is a Managing Director with Alvarez ＆ Marsal’s Private Equity Services in London. She brings almost 20 years’ experience in finance & transformation roles. Ms. Barakett specialises in leading Finance functions as interim CFO and developing transformation programmes to deliver EBITDA and cash improvements.
Ms. Barakett has recently held interim CFO roles in private equity owned high-growth software businesses, leading Finance transformation including Finance organisation restructure, optimising systems, processes and controls. As interim CFO, Ms Barakett has led financial planning including P＆L and cash flow performance management, and mid-term operational excellence transformation plans targeting EBITDA margin improvement to position the business for exit.

Previously at A＆M, Ms. Barakett has held several roles supporting the CFO of global businesses driving transformation including a $2bn medical devices business transforming its FP＆A function and shared services across its 26 international markets, an $800m top-line private hospital operator in developing its business plan and cash flow during ownership change, and a $1bn technology services business to optimise cost post private equity acquisition, including a “Rapid Results” review of cost and programme setup that delivered €60m of annualised savings within 7 months. Ms Barakett has also supported the CFO in commercial transformation including Interim head of European Marketing for a global medical devices business.

Ms. Barakett has also held several Operating Model transformation roles at A＆M including supporting the CFO and CHRO of a $1bn top-line global business on a target operating model transformation across all functions excluding sales, to define efficient and effective local / regional / global structures, optimise outsourcing, and deliver 25% people cost reduction. Ms. Barakett has also supported the newly formed Global Business Services (GBS) division of a plc to go live and drive reduction of cost through corporate function demand management, outsourcing, and efficiency across Finance, IT, Property Management and other corporate functions transferred to the GBS.

Prior to joining A＆M, Ms. Barakett supported the pension fund leadership team at Barclays Bank in building a new Finance team to oversee in-house management and administration of £18bn in pension fund assets.
Ms. Barakett earned a bachelor’s degree in Commerce from McGill University. She is a Chartered Accountant (Canada) who qualified at Deloitte. A British and Canadian national, Ms. Barakett is fluent in English and French.

Rachel Barton

Senior Managing Director, Accenture

Working with the largest global brands, Rachel advises business leaders on how they can transform and create new growth – moving at speed from Strategy to execution. Within Accenture, Rachel leads the Global Strategy Private Equity business, focused on maximising value creation and positive impact for PE Funds and their Portfolio companies.

With a passion for social responsibility, Rachel sits on Accenture’s global Corporate Citizenship Council, and Chair for UnLtd and a Trustee for the King’s College Hospital Charity.

She is a regular contributor to the media, with appearances on BBC News 24, Sky News, CNN and CNBC, and press contributions in The Times, The Guardian, The Economist, Critical Eye and Management Today. Rachel also leads Accenture Strategy’s Global Thought Leadership Council.

Rachel was listed in Management Today’s 35 Women Under 35 to Watch, the Women of the Future Awards and Red Magazine’s Women of the Year Awards and has been voted Most Inspirational Leader for Accenture UK.

Michael Belkin

Head of Global PE Practice, Zuora

Michael Belkin leads the Global Private Equity Practice at Zuora. Michael began his career at H.I.G. Growth Partners. He then co-founded & scaled Nextgengolf which the PGA of America acquired. Michael then worked at HubSpot and several early-stage ventures before joining Zuora in 2020 and founding the Private Equity Practice.

Zuora

Zuora is the preferred monetization solution for high-growth technology companies, orchestrating complete quote to cash and revenue recognition processes at scale. Through its industry-leading technology and expertise, Zuora helps 1,000+ companies globally, including Salesforce, Visma, BMC, Box, Zendesk, Zoom, and HubSpot nurture and monetize direct, digital customer relationships. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, Zuora also has European offices in London, Milan, Munich, Paris, Stockholm among other Global Sites. To learn more about the Zuora monetization suite, please visit www.zuora.com.

Streisan Bevan

Director, Specialist – Customer Insight and Sales Effectiveness, Mayfair Equity Partners

Streisan joined Mayfair in 2022 and works in partnership with portfolio companies to identify and unlock value through improved customer insight and sales effectiveness. She supports management teams to deliver customer first thinking and to enhance their commercial capabilities.

Streisan has over 25 years customer insight and sales experience having worked in senior roles at leading global brands including Facebook, Bebo.com and MSN UK. Streisan has also supported a number of private equity backed businesses in a consulting and non-executive director capacity within the consumer, tech and retail spaces.

Jawad Bhatti

Value Creation & B2B SaaS Go To Market Advisor, Dawn Capital

With over two decades of commercial leadership expertise, Jawad has a data-driven approach to spearheading initiatives across both global enterprises and dynamic growth-stage companies with specialization in implementing B2B Software go-to-market strategies in various industries (FinTech, Banking, Payments, Energy, and Utilities). Jawad creates repeatable sales success for more predictable growth by aligning product, marketing, and sales to make GTM strategies commercially successful.

Currently contributing as the Go-To-Market Advisor at Dawn Capital, Jawad also undertakes roles as an interim and fractional Chief Revenue Officer for a variety of private equity portfolios. His collaboration extends to more than 50 portfolio companies, guiding growth strategies, conducting sales and marketing performance reviews, and refining go-to-market diligence processes to craft and implement effective value-creation strategies. His prior experience includes strategic leadership positions at Accenture's Financial Services Ecosystem and Ventures, Star Global (an NTT Data Company) as the Global Head of FinTech, and Opower (an Oracle company) as the Head of EMEA Customer Success and Sales.

He holds an MBA from the University of Oxford.

Dawn Capital

Dawn is Europe’s leading specialist B2B software investor, with a total commitment of $2bn. Dawn partners with founders building the next generation of global software leaders, supporting them to harness extraordinary teams, exceptional technology, and scalable business models to create category-defining global companies.
Its roster of investments includes Mimecast (formerly NASDAQ-listed, taken private by Permira in a $5.8bn transaction), iZettle (sold to PayPal for $2.2bn cash), Tink (purchased by Visa for $2.0bn), LeanIX (acquired by SAP), as well as current leaders, Collibra, Dataiku, Quantexa, amongst many others.

Marc Bielitza

Director, Deutsche Private Equity

Marc is a Director in the operations team of Deutsche Private Equity (DPE). Prior to joining DPE, he was Chief Transformation Officer of PE-backed HIT Holzindustrie Torgau, the world’s largest producer of Euro pallets. In that role, he spearheaded the overall transformation program and led the maintenance and procurement departments.

Before that, Marc spent twelve years at McKinsey & Company, where he was an Associate Partner and a core leader of the global basic materials and operations practices. He primarily served clients in metals, chemicals, energy, and discrete manufacturing, advising them on performance improvement and operational excellence. Marc holds a graduate degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Karlsruhe, with additional studies in Milan and Strasbourg. He obtained his doctorate at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) on the topic of quantitative analysis of market dynamics in the global iron ore market.

Deutsche Private Equity

Deutsche Private Equity (DPE) is an independent, internationally active German investment company that invests in medium-sized companies in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Founded in Munich in 2007, DPE has since successfully launched five funds. DPE has total assets of € 3.0 billion under management. Since our inception, we have invested in more than 40 companies as both majority and minority shareholders, made more than 140 add-on investments, and created approximately 6,000 new jobs. Our companies currently employ more than 10,500 people. For more information, please visit https://www.dpe.de/en/.

Catherine Brien

Partner and Managing Director, AI & Data practice, AlixPartners

Catherine has 20 years of experience in helping retailers and other consumer businesses digitally transform their operations to drive significant commercial value.

She is an expert in driving revenue and profit growth, using a data and digitally-enabled approach. She has extensive experience in topics such as product and proposition, pricing and promotions optimization, capex planning, and customer engagement.

Catherine is an expert in data, research, and AI. She is passionate about deploying data and AI ethically and has a strong track record of helping organizations monetize data and build the culture and capabilities required to be data and insight-driven.

Catherine was formerly Chief Data Officer for Guardian News & Media and Data Science Director at the Coop Group. She also has 16 years of consulting experience, working with clients internationally across retail, travel & leisure, airlines, and consumer finance.

Catherine is also passionate about social impact. She is currently a Trustee of Nesta, the UK’s innovation agency for social good; and previously was a Trustee of PEAS (Promoting Equality in African Schools), a mission to expand access to affordable, quality secondary education across Africa. She has also worked extensively to promote diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

Christoph Bruguier

Chief Investment Officer & Partner, Vauban Infrastructure Partners

Christoph Bruguier was appointed chief investment officer of Vauban in 2024. He joined Vauban in 2019 as senior investment director and partner, having previously worked at InfraVia Capital Partners. He also spent more than 22 years at the investment bank HSBC, holding various positions between Paris, New York, and Tokyo. During this time, he was involved in originating, structuring, and executing infrastructure transactions, capital markets deals, complex restructurings, and structured financings.

William Bundy

Partner, McKinsey ＆ Co

Will focuses on holistic, sustainable transformation of private equity investments. Most recently serving as a Chief Transformation Officer and Interim Chief Supply Chain Officer for a private equity backed consumer company. In this role, he turned around a company to structurally positive cash flow in one year post close whilst standing up the operations out of a global carveout. He also served as a Managing Director and Partner at AlixPartners advising and serving in interim roles for large scale private equity investors focused on operational transformation.

Experience includes:

Served as an Interim COO for a Tech-enabled CPG company.

Carved out a $500m CPG company from a multi-national conglomerate; stood up independent operations within 12 months including 3PL and IT ecosystem.

Served various PE clients across numerous transformation situations as an advisor and interim operating executive.

Will holds an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, a Bachelor of Science from the US Naval Academy. He has summitted Kilimanjaro, ran with the Bulls in Pamplona, and hiked the Inca Trail.

Phil Carrivick

Op Partner, Northfirst

Phil is an Independent Operating Partner working mostly with mid-market private equity in London on value creation initiatives.

Most recently he has led several major post-merger integrations and carve outs, including those with complex TSA arrangements and CMA investigations. He has led many commercial initiatives including pricing initiatives, new proposition development, overseas expansion and strategic supplier negotiations.
Prior to this Phil has a background with interim leadership roles and 15 years of strategy consulting experience across B2B software, healthcare and consumer and industrials sectors in UK, Europe and N America with Kearney, L.E.K. and Alvarez & Marsal. He holds a Masters Degree in General Engineering from University of Durham.

Mikael Castelluccio

Portfolio Director, Charterhouse Capital Partners

Mikael joined Charterhouse in 2020 and is a Director in Charterhouse’s portfolio team. He is responsible for value creation projects with specific focus on profitability and serves on the board of Casa Optima.

He previously spent 10 years in EY focussing on performance improvement for PE and corporate clients. Prior to this he held Supply Chain and Sourcing roles in industry at Wärtsilä and Brovedani Group.

Mikael holds an MSc in Industrial Management Engineering from the University of Udine.

Charterhouse Capital Partners

Charterhouse is one of the longest-established private equity firms operating in Europe. The firm connects expertise and capital, partnering with ambitious founders and management teams to drive transformational change.

Charterhouse has a selective, conviction-led approach to investing in high-quality mid-market European companies across the Services, Healthcare, Specialised Industrials, Consumer and Education sectors. It targets transactions with an enterprise value of between €200m and €1.5bn.

Charterhouse’s international team works in an integrated and flexible manner, allowing the firm to combine the skills, knowledge and experience of its entire team to help build successful businesses over the long term.

Charterhouse is currently investing from its eleventh private equity fund. The firm has completed more than 150 acquisitions over 35 years of activity in the European buyout market.

Charlotte Cederwall

Partner, Acertitude

Charlotte is a private equity specialist, partner, and EMEA lead for our Consumer & Retail practice at Acertitude. She partners with best-in-class management teams and world-renowned private equity investors and their portfolio companies across North America and Europe, critically contributing to value creation.

Her extensive experience includes both building and assessing executive teams and Boards and facilitating people-related diligence on upcoming deals. She has personally led numerous high-profile private equity-backed CEO, CFO, Chair and Board searches internationally and across all Consumer & Retail related sub-sectors, including e-commerce and digital. Along with her hands-on role within the Consumer & Retail practice, Charlotte leads and supports the coordination of global private equity relationships firmwide.

Charlotte brings over 15 years of executive search and leadership advisory experience to her role as a partner at Acertitude. Prior to joining the firm, Charlotte spent eight years at Skill Capital, a global executive search and advisory firm dedicated to private equity. Charlotte was a partner and led the Consumer & Retail practice alongside establishing and coleading the firms executive search focus and training. Before focusing on Consumer & Retail, Charlotte spent a number of years within the firm’s Healthcare & Pharmaceutical practice. Charlotte attended the University of Nottingham.

Acertitude

Acertitude is a bold executive search firm and leadership consultancy that serves private equity firms and portfolio companies globally.

Exceedingly specialized, our consultants connect leaders aspiring to unlock value in their companies with the most capable executives worldwide. This includes PE-backed Board, CEO, and C-level leaders across the business services, consumer, healthcare and life sciences, industrial, technology, and professional services sectors.

We provide pre-deal to post-deal services, taking extreme ownership of talent needs over the life cycle of the investment. Explore more at www.acertitude.com.

Peter Colman

Senior Operating Partner, H.I.G. Capital

Pete is a Senior Operating Partner focused on Commercial Excellence programmes within H.I.G. Capital’s European LBO, Middle Market and Infrastructure funds. He collaborates with portfolio companies to implement strategy, product, pricing and sales initiatives to deliver margin/multiple expansion. He joined in 2024 and is based in the London office.

Pete has 26 years’ experience in private equity, consulting and industry, 16 of those at Simon-Kucher where he was an equity Partner. Prior to that, he worked for digital marketing ＆ technology consultancies. He started his career in sales within a global key account team at BT. He holds a PhD in Physics from The University of Cambridge and a 1st Class Honours degree in Physics from The University of Nottingham.

H.I.G. Capital

H.I.G. Capital is a leading global private equity investment firm with $60 billion of equity capital under management (based on total capital commitments managed by H.I.G. Capital and affiliates.) and a team of over 500 investment professionals.

Based in Miami, and with offices throughout North America, Latin America, and Europe, H.I.G. specialises in providing capital to middle market companies with attractive growth potential. H.I.G. specialises in providing both debt and equity capital to small and mid-sized companies, utilising a flexible and operationally focused/ value-added approach.

Agata Cooper

Digital Operating Partner, Triton Partners

Agata is an Operational Specialist and joined West Park, Triton's dedicated value creation unit, in 2020 from Accenture, where she was a Digital Strategy Senior Manager within the Industry X.0 practice in the UK. She holds a Masters degree in International Management from King´s College, University of London.

Triton

Founded in 1997 and owned by its partners, Triton is a leading European mid-market sector-specialist investor. Triton focuses on businesses that provide important goods and services in the Business Services, Industrial Tech and Healthcare sectors. Triton has over 200 professionals across 11 offices and invests through three complementary “All Weather” strategies: Mid-Market Private Equity, Smaller Mid-Cap Private Equity, and Opportunistic Credit.

To learn more about Triton, please visit: www.triton-partners.com

Emma Cox

Global Private Equity Leader, Deloitte

Emma is Global Private Equity Leader at Deloitte, overseeing the firm’s growth strategy and co-ordination of end-to-end services to PE clients globally, from transaction support through to transformation and value creation across the whole of the investment lifecycle.

As a partner at Deloitte in the UK for 19 years, Emma has spent her career working with PE portfolio companies, focussed on bringing together everything that Deloitte does to support portfolio company management teams. She has specialised herself in working with portfolio company CFOs and their Finance functions and has relationships with a number of leading PE houses. Emma has considerable experience of working closely with management teams and their private equity owners throughout the investment cycle and has worked on numerous successful exits.

Emma has a BA in Mathematics from Oxford University and an MBA (distinction) from Manchester Business School. She is a keen sailor and watersports enthusiast and leads a busy family life with three teenage children.

Jim Corey

Managing Partner, Blue Ridge Partners

Jim is a co-founder of Blue Ridge Partners and serves as the firm’s Managing Partner. For 35 years he has assisted companies in North America, Europe and Asia accelerate profitable revenue growth. Jim has advised over 300 companies on revenue-related issues including growth strategy, pricing, sales and marketing management and effectiveness, customer segmentation and messaging. Prior to founding Blue Ridge Partners, Jim was a Partner at both McKinsey & Company and Accenture. He was also the President of the worldwide professional services group at Unisys and the Managing Partner of AT＆T Solutions, the professional services arm of AT＆T. Jim previously served as Managing Partner of Potomac Partners and CEO of Luminant.

Blue Ridge Partners

Blue Ridge Partners is a management consulting firm exclusively focused on helping companies accelerate profitable revenue growth. We have worked with more than 1,000 companies to improve their strategic understanding of markets and customers, deepen and expand their customer relationships, and enhance marketing and sales performance.

Our clients include over 130 private equity firms and their portfolio companies –supporting them during deal evaluation, due diligence, and post-acquisition. We have a reputation for helping companies grow faster by rolling up our sleeves, working collaboratively, and delivering measurable impact quickly and more efficiently than large consultancies.

Claudio Crivelli

RVP, Global Private Equity Practice, Salesforce

Claudio is a member of the Salesforce PE and VC Practice Management Team. The mission of the practice is to foster strategic partnerships to catalyze value creation across diverse portfolios. The ultimate goal is to empower portfolio companies to realize their growth potential through the power of the Salesforce AI CRM platform, innovative business accelerators, and Salesforce's extensive network of trusted partners.

Before joining Salesforce, Claudio accumulated over 25 years of experience, leading marketing and sales operations across seven distinct industries. From Private Equity and VC startup accelerators to High-Tech, FMCG, education, and luxury hospitality, his diverse background has provided him with rich perspectives on growing businesses globally.

Claudio's educational journey mirrors his professional versatility. He holds a joint EMBA degree from UCLA and USI, complemented by bachelor's degrees in computer science (from HEG) and hospitality management (from EHL). This rare blend of academic and real-world experience equips him with the ability to reimagine business operations at scale.

Hailing from Switzerland and speaking five languages, Claudio finds inspiration in simple fundamental elements such as humanity, humility, and humor.

Salesforce

Salesforce is the customer company, helping companies connect with customers in a whole new way since 1999. Its pioneering formula of Data + AI + CRM + Trust helps companies embrace this new innovation cycle of artificial intelligence, democratizing AI with low-code tools and accelerating productivity with AI in the flow of work for every team.

Salesforce Customer 360, its complete portfolio of products, unites every team around the customer on one integrated, metadata-driven, low code platform with built-in automation and intelligence. Its open and innovative approach has made Salesforce the #1 AI CRM for 10 years in a row.

Salesforce is proud to be the market leader, but it’s even more proud to be a leader in philanthropy, innovation and culture. Guided by core values of trust, customer success, innovation, equality and sustainability, Salesforce is more than a business — it's a platform for change.

Simon Crowe

CFO, Wood Mackenzie

Simon is the CFO of Wood Mackenzie, the Vertitas Capital backed Energy Research, Data and Analytics Company.

Simon is an experienced global CFO having worked with companies listed on New York, London and European stock exchanges and Private Equity backed businesses. He is a strategic thinker and versatile business leader with a deep and broad experience of corporate transactions (successful NYSE IPO and Private Equity sale) and balance sheet building in growth, restructuring, transition, and deal situations. Being energetic, outgoing and team orientated, he enjoys a fast-paced commercial business environment, building teams, growing businesses (organically and through acquisition) and the challenge of working on complex situations. He has worked in a variety of global Industries including Professional Services (Environmental, ESG and Sustainability); Shipping; LNG; Oil & Gas; Power and Chemicals living in Singapore, Paris, Houston, Geneva, Monaco and London.

Gavin Cullen

Independent

Gavin is a Strategy Management Consultant who specialises in designing and executing high-profile long-term value creation assignments for private equity-owned portfolio companies, private asset and traditional asset management clients, in EMEA.

His expertise lies in providing strategic advice and execution support for merger integrations; developing and bringing to market innovative product and channel distribution initiatives utilising private assets including debt and equity; as well as optimising related portfolio businesses and their operational activities from a people, systems, process and controls perspective.

Until recently Gavin was a Principal/Operating Partner with Apollo Global Management for over eight years where he shaped strategies for the European insurance asset management business, portfolio companies and its partners, driving value creation, as well as developing innovative cross-border private asset investment solutions, and improving operational performance through investment infrastructure upgrades, outsourcing, and productivity enhancements.

Gavin also worked with Deutsche Bank in origination and execution of equity capital market deals and at Goldman Sachs, where he began his career in investment banking and asset management.

Gavin has a M.Econ.Sc. from University College Dublin, Ireland. Away from the office, a passionate cyclist having recently cycled coast to coast in South America. He is also an energetic supporter and fundraiser for London-based charities The Soup Kitchen and London Air Ambulance.

Catherine Cutts

Principal, KKR

Catherine Cutts (London) joined KKR in 2021 and is a member of the KKR Capstone team. Prior to joining KKR, Dr. Cutts was a vice president at TA Associates. Previously, she served in 10 Downing Street as an expert advisor. Dr. Cutts received an MA in Mathematics, an MPhil in Computational Biology and a PhD in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Cambridge.

Adam Dawson

SVP Blackstone Innovations, Blackstone

Adam Dawson joined Blackstone in January 2023 as Senior Vice President in the Technology and Innovations group, advising on cybersecurity diligence and practices across Blackstone’s portfolio of operating companies.

Before joining Blackstone, Mr. Dawson spent more than 25 years working in progressively more senior cyber and technology leadership roles in global FS institutions. Notable contributions include the London Stock Exchange acquisition of Refinitiv, as well as leading cyber transformation programmes at Credit Suisse, UBS, Deutsche, Barclays and Standard Chartered.

Blackstone

Blackstone is the world’s largest alternative asset manager. We seek to create positive economic impact and long-term value for our investors. We do this by relying on extraordinary people and flexible capital to help strengthen the companies we invest in. Our over $1 trillion in assets under management include investment vehicles focused on private equity, real estate, public debt and equity, infrastructure, life sciences, growth equity, opportunistic, non-investment grade credit, real assets and secondary funds, all on a global basis.

Clive De Silva

Partner and Managing Director, AlixPartners Technology practice, AlixPartners

Clive has over 20 years’ experience both as a senior advisor and in interim executive roles. He specialises in defining and implementing actionable technology strategies, with a particular focus on FinTech and technology-driven enterprises, notably within the realm of Private Equity (PE). For PE firms, he has advised on numerous M&A transactions, both pre- and post-deal. He has a strong track record of working in PE-backed organisations to quickly reduce risk, drive value creation and help navigate them through complex digitally-enabled projects. Clive has a Master of Philosophy in computer speech, text, and Internet technology from the University of Cambridge.

Marine Diot

Digital Vice President, EQT

Marine Diot is a Vice President in the EQT Digital team based in London. She joined EQT Partners in July 2021, where she is working alongside the portfolio companies’ management teams to drive growth and digital transformation, with a primary focus on go-to-market strategies and digital product development.

Marine started her career as a Strategy Consultant. She then spent five years at Amazon both in Paris and Munich, where she first led a Business Development team and then was a Senior Product Manager. Marine holds a Bachelor's and a Master's degree from Sciences Po Paris.

Chris Donovan

Head of Private Equity Portfolio, Deloitte

Chris leads the Private Equity Portfolio team at Deloitte, which is a cross-discipline team dedicated to supporting Private Equity Houses and their investments with portfolio optimisation and successful exits via Deloitte’s PE focused value propositions and programmes. Chris also leads a number of key large cap Private Equity house and portfolio relationships for Deloitte, and is the co-leader for Deloitte’s PE Exits proposition. Having built his career in audit, Chris led PE and private company audit engagements as a partner for five years and so has a natural focus on CFO relationships.

Cordelia Dolan

Global Head of Portfolio Talent, Investindustrial

Based out of Investindustrial’s London office, Cordelia brings over a decade of experience working in talent for private equity. At Investindustrial she leads that team that works with portfolio companies around human capital planning, c-suite hiring and network building. Previously Cordelia spent four years as Talent Director for Inflexion Private Equity. Prior to that, Cordelia worked for Skillcapital, a global executive search and advisory firm dedicated to private equity working out of the UK and US. Cordelia started out in her career as an analyst at Mactavish, a research firm focused on the Insurance industry, and spent time with The Press Association in their communications team. She holds a BA in Philosophy from Trinity College, Dublin.

Investindustrial

Investindustrial is a leading European group of independently managed investment, holding and advisory companies with €13 billion of raised fund capital. With ESG principles deeply embedded into the Firm’s core approach, Investindustrial has more than 30-year history of providing mid-market companies capital, industrial expertise, operational focus and global platforms to accelerate sustainable value creation and international expansion.

Johann Dupont

Operating Partner, Head of Operating Team, Abenex

Johann Dupont joined Abenex in 2013 and now leads the Operating Team, which guides portfolio companies in their development, transformation, and/or structuring plans. His professional journey commenced as a financial controller at Peugeot Portugal. Transitioning in 2001 to Bain & Company, Johann contributed to various projects serving corporate clients and investment funds across Paris, Saudi Arabia, and New York. In 2005, he became Strategy and Business Development Manager at Editis post an LBO, where he played a key role in spearheading add-on acquisitions, fostering development, and orchestrating organizational restructuring initiatives. In 2009, Johann assumed the role of Associate Director of M&A at Publicis Groupe where he spearheaded approximately 30 acquisitions, primarily across the US, Europe, China, and India. Additionally, he established three venture capital funds dedicated to the digital economy, in collaboration with Orange. In 2021, he co-founded the France Invest Operating Partners Club, a pioneering initiative in Europe.

Abenex

Founded in 1992, Abenex is a historical player in the small and mid-cap private equity market, specialized in growth and buyout transactions in Europe. Independent for 15 years, Abenex operates on three segments of private equity: Small-cap, Mid-cap, and Real-estate. Abenex focuses on companies operating along four key investment themes: Health & Wellness, Safety, Value-added services and Sustainable Industry. Abenex is committed to the Management team’s success, providing them with a fully dedicated operational team, composed of 7 seasoned professionals contributing to strategic initiatives, business structuration and transformation, profitable growth, sustainability and value generation.

Certified B-Corp in 2022 and purpose-driven company since 2023, Abenex commits to a sustainable investment approach. The team is composed of 50+ professionals with demonstrated and renowned expertise, located in Paris, Lyon, Milan and Amsterdam.

Nick Eichorn

Director, Value Creation, Graphite Capital

Nick joined Graphite in 2022 bringing extensive operational and value creation experience, most recently helping portfolio companies of a pan European Private Equity Firm to build value as part of their leadership teams.

Nick currently sits on the board of two of Graphite’s portfolio companies and works closely with management on a day to day basis. He drives value through change programmes focusing on growth and operational efficiency. Nick helps develop Value Creation Plans for new investments and to identify operational opportunities across Graphite’s portfolio.

Graphite Capital

Graphite is a leading independent private equity investor focused on the UK mid-market. Graphite focuses on management buy-outs and also invests in development capital opportunities. It backs companies with enterprise values of £30 million to £175 million.

Graphite is currently investing its ninth fund, Graphite Capital Partners IX, with commitments of £500 million. Investments include: Hanson Wade, a global leader in data and information services to R&D life sciences; Wonderbly, the leading publishing platform for premium personalised books; Digital Space, a connected cloud IT managed services provider focused on large private and public sector organisations in the UK; Babble, the unified communications, cloud contact centre and cyber services provider; and Ten10, a leading UK software quality assurance and testing provider. The fund has also invested in Storal Group, an operator of nurseries and pre-schools across the UK, serving over 2,000 children across 26 nurseries; Horizon Care and Education, a provider of high-quality care and education for young people with social, mental and emotional needs; and Opus Talent Solutions, a global talent solutions business specialising in the technology and renewable energy markets.

The most recent realised investments include U-POL, the manufacturer and distributor of automotive repair and refinishing products, Random42, a fast growing producer of digital medical animation and YSC, the leading independent provider of leadership consulting and management assessment services.

Josefin Frick

Associate Director, EQT

Josefin Frick joined EQT Partners in April 2018 and is an Associate Director, Digital. Prior to joining EQT, Josefin worked as an Analyst at Groupon in London, United Kingdom. Josefin holds an B.Sc in Information Systems from Lund University in Sweden, where she also lectured alongside her studies.

Dominic Gallello

Managing Director, Bridgepoint

Dominic is a Managing Director and member of the Operational Support Group. He joined Bridgepoint in 2022.

Prior to Bridgepoint, he was Chief Marketing Officer of Bumble Inc. where he served as part of the executive leadership team that led the company through an acquisition by Blackstone in 2020, and a NASDAQ IPO in 2021. Before this, Dominic held various marketing roles at consumer internet companies like Airtime and Spotify, as well as in brand and go-to-market consultancies where he worked with partners like PayPal, Braintree and Coca-Cola.

Dominic holds an undergraduate degree from Waseda University and an MBA from INSEAD Business School.

Bridgepoint

Bridgepoint is one of the world's leading quoted private asset growth investors, specialising in private equity and private debt. With over €41bn of assets under management and a strong local presence in Europe, North America and Asia, we combine global scale with local market insight and sector expertise, consistently delivering strong returns through cycles.

Rory Gaston

Group Managing Director, Saragossa

Rory’s professional credentials have been built entirely within financial services technology delivery. His work has primarily focused on offsetting the inefficiencies created by the increasing gap between supply & demand in technology talent markets.

Recognizing that great people are central to the best business outcomes, Rory harnesses his Psychology background to create and implement tailored people-led solutions for Private Equity firms and their portfolio companies. This produces qualitative and quantitative efficiencies to technology delivery capability.

Recognizing the inherently unique demands of each firm Rory has been central in defining Saragossa products & services extending to; Project based Consultancy, Search & Selection and IT offshoring.

With an uncompromising dedication to delivering clear quantifiable improvements to business outcomes Rory has established a reputation as the trusted advisor to Technology leaders globally.

Saragossa is a Technology Solutions organisation with a proven track supporting Private Equity businesses, accelerating their portfolio companies. For nearly a decade we have provided support leading Private Equity organisations to maximise returns through rapid, specialised technology solutions. Providing strategic support alongside all of our core services: Project Delivery Consulting, Technology Outsourcing, Staffing, Executive Search, and 3rd party Talent Acquisition.

Having developed a reputation for unparalleled Private Equity domain expertise, we fully grasp the unique challenges presented managing an evolving technology business portfolio, responding rapidly to changing priorities and goals in a fiercely competitive landscape.

Our core values; Fearless, Uncompromising and Human underpin everything we do. We are brave, working outside of conventional methods to achieve agreed objectives, we do not compromise in our commitment to creating brilliant customer experiences, believing that great people are at the heart of every successful outcome.

Tom Gladstone

Global Head of Private Equity, OC&C Strategy Consultants

Bio pending

Conrad Gracjczak

Vice President, Insight Sourcing, part of Accenture

Conrad is an experienced sourcing professional specializing in Private Equity. He has 11 years of experience delivering procurement value in pre-purchase or post-close diagnostics, carveouts, and mergers/ integrations.

Insight Sourcing, part of Accenture

Insight Sourcing partners with 60+ private equity firms to drive EBITDA and working capital improvement for portfolio companies across the investment lifecycle. In 2024, Insight Sourcing became part of Accenture.

Miles Graham

Managing Partner, Operating Partners Group

Managing Partner at the Operating Partners Group. OPG provides Operating Team capabilities for Hedge Funds and Family Offices who do not have in-house Operating Partners, as well as originating and executing proprietary investments in Special Situations, often with co-investments by OPG’s key capital partners. Prior to founding OPG, Miles Graham was an Operating Partner and Operating Board member at METRO AG. Miles has spent over 20 years in Private Equity and Venture Capital. He started his career as a British Diplomat before becoming CEO of several VC-backed businesses, leading two exits, one to the Daily Mail Group and a second to the Body Shop Group. He spent 5 years in McKinsey & Company's Private Equity Practice before becoming Head of Active Partnership at 3i Plc, a EUR 12 bn AUM Growth, Buyout and Infrastructure fund. The portfolio included multiple businesses in retail, hospitality and consumer goods. He has an MA from Oxford.

Ben Gregory

Managing Director, EMEA Client Lead, Teneo

Ben Gregory is a Managing Director at Teneo, and leads the Private Equity Growth practice in Europe. He focuses on driving enterprise value for Private Equity investors particularly within Tech and recurring revenue assets. He brings extensive experience collaborating with portfolio teams to accelerate growth.
Ben is an expert in value creation, product and proposition strategies, and complex pricing, packaging, and revenue model strategies. He works throughout the transaction lifecycle, covering post-deal value creation work as well as commercial diligence and M＆A strategy.

Ben joined Teneo in 2017 and was previously with Credo, a London-based strategy Consulting boutique. He has lived and worked across Europe, the US and Middle East. He holds a PhD in Life Sciences from Cambridge.

Teneo

Teneo is the global CEO advisory firm, with 1,500 staff over 40 offices. Our Private Equity Growth practice area exists solely to accelerate Enterprise Value addition for PE-backed assets. We have 40 fully-specialised staff in Europe and the US, and pride ourselves on our track record of real results for our investor clients.

Akshay Grover

Global Private Equity Practice Lead, Zscaler

Akshay Grover serves as the Global Private Equity practice leader at Zscaler. Akshay has 20+ years of results-driven and forward-thinking transformational leadership experience in Private Equity, M&A, Divestitures consulting, SaaS GTM strategies, partnerships & alliances and value creation with cloud technologies across Americas, EMEA, APAC and LATAM. Prior to joining Zscaler, Akshay co-led the Global Go to Market M&A Integration and WW M&A, Divestitures and PE practice at Salesforce. Akshay was responsible for developing new routes to market with alliance and PE partners and driving GTM M&A integration strategy, planning and execution for 15+ Salesforce acquisitions. Prior to joining Salesforce, Akshay held leadership roles at PwC, HCL Tech, Deloitte Consulting, and Tata Motors.

Zscaler (NASDAQ: ZS) accelerates digital transformation so that customers can be more agile, efficient, resilient, and secure. The Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange protects thousands of customers from cyberattacks and data loss by securely connecting users, devices, and applications in any location. Distributed across more than 150 data centers globally, the SSE-based Zero Trust Exchange is the world’s largest in-line cloud security platform. Learn more at zscaler.com or follow us on Twitter @zscaler.

Daniel Hansen

Chief Commercial Officer, Verdane

Daniel Hansen is Chief Commercial Officer for Elevate at Verdane, the European specialist growth investor. Elevate is Verdane’s team of in-house operational experts who advise portfolio companies in every function needed for scaling, including go-to-market, finance, talent and technology. At Verdane, Daniel leads Elevate’s go-to-market team. Daniel has been part of the Elevate team since its inception in 2020, and has been instrumental in building a team of 35 growth experts. He is an experienced commercial professional with a longstanding background as CMO for successful scale-up companies including QuestBack and Admincontrol, where he built high-performance go-to-market teams.

Verdane

Verdane is a specialist growth investment firm that partners with tech-enabled and sustainable European businesses. Verdane can invest as a minority or majority investor, either in single companies or through portfolios of companies, and looks to deploy inside two core growth themes; digitalisation and decarbonisation.   

Verdane funds hold over €6.9 billion in total commitments and have made over 400 investments in fast-growing businesses since 2003. Verdane’s team of over 140 investment professionals and operating experts, based out of Berlin, Munich, Copenhagen, Helsinki, London, Oslo and Stockholm, is dedicated to being the preferred growth partner to tech-enabled and sustainable businesses in Europe.  

Will Harman

Principal, Apax Partners

Will Harman is a Principal in the Operational Excellence team. He joined Apax Partners in 2014 and is currently based in London.

Prior to joining Apax Partners, Will worked for PA Consulting Group where he led procurement restructuring, cost reduction and supply chain risk management programmes for clients including BP, BAE Systems, and Aston Martin. Will was previously a supply chain consultant at PwC and has led major procurement programmes at Jaguar Land Rover.

Will holds a Master’s degree by Research from Warwick Business School, an MA in International Relations from Bristol University, and a BSc in Economics and Politics from Bath University.

Apax Partners

Apax Partners is a leading global private equity advisory firm. Over its more than 40-year history, Apax Partners has raised and advised funds with aggregate commitments of c.$50 billion. The Apax Funds invest in companies across four global sectors of Tech & Telco, Services, Healthcare and Consumer. These funds provide long-term equity financing to build and strengthen world-class companies. For more information see: www.apax.com.

Paul Harragan

Global Cybersecurity Lead, KKR

Paul Harragan joined KKR in 2022 and is a member of KKR Capstone. Mr. Harragan is KKR’s Global Cybersecurity lead for the firm’s portfolio. He is a seasoned information security and cyber defence executive. Mr. Harragan was a partner with EY-Parthenon and led EYP’s cybersecurity practice across Europe, advising both private equity and corporates on cybersecurity strategy, risk, and transformation.

Mr. Harragan has led Cybersecurity diligence on deals with a combined equity value of over $50bn across multiple industries and on a global basis. Mr. Harragan has held senior roles with extensive experience in Incident Response (digital forensics), Offensive Security, leadership (CISO) and is a trusted board advisor.

Mr. Harragan is also an Advisory Board Member at cybersecurity venture capital firm 1011VC.

Greg Harwood

Partner, Simon-Kucher

Greg Harwood is a Partner with Simon-Kucher & Partners in London.

Since joining Simon-Kucher & Partners in 2012, Greg has worked for both the London and Boston offices and has conducted more than 100 projects across the UK, Europe, The Middle East and the USA. Greg's clients include media and entertainment, subscription-based businesses, internet, platforms, marketplaces, consumer goods / products and software / SaaS.

Greg’s consulting activities primarily focus on pricing and sales optimisation, customer segmentation, promotional effectiveness, revenue model re-design, portfolio optimisation and the development of actionable and implementable strategic solutions for market leading organizations.

Greg is a regular conference speaker, and commentator on pricing, sales and commercial strategy topics. As well as a guest lecturer on pricing and behavioral economics at numerous business schools around the UK.

Simon-Kucher

Simon-Kucher is the leading global consulting firm specializing in unlocking better growth.

Specialists in Commercial Strategy & Pricing Consulting, Transaction Services & Private Equity, Digital and Software. Our partners and experienced leadership team are hands on, delivering results at pace.

Our clients come from 120+ industries and range from Fortune and FTSE 100 firms to unicorns across our five core sectors: Consumer, Financial Services, Healthcare & Life Sciences, Industrials and Technology, Media & Telcom.

With decades of experience, our specialists optimize every lever of your commercial strategy. Based on deep insights into what customers want and value, we deliver increased sales and long-term sustainable profit.

Amber Hilkene

Partner, Chief Growth Officer, Stanley Capital Partners

Amber heads up Stanley Capital’s investor relations and fundraising activities as well as leading and overseeing the strategic development of new tangential products and AUM growth over time.

She has over 20 years of experience in the private equity market. Prior to Stanley Capital, Amber was a Partner at AnaCap Financial Partners heading its investor relations team where she led all fundraising activity across private equity, credit and co-invest strategies.

Before that, she was responsible for European business development at The Gores Group, a US private equity fund. Amber also worked in the Private Clientele Group of CIBC Oppenheimer where she managed investment research and wider marketing activities.

Amber holds a dual Bachelor's degree in Finance and Business Law from California State University, Northridge.

Stanley Capital Partners

Stanley Capital Partners (“Stanley Capital”) is a European mid-market private equity firm using a research and technology-based approach to identify opportunities in the growing sustainable investment sectors of Healthcare and Resource Efficiency. Stanley Capital targets businesses with the potential of generating EBITDA of $25m to $150m. We partner with management teams, in majority and minority transactions, to transform and grow companies through technological change, operational change and market consolidation.
Stanley Capital was founded in 2019 by Simon Cottle, James Brooks and Patrick Hargutt and has a team of over 120 professionals working closely together with its Leader Network and investors, sector and technology partners.

Claire Hogg

VP, Portfolio Human Capital, General Atlantic

Claire Hogg is a Vice President and part of General Atlantic’s Human Capital Group. She provides strategic support and advice to the firm’s portfolio companies in EMEA with a focus on Talent and Human Capital. Before joining General Atlantic in 2021, Claire was a Director at The Up Group, a leading European digital executive search, networking, and advisory firm. Prior to that, she was a Consultant at Bright Young Things, focusing on executive hires in the consumer and technology sectors.

General Atlantic

General Atlantic pioneered the concept of growth equity. Over our 40+ year history, we have maintained a focus on investing in and building leading growth companies. The entrepreneurs we partner with share our passion for innovation and technology. We seek to identify emerging companies with strong fundamental performance and organic growth that can accelerate their expansion and scale globally. We partner to grow their businesses with our capital, insights, global resources, and network. The growth and value we create translate into consistent and attractive performance for companies as well as family and institutional investors around the world.

Jamal Ismayilov

Managing Director, Investment Team, AnaCap

Jamal is a Managing Director, having joined AnaCap in 2019, he is responsible for value creation within AnaCap portfolio. He has over 20 years of experience in financial services, specialising in strategic and operational transformations. Previously Jamal was a Partner in the Financial Services practice at Oliver Wyman and a Head of Financial Strategy at Nomura International. He holds a Master’s degree in Financial Economics from the University of Oxford and Bachelor’s degree in Finance from Texas Tech University.

AnaCap

AnaCap is a market-leading partner for founders and entrepreneurial management teams, investing in lower mid-market Services, Software and Technology within the European financial ecosystem. Since 2016, the firm has raised €1.7 billion+ of capital and deployed successfully into a strong strategy with 60+ deals across Western and Northern Europe.

AnaCap’s focus is on lower mid-market buyouts, management buy-in or buy-outs of businesses in need of capital, expertise and sophistication to execute organic and inorganic strategies.

Mirco Iwan

Managing Director Portfolio Operations, Talem Group

As a Managing Director / Operating Partner / C-suite professional of portfolio operations, Mirco actively manages the direct investments of PE & family office. With over 15 years in executive management positions, he has gained comprehensive M&A transaction know-how as well as hands-on operating C-level experience. Defined expertise in operational turnaround and value creation, Mirco managed special situations such as carve-outs, buy-and-build strategies, internationalization, exit strategies, and post-merger integrations. He has successfully led and executed several CEO positions in industries like chemicals, transportation, retail, and FMCG and created significant equity value for the shareholders. Mirco is a Certified Turnaround Professional (CTP) and a visiting lecturer in Corporate Strategy & Change Management at ESADE Business School.

Nicole Jones

Talent Director, Advent International

Nicole Jones joined Advent in 2020 as Talent Director within the Portfolio Support Group. She supports the creation and development of strong management teams and Boards across Advent's portfolio companies. Prior to joining Advent she was the HR Director, Investments, C&D and International at M&G plc and held Chief of staff roles at M&G and Prudential. She also ran Prudential’s Indian operations as well as the Communications function for M&G. Previously she spent five years at Egon Zehnder, leading mandates in search and assessment. Earlier in her career she was the Head of Investor Relations at a PE-backed outsourcing business after corporate finance and business development roles in the company through to IPO. She started her career in investment banking at Deutsche Bank in London.

Advent International

Founded in 1984, Advent International is one of the largest and most experienced global private equity firms. With 14 offices on four continents, Advent has established a globally integrated team of more than 240 investment professionals, focused on buyouts and growth equity investments in five core sectors. Since initiating its private equity strategy in 1989, Advent has invested more than €46 billion in over 375 private equity investments across 41 countries, and as of March 31, 2021, managed €62 billion in assets. Today, as more than 30 years ago, Advent seeks to invest in well-positioned companies and partner with management teams to create value through sustained revenue and earnings growth.

Daniel Kasmir

Co-Head of Leadership & Culture, Triton

Daniel Kasmir recently joined Triton as co-head Leadership and Culture, previously Daniel has led the People function in a range of businesses including Shell, Manpower, BDO, TalkTalk and has worked in Private Equity for General Atlantic, JC Flowers and Bain Capital. For Triton his focus is in finding and hiring talent for Portfolio companies and helping create high performance cultures.

Triton

Triton is a mid cap Private Equity firm focusing in Industrials, Healthcare and Business Services. It’s portfolio spans Europe with focus in the DACH and Nordic regions, recent investments have enabled it to expand in UK, North America and beyond. The firms is built upon the notion of BBB – Building Better Businesses and creating fantastic leadership teams is central to this philosophy.

Erem Kassim-Lakha

Senior Managing Director, Ontario Teachers Pension Plan

Erem is Senior Managing Director at Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP), one of the world’s leading institutional investors with over $250B assets under management. Based in the UK, Erem leads the global value creation efforts for the $70B Equities Division. Erem’s mandate is to drive the shift to active investing. She works with deal experts and management teams to drive long term and sustainable value enhancement.

Erem joined OTPP in 2022 from McKinsey & Company where she was a Partner in the UK and European Transformation Practice focused on commercial growth, supporting clients across a range of sectors. She has held senior management roles at Christies in the art world, and at Spirit Group (owned by TPG/Blackstone). She was one of the first members of Montagu’s value creation team.

Erem is a Trustee of TeenTech, a UK charity focused on providing tech skills and confidence to youth. She is currently Chair of Aga Khan Foundation UK’s National Committee, a leading global development organisation working to tackle the root causes of poverty.

Erem holds an MBA from Harvard Business School (1996) and a Bachelor’s in Political Science (1992), with magna cum laude distinction from Brown University, Rhode Island.

James Kenyon

Partner, Acertitude

James is a partner with more than a decade of global consulting and leadership advisory experience, specializing in the private equity market. Splitting his time between Acertitude’s London and New York offices, James leads assignments for Financial Officers and broader Global Functional leaders to ensure private equity portfolio businesses have access to the best global leadership.

Over the course of his career, James has worked with funds of all sizes and across every stage of the investment cycle, including both pre-deal advisory work and post-deal recruitment of executive teams to lead any eventual capital event. While he is focused on the U.K. and wider European markets, James also has a successful track record of advising clients across North America, Asia, and Africa. James was promoted to partner after first joining as principal in 2020.

Most recently, James spent four years as a consultant at Russell Reynolds in London, where he worked in the Corporate Officers, Financial Officers, and Private Equity practices. Prior to this, he worked for a London-based global boutique search firm, where he also helped build out the Private Equity practice. James earned a bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences from the University of Durham.

Tobias Klaiber

Managing Director/Operating Partner, Aurelius Group

Tobias is an Managing Director / Operating Partner at Aurelius Group. He has orchestrated top line growth projects, rebranding & repositioning initiatives, digital transformation(s) and commercial turnarounds of different of a variety of portfolio companies. He has a track record in CTO, CEO and CRO roles. Before his time in Aurelius, he was in the Tech Sector, leading the Sales & Marketing Practice of Siemens Management Consulting, the renowned inhouse consulting unit of German industry giant Siemens. Tobias has been awarded by PEI as Top 40 under 40 in 2022.

AURELIUS

AURELIUS is a globally active investor focused on Private Equity, Private Debt and Real Estate. In recent years, AURELIUS has been growing significantly and now has more than 370 professionals working out of 10 offices across Europe and North America. AURELIUS specialises in corporate carve-outs, platform build-ups and succession solutions as well as bespoke financing solutions.
AURELIUS has offices across Europe, and North America, including London, Luxembourg, Munich, New York, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Milan.

Jamaria Kong

Managing Director, Towerbrook Capital Partners

Jamaria is a Managing Director at TowerBrook. Previously, Jamaria was an independent advisor to private equity firms and large corporates. She was formerly the Managing Partner at Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s advisory and consulting services. Prior to that, Jamaria was an Associate Director at EY’s transaction advisory services and an Executive Advisor at KPMG’s deal advisory team.

Jamaria holds a BSc in Business Information Technology and M.Com. in International Business from the University of New South Wales and is a Chartered Certified Accountant.

Naresh Kumar

Independent Operating Partner, Operating Bridge Partners

Naresh is an independent operating partner working either directly with private equity funds or as interim c-suite manager with a specific portfolio company. Previously, he worked with A&M, Accenture and Deloitte supporting global clients with integration/separation, due-diligence, operations, transformation, value creation planning and delivery across investment lifecycle.

Naresh has almost 20 years of blended leadership experiences as PE operating partner, corporate executive and advisor. His recent full-time or fractional roles have focussed on maximising enterprise value at exit through revenue growth, multiple expansion, margin improvement, M&A and strategic change.
Naresh holds an MBA from Purdue University (USA), as well as Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech.) from NIT (India).

Operating Bridge Partners

Naresh founded Operating Bridge Partners(OBP) as symbiotic network of ‘interim’ heavy-hitters operating as the bridge between mid-market investors and portfolio company management.
Naresh realised need of building and leveraging community of PE-Ops practitioners in 2016 while delivering his first interim mandate with Nomad(NYSE listed SPAC). Since then, OBP has grown through referrals as a curated network and helping many independent PE operating partners to be effective and efficient force-multipliers leveraging wider ecosystem.

Ethan Levner

Group CFO ＆ Board Member, GLAS

Ethan is Group CFO ＆ Board Member of GLAS, the PE-backed provider of institutional debt administration, trustee, restructuring and capital markets services. Ethan was appointed to drive growth, institutionalisation and value creation initiatives following the investment by Levine Leichtman Capital Partners.

Previously, Ethan held a number of executive roles in high-growth, PE-backed companies in the financial, technology and business services sectors. Ethan was part of the Bridgepoint PE-backed management team of the business now called Ocorian, the fund administration and corporate & trust services provider, exiting to Inflexion PE.

Prior to becoming an operator with a focus on value creation in PE-backed enterprises, Ethan was a PE investor and investment banker in London and New York.

Mike Magee

Partner, PwC

Mike is an experienced Deals Value Creation Partner and is also PwC's Financial Services Deals Leader. With over 15 years experience in partner level delivery, Mike has a depth of experience that spans many sectors where he and his team typically take a 'hands on' role, working alongside management teams. Mike has led and advised on many Value creation engagements notably working with Alison Rose at Natwest over an extended period from 2019 to 2021 where he helped implement an enterprise wide programme of transformation. Mike typically applies his restructuring honed commercial insight and change capability to work alongside management in delivering a step change in the performance of a business. Mike's other notable skills are in technology and innovation where he leads the PwC's Cloud Tech, Data and AI services. Mike developed PwC's 'Incubator delivery' technique while working at Legal & General, drawing on Agile delivery methodology. Improvement ideas are taken from basic outline through to implemented solution over a 6 week sprint; proven plans are then ready for large scale implementation across the entire organisation.

PwC

PwC is a leading advisor to private equity investors and the companies they invest in. We help to drive performance optimisation and growth enhancement of portfolio companies across the deal lifecycle. In addition, we advise on fund level strategies, sustainability, portfolio operations, and digital enablement.

Our scale, scope, and presence across geographies offer unparalleled capabilities, insights, and expertise. Our tailored and differentiated approaches to regions and industries help private equity firms make better investment decisions and realise value across their portfolios.

Mark Maitland

Senior Partner and Global Head of Transaction Services & Private Equity, Simon Kucher

Mark Maitland is a Senior Partner with Simon-Kucher in London, and is the global head of Transaction Services ＆ Private Equity. Mark joined Simon-Kucher in 2022 from PwC Strategy＆, where Mark had been Head of TMT for Strategy and Transaction Services in the UK.

Mark has led over 300 commercial due diligence engagements across the UK, Europe and USA. Over 250 of those CDDs were in the TMT sector, and Mark’s deepest experience is within business information, software and digital media. Increasingly Mark carries out due diligence with a direct value creation focus, focusing on potential opportunities such as pricing or sales effectiveness.

Mark has advised leading private equity houses and corporates, on both buy-side and sell-side engagements – on deal sizes ranging from £10m to £10bn+.

Simon-Kucher

Simon-Kucher is the leading global consulting firm specializing in unlocking better growth.

Specialists in Commercial Strategy & Pricing Consulting, Transaction Services & Private Equity, Digital and Software. Our partners and experienced leadership team are hands on, delivering results at pace.

Our clients come from 120+ industries and range from Fortune and FTSE 100 firms to unicorns across our five core sectors: Consumer, Financial Services, Healthcare & Life Sciences, Industrials and Technology, Media & Telcom.

With decades of experience, our specialists optimize every lever of your commercial strategy. Based on deep insights into what customers want and value, we deliver increased sales and long-term sustainable profit.

Nicola Mann

Chief of Staff, Verdane

Nicola Mann is Chief of Staff for Elevate at Verdane, the European specialist growth investor. Elevate is Verdane’s team of in-house operational experts who advise portfolio companies in every function needed for scaling, including go-to-market, finance, talent and technology.At Verdane, Nicola leads project management, impact optimisation, as well as organisational and leadership development. Nicola has worked with investor-backed technology organisations for over 15 years, bringing experience from executive search firms, software scale-ups and global private equity firms. She holds a BA in Foreign Languages from Bangor University.

James Markham

Senior Partner – Value Creation, Graphite Capital

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.

Graphite Capital

Graphite is a leading independent private equity investor focused on the UK mid-market. Graphite focuses on management buy-outs and also invests in development capital opportunities. It backs companies with enterprise values of £30 million to £175 million.

Graphite is currently investing its ninth fund, Graphite Capital Partners IX, with commitments of £500 million. Investments include: Hanson Wade, a global leader in data and information services to R&D life sciences; Wonderbly, the leading publishing platform for premium personalised books; Digital Space, a connected cloud IT managed services provider focused on large private and public sector organisations in the UK; Babble, the unified communications, cloud contact centre and cyber services provider; and Ten10, a leading UK software quality assurance and testing provider. The fund has also invested in Storal Group, an operator of nurseries and pre-schools across the UK, serving over 2,000 children across 26 nurseries; Horizon Care and Education, a provider of high-quality care and education for young people with social, mental and emotional needs; and Opus Talent Solutions, a global talent solutions business specialising in the technology and renewable energy markets.

The most recent realised investments include U-POL, the manufacturer and distributor of automotive repair and refinishing products, Random42, a fast growing producer of digital medical animation and YSC, the leading independent provider of leadership consulting and management assessment services.

Craig McGlashan

Editor, PE Hub Europe

Craig McGlashan is the Editor of PE Hub Europe. Based in London, he oversees the output of PE Hub Europe and covers private equity deals and trends and writes profile pieces on dealmakers. He joined PEI Group in 2022 to launch PE Hub Europe. Before that, he held several positions at GlobalCapital, including as SSA Editor, writing about the public sector debt markets.

Anastasya Molodykh

Senior Principal, Cinven

Anastasya is a member of the Healthcare sector team. She has been involved in a number of transactions, including LGC, Medpace and Synlab.

Previously, Anastasya was an Investment Banking Associate in the UK coverage team at Deutsche Bank, working across a range of sectors. Anastasya has a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University. She joined Cinven in 2015.

Alessandro Moretti

Head of Operational Value Creation, Public Investment Fund

Mr. Alessandro Moretti is currently leading the Operational Value Creation Team at the Public Investment Fund since December 2019, Executive Committee member in Noon since 2021 and Board Member in HPDC investment fund since 2022. Prior to his work at the Public Investment Fund, he held a number of leadership positions in various public and private sectors, including private equity operating partner in performance improvement team, and a Chief Transformation Officer in a global firm, with HQ in Switzerland. He also worked in one of the largest consulting firms - the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) - for more than 10 years in Europe. Alessandro holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Harvard Business School, a Master of Science from the Polytechnic University of Milan, and an Executive Certificate from MIT Sloan School of Management and Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Tom Mountford

Portfolio Director, Value Creation, Bridges Fund Management

Tom joined Bridges Fund Management in 2018. He is a Portfolio Director in the Value Creation team, responsible for Bridges’ value creation strategy and operating model. Prior to his current role he spent time as a Chief of Staff in several of Bridges’ investments. He is currently on the board of three portfolio companies and supports several others, working across the whole deal lifecycle, helping diligence investments, define their growth strategies, execute their value creation priorities and deliver transformational change. Tom is also a Trustee of Bridges Impact Foundation.

Previously, he has spent time at HSBC in their global operations team, at PwC as a consultant focused on strategy, operations and regulatory risk, and also in independent practice as a barrister at the Bar of England and Wales.

Tom has a 1st class LLB English and French Law from the University of Kent and Université Pierre Mendes France, and was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 2012. Tom is a board member of Protect Out Winters UK, a climate advocacy charity. He is also an adviser to early-stage businesses via Allia, a charity helping small businesses and charities to develop, grow and achieve their impact aims.

Esther Nayyar

Managing Director, Due Diligence and Value Creation, ICG

Esther joined ICG in 2018 and is a Managing Director covering portfolio value creation and strategic diligence in the Subordinated Debt and Equity team.

Prior to joining ICG, she spent over ten years at The Boston Consulting Group, where she advised clients in the Retail, Consumer Goods, TMT, Transportation and Financial Services sectors, with a focus on large scale transformations. She also spent two years at Bain Capital in their European deal team.

Esther holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, as well as an MA in History from Freiburg University.

Katharina Neureiter

Head of ESG & Impact, EMEA & APAC - Global Sustainability, The Carlyle Group

Katharina is Head of ESG & Impact, EMEA & APAC - Global Sustainability. She develops and oversees Carlyle’s global sustainability strategy with a focus on portfolio value creation in Europe and Asia, ESG integration in credit and strategic growth initiatives for the firm.

Prior to joining Carlyle, Katharina was at British International Investment, where she developed and integrated enhanced impact and ESG practices within equity, debt and fund of funds investment teams.

Prior to that, Katharina worked in public policy reform and supported companies and investors in community engagement and impact-led value creation. She holds an Executive MBA from London Business School and an MSc from London School of Economics as well as a BA in Cultural History.

Anush Newman

CEO ＆ Co-Founder, JMAN Group

Anush is CEO and co-founder of JMAN Group, leading the business across the UK, North America and Europe.

Having driven their entry into Private Equity, Anush holds many of JMAN's relationships with funds and operating partners, leveraging commercial data analytics and engineering to enable value creation across portfolios. In 2022, he successfully led the business through a minority investment from Baird Capital.

Following a Masters in Chemistry at the University of Cambridge, Anush began his career in the strategy team at BT OneIT before moving to Arthur D. Little. He worked across Europe and Asia on strategy, due diligence and process/organizational redesign projects before founding JMAN in 2010.

JMAN

Founded in 2010, JMAN is a global consultancy with offices in New York, London and Chennai. Our team of experts partner with more than 80 private equity funds and over 150 portfolio companies. Almost 85% of our business is from recurring client partnerships. JMAN has been a portfolio company of Baird Capital since 2023.

Dominic Orchard

Managing Director, Alvarez & Marsal

Dominic Orchard leads A&M’s Carve-out and Merger Integration service line in Europe, focused on Private Equity. He brings more than 20 years’ experience working in both private equity, as an Operations Director, and in professional services where he specialises in carve-out, merger integration and synergy services, as well as performance improvement. Supporting clients pre and post-deal, his experience spans many sectors, but most recently in consumer, business services and general industrials.

Recent projects include leading the operations due diligence and carve-out of the Sweet Ingredients portfolio out of Kerry Group Plc., and subsequent integration with Irca S.p.A. an Advent portfolio company. Mr. Orchard also led the diligence and stand-up of the Scholl footcare brand out of Reckitt Benckiser, operating in 80+ markets. He also led the carve-out due diligence of the High Temperature Solutions business, Calderys, in Platinum Equity’s acquisition from Imerys SA, before supporting separation and Day-1 readiness across 36 sites in 16 countries.

Kristen Paladino

Principal, Blackstone Credit & Insurance

Kristen Paladino is a Principal with Blackstone Credit & Insurance and sits within the Office of the CIO, leading the Value Creation Team. Ms. Paladino received her Masters of Business Administration from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania after serving in the United States Navy as a Surface Warfare Officer for over seven years. Prior to that, Ms. Paladino worked at Deloitte as a Regulatory and Capital Markets consultant and received her Bachelors of Science in Finance and Accounting from Villanova University. Ms. Paladino currently serves on the board of directors of ClearGen.

Grayden Reece-Smith

Principal, Aurelius

Grayden is an Investment Principal at Aurelius, the globally active investor focused on private equity, private debt and real estate.

Grayden started his career in strategy consulting at L.E.K. Consulting before moving to private equity with Astorg and public equity investing with AllianceBernstein.

He holds an MA from the University of Cambridge and an MBA from INSEAD.

He also serves as a trustee and advisor to several non-profits.

Peter Roos

Chief Operating Officer, Target Global

Peter is Target's Chief Operating Officer where he is responsible for all things related to Operations, Finance, Compliance, Human Resources, Technology and broader organizational matters. He is also the Head of Target's Middle East Operations run out of the United Arab Emirates.

Peter joined Target from Johnson & Johnson where he was responsible for establishing a joint venture in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and managing the company's distribution network across the Middle East. Prior to that, Peter successfully restructured and sold a manufacturing company for a major Austrian industrial group and advised European SMEs on procurement in China and Hong Kong. He began his career as Chief of Staff to the CEO of a stock-listed smart-mobility solutions company in Germany.

Peter holds a master’s degree in Finance from the University of St. Gallen (HSG) as well as an MBA from London Business School.

Target Global

Since its founding in 2015, Target Global has established itself as a leading a pan-European technology investment firm with more than €3 billion in assets under management, investing in companies across all stages of their lifecycle, from pre-seed to pre-IPO. Today, Target Global boasts a portfolio exceeding 140 investments, including some of Europe's most celebrated tech companies like Revolut, Auto1, Copper, Delivery Hero, Docplanner, Rapyd, TravelPerk, Flo Health, and many more.

Target Global’s highly skilled team of investors, with extensive experience in both operations and investments, helps hundreds of exceptional entrepreneurs build ground-breaking companies. The firm is led by the dynamic duo of Shmuel Chafets and Yaron Valler, who have collaborated for over 15 years.

With offices strategically located across London, Berlin, Tel Aviv, and Abu Dhabi, Target Global fosters connections within key European tech ecosystems, leveraging the unique strengths of each region to empower its global network.

Ilinca Rosetti

Operating Partner, JC Flowers

Dr. Ilinca Rosetti is an Operating Partner at J.C.Flowers. She splits her time between assessing new deals and supporting portfolio companies in driving and implementing their value creation agenda.

Prior to joining the firm, Dr. Rosetti served as CEO of Mirabank, where she set up the business as a green field project. Previously, she served as CEO for various banks within the ProCredit group in Europe, leading them through critical turnarounds, mergers and operational changes. She has extensive executive management expertise in banking in Central and Eastern Europe, with a specific focus on improving, building, and revamping institutions to deliver results, often by designing solutions that include organization and business model transformation. Dr. Rosetti serves on the Board of Directors for Hamburg Commercial Bank AG and HRK Lunis and as Chairman for First Bank (Romania). Dr. Rosetti holds a B.A. degree in Mathematics and a M.A. degree in Economics from the University J.W. Goethe in Frankfurt am Main, and a PhD from the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest.

J.C. Flowers

J.C. Flowers is a leading private investment firm dedicated to investing globally in the financial services industry. Founded in 1998, the firm has approximately $4 billion of assets under management. J.C. Flowers has offices in New York, London and Palm Beach with a 21-person investment staff who have a combined 300+ years of experience. Over its 25-year history, J.C. Flowers has invested more than $18 billion of capital in 66 portfolio companies in 18 countries across a range of industry subsectors including banking, insurance and reinsurance, securities firms, specialty finance, and services and asset management. For more information, please visit www.jcfco.com.

Alan Roux

Operating Partner, Independent

Alan joined CVC‘s Operations team in 2016, and has worked on deals including Lipton Teas, TMF, QA, Ontic and SonaeMC. Prior to CVC, Alan spent nearly as decade as the Operating Partner responsible for Blackstone’s European Private Equity portfolio of companies. His earlier career was with Tesco, Boston Consulting and Procter ＆Gamble. Alan holds an Engineering degree from the University of Cape Town and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

James Ryan

Partner - Head of AI, ML & Data Practice, EMEA, Riviera Partners

James is a Partner at Riviera and a member of the European leadership team. Riviera Partners are a specialist, multi-asset class Exec. Search firm with a global footprint. They focus exclusively on the technical functions (i.e. Technology, Engineering, Product, and Data/AI/ML) and this specialism perfectly positions them to help guide you through your company’s requirements and progression in these functions.

James has a particular focus on B2B software and data-driven propositions, extending to emerging technologies and the application of AI/ML/Data Science in a growing span of industries. He also more generally leads Riviera’s functional Data/AI/ML efforts in EMEA. He has a strong track record in Private Equity, supporting partners in the evolution of their Technology, Engineering, Data/AI/ML, and Product leadership, from VP to NED. This activity crosses a range of fund and business types from small-mid cap, through growth, and into large cap, placing situational relevance and understanding at the centre of the solution.

Riviera Partners

Riviera Partners is a global driver of innovation for today’s most influential companies – partnering with leading private equity firms to expertly place executive talent in the crucial areas of IT, software engineering, product management, security, AI, and design. Riviera combines over two decades of recruiting expertise and unmatched access to talent, with a proprietary platform that uses machine learning to score and predict the best candidate for a company’s specific needs, to drive successful outcomes. As a result, the company has become the go-to talent partner for leading private equity investors, venture capitalists, public companies, and technology innovators. Learn more about Riviera Partners at www.rivierapartners.com

Tim Sanders

Vice President, Research Insights, G2

Tim Sanders is the VP of Research Insights at G2, the leading marketplace for software. He’s also an executive fellow at the Digital Data Design Institute at Harvard, where he’s laser focused on how AI impacts businesses, and how things will shape up over the next few years.

He’s a NY Times bestselling author of five books, including Love is the Killer App. He was an early stage member of Mark Cuban’s broadcast.com and after its acquisition by Yahoo rose to serve as their CSO.

Louis Saund

Vice President, Business Operations, Brookfield

Louis Saund joined Brookfield Asset Management in 2022 as an Operating Partner in the Private Equity group. Prior to Brookfield, he was an Operating Partner at Cerberus Capital Management, performing pre-deal activities and partnering with portfolio companies on strategy and value creation. Before Cerberus, Louis held a variety of roles across Industries, including, Moody’s, an integrated information services firm, and Thales, a global technology leader.

Brookfield Asset Management is a global alternative asset manager with $850 billion of assets under management across renewable, infrastructure, real estate, private equity, credit, and other strategies. Private Equity focuses on acquiring high-quality businesses providing essential products and services. Our global integrated team of investment and operations professionals are dedicated to creating value and enhancing cash flows by driving operational improvements.

Louis holds an MSc in Finance from the London School of Economics, a BEng in Engineering, and served in the British Army.

Leo Scanavino

Director – Value Creation, British International Investment

Leo Scanavino is a Director in the Value Creation team at British International Investment based in London. In this role, Leo unlocks value from BII direct equity portfolio through six pillars of value creation: i. board development, ii. strategy, iii. operational improvements, iv. management and organizational structuring, v. digital transformation and vi. exit planning and preparation.

Before BII Leo was the Finance Director and Executive Director at RJD Partners, a UK mid-cap Private Equity Fund backed by the European Investment Fund, as well as working as an Advisor and Board Member of Africa Platform Capital, a start-up investment platform with focus on Sub-Saharan Africa. He previously worked for Actis Capital as a Fund Management Director, and Citi Venture Capital International (CVCI) as Finance and Portfolio Management Director. In his early career he worked for PwC and KPMG in Financial Advisory Services.

BII

BII is the UK’s development finance institution and impact investor with a mission to help solve the biggest global development challenges by investing patient, flexible capital to support private sector growth and innovation.

We invest to create more productive, sustainable and inclusive economies in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, enabling people in those countries to build better lives for themselves and their communities.

Chris Severson

Operating Managing Director, Terra Firma

Chris joined Terra Firma in 2023. He has over 20 years’ experience in senior management roles across a number of industries, including P&L management in financial services and construction, and leading business transformation for companies in FMCG, construction, financial services and telecommunications.

Chris holds MBAs from Columbia Business School and London Business School. He began his career as a US Marine and TOPGUN trained F/A-18 pilot.

Venkie Shantaram

Managing Director & Operating Partner, Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners

Venkie Shantaram is a Managing Director and Operating Partner with more than 28 years of relevant experience in strategic and operational consulting, as well as in leading large, complex businesses. Prior to joining MSIP, he held Regional CEO roles at Compass Group, a global food services organization, where he transformed the Europe and Middle East region of €5 billion, across 25 markets and 130,000 staff and rejuvenated a £1.5 billion Emerging Markets business, across 14 markets and 90,000 staff. From 2013 to 2017, Venkie led the Asian business at Aggreko, a distributed power rental business, and drove new ventures through his prior role as Group Business Development Director. From 2000 to 2013, Venkie was a Partner at McKinsey & Company, advising energy companies globally across the value chain on a range of issues. He also advised companies on India market entry at KPMG between 1993 and 1998. Venkie holds an MBA from INSEAD and a Bachelors in Business from Delhi University.

Peter Sheppard

Senior Partner and Lead, Private Equity Practice, Genpact

Peter leads Genpact’s Private Equity Practice. He has worked in depth in Automotive, Life Sciences and Healthcare industries leading the design and delivery of operating model transformation programs, and the delivery of operational services. Unlocking value through digitally-enabled operational efficiency and effectiveness is a thread running through Peter’s career, from the manufacturing shopfloor to the back-office. He has led the growth of IT Services, BPO and Consulting Services businesses with Genpact, Cognizant and Accenture.

5 years ago, an Operating Partner persuaded Peter to focus on Private Equity, and he has been unable to resist its draw since. Delivering for PE sponsors feeds Peter’s passion for problem solving and for realising hard business outcomes.

Genpact

Genpact (NYSE: G) is a global professional services firm that makes business transformation real. Led by our purpose -- the relentless pursuit of a world that works better for people -- we drive digital-led innovation and digitally enabled intelligent operations for our clients, guided by our experience reinventing and running thousands of processes for hundreds of clients.

We partner with private equity firms across their investment life cycle to accelerate value creation. Portfolio companies partner with us for our unique ability to combine deep industry and functional expertise, leading talent, and proven methodologies to drive collaborative innovation that turns insights into action, improves profitability, increases enterprise value, and delivers outcomes at scale. From New York to New Delhi, and more than 30 countries in between, we connect every dot, reimagine every process, and reinvent the ways companies work – because transformation happens here. Get to know us at Genpact.com/industries/private-equity.

Mittu Sridhara

Operating Principal, Digitalisation, Europe, CD＆R

Mr. Sridhara joined CD＆R in 2023 after 30 years as a technology executive. Mr. Sridhara was most recently the Chief Operations Officer of Eurowag, a leading pan-European integrated payments and mobility platform focused on the commercial road transportation (CRT) industry. Prior to Eurowag, he was the Chief Technology Officer of Careem, a super-app for the greater Middle East region which became a wholly owned subsidiary of Uber in 2020. He also previously held Chief Information Officer, Chief Technology Officer and Chief Product Officer roles at Hepsiburada, TUI Group, Landbrokes PLC and Sabre Corporation. Mr. Sridhara has a M.S. in industrial engineering from North Carolina State University and a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology.

Daniel Swann

VP, BD Europe & Head of Healthcare, Symphony

Daniel Swann is a technology executive with over 12 years of experience advising healthcare entities, currently serving as the VP of Business Development for Europe and Head of Healthcare at Symphony. Symphony is a global software development company and GV (Google Ventures) Partner building custom digital products for Fortune 500 companies. Formerly an Associate Partner at McKinsey, Daniel has served leading Life Sciences and Healthcare players on corporate strategy, go-to-market, operational improvements, and large-scale
transformations. Daniel is an alumnus of the University of Oxford (Brasenose College) and UCL (University College London). He is currently residing in Geneva, Switzerland.

Symphony

Symphony is a leading software design and development company with 650+ technologists. Symphony’s clients range from Fortune 500 companies and leading Private Equity companies to the fastest-growing startups. Their enterprise clients rank them among the top 3 tech vendors in their network, while their startup clients have raised $12.5B+ in funding so far. Partnering with Private Equity funds, Symphony works with portfolio companies and helps to accelerate their business objectives through software, including building new revenue streams, digitizing processes, providing informed insights through data, and modernizing legacy tech. Symphony has seven technology hubs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, North Macedonia, and the Dominican Republic, alongside a Remote hub with consultants from different worldwide countries.

Brendan Tobin

Operating Advisor, Independent

Brendan Tobin is an operating advisor to private equity funds and their portfolio companies; driving value creation through transformation, operations and procurement initiatives.

Previously, Brendan was Global COO, Macquarie Insurance Facility (MIF), a business within Macquarie Asset Management. The Macquarie Insurance Facility is an aggregated insurance buying program for Macquarie owned and managed assets as well as third party private equity and infrastructure investor portfolio companies.

Prior to joining Macquarie in 2015, Brendan was a member of the Operational Excellence Practice of Apax Partners. While at Apax his focus was on driving value creation through operational improvements within the Apax funds’ global portfolio of companies. Brendan also worked as an independent procurement consultant for Fortune 500 consumer products and business services clients. Before consulting, he worked with a turnaround management team holding senior management positions in procurement at Cenveo, Inc. and Moore Wallace Inc..

Brendan began his career with Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) after receiving a BBA from the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame.

Sven Törnkvist

Global Head of EQT Digital, EQT

Sven Törnkvist joined EQT in February 2016 to build a global team of senior professionals focusing on digital transformation of EQT portfolio companies as well as supporting EQT investment professionals on new deals.

Prior to joining EQT, Sven held a position as Head of Digital at Ericsson. Previously, Sven held management positions, including country manager Sweden, at Google and was CEO of Cosmos Communications, part of employer branding- and media house Universum. Sven has 20 years of experience working with digitalization, technology, sales and marketing across several industries.

Sven holds a Master of Science in Business and Economics from Stockholm School of Economics as well as SSE scholarship from Stanford University, USA.

Christian Truempler

Member of Management, Partners Group

Christian Trümpler is part of the Operating Directors and Entrepreneurial Governance business unit, based in Zug. He has been with Partners Group since 2012 and has 17 years of industry experience. Prior to joining Partners Group, he worked at Sonova Holding AG and Cablecom. He holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from the Zurich University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Switzerland.

Partners Group

Partners Group is a leading global private markets firm. Since 1996, we have invested over USD 210 billion in private equity, private debt, private real estate, and private infrastructure on behalf of our clients globally. We seek to generate strong returns through capitalizing on thematic growth trends and transforming attractive businesses and assets into market leaders. We are a committed, responsible investor and aim to create lasting positive impact in all our activities as a firm. Our commitment to sustainability guides our investment and corporate activities and our daily interactions with all of our stakeholders. The firm, with over 1,900 professionals has 20 offices worldwide.

Michael J. Tyroller

Partner, AlixPartners

10+ years partnering with Private Equity with focus on growing, protecting and restoring value. Serving in interim leadership roles to support and advise portfolio companies with transformational change.
In the capacity as Interim-CFO, supported various industry sectors e.g., automotive and retail with their complex situations. Latest several times served as Interim-CFO in the healthcare industry (MedTech, Life Science and Pharma).

AlixPartners

AlixPartners is a results-driven global consulting firm that specializes in helping businesses successfully address their most complex and critical challenges. Our clients include companies, corporate boards, law firms, investment banks, private equity firms, and others. Founded in 1981, AlixPartners is headquartered in New York and has offices in more than 25 cities around the world. For more information, visit www.alixpartners.com.

Ercan Ucak

Vice President, Cerberus Capital Management

Ercan Ucak is a Vice President at Cerberus Technology Solutions (“CTS”), the Tech Operating group within Cerberus Capital Management. Mr. Ucak began his career as a Data Scientist serving various US Government agencies within the Defense / Counter-Intelligence community, where he leveraged his background in Statistics to develop ML / AI models to solve complex problems for the three letter agencies. He eventually joined CTS in Nov. 2019, utilizing his deep technical expertise to drive Data & Analytics transformation and Enterprise Value Creation across numerous Cerberus investments.

Founded in 1992, Cerberus is a pioneer in alternative investing with approximately $60 billion in assets across complementary credit, private equity, and real estate platforms.

Tom van Dael

CFO, Hallo

Tom recently started as CFO of Hallo. Tom has a career in the Dutch IT-sector as CFO Fox-IT (Cybersecurity | part of NCC Group), CFO Visma|Raet (SaaS | part of Visma). Commercial business optimization, integration and change are recurring themes including complete O2C IT overhaul at Visma|Raet including implementation of Zuora.

Hallo

Hallo is a Managed IT Services Provider headquartered in the Netherlands providing comprehensive IT solutions for small and medium-sized (SME) clients. Through its scalable and automated single-brand delivery platform, hallo, is uniquely positioned to capture the European SME market. Hallo is a portfolio company of Klar Partners an independent, mid-market private equity firm focused on the business services and industrial technology sectors, investing primarily in the Nordic, Benelux and DACH regions.

Henri van Lennep

Operating Partner, Bregal - Growth Factors

Henri is part of the value creation team at Bregal – Growth Factors where he is responsible for driving value creation efforts within the European portfolio companies and works closely with the different Bregal deal teams (excl. Bregal Milestone) to establish value creation plans and executing against them.

Prior to Bregal he was a management consultant with Delta Partners and the Boston Consulting Group where he drove transformations and growth strategy revamps within the telecoms, tech, media, and entertainment industries. During his consulting years, he focused on greenfield launches, strategy revamps and transformation of all kinds while living out of Africa, the Middle East and South Asia and the US. Henri also spent a few years at Virgin Media O2 in London helping run the value creation efforts, first through transformation of the Digital organisation and later across the full business.

Bregal Investments

Bregal Investments is an international private equity firm (>£18bn AUM, 80+ portfolio companies) providing a platform for five direct investment teams and a fund-of-funds team across the US and Europe. Bregal Investments supports Bregal Sagemount (SaaS, US), Bregal Unternehmerkapital (Tech, DACH), Bregal Milestone (Tech, UK), Bregal Partners (food, US), Bregal Sphere (sustainability), and Bregal Private Equity Partners (fund of funds, secondaries, co-investments, global). Bregal Investments has 9 offices across Europe and North America and counts approximately 250 team members.

Bregal Investments falls under Cofra Holding, which is a privately held company established to coordinate the global businesses of the Brenninkmeijer family. It is active in the fields of retail, real estate, asset management, private equity (Bregal Investments), sustainable food and renewable energy. The group employs more than 60,000 people in Europe, the Americas and Asia.

Amit Vij

Private Equity Practice Head, Tech Mahindra

Amit Vij leads the Private Equity practice at Tech Mahindra. He has a robust track record built over 20 years working alongside PE and portfolio companies in creating value through M&A, cost efficiencies, digital transformation, aligning outcomes and facilitating top line growth.

Amit began his career as a Fighter Pilot and had the unique distinction of being amongst the youngest fighter pilots to have flown Mig-21, 23, 27 & 29, before hanging up his uniform as a Squadron Leader. Amit is an alumnus of INSEAD & National Defence Academy.

Tech Mahindra

Tech Mahindra is a part of the Mahindra Group, founded in 1945. It offers technology consulting and digital solutions to global enterprises across industries, enabling transformative scale at unparalleled speed.
With 145,000+ professionals across 90+ countries helping 1100+ clients, TechM provides a full spectrum of services including consulting & information technology. We have a strong private equity presence, with over 50 portfolio companies’ engagements spanning the entire deal lifecycle. This support is in our core sectors of TMT, Manufacturing / Industrials, BFSI, Healthcare, CPG across area of technology (engineering, software development, ERP implementation, tech debt reduction, cloud, infra), BPO, Digital/AI solidifying our position as leaders in transformative technology solutions.

Max von Trotha

Managing Director Portfolio Operations, Helios Investment Partners

Max von Trotha is MD Portfolio Operations at Helios Investment Partners. He works with portfolio company management to drive value creation in operational and commercial excellence, business transformation and integration. From 2019 to 2021, he held the position of interim COO at one of Helios' portfolio companies. Prior to joining Helios, Max was Director Commercial Marketing at EE, the UK's leading mobile operator. In this role he drove revenue growth through cross-selling and the development of new segments. Prior to this, Max led the transformation of EE's customer experience, making EE the market leader in customer service. From 2009 to 2011, Max led the post-merger integration of Orange and T-Mobile in the UK, creating EE and delivering annual synergies of £450 million. Prior to that, Max was VP Group Strategy at T-Mobile International. He started his career in management consulting with Arthur D. Little. Max holds a degree in Business Administration from ESCP-EAP and speaks English, German and French.

Helios Investment Partners

Helios Investment Partners is the largest independent pan-African private equity firm. It was founded in 2004 with a vision to build the leading Africa-focused investment firm, generating globally competitive returns by combining world-class investment capabilities, an entrepreneurial approach to business building and unparalleled local and global connectivity. The firm has developed a track record of successful carve-outs and growth investments, working closely with portfolio company management to drive value creation. Key sectors in which Helios operates include digital infrastructure, media, financial services, energy, retail, fast-moving consumer goods, logistics and agribusinesses operating in Africa and across other emerging markets. In total, Helios manages over $3 billion in assets across its funds and related co-investment pools. Helios has six investment strategies, each with a unique value proposition and a dedicated investment team: Helios Private Equity, Helios Digital Ventures, Helios Climate, Helios Energy Transition and Infrastructure, Helios Sport & Entertainment and Helios Seven Rivers Fund.

Jerone Walters

Senior Partner, Alysian

Jerone Walters brings over two decades of executive Technology experience to his clients at Alysian, which he co-founded in 2021 and focuses on advising and delivering PE backed Carve Outs and large scale Technology Transformations. Alysian is a boutique advisor dedicated to technology enabled value creation for private equity firms and their portfolio companies.

Over 10 years of Jerone’s career was spent as a Global CIO including for FTSE 100 companies and PE backed portfolio companies. Therefore, Jerone’s combines a practical deep industry knowledge and experience with the past 5 years consulting on some of the largest PE backed carve outs from Uniliver, Philips, Coty and Informa. Therefore, Jerone is a real leader in delivering successful PE backed Carve Outs and IT Transformations, with the war wounds to show for it!

Henry Weaver

Operating Principal, Bregal – Growth Factors

Henry is part of the value creation team at Bregal Growth Factors where he is focused on value creation in Europe. Experienced in Operational cost-out levers (Procurement, Process optimisation), Business Transformation, Growth Strategy (Value pool potential, new business models), and Commercial levers (GTM, Customer experience/needs, Channel strategy, Pricing) with a focus on Sustainability, Advanced Industries, Luxury and Consumer sectors.

Prior to Bregal, Henry spent 12 years in management consulting including McKinsey & Company and Efficio Consulting focussed on growth for PE backed businesses. Henry has an MBA from London Business School and Columbia Business School and is a chartered Mechanical Engineer with the iMechE.

Bregal Investments

Bregal Investments is an international private equity firm (>£18bn AUM, 80+ portfolio companies) providing a platform for five direct investment teams and a fund-of-funds team across the US and Europe. Bregal Investments supports Bregal Sagemount (SaaS, US), Bregal Unternehmerkapital (Tech, DACH), Bregal Milestone (Tech, UK), Bregal Partners (food, US), Bregal Sphere (sustainability), and Bregal Private Equity Partners (fund of funds, secondaries, co-investments, global). Bregal Investments has 9 offices across Europe and North America and counts approximately 250 team members.

Bregal Investments falls under Cofra Holding, which is a privately held company established to coordinate the global businesses of the Brenninkmeijer family. It is active in the fields of retail, real estate, asset management, private equity (Bregal Investments), sustainable food and renewable energy. The group employs more than 60,000 people in Europe, the Americas and Asia.

Lisa Weaver-Lambert

Commercial ＆ Technology Strategy and Data/AI Leader

Lisa Weaver-Lambert brings extensive experience from working for Microsoft, Accenture and in private capital. In addition, she has held executive line management positions and served on boards. As a respected business leader and founder of Oxford AI Studio, Lisa partners with businesses to shape strategy and leverage AI technologies to generate value across diverse sectors. Her unique access to leading practitioners across global markets make The AI Value Playbook a must-read. Every forward-thinking business leader seeking to drive value through AI, can learn from practical scenarios and strategic plays.

Tom Welchman

Partner, McKinsey & Company

Tom is a partner in McKinsey’s People & Organisational Performance practice. He combines over a decade of advisory experience with global leadership of the practice’s digital platforms, analytics assets and diagnostic surveys.

Tom’s client work and product portfolio focuses on supporting clients to drive holistic, sustained transformations. He draws particularly on organisational health & change management, organisation design, executive team effectiveness, digital and analytics strategy and capability building.

Examples of his recent client work include:
• Diagnosing organisational health and embedding behavioural change in more than 100 transformations, helping to create new performance-sustaining habits
• Applying traditional organisational design, zero-based budgeting, and agile approaches to redesign operating models across sectors
• Deploying advanced analytics in strategic workforce planning to support the evolution of the workforce in industries experiencing technological disruption

Tom is a lead facilitator for McKinsey’s Change Leaders Forum and a guest speaker at INSEAD on organisations of the future.

Jean-François Willame

Operating Partner, PATRIZIA Infrastructure

Jean-François is an Operating Partner, leading asset management of PATRIZIA Infrastructure in the digital sector with a focus on operational excellence and value creation. Jean-François has worked in the IT, telecom and digital sector across Europe since 1995, mainly in C-level, corporate, operational and general management functions, including 5 years as CEO of Tango (first alternative telco in Luxembourg) and 7 years as Head of the Wholesale division of Proximus, the leading telco operator in Belgium. In addition, Jean-François spent a significant time in investment and asset management roles in Europe, including three years with Cube Infrastructure Managers in Luxembourg. Jean-François is fluent in French, English and Dutch and has a practical knowledge of Italian. He holds a law degree from the University of Louvain, a LLM from Duke University and an Executive Master in Management from the Solvay Business School.

Emma Winter

Director, Value Creation, Graphite Capital

I am a Value Creation Director at Graphite Capital, a leading UK mid-market private equity firm, focusing on technology across the portfolio – aligning digital transformation and tech change programs with strategic growth plans and setting them up to deliver sustainable results. I also support the appraisal of technology and operations in new investments under consideration. Prior to joining Graphite, I led a boutique digital transformation consulting practise, delivering technology strategy and implementation projects around the world and across industry sectors. Prior to that I have a broad range of experience in transformation, business development and operational roles in the mining, pharma, and engineering industries, as well as an MBA from Henley Business School and Physics degree from Oxford University.

Graphite Capital

Graphite is a leading independent private equity investor focused on the UK mid-market. Graphite focuses on management buy-outs and also invests in development capital opportunities. It backs companies with enterprise values of £30 million to £175 million.

Graphite is currently investing its ninth fund, Graphite Capital Partners IX, with commitments of £500 million. Investments include: Hanson Wade, a global leader in data and information services to R&D life sciences; Wonderbly, the leading publishing platform for premium personalised books; Digital Space, a connected cloud IT managed services provider focused on large private and public sector organisations in the UK; Babble, the unified communications, cloud contact centre and cyber services provider; and Ten10, a leading UK software quality assurance and testing provider. The fund has also invested in Storal Group, an operator of nurseries and pre-schools across the UK, serving over 2,000 children across 26 nurseries; Horizon Care and Education, a provider of high-quality care and education for young people with social, mental and emotional needs; and Opus Talent Solutions, a global talent solutions business specialising in the technology and renewable energy markets.

The most recent realised investments include U-POL, the manufacturer and distributor of automotive repair and refinishing products, Random42, a fast growing producer of digital medical animation and YSC, the leading independent provider of leadership consulting and management assessment services.

The largest European event for private equity value creation

James Markham

Senior Partner Value Creation, Graphite Capital

James Markham

Senior Partner Value Creation, Graphite Capital

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2024 agenda highlights

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Head of Leadership & Culture-Portfolio, Triton Partners

Managing Director, Operations ＆ Strategy, OMERS Private Equity Europe Limited

Digital Operating Partner, Pollen Street Capital

Director, Specialist – Customer Insight and Sales Effectiveness, Mayfair Equity Partners

Global Cybersecurity Lead, KKR

Global Head of Portfolio Talent, Investindustrial

SVP Blackstone Innovations, Blackstone

Senior Operating Partner, H.I.G. Capital

Managing Director and Operating Partner, Private Equity, CDPQ London

Head of Portfolio Operations, Attestor

Partner, Value Creation, GTO Partners

Managing Director, Towerbrook Capital Partners

Partner, Montagu Private Equity

Our 2024 leading advisory board

Managing Director, Operating Team, LBO France

Managing Director and Operating Partner, Private Equity, CDPQ London

Partner, Value Creation, GTO Partners

Operating Partner, PATRIZIA Infrastructure

Partner, Montagu Private Equity

2024 agenda

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PRE-CONFERENCE NETWORKING

Tuesday, May 21, 2024

Operating Partners Forum Europe Welcome Reception (invitation-only)

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Wednesday, May 22, 2024

Women in PE Portfolio Operations Lunch Discussion (invitation-only)

Operating Partners Forum Europe Day 1 Networking Reception

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Thursday, May 23, 2024

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2024 speakers

Managing Director, Operating Team, LBO France

Associate – Milestone Performance Partners, Bregal Milestone

Investment Professional, Lead Digital ＆ Tech, KLAR Partners

Digital Operating Partner, Pollen Street Capital

Principal - Value Creation, Seven2

CTO, CVC

Principal – Operations team, Actis

Global Director Risk & Resilience, dss+

Managing Director, Operations ＆ Strategy, OMERS Private Equity Europe Limited

Partner, ECI Partners

Managing Director, Alvarez ＆ Marsal

Senior Managing Director, Accenture

Head of Global PE Practice, Zuora

Director, Specialist – Customer Insight and Sales Effectiveness, Mayfair Equity Partners

Value Creation & B2B SaaS Go To Market Advisor, Dawn Capital

Director, Deutsche Private Equity

Partner and Managing Director, AI & Data practice, AlixPartners

Chief Investment Officer & Partner, Vauban Infrastructure Partners

Partner, McKinsey ＆ Co

Op Partner, Northfirst

Portfolio Director, Charterhouse Capital Partners

Partner, Acertitude

Senior Operating Partner, H.I.G. Capital

Digital Operating Partner, Triton Partners

Global Private Equity Leader, Deloitte

Managing Partner, Blue Ridge Partners

RVP, Global Private Equity Practice, Salesforce

CFO, Wood Mackenzie