The European Mid-Market PE Conference

An evolving business model

6 May, London

 

Andrew Bentley, Partner, Campbell Lutyens

Andrew joined Campbell Lutyens in 2003 and advises across the range of the firm’s activities with particular responsibility for the firm’s global fund placement activities. Before joining Campbell Lutyens he spent three years as a fund manager at Sussex Place Ventures where he helped raise and manage their second institutional fund. Prior to that he was a corporate finance lawyer for six years with Ashurst specialising in M&A, private equity transactions and funds matters. Andrew has a master’s degree in finance from London Business School.

 

Mark Boyle, Director, Private Equity Funds, Northwestern Mutual Capital

Andrew Brown, Investment Consultant, Manager Research, Towers Watson (formerly Watson Wyatt)

Andrew Brown joined Towers Watson in 2008 as an investment consultant focused on private equity research. He has eight years of private equity research experience, including working for Robbins and Associates, a financial and accounting advisory firm in Chicago. He helped research, create and manage alternative investment portfolios for ultra high-net-worth clients.

Prior to Watson Wyatt, Andrew received a M.B.A. from the University of Chicago. He also has an undergraduate degree at Northwestern University in Chicago and a M.Phil in historical studies from University of Cambridge.

Across Towers Watson’s Investment Practice, it advises over 800 pension funds, including a third of the FTSE 100 and institutional investors with a combined asset base of $1.7 trillion. 

Steven Clarke, Head of UK Direct Investments, ICG

Steven joined ICG in December 2006 as Head of the UK direct investment team whose investments and portfolio include Marken, Gaucho, Firth Rixson, Biffa, Mayborn and Visma. Steven is currently focussing on origination of new investments in buyouts and growth capital to support private equity owned businesses with mezzanine and minority equity. 

Steven has spent 18 years in the UK buyout market and was previously with August Equity and 3i.  He has a business degree from Loughborough. He coaches children in a number of sports and holds a private helicopter pilots licence. 

Mark Drugan, Director, Capital Dynamics

Mark Drugan is a Director in the Investment Management team of Capital Dynamics. He has 18 years experience evaluating, selecting and monitoring private equity fund investments and sits on several private equity fund advisory boards. Mark has been closely involved in the design and implementation of the British Venture Capital Association’s annual performance measurement survey since the pilot study in the early 1990s. Mark received a BEd in Mathematics from the University of Birmingham.

Capital Dynamics is an independent asset management firm exclusively focused on private equity. Capital Dynamics offers institutional investors and family offices a wide range of private equity products and services: fund of funds, co-investments, separate account solutions and structured private equity products.

With more than 20 years of experience, Capital Dynamics manages and has advised on a combined total of over USD 21 billion in private equity and real estate funds, including more than USD 5 billion of discretionary assets.

Headquartered in Switzerland and with offices in New York, Silicon Valley, London, Birmingham (UK), Hong Kong and Munich, Capital Dynamics client list includes some of the world’s largest and most sophisticated investors in private equity.

Christian Dummett, Head of UK Business Development, LGT Capital Partners

Christian Dummett is Head of UK Business Development for LGT Capital Partners (LGT CP), a private equity and hedge fund-of-funds manager with approximately $18bn of commitments and assets under management. Prior to joining LGT CP, Christian was Managing Partner of Corris Capital, a private equity advisory business, having previously been Head of Merrill Lynch's private equity placement business in Europe. After 10 years in international banking, Christian commenced his private equity career in 1998 as Head of Private Equity at Abbey National Treasury Servives where he established and managed a $2.5bn global investment programme.

 

 Richard Green, Chairman, August Equity

Richard co-founded August Equity in 2001. He is now chairman of the firm and chairs its Investment Committee.

He previously spent 13 years at Kleinwort Benson (latterly Dresdner Kleinwort Benson) where he started his private equity career. Prior to that, Richard spent five years with Coopers and Lybrand where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant.

Richard has a BA in Accountancy and is a member of the council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (“ICAEW”) and is a vice chairman of the Corporate Finance Faculty of the ICAEW. Richard is a past chairman of the British Venture Capital Association and still represents August Equity on the BVCA’s Mid Market Committee. Richard is a regular speaker at private equity events and conferences.

Richard is a non executive director of:

Boat International Media

Michael Halford, Partner, SJ Berwin

Michael Halford is a partner in the Private Funds Group of SJ Berwin LLP.  Michael specialises in the area of private equity and investment fund structuring.  He acts for managers and investors covering a wide range of funds, incentive schemes and co-investment arrangements. Michael’s work includes private equity funds, real estate funds and infrastructure funds for institutional and private investors. He has also been involved in a number of secondary transactions and management buyouts and restructurings of private equity groups.  Michael acts for a wide range of investment houses including PAI Partners, 3i, Macquarie, First State, Pantheon, Apax, Deutsche, Capital Dynamics, Invesco, BNP Paribas, Electra and Patron.  He has also developed a particular specialism in acting for infrastructure funds acting for many of the major houses on their direct funds and fund of funds.

Michael was included in the 2008 Financial News 100 Rising Stars in the world of finance and is recognised in Chambers as a leading adviser in Private Equity Funds. He is also listed in the “Guide to the World’s Leading Investment Funds’ Lawyers”.

John Hartz, Managing Partner, Inflexion Private Equity

John Hartz is a founder and Managing Partner of Inflexion Private Equity the UK, smaller mid market, buyout specialist. He has more than 15 years experience investing in, managing and realising value in small and medium-sized transactions principally in the UK.  He started his career as a chartered accountant with Price Waterhouse specialising in corporate recovery and business re-organisations during the last UK recession.  In the early 1990’s he joined Apax Partners as a founding member of the buy-out group where he worked with Jon Moulton.  He went on to found the private equity business of Daiwa Europe Limited together with Simon Turner, a business which they later bought out, forming Inflexion Private Equity, their own private equity firm focused on mid-market transactions.

John graduated from Imperial College of Science & Technology with a degree in Chemistry and Management Science.  He lives in Berkshire with his wife and three children.

Wilken von Hodenberg, Spokesman of the Board of Management, Deutsche Beteiligungs

Born 1954
Member of the Board of Management and its Spokesman since July 2000. Studied law in Hamburg and Lausanne. 15 years of experience in investment banking, three years executive board member of a major German retail group.

 

 

 

Dan Kjerulf, Partner, Legal Counsel, Danske Private Equity

Dan has 26 years of experience in legal matters relating to private equity and other financial transactions, and has been responsible for negotiating and structuring terms and conditions governing all portfolio funds in Danske PEP I-IV. Dan serves on the advisory committees of two portfolio funds and is a member of the Legal Affairs Committee of the Danish Venture Capital Association and of the Limited Partners Platform of the European Venture Capital Association.

Dan’s focus on negotiating and drafting commercially minded contractual relationships ensures an ongoing alignment of interest between Danske Private Equity, its investors and portfolio funds. Before joining Danske Private Equity, Dan was Head of the Legal Section in Danske Securities Corporate Finance, where his duties included due diligence on and monitoring of equity fund investments made by the Danske Bank Group, and advising third party clients on a range of transactions involving private equity funds. Prior to heading the legal section of Danske Securities, Dan held various legal positions within Danske Bank (HandelsBanken).

Dan holds a law degree from the University of Copenhagen.

Danske Private Equity

Danske Private Equity is a leading private equity fund-of-funds investing in first-class buyout funds in North America and Western Europe. The Company was founded in 1999 and now has over EUR 2.3 billion under management. Danske Private Equity is a company in the Danske Bank Group.

 Daan Knottenbelt, Partner, Palamon Capital Partners

Daan A. Knottenbelt is a Partner and member of the operating committee at Palamon Capital Partners, one of Europe’s leading mid-market growth capital private equity firms.  He has extensive experience in Private Equity and in December 2009 led one of the few leveraged recaps in the UK in Towry Law, one of the leading UK independent wealth managers.  The transaction enabled Palamon to return in excess of invested capital to investors while continuing to hold a majority stake in this fast growing business. Mr Knottenbelt joined Palamon in 2000 from McKinsey & Co where he worked as a management consultant for six years in the UK, the USA, the Netherlands and Belgium. He graduated from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands with an MSc in Electrical Engineering and holds an MBA from INSEAD.

Richard Lever, Partner, SJ Berwin

Richard Lever is a partner in the firm's Corporate department.
Richard has extensive experience in all areas of corporate finance and focuses on advising companies on M&A transactions within the UK and internationally and private equity houses and management teams on buyouts, buy-ins, public to private transactions.  He regularly acts for a wide range of investments houses such as ECI Partners, Graphite Capital, Lion Capital and recently acted for global packaging manufacturer, Amcor, on the $2.25billion acquisition of Alcan Packaging from Rio Tinto.

Richard is a head of the firm's Consumer sector group and has advised on a large number of mid-market and big ticket transactions.  The Chambers legal directory and the Legal 500 list Richard as an expert in his field and he was named as a "Star of the future" - one of the top 10 young partners in the City -  by "Legal Business" in November 2009.

Enrique de Leyva, Founding Partner, Magnum Capital

Enrique de Leyva is one of the three Founding Partners of Magnum Capital L.P., the leading Iberian Private Equity firm focused in buyout investments, created in 2007 with committed capital of nearly €900 million.

Prior to that, he was a Director in McKinsey & Company, the leading international management consulting firm, where he worked for over 20 years. During his tenure at McKinsey, he worked in several offices and led projects across the world, mainly in the energy, banking, corporate finance and general industry space. He was the Managing Partner of the European Energy Practice for several years as well as the Managing Partner of the Spanish Office. He also participated in numerous worldwide committees of the firm.

Prior to that, he worked at Union Fenosa for two years, a Spanish energy company, in financial planning and in regulatory affairs.

He holds a M.Sc. degree in Civil Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Madrid and an M.B.A. degree from Columbia University in New York.

Dirk Lienemann, Vice President, SCM Strategic Capital Management

Dirk is responsible for the due diligence and the firm's private equity and real estate fund investment analysis, reporting on industry trends and developments, and the negotiation of client investments recommended by the firm. Dirk is also involved in our firm's research efforts and benchmark analysis.
Following his studies, Dirk Lienemann worked for five years as part of a leading corporate finance / M&A team in Switzerland for various employers (Andersen, Ernst & Young and finally Sal. Oppenheim Corporate Finance). He was closely involved in a large number of M&A transactions in a broad range of industries. His responsibilities were mainly the valuation of target companies, the coordination of due diligence processes as well as conducting industry research and various financial analyses. Dirk Lienemann studied business administration and economics with a major in banking & finance at the University of St. Gallen and the Copenhagen Business School. Prior to his studies he completed an apprenticeship in commercial banking in Germany. In addition he is a CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) charterholder. 

Founded in 1996, SCM Strategic Capital Management AG is a leading Swiss provider of management and consulting services for alternative investments. The company focuses on private equity, real estate, and infrastructure fund investments, covering all sub segments of these investment classes worldwide. The scope of services includes discretionary and non-discretionary consulting mandates for institutional investors as well as funds-of-funds. With an annual investment volume of USD 1 billion and over USD 6.5 billion in managed assets, SCM ranks among the most important investors in the sector. Above-average performance, a global presence, investment experience, and top-tier services are the key characteristics of the company.

Andrea Lowe, Executive Director, LPEQ

ANDREA LOWE is Executive Director of LPEQ Limited, a group of European listed private equity companies with combined market capitalisation of over €5 billion.  It was established in 2006 to increase awareness and understanding of listed private equity through research and information  www.LPEQ.com

She has over 20 years’ experience in investment management marketing strategy, research and communications.  After graduating from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, USA, she began her career as a market research analyst for Pillsbury and Gillette, later earning an MBA from Stanford University in California.  Andrea Lowe joined fund manager GT Management (later INVESCO) in London, developing marketing strategy in Europe, the US and Asia.  In the late 1980’s, she launched KL Marketing to provide financial services marketing consultancy and served as editor of the PricewaterhouseCoopers European Investment Management/Real Estate Newsletter.

The members of LPEQ are: Conversus Capital LP, Deutsche Beteiligungs AG, Dinamia Capital Privado SCR SA, Dunedin Enterprise Investment Trust PLC, Electra Private Equity PLC, F&C Private Equity Trust plc, Gimv NV, Graphite Enterprise Trust PLC, HarbourVest Global Private Equity Limited, Henderson Private Equity Investment Trust plc, HgCapital Trust plc,  J.P. Morgan Private Equity Limited, JZ Capital Partners Limited, NB Private Equity Partners Limited, Pantheon International Participations PLC, Standard Life European Private Equity Trust PLC and SVG Capital plc. 

Jeremy Lytle, Investor Relations Director, ECI Partners

Jeremy Lytle is ECI’s Investor Relations Director. He helped lead the recent ECI 9 fundraising which closed in December 2008 above its £400m target, he joined ECI in 2007 having spent the previous three years as head of Investor Relations and Chief Operating Officer at FM Capital Management, a hedge fund manager. Prior to that he spent seven years with Cazenove & Co and Cazenove Capital. Jeremy had an early career in the British Army. Based in London, he has an MA in English from the University of Edinburgh, is a fellow of the Securities Institute and also studied Economics at London Business School. Jeremy is a member of the BVCA’s Responsible Investment Advisory Group.

Robert Mason, Head, PE Investments, Lord North Street

Robert has responsibility for Private Equity investments within Lord North Street Ltd.

An Oxford graduate, Robert served 6 years in the British Army and in 1983 joined JPMorgan. In 1987 he launched the European Leveraged Transaction Group for JPMorgan and then in 1989 founded European Acquisition Capital, an independent Private Equity investment firm. He successfully raised and invested more than €500m in three funds before leaving the business in 2006.

Ray Maxwell, CEO, Acrostic

Prior to joining Acrostic Limited he set up priv-ity Limited, a company that provides strategic advice to private equity groups and corporations. He is Chairman of Core Capital VCT IV & V which provides mezzanine finance to SMEs in the UK and he was an advisor to BTG plc on strategy.

Prior to setting up priv-ity Limited, he was a Partner of INVESCO and a General Partner and Managing Director of INVESCO Private Capital (IPC) from 1997 to 2005; a New York based private equity group. He was responsible for all private equity investments and marketing outside of the Americas. He sits on a number of Advisory Boards including Eden Ventures and Merlin Bioscience in the UK, Procuritas in Sweden and Leman Capital in Switzerland.

Ray graduated in Geography and Economics from London University in 1973, holds an MBA specializing in Finance and is a member of the Securities Institute. He speaks regularly at private equity conferences and is on the board of London Business School’s Private Equity Institute.

Elizabeth O'Reilly, Partner, LBO France

Elizabeth joined LBO France in 2003, with responsibility for general fund raising and co-investments. To-date, she has raised over 20 funds representing close to €4 billion. 

Rod is Managing Partner of Graphite Capital, a mid-market private equity group, with funds under management of £1.2 billion.

Graphite is both  a direct investor in mid-market UK buy-outs and manages an investment trust listed on the London Stock Exchange investing in funds managed by third parties.

In 2007 Graphite raised a £550 million fund investing in UK mid-market buy-outs which is 25% invested.

Rod joined Graphite in 1986 and has been Managing Partner for the last ten years, leading the Management Buy-Out of Graphite from F&C in 2001. 

Prior to joining Graphite Rod was a consultant for McKinsey & Co having previously worked for Bell & Howell Limited.  He has a degree in politics, philosophy and economics from Oxford University and an MBA from INSEAD.

Grant Roberts, Co-Head of Private Equity Advisory, Richmond Park Partners

Grant has spent the last 14 years as an adviser and investor in private equity.  Prior to joining Richmond Park Partners he co-founded Newgate CSP, a specialist private equity advisory and investment business, having previously been a senior professional at 3i.

Richmond Park Partners is an independent merchant bank offering clients innovative thinking combined with independent and objective advice.  The Private Equity Advisory Group is a leading specialist adviser to private equity general partners (GPs) and limited partners (LPs) with experience and expertise in GP M&A, GP/LP re-alignment and negotiations, secondary transactions and fundraising.  The Group is at the forefront of dealing with key issues facing the industry today.

Grant has advised on some of the more complex and innovative transactions including the take private and change of manager of a listed investment vehicle, advised a group of investors on the proactive replacement of an incumbent fund manager and restructuring of the fund, advised the manager of one of the UK’s largest pension funds on its private equity strategy resulting in two transactions which have transformed and repositioned its activities, and led negotiations on fund reconstructions.

Grant has a Masters in Applied Finance and Investment, a Bachelor of Commerce and is a Fellow of the Financial Services Institute of Australia.

Michael Russell, Partner, Head of EMEA Region, Altius Associates

Altius Associates is a global investment firm specialising in private equity and real assets.  Altius develops portfolios in the Fund-of-Funds and Separate Account formats, with more than €14 billion under advice and management on behalf of institutional investors in Europe, the U.S. and Australia.  The firm operates with 32 professionals based in Europe (London), the US (Richmond, Virginia) and Asia (Singapore).

Michael Russell is a senior partner and Head of EMEA for Altius Associates.  He has overall responsibility for investments and operations in Europe and the EMEA region.  He has more than 16 years of private equity experience involving more than 25 institutional investors worldwide.  Prior to joining Altius, Michael was Managing Director for Europe with PCG Asset Management.  He previously worked in corporate finance and M&A with CIBC Wood Gundy and as a lawyer with Lawson Lundell in Canada.  Michael holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Alberta, a Diploma in International Management from HEC (Paris), and MBA and Law degrees from the University of British Columbia.  He is a Canadian and US citizen and speaks English and French.

Michael has served the EVCA as a member of the Professional Standards Committees since 2006 and was recently named Chairman of the EVCA's Investor Relations Committee.  He has previously served in advisory capacities with the OECD Financial Markets Committee and other industry-government initiatives relating to the private equity market in Europe and North America.

Rhonda Ryan, Managing Director, Head of Private Funds Group Europe, PineBridge Investments

Ms. Ryan joined the firm in 2006 and is Head of Private Funds Group Europe. In addition to heading the European private equity funds group, Ms. Ryan focuses on private equity investment activities on a global basis at PineBridge Investments. Her responsibilities include evaluating and meeting with private equity fund managers, making investment recommendations and monitoring the performance of the private equity portfolios. Prior to joining the firm, she was Head of Private Equity at Insight Investment, which she joined in 2001. Ms. Ryan's investment experience began in 1992 and since 1997 her experience has included private equity investing in Europe and the United States. Ms. Ryan also serves on a number of private equity fund advisory boards. Ms. Ryan received a Bachelor of Economics and BA (Asian Studies) from The Australian National University and a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment from the Securities Institute of Australia.

Erin Sarret, Vice President, Morgan Stanley AIP

Erin is a portfolio specialist for Alternative Investment Partners and based in London.  Erin joined Morgan Stanley in 2009 and has 8 years of experience in private equity.  Prior to her current role, Erin was a Director with Wilshire Private Markets in Amsterdam and also with Access Capital Partners in Paris. Trained as a lawyer at McGeorge School of Law (JD) after undergraduate studies at the University of California at Berkeley (double BA), she is a member of the State Bar of California. Erin began her professional life as a litigator representing employers and their insurance companies before moving to Europe. As a dual French and American national, Erin is bilingual in French and English.

Guy Semmens, Partner, Argos Soditic

Guy Semmens joined Argos Soditic in 1996 and heads the Swiss operations based in Geneva. Argos Soditic is a European lower mid market buy-out firm with offices in Paris, Geneva and Milan. Currently the firm manages €420 million for buy-outs and a separate €50 million for minority and expansion capital.  

Investments which he has led include cable machinery business Maillefer, foam glass producer Misapor, and chocolate wafer brand Kagi in Switzerland, and flame retardant business Kermel, and fine chemicals group Axyntis in France. In addition to his primary investment role, he is also responsible for investor relations and fund raising for the Argos Soditic Group.

Before joining Argos Soditic, Guy Semmens was part of the management buy-out group at Clifford Chance, the international law firm. He was also a member the EVCA working committee that formulated the "Reporting and Valuation Guidelines" for private equity firms. Guy Semmens holds a degree in law from Durham University and is a qualified solicitor in the U.K.

Grégoire Sentilhes, President, NextStage

Grégoire Sentilhes is President and co-founder of NextStage, a leading private equity fund manager in France and particularly on the French growth equity market. It is an independent fund management company specializing in investing in and financing growth in Champion SMEs. It is certified by the French financial markets authority, the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), and manages more than €240 million.

Grégoire Sentilhes was the CEO of Screaming Media, an added-value content-syndication company IPOed on the NASDAQ in 2000 and which recently merged with CBS Market Watch. He was previously based in New York as global marketing Vice-President of the e-commerce division of the German group Bertelsmann.

He was previously co-founder, chairman and CEO of the online division of the Lagardère group in Paris from 1993 to 1996.

He is a successful private equity investor in France, Spain, the US and China: four of his 15 investments have been listed. An alumnus of ISG, he studied at the Université de Paris-Dauphine. He has been part of the team of France III, the French challenger for the America’s Cup sailing race.

Grégoire is also the president and co-founder of “Journée de l’Entrepreneurs » created in 2007, the “Journées de l’Entrepreneurs” are the French organization of the “Global Entrepreneurship Week”

He is an alumnus of Institut  Supérieur de Gestion (ISG) and Paris Dauphine University.

Maarten Vervoort, Partner, AlpInvest Partners

AlpInvest Partners is a leading global private equity investor with over € 40 billion of capital raised and committed to the asset class. Maarten is responsible for the European, Middle East and African Fund program. Furthermore he is voting member of the Global Investment Committee. Maarten joined AlpInvest Partners in 1999 from PricewaterhouseCoopers Management Consultants (PWC).

 

 

 

 Sasha van de Water, Co-Founder, Keyhaven Capital Partners

Sasha van de Water is co-founder of Keyhaven Capital Partners, a London-based independent boutique advisory and management company focused on providing a quality product and service to a select number of institutional investors. Sasha has seventeen years experience in the European private equity market, most recently at AXA Investment Managers where she was Managing Director responsible for setting up and developing the European private equity fund of funds programme. Prior to AXA, she was with South Street Advisors, an affiliate of BT Alex Brown, which advised institutional and high net worth clients in the area of alternative investment, including buyout and venture funds. She previously worked as a consultant for Cambridge Associates, an investment consulting firm, in both their London and Boston offices.

Sasha received a BA cum laude from Wellesley College. She is fluent in Dutch and English, and speaks conversational Italian, Spanish and Arabic.

 Rachel Wood, Co-Founder, Amala Partners

Rachel co-founded Amala in 2008, having previously been a Managing Director at Helix Associates, a private equity placement agent. During her seven years at Helix, Rachel advised and raised capital for many private equity firms including GB Deutschland, Piper Private Equity, Graphite Capital, Exponent Private Equity and Quadriga Capital among others. Prior to Helix, Rachel spent five years working in the British civil service. She holds a BA in the Study of Religions with Tibetan from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.