The European Mid-Market PE Conference

26 May, London

Juan Barnechea, Origination Director, Riverside Europe

Mr. Barnechea heads-up the Origination function for Europe and is himself responsible for Riverside's origination activities for the Iberian region and Italy. In addition, Mr. Barnechea, who joined Riverside in 2008, is responsible for the management of the firm's relationship with European lenders. Mr. Barnechea joined Riverside from Lloyds TSB Bank plc., where he was Director and Head of Corporate Markets for Spain. In this role, he managed a team responsible for all corporate banking and structured finance activities. Prior to that, he spent seven years in Corporate Banking roles, also with Lloyds TSB, in the UK, Brazil and Argentina, managing the relationships with large and medium sized corporations and being responsible for the origination, negotiation and execution of corporate, leveraged, project and asset based lending transactions. He was also a member of Lloyds TSB's Corporate Venture team where he served as Senior Manager and was responsible for the identification and screening of new business ventures.

Thierry Baudon, Managing Partner, Mid Europa Partners

Thierry is a founding Partner of Mid Europa Partners and chairs the Investment and Management Committees of the firm. Thierry has led the Mid Europa team since its inception in 1999. Previously, he headed the International Finance Division of the SUEZ Group and held senior positions with the EBRD and the World Bank/IFC Group.

Thierry has been heavily involved in the sourcing, evaluation, monitoring and exit of most Fund I investments, and led the exits from Orange Slovensko, TIW Inc. (MobiFon/Connex and Oskar) and Pilkington. He serves or has served on the Boards of Orange Slovensko, TIW Inc, Telemach, Aster, Calucem, SBB, the Lux Med Group, Orange Austria, Falcon, Invitel and Energy 21.

Most recently, he led the acquisition of Orange Austria and Energy 21.

Peter Besthof, Managing Partner, Quadriga Capital

Peter Besthof is a Managing Partner at Quadriga Capital and has over 22 years’ experience in the private equity industry.

Quadriga Capital is an independent private equity firm specialising in mid-market buy-outs in Germany and neighbouring countries, across a wide range of industries. The firm is currently raising its fourth fund. Peter has significant experience in devising and implementing multi-national expansion strategies for medium-sized companies in both the production and services sectors.

Previously, he worked at CWB Capital Partners and Citicorp Venture Capital. He completed his Bachelor degree in Computer Engineering and has an MBA from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. 

Till Burges, Vice President, HarbourVest Partners

Till Burges joined HarbourVest's London-based subsidiary in 2006 as an associate in the primary partnership group and became a vice president in 2010. Till focuses on researching, monitoring, and reporting on European partnership investments. Prior to joining the Firm, Till worked for six years as a consultant at Bain & Company in the U.K. and Germany, where he focused on projects including commercial due diligence, post-merger integration, and organic company growth. Till received a degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Applied Science in Lübeck, Germany in 1999 and an MBA from IESE, Universidad de Navarra, in Barcelona, Spain in 2004. Originally from Germany, Till speaks German, French, and Spanish.

Mark Drugan, Managing Director, Capital Dynamics

Mark is a Managing Director in the Investment Management team at Capital Dynamics. He has 22 years of 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. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from the University of Birmingham.

Capital Dynamics is an independent asset management firm focusing on private assets, including private equity, clean energy and infrastructure, and real estate. Capital Dynamics offers investors a wide range of products and services: funds of funds, direct investments, separate account solutions and structured private equity products.

With more than 20 years of experience and over 160 employees, Capital Dynamics serves a diverse group of institutional investors such as pension funds, endowments and family offices, as well as high net worth individuals and their advisors. Headquartered in Switzerland, Capital Dynamics has offices in London, New York, Zurich, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Silicon Valley, Rio de Janeiro, Munich, Birmingham (UK), and Zug.

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 Services 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

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.

Simon Havers, Chief Executive, Baird Capital Partners Europe

Simon Havers leads Baird Capital Partners Europe, the UK-based operation of Baird Private Equity. Simon rejoined Baird Capital Partners Europe in 2002, having previously worked with the company from 1994 to 1998. In between, he spent four years at ABN AMRO Capital. Earlier in his career, Simon was involved in the planning and rollout of BBC World Service Television, and also worked as a strategy consultant. He holds an MBA, is a Chartered Management Accountant, and holds a first class honours degree in engineering and management.  Simon was Chairman of the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVCA) for 2009/10.

 

Patrick Kalverboer, Managing Partner, H2 Equity Partners

Patrick Kalverboer joined H2 Equity Partners in 1996 and is now one of its two Managing Partners. He is involved in all aspects of making turnaround-and-growth investments and has led several successful turnarounds as a CEO. Patrick leads H2’s London office, but continues to play an active role in the Benelux operations of H2 as well. In addition Patrick has played a large role in the legal and tax structuring of H2 Equity Partners Fund III and the recently closed € 300 million Fund IV. He holds a LLM degree in Tax Law as well as a MSc in Business Administration from the Erasmus University Rotterdam.

H2 Equity Partners (H2) is an independent private equity firm founded in 1991, with offices in Amsterdam, Munich and London. H2 focuses on turnaround-and-growth investments in mid-sized companies in the Benelux, Germany and the UK that can benefit from its in-house operating skills and expertise:

• Special situations facing operational, financial and managerial challenges
• Attractive growth sectors poised for consolidation through buy-and-build

H2 Equity Partners has built an attractive track record over 20 years and has approximately € 500 million under management.

Wol Kolade, Managing Partner, ISIS Equity Partners

Wol joined ISIS in January 1993 and is Managing Partner of the business. His role encompasses overall responsibility for the strategic development of ISIS, and active involvement in investments. Wol initially trained as an engineer, having studied civil and structural engineering at Kings College, London. After obtaining an MBA from Exeter University, he spent three years with Barclays in various head office roles before joining ISIS.

Wol was previously Chairman of the BVCA - British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association - in 2007/2008, a Council Member from 2002 - 2009 and Chairman of the Responsible Investment Advisory Board from 2009 - 2010. He is a non-executive Director of the Social Finance and a Governor and Former Council Member of the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Wol is a Trustee of the Guys and St Thomas' Charity. It is the second largest medical charity in the UK and awards grants to facilitate improvements to healthcare services in the London Boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark.

Thomas Liaudet, Principal, Campbell Lutyens

Thomas is a senior member of Campbell Lutyens' secondary advisory team. With over twelve years’ experience in the private equity and venture capital markets, he has acted on behalf of a number of clients such as 3i, Access Capital, AEA Technology, AXA, General Electric, Goldman Sachs and Innovacom Gestion for the sale and financing of private equity portfolios. He joined Campbell Lutyens after focusing on the secondary private equity market at the Parkmead Group, a London-based merchant bank. Previously, Thomas worked at UBS AG as an Associate Director in the Private Equity Group focusing on Europe and North-America, and as an analyst at Kennet, a growth equity investment firm. He has also worked for the Government in the aerospace and defence sector. A French citizen, he holds a BS from the University of Paris Dauphine and received his Masters from HEC Lausanne.

Ross Marshall, Chief Executive, Dunedin Capital Partners

Ross Marshall joined Dunedin in 1994. He has over 25 years private equity experience, including leading the negotiations for the MBO of Dunedin in 1996. His responsibilities include day-to-day management of Dunedin, chairing Dunedin's investment committee and investor relations. He raised the £250m Dunedin Buyout Fund II in 2006.

Ross Marshall joined Dunedin in 1994. He has over 25 years private equity experience, including leading the negotiations for the MBO of Dunedin in 1996. His responsibilities include day-to-day management of Dunedin, chairing Dunedin's investment committee and investor relations. He raised the £250m Dunedin Buyout Fund II in 2006.

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.

Eddie Misrahi, Chairman and CEO, Apax Partners

Eddie Misrahi is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Apax Partners in France.

Eddie Misrahi sits on the Board of Directors of several companies including Arkadin (a provider of audio and data-conferencing services), InfoPro Communications (a professional information group), Outremer Telecom (the leading alternative telecom operator in the French overseas regions) and Prosody (provider of telecom and IT services for CRM).

He was Chairman of AFIC (Association Française des Investisseurs en Capital) from 2007 to 2008.

Paul Newsome, Managing Director, Unigestion

Paul Newsome is an Executive Director, head of Unigestion's private equity investment team responsible for the oversight of primary fund investments, secondaries and co-investments globally. Unigestion is an alternative asset management firm with EUR 7 billion of assets under management, headquartered in Geneva with offices in London, Paris, New York and Singapore. Before joining the firm in 2002, he worked at BancBoston Capital as an investment officer, making and managing venture capital investments in Europe. Earlier in his career, he was a finance manager at Procter & Gamble. Mr. Newsome holds a first class Masters degree in Engineering, Economics and Management from Oxford University and is a Chartered Management Accountant.

Christophe Nicolas, Executive Director, Morgan Stanley AIP

Christophe is a portfolio manager for the Private Equity Fund of Funds group and co-leads AIP's secondary team. He joined Morgan Stanley AIP in 2008 to launch and invest AIP's first dedicated secondary private equity fund and has 18 years of relevant industry experience. Christophe has over 10 years of experience as a principal investor in the private equity asset class. Christophe's prior professional experience includes four years as a senior investment director responsible in a global secondary investment fund and three years at Permira, sourcing and executing buyout investments in the TMT sector in Europe. Prior to Permira, he worked for five years at Broadview (now Jefferies), the global M&A and private equity advisor, as a principal. He started his career in investment banking at Goldman Sachs and BNP in Hong Kong. He holds an MBA from Ecole Superieure de Commerce de Paris (ESCP). Christophe is a native French speaker.

Vince O'Brien, Director, Montagu Private Equity

Vince O’Brien is a director of Montagu Private Equity and has worked in the private equity industry for over 20 years.

Montagu Private Equity is one of Europe’s best known private equity investors and invests primarily in management buyouts of companies operating across a wide range of industries in the UK, France, Germany and the Nordic region.

Vince is also a former Chairman of the British Venture Capital Association. He has therefore been involved in representing the industry across a broad range of issues affecting the BVCA’s members and the UK entrepreneurial environment in general.

Mark O'Hare, Founder and Managing Director, Preqin

Mark’s initial career was as a Manager with Boston Consulting Group, where he advised clients in Europe, the US and Africa, across several industries including financial services, healthcare, retail, industrial and consumer products. Following BCG he founded Goodall Alexander O’Hare & Co, an independent strategy consulting firm.

In 1993 he founded Citywatch, the UK’s shareholder  information service, which was acquired by Reuters in 1998, and now provides a global service on the ownership of listed equities. In 2002 he founded Preqin, the alternative assets information service which provides extensive research, data and consultancy services on private equity, private real estate, infrastructure and hedge funds. Preqin is an independent business with 58 staff providing market-leading online and hard copy data services to many of the world’s leading institutional investors, money managers and advisors. Preqin’s online databases are used by over 2,000 customers in 72 countries worldwide. Over 30,000 industry professionals receive Preqin’s newsletters and research reports every month. Preqin tracks fund returns, fund raising information, fund terms and conditions, profiles of the GPs running the funds, and the LPs investing in them.

Philippe Poggioli, Managing Partner, Access Capital Partners

Philippe joined Access Capital Partners (“Access”) in September 1999. He has 15 years of private equity experience.

Prior to joining Access, he started the fund of funds business of the European Investment Fund (“EIF” - Luxembourg) in 1996. During his 3 years with the EIF, he was responsible for commitments to 28 European venture capital funds.

Prior to EIF, he was Programme Manager with the European Commission for 6 years, during which he concentrated on seed capital and R&D funding for small and medium sized businesses.

Philippe began his career with Technofi, a French management consultancy company based in Sophia Antipolis.

Philippe Poggioli holds a degree in finance, business and administration from Sup de Co Marseilles.

Antoine Raoux, Investment Director, FF&P Private Equity

Antoine joined FF&P Private Equity in September 2010 as Investment Director. He brings 10 years of mid-market private equity experience acquired at NBGI Private Equity and latterly at Dawnay Day and GI Partners. He has led investments in a variety of industry sectors with a particular focus on retail, healthcare and leisure.

His investments have included the MBO of Mountain Warehouse, the Public-To-Private of Austin Reed, the turnaround of Depot (Germany), the Buy&Build of Nationwide Autocentres and the secondary buyout of Superglass. He started his career in operational roles within the Groupe Zodiac (USA and France) and Eli Lilly (UK).

Antoine is an engineering graduate from Ecole Centrale Marseille and holds an MBA from London Business School.

Sir Gerry Robinson, Founding Partner, Ancala Partners

Sir Gerry is the current Chairman of Moto Hospitality, former Chairman of Allied Domecq, former Chairman and CEO of Granada Plc, former Chairman of BSkyB Plc and ITN. He joined Ancala Partners as Founding Partner in March 2011.

Sir Gerry began his career in 1965 at Lesney Products. In 1974, he joined Lex Vehicle Leasing as a management accountant. He then rose through the company before being appointed finance director. In 1980, he joined the UK franchise of Coca Cola owned at that time by Grand Metropolitan.

In 1983, Sir Gerry was appointed Managing Director of Grand Metropolitan's international services division. In 1987, he led a £163m management buyout of the loss-making contract services and catering division, later renamed Compass, where he remained CEO until 1991.

Sir Gerry joined Granada as chief executive in 1991 and was Chairman from 1996 to 2001. He steered the company through various mergers and acquisitions including London Weekend Television (1993) and Forte Group (1996). Sir Gerry remained a Non-Executive Director of Granada until 2003. He has also been Chairman of BSkyB (1995 – 1998), ITN (1995 – 1997), Arts Council England (1998 – 2004) and Allied Domecq (2002 – 2005). Sir Gerry is currently Chairman of Moto Hospitality (2006 – present).

Sir Gerry Robinson was awarded a Knighthood in the 2003 New Year’s Honours for Services to the Arts and Business.

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.

Mark Sanders, Partner, SJ Berwin

Mark Sanders is a partner in SJ Berwin's European private equity team based in London. Mark has advised private equity and venture capital investors, their portfolio companies and management teams on a wide variety of transactions for over 15 years. SJ Berwin is an international law firm with its headquarters in London and operating from eleven offices in Europe, East Asia and the Middle East. SJ Berwin advises on a comprehensive range of legal work including M&A, corporate finance, private equity, real estate, finance and regulation. SJ Berwin's corporate and private equity teams have won numerous legal and private equity industry awards for their work including recently "Law Firm of the Year" at the BVCA/Real Deals Private Equity Awards 2010, "Corporate Team of the Year" at The Lawyer Awards 2010, "LBO Law Firm of the Year" at Private Equity Magazine's 2010 Grands Prix awards in France and "Private Equity Law Firm of the Year" at The Financial Times/mergermarket European M&A Awards 2009.

Robert Swift, Chief Operating Officer, Stirling Square Capital Partners

Robert is Chief Operating Officer at Stirling Square Capital Partners, a pan-European mid-market private equity firm.  After graduating from the University of Edinburgh, Robert joined Samuel Montagu & Co Ltd, subsequently subsumed into the investment banking activities of HSBC. He was involved in the specialised financing and project financing activities of the bank, becoming a Managing Director and Head of Transport Infrastructure.  He moved to the bank’s Principal Investments division, responsible for direct investment activity and for two years was seconded from the bank to become Chief Executive Officer of a new private equity fund established by HSBC in the Middle East and North Africa.  Robert moved to Stirling Square Capital Partners in 2009 and, amongst other responsibilities, has been involved in the firm’s recent realisations.

Claus Stenbaek, Managing Director, Keyhaven Capital Partners

Claus Stenbaek is a Managing Director 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. Claus has over twenty years of direct private equity as well as fund selection and quoted securities experience, most recently as Executive Director and Partner of Danske Private Equity. His earlier positions include Founder and Managing Director of Richmond Capital Limited, a niche investment bank, and responsibility for the overall management of a European family investment company with offices in the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK. He has also served as the Madrid-based CFO of F.L.Smidth & Cia Espanola, and as a Senior Consultant with Andersen Consulting.

Claus received a BS in Finance and Accounting from Copenhagen Business School and earned an Executive MBA cum laude from Instituto de Impresa, Madrid. He is fluent in English, Danish, Spanish, Norwegian, and Swedish, and speaks conversational French and German.

Garry Wilson, Managing Partner, Endless

Garry Wilson is the Managing Partner and one of the 3 founding members of Endless LLP.

Endless is the UK's most prolific Turnaround Fund with offices in Leeds, London, Manchester and Birmingham. Since its establishment in December 2005 it has completed over 30 acquisitions and 15 exits. Following on from its 2005 debut fund, in February 2008 Endless raised its first institutional fund of £164m from twelve Limited Partners across the USA and Europe although the largest single investor in Fund II is the Endless team.

Endless Fund II has so far made twelve investments including the acquisition of the UK's second largest paint business, Crown Paints from Akzo Nobel, the rescue of the 250 store bargain book retail chain, The Works, from administration as well as the acquisition in July 2009 of Sheffield based Vasanta Group, a £500 million turnover office supplies business. Endless injected £20m into Vasanta within 3 weeks of first being contacted by the Group's advisors.  Endless has recently completed its first deal in London having opened an office there in late 2010.