2023 Speakers

Partner at Phoenix since 2001 and CFO / CRO and a member of Phoenix’s Board & Management Committee. Also a director of the Fund General Partner in Guernsey. Before Phoenix held senior finance positions in the US and UK, including four years as CFO at Netnumber.com in Boston (previously Unifi Communications), and five years as Controller at The Economist in London.
Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, BA (Hons) in Business Studies and Computing from the Leicester Business School and an MBA from Manchester Business School. Rugby, Tennis & Golf enthusiast along with a love of Italy.

Diana Meyel is a Managing Partner and the company’s COO/CFO. She is located in Munich and leads our funds’ operations and investor relations. In addition, she also oversees transaction structuring and represents Cipio Partners on the board of selected portfolio companies. Prior to joining Cipio Partners in 2004, Diana was a Finance Manager at Wellington Partners, the pan-European venture capital firm and worked as a Senior Risk Analyst for Dresdner Bank Group nka Commerzbank in Germany and Bogotá, Colombia. Diana holds a degree in Banking Administration from Frankfurt School of Finance & Management.

He has overall responsibility for the Corporate, Fund and Operational Finance (including Treasury, Portfolio reporting, Tax compliance and Luxembourg) accounting teams.
Nick joined Hg in 2019, following a five-year spell with Capita plc, where he held various senior finance roles initially in Group and then subsequently as an operational finance director. Prior to that, Nick spent twelve years at Deloitte in their corporate audit practice. He holds a degree in Economics from the University of Warwick, and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Ash is responsible for leading Alpha’s institutional FX team, whilst developing the company’s service offering to ensure it best meets the needs of investment managers.
Launching Alpha’s institutional FX division with co-partner Sam Marsh, Ash joined Alpha after eight years of successfully growing an institutional foreign exchange division from the ground up, delivering 70% YoY growth over five years.
Ash is a member of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment and has a degree in Business Studies & Economics from the University of Surrey.

Karen is Hermes GPE’s Chief Operating Officer with responsibility for financial oversight of corporate and fund finance, the financial control environment, systems and operations. She is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment and holds an MA in Psychoanalysis and BSc in Psychology with Criminology. She is a Member of the Hermes GPE Executive Committee, and Pensions Governance Group. Karen is a Member of Invest Europe Working Group on Accounting Standards, Valuation and Reporting, Invest Europe’s Professional Standards Committee and the BVCA Legal & Accounting Committee.

A CFO with over 15 years’ Private Equity experience. Strong Finance and Investor Relations background with both operational and investor-facing skills. Developed best-in-class investor and stakeholder reporting. Advises on ESG and Sustainablity in PE. Recently completed studies in Sustainability and Sustainable Finance with the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL).

Lenoy is a Director in S-RM’s Cyber Security team with a focus on delivering strategic portfolio risk management services to the private equity sector.

Since joining S-RM in 2018, Lenoy has led both the company’s Physical Security Risk Analysis and Cyber Advisory practices. She has over 10 years’ experience spanning security risk consulting and investment management and has supported clients working through complex physical and cyber security challenges spanning the financial services, energy and FMCG industries, among others.

Before moving into the risk management industry, she was Regional Head of Research at a boutique wealth advisory firm with investment interests across Africa, Europe, and Asia. As part of the company’s global investment committee, she oversaw asset allocation across a range of alternative asset classes including hedge funds, private equity, and structured debt.

Lenoy is a CFA Charterholder and has an MA in International Relations from King’s College London.

Rebecca is Head of Projects at Hanover Investors Management, a specialist investor that operates in under-analysed and illiquid markets. Rebecca has more than 20 years’ experience in the industry and was previously CFO /COO before moving to a portfolio career and has led the response to many ODD processes. Previously, Rebecca co-founded Oxford & Cambridge Investment Management where she was CFO and COO until the business was transferred to Bank Insinger de Beaufort. Rebecca remained with Insinger for two years heading operations for the OCIM business unit. Rebecca is a chartered accountant and a Non-Executive Director of the FairLife charity.

Alan is a Partner and Finance & Operations Director. He is a member of the Management Committee and also sits on the Valuation and Risk Committees. Prior to joining Beechbrook in 2014, Alan worked as Financial Controller of the limited partnership funds at the private equity firm, Graphite Capital. He is a Fellow Chartered Accountant with ICAEW, having qualified with PwC. Alan enjoys sports, most notably football through his love of Liverpool and tennis. He also enjoys spending time supporting the culinary institutions and watering holes in the UK.

I am the General Counsel at Livingbridge, a mid-market private equity firm. I provide legal support to the business in relation to new investments, divestments, portfolio company matters, risk management, fundraising and platform-related matters and I help to run the operational side of the business alongside senior colleagues in the finance, HR and IT teams. Prior to joining Livingbridge, I spent over a decade in private practice, mainly in the private equity M&A team at Travers Smith.

Maria is a Chartered Accountant through the ACCA. As Director of Fund Finance at Beringea LLP, she is responsible for all fund finance and related regulatory matters. She has 8 years’ experience in the VCT industry, having previously worked with another VCT fund manager.

Kevin Early, European Chief Financial Officer at Ares, with +15 years experience managing various fund types and investments strategies across jurisdictions. His responsibilities include oversight of all financial, statutory and regulatory reporting, as well as operational support of fundraising, business operations and process improvements.

Previous to Ares he was Senior VP at Nielsen Holdings and had a variety of tax and finance leadership roles at GE Capital Corporation.

Mr. Early holds a B.S. Magna Cum Laude for Marquette University in Accounting.

Christian Fuessinger is Managing Partner and CIO of Helvetica Capital based in Zurich, a leading Swiss private equity and venture capital firm for the SME segment. In addition to executing and overseeing investments as well as managing the existing portfolio, Christian is also a member of the Executive Board and as CFO responsible for the firm’s financial operations.

Christian started his career in M&A in Frankfurt and later worked for a major investment bank in London for more than a decade. In his most recent position, he led a team of corporate finance and value creation experts focused on advising international private equity funds as well as global corporations. Since then, Christian has held operational as well as BoD roles across various industrial and technology companies.

Christian studied in Vienna (WU Wien), Chicago (UIC) and Milan (Bocconi) and holds master's degrees in finance as well as international management (CEMS). He is a dual citizen of Switzerland and Austria.

Malcolm Goddard is a Partner and CFO/COO of Zetland Capital; a European distressed and special situations manager which was established and whom he joined in 2016. Zetland presently manages €1.2bn of assets, has a team of 25 and was voted Special Situations House of the Year, 2022. It invests in both listed and private assets.


Before Zetland he spent 10 years as a Partner and COO of Altima, who managed $5bn of hedge and private-equity assets in a number of strategies and markets. He joined Altima after 15 years in investment banking where he performed a number of development and operational roles.


Malcolm is a frequent speaker at industry conferences on operational and fund matters; has sat on industry committees, has consulted to emerging and developing managers and was the Drawdown’s COO of the year in 2020.

Jonathan is responsible for finance, administration, and investor relations.

Before joining Kennet, he was the Finance Director at Manzanita Capital and prior to that he worked at Rothschild Capital Management. He began his career at PwC where he gained experience in both Tax and Private Equity deal structuring.

Jonathan is a qualified Chartered Accountant and holds a BA in Business Management from Newcastle University.

Elise is COO, Head of Investor Relations and Director at Earth Capital Ltd, an early-stage growth investment manager, investing across UK and Europe in clean technology solutions within the energy, food and water sectors. Her responsibilities include leading on brand and communication across investor relations and marketing, overseeing the day-to-day function of the operational team and working closely with the sustainability team on the Earth Dividend™.

She has over a decade of experience in the finance sector, and prior to Earth Capital Ltd, she held operational and investor relations roles at KKR and Edge VC.

Elise relocated to India for two years, working with NGOs focused on water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) where amongst other duties she handled relations between the various projects and their donors.

She has a Certificate in Environmental Management from the Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment (IEMA), is on the Advisory Board for Pensions for Purpose and is a Member of the Institute of Directors.

John joined DN Capital as Finance Director in 2013. DN Capital is an early stage venture capital firm with operations in UK, US and Germany which is in the process of closing its sixth fund.

He qualified as a chartered accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers and was a senior manager in the financial services practice. He was previously Head of Finance at Lion Capital and prior to that CFO of Vision Capital, Elderstreet Investments and Whereonearth.com, a venture capital backed software company, prior to its successful sale to Yahoo! He has a BSc in Physics from King’s College, London and MBA from Henley Business School.

Jason joined Headway Capital in 2018 as Chief Financial Officer. He previously spent over 5 years as Managing Director of EQT Services UK, EQT’s London based AIFM. Prior to this, Jason worked as the COO for Neovara LLP, the spin out of the Lehman Brothers European Mezzanine Fund which he joined in 2004. Jason has also held roles at Deutsche Bank, 3i plc and Nestlé. Jason is a qualified Chartered Accountant (CGMA) and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Surrey.

Kirsty is Chief Financial Officer at Px3 Partners and is responsible for corporate and fund accounting, tax, financial management and reporting, regulatory and compliance functions of the firm. She has over two decades of experience within the private equity industry, and prior to Px3 held finance roles at Kings Park Capital, Actis and Morgan Grenfell.

Raxita is the CFO at Dawn and manages all the finance and operations for Dawn.

Before joining Dawn, Raxita was a CFO of a Fintech group called TruFin plc. Raxita was instrumental in taking the group to IPO on AIM raising £70m of proceeds. Prior to TruFin, Raxita has held senior finance roles at Inflexion Private Equity and before that Oakley Capital Private Equity.

Raxita qualified as a chartered accountant with BDO and has a Civil Engineering degree from Cardiff University.

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Martin Kõdar (born in Tallinn, Estonia in 1976) joined BaltCap in the beginning of 2000 where he is serving as a co-Managing Partner. Martin is a member of the investment committee of BaltCap funds and his responsibilities include operational management of BaltCap group, investor relations and supervision of the administration of advised funds.

Martin is a member of the Mid-Market Council and the Chair of Invest Europe’s Professional Standards Committee (the association representing Europe’s private equity, venture capital and infrastructure sectors, as well as their investors).

He has graduated from Tallinn Technical University and has an EVCA (Invest Europe) Certificate in Institutional Private Equity Investing (CIPEI) from Oxford Saïd Business School.

Shuli joined Expedition Growth Capital in 2021 and leads all non-investment functions across Expedition’s funds and management company.

She began her career with 14 years at PwC, first as an auditor, then after qualifying as a chartered accountant, specialising in corporate taxes and transparency. She has undertaken industry roles in finance, compliance and governance, working in PE-backed and regulated environments. Shuli was previously Head of Operations at Electra Private Equity PLC, where she was part of a team that returned more than £2bn of capital to investors. She is a trustee of Allia, a charity working with entrepreneurs and businesses that aim to make positive change for people, planet and place.

Expedition Growth Capital is a software specialist growth equity firm, focused on €10m – €30m minority equity investments in rapidly growing, founder-owned software businesses across Europe. Expedition is typically the first outside investor into companies that have built world class products, and strong, growing market positions, in valuable categories of business software.

Brian Mason joined BC Partners in Jan 2022. Previously, Brian was Head of Private Assets Technology & Change at Schroders Capital where he was responsible for technology transformation projects and software development. Prior to this, Brian was Global Head of Client Ops Technology at HSBC for nearly 5 years responsible for a range of technology change initiatives. In his career he has also worked across multiple Investment Banks, Barclays, RBS & UBS in other senior technology roles.

Katie May is a Managing Director at leading legal technology company, Ontra. Formerly a lawyer in the debt finance team at Norton Rose Fulbright, she joined Ontra in 2019 to expand the company’s international business. Ontra provides legal technology solutions to over 500 private investment firms to expedite and optimise contracting, dealmaking and fundraising. Ontra received $200m in Series B funding from Blackstone in 2021.

Patrick is focused on growing new business revenues in all US and European locations. He is responsible for managing our direct business sales team with a focus on cross-selling initiatives for European and American clients. To this end, he partners with Sales and Relationship Management Teams, as well as Country Executives.

Patrick’s areas of experience and expertise include: private equity, real estate, private debt and infrastructure fund services and Institutional investors, as well as new business development and sales strategy.

He is a member of the UK private equity association, BVCA and the European private equity investment association, Invest Europe.

Prior to joining Alter Domus, Patrick spent six years at JPMorgan, where he was head of business development for JPMorgan’s European alternative investment fund services, and UK asset management services and pensions services sales. Prior to that he spent 18 years with financial technology providers, Misys and Temenos, creating new client relationships in new international locations. This included time living and working in France, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland and the Middle East.

Patrick was educated in Cambridge, England. He speaks English, Swedish and French.

Gail is the Managing Director and founder of PER, setting up the business in the late 1990s after a career in private equity at 3i. As well as running PER, she is a passionate member of the private equity community and actively involved in developments that shape the sector. These currently range from the evolution of effective compensation strategies to diversity and inclusion, ESG and mental health. Gail has a deep network across the private equity industry in the UK and internationally, and shares her knowledge and insight through conferences, articles and in every interaction with the people she meets.

Neel joined Primary as Finance Partner in 2022 and is responsible for the financial management, compliance and operations of the firm.

Before joining Primary, he was the Chief Financial Officer of DWS Private Equity and prior to that, the Finance Director at Mayfair Equity Partners.

Neel started his career as a Teacher of Mathematics, hold a BA (Hons) in International Accounting and Finance from the University of Brighton and is a fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.

Debojit Mukherjee joined Agilitas in 2017 and is the firm’s Chief Operating Officer. Agilitas was built around a clear ethical framework, pursuing an investment strategy where shareholder value is aligned with providing a better answer to human or environmental needs. Debojit sits on the Responsible Investment Committee, which seeks to drive ESG improvements at the firm and portfolio company level.

Debojit has over 10 years of experience as COO and CFO at private equity firms in London. He holds a BSc (Hons.) in Economics from University College London and is a fellow of the ICAEW.

Kevin is Head of Business Change and Services. He is based in the Firm’s London office. As Head of Business Change and Services, Kevin is responsible for leading and supporting a range of transformation, data and business change initiatives. Kevin has been in Financial services for over 25 years (18 years in private equity). He is actively involved in data and technology industry initiatives and is well connected across the private markets community of both managers and service providers. Prior to joining Coller Capital in 2011, Kevin worked for 7 years at Climate Change Capital. Kevin has a Bachelor of Commerce degree focussed on Accounting, Management Accounting and Finance and Tax.

Fabian is Director Finance at SwanCap Partners GmbH, based in Munich, and has been part of the SwanCap team since it was spun out of the Principal Investments unit of UniCredit in 2013, where he executed UniCredit’s private equity co-investments since joining UniCredit in 2011. Previously, he began his career at Allianz SE's Group Accounting/ Group Financial Reporting department. Fabian received a Dipl. Kfm. (eq. Master's degree in Business Administration) from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich.

Dee is Head of Cyber and IT Infrastructure at BGF, the UK and Irelands most active equity capital investor in growing companies. His role encompasses management of technology operations, risk and governance, while also acting as the firms DPO. Dee joined BGF in 2012, during the firm’s early inception, to help architect and execute the firms first IT strategy focused on building scalable technology solutions to deliver the rapid growth and ambition of the business. Prior to BGF, Dee held senior technology leadership roles in private and government-funded organisations. Dee is a CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) and has a certified background in IT Service Management (ITIL Expert) and Programme Management (MSP).

Giovanni is a Partner at Medicxi and a member of the co-founding team. He oversees the finance operations at Medicxi and recently won the award for Chief Financial Officer of the Year at the Drawdown Awards 2021. Prior to joining Medicxi, Giovanni spent five years in the finance industry with senior positions at Index Ventures and Intermediate Capital Group. He began his career at PwC in Auckland, New Zealand, joining their audit and transaction services divisions and qualified as a Chartered Accountant during this tim

Jonathan Pugh-Smith is the General Counsel – Funds and European Compliance Officer for Bregal Investments. Jonathan joined Bregal Investments in 2013. Prior to joining Bregal, Jonathan trained and qualified as a solicitor of the Senior Courts of England & Wales at Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP, during this period of his career he also spent time on secondment as in-house counsel at Schroders plc. Jonathan has also spent time as a legal consultant in the Philippines for an anti-trafficking NGO and continues to act as an advocate in this field as well as a director for a multi-national anti-trafficking charity outside of his role at Bregal.

Marvin is a Principal Solution Consultant at Sage, focused on Sage Intacct, which is a cloud-native finance and subscription billing platform supporting over 14k customers from early stage through to Enterprise. Marvin currently leads the software vertical within the medium segment at Sage, which involves supporting hyper-growth SaaS and technology companies to scale through finance digital transformation. Marvin also manages strategic private equity relationships alongside engaging directly with their technology-based portfolio organisations.

Prior to joining Sage, Marvin worked as a product SME in high-growth scale-up and established SaaS environments such as Freshworks, NetSuite, and Oracle; primarily focused on supporting SaaS clients' cloud digital transformation projects across enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer experience (CX), professional services automation (PSA) applications.

Sarah is the COO at Seraphim Space, overseeing Finance, Legal, Compliance, Operations, Investor Relations, Risk Management and HR. She has 25 years of finance experience.

Prior to Seraphim Space, Sarah was a partner at Development Partners International for 14.5 years from its inception in 2007. She was responsible for administration of the firm and its funds, including legal, compliance, HR, IT, operations, facilities and ESG and also sat on the investment committee.

Sarah has experience as an active board director on private equity fund general partners and investment holding companies. She was previously a co-chair of the African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (AVCA) Compliance & Best Practice Committee.

Before joining Development Partners International, Sarah was an Associate Director on the Technology Equity Research team at UBS in London, specialising in the telecommunications equipment sector and covering large-cap European companies, including Nokia, Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent.

Sarah worked in various operations risk, accounting and financial systems analyst roles at UBS, Dresdner Kleinwort Benson and HSBC Investment Bank in the early stages of her career.

Sarah holds a BSc (Hons) in Economics and Accounting from the University of Bristol.

Based in London, Kate is Legal Counsel (Director of Transactions), responsible for overseeing legal aspects of transaction structuring and execution. Previously, Kate was General Counsel at Campbell Lutyens and a partner in the private funds group at both Proskauer and Kirkland Ellis. Kate is qualified as a solicitor in England and Wales.

Luke is a Partner and CFO/COO at ARA Venn. Luke has 27 years of experience in financial, operational, compliance and infrastructure roles, with a particular focus on credit products. Before joining ARA Venn in 2015, Luke was Head of Operations at CQS, Product Control at Cairn Capital, and was an Executive Director at Goldman Sachs leading the structured credit middle office. Luke has a degree in Mathematics from the University of East Anglia.