2022 Speakers

Stuart Brinkworth is the head of Leveraged Finance in Europe and a partner in the Banking & Finance practice of the London office. He has a wealth of experience spanning over 200 deals in the mid-market having been a partner in the City since 2006. He focuses on acting for UK and international lenders (including credit and debt funds), sponsors and sponsor-backed portfolio companies on a variety of UK, European and cross-border leveraged finance transactions, including private equity-backed leveraged buy-outs, public bids, recapitalisations, rescue-style financings and restructurings. He is experienced across all elements of the debt capital structure.

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Mat Deering joined Tosca Debt Capital as a partner in 2021 to further develop and grow the firm’s investment portfolio. He works alongside founding partners Gary Davison and Richard Williams to strengthen the firm’s presence in the market and unlock growth for regional SMEs.

As a partner within the firm, Mat primarily focuses on the natural extension of the TDC proposition, which is centred around the deployment of secured debt capital into UK corporates. He leads on transactions which require a broader approach to financing, potentially involving equity participation and subordinated debt investment.

Mat’s career spans 23 years and he has a wealth of experience in the private equity and corporate advisory space, having started his career at EY before going on to become an original team member and Partner at Endless LLP.

Luca has 20 years of experience investing in mid-market companies and building and managing investment portfolios in private credit. At Racing Capital, Luca will focus on deal sourcing, serve as chair of the investment committee, and serve on the risk committee.

Prior to the launch of Racing Capital in 2021, Luca worked for over 15 years at Magnetar Capital in London where, since 2013, he was responsible for the the European Private Capital investment strategy. While there, he implemented strategic partnerships with financial institutions and served as chairman and board member of various portfolio companies.

Previously, he was the Head of Corporate Finance at DeAgostini Group where he led the execution of the diversification of the business through acquisitions and strategic transactions, and managed the financial assets of the group.

From 1993 to 2001 Luca worked in M&A at Cross Border, Crosby Corporate Advisory and BioCorp Securities, and leveraged finance at Barclays Capital, advising entrepreneurs, management teams, corporates, private equity and venture capital firms in London, Milan and Singapore.

Francesco is a Partner in Pantheon’s European Investment and Global Private Debt Investment Teams. Francesco is actively involved in all Pantheon’s European investment activities. Francesco was previously with Unigestion, where he managed the firm’s global secondaries program. Prior to Unigestion he was a partner and co-founder of the European venture capital firm DN Capital, before which he spent three years working in the European investment team at Advent International. He has a BA in East Asian studies from Princeton University, and received an MBA from Insead.

Philip is a Partner and member of the Investment Committee. He leads the firm’s capital markets team with responsibility for debt financing strategy and lender relationships, supporting new investments and the existing Inflexion portfolio.

Prior to this Philip spent 10 years investing across all sectors having invested in Alcumus, CTC Aviation, Kynetec, Lane Clark & Peacock, Marston, Peach, Scott Dunn, Vivona Brands and Xtrac.

Walid leads Soho Square’s fundraising activities and has overall responsibility for the operations of the firm. Prior to Soho Square, he co-founded the private equity firm Core Capital in 2004, having worked previously in strategy consulting, operations and investment banking. Walid also founded and sold one of the largest internet service providers in the Middle East.

He has a BSc in Mechanical Engineering, a BSc in Finance and an Msc in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of technology (MIT).

Mike leads IGF’s national origination team as Commercial Director and has previously held senior roles across both commercial and risk management within the ABL lending space.

IGF are an independent Asset Based Lender (ABL), providing facilities of between £1m and £25m in support of event driven opportunities, including MBO’s/MBI’s, acquisitions, refinances for growth and turnaround.

Facilities are delivered with a ‘relationship led’ focus, providing borrowers and their advisers with certainty of funding and minimised execution risk.

Eric Gallerne is a Managing Partner in charge of the Private Debt activity and is a member of the Investment Committee.

Before joining the Group in 2012, he was co-founder and head of mezzanine investments (ActoMezz) for Groupama Private Equity for five years. Before that, he spent 10 years heading up the Acquisition Finance department at Fortis Banque France.

Eric holds a Master I in Business Law, and a Master II in law, banking and financial markets from the University of Caen.

Adam Grimsley is an Investment Director within abrdn’s private credit business. Adam’s role is to lead abrdn’s private credit investment strategy to meet the changing needs of global investors.

Previously he was a founding partner of Prime Factor Capital, the first FCA regulated crypto hedge fund. Adam started his career at BlackRock where he was a fixed income investment specialist for over 10 years.

Stuart has over 17 years of experience in the European leverage buyout market. He began his career working in the leveraged finance team at UBS, and then spent 9 years in the European mezzanine and private debt group at Barings investing in European middle market credit. Prior to joining Ardian he worked at TSSP, TPG’s credit platform, as a Director helping develop its European private debt business. He is based in the London office.

Nick is responsible for the origination, execution and monitoring of Senior Opportunities investments across Europe, with a focus on the UK. Prior to joining Kartesia, Nick Holman was a Director in Santander’s Structured Finance team where he was responsible for leading transactions and helping to develop the UK franchise. Previously he worked in the leveraged finance and syndication departments of Lloyds, where he completed a broad range of European leveraged and high yield transactions for large and mid-market Financial Sponsors.

Amy Jacks serves on Mayer Brown’s Partnership Board and is co-head of the Restructuring practice of the London office. She acts for a variety of funds, investment and clearing banks, insolvency practitioners, corporates, management teams and property advisors. Amy advises on complex and often multi-jurisdictional restructurings as well as having undertaken many of the larger portfolio sales in the market recently. She has led various high-profile transactions across a breadth of sectors including, in the last few months, construction, retail, technology, waste, energy and automotive.

Andy Kolacki is a partner in the Banking & Finance practice of the London office. He represents lenders, private equity sponsors and borrowers in connection with domestic and international acquisition/leverage financings and restructurings. Andy’s practice includes senior and subordinated capital structures (including second lien and mezzanine facilities) with specific experience of bank/bond financings and transatlantic financings using US term loan B structures.

Claire is Managing Partner of Connection Capital, a private client investment business specialising in alternative investments. Claire’s career began as a private equity investor at 3i having graduated in Banking & International Finance from Loughborough University. After some years in financial recruitment, she co-founded a private client investment business which she sold out of in 2009 before co-founding Connection Capital in 2010. Connection Capital was established by a team who share the same aim: to give its private and family office clients access to alternative investments which are available to the institutional market but often closed to private investors.

The firm’s innovative syndicated model pools its clients’ capital on a deal by deal or fund by fund basis meaning investors can access opportunities which would usually be out of reach due to minimum investment size. Connection Capital clients can invest on a self-select basis so a bespoke portfolio can be built up over time. Opportunities can broadly be classified as either direct private equity, private debt and commercial property investments or pooled allocations to alternative asset funds. Connection Capital’s team manages over £408m across these products. Due to the nature of Connection Capital’s business, Claire has experience of sitting on both sides of the private equity/private debt fence: as part of the investment committee overseeing Connection Capital’s own-led deals and also as an LP investor in other firms’ funds.

David joined Beechbrook in early 2018 following a 32-year career with Bank of Ireland in various roles, culminating as Head of Enterprise Development. At Beechbrook, David is Head of European Private Debt, leading the sponsor-backed lending strategy in the European lower mid-market. Beechbrook Capital, a specialist direct lender founded in 2008, invests in SMEs across a range of industries in the UK and Europe. To date, it has raised more than €1bn through eight funds and has invested in 90+ companies in the European lower mid-market. Beechbrook’s private debt funds support northern European private equity-backed companies with a typical enterprise value of €10 million to €100 million, investing between €5m and €25m per transaction. Beechbrook’s UK SME funds support non-private equity backed SMEs across the UK with a typical enterprise value of £10 million to £100 million, investing between £5m and £20m per transaction. The Beechbrook team consists of 20 plus investment professionals located in the UK, Germany and Ireland. Beechbrook is a signatory to the UN PRI.

Serenity is responsible for Mount Street’s EMEA Credit Servicing group. She is responsible for the end-to-end Servicing of performing and non-performing balance sheet, syndication and securitised product secured across Real Assets. Serenity manages teams that cover Loans Administration, Investor Reporting, Asset Management, Credit Surveillance, Debt Brokerage and Special Servicing. Prior to Mount Street, Serenity worked at Capita Asset Services (now BCM Global) where she headed up their Primary Servicing function together with being responsible for CMBS restructuring, including leading one of the UK’s most complex and long running CMBS restructures, Theatre Hospitals CMBS 1 and 2.

Paolo Morrone is a Vice President in Tikehau Capital’s direct lending team based in London.

He joined Tikehau in 2016 and focuses on the origination and execution of UK direct lending transactions, from unitranche to subordinated debt instruments and equity co-investments. He has also completed a number of direct lending transactions across Germany, Spain, Italy, France and the Nordics over the years. Before joining Tikehau, Paolo was a member of the Leveraged Finance team at Mediobanca in London.

Tristan is a Partner at Aurelius European Opportunities and heads the firm’s London office. In leading the UK & Ireland investment activities for Aurelius, he has a mandate to undertake Pan-European private equity deals including corporate carve-outs and operational transformations. During his time with Aurelius, he has completed numerous mid-market private equity investments in partnership with Asset-Based Lenders. Prior to joining Aurelius, Tristan spent almost 10 years in Corporate Finance at KPMG followed by 3 years at Investec Growth & Acquisition Finance as a senior banker. Tristan is a director of Aurelius Finance Company, the firm’s alternative direct lender, focused on providing financial solutions to small and mid-market companies across the UK and Europe.

Craig is the founding partner of Columbia Lake Partners, providing growth capital loans to technology firms based in the UK and Europe. Previously he was a Partner at Wellington Financial LP.

Prior to joining Wellington in 2005, Craig worked at a mid-market financial advisory firm providing merger, acquisition advisory and business planning services. Previously, he was a Regional Director at Russell Investments (1999-2003). He started his career as a Systems Engineer with Xerox Canada.

Craig earned his Bachelor of Mathematics (Honours) degree from The University of Waterloo. He earned his Masters of Business Administration (with distinction) from the Ivey School of Business and was awarded the Ivey Scholar for academic excellence. Craig is a Chartered Financial Analyst.

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Richard Oliver is a Partner in the Ares Credit Group, where he focuses on European Direct Lending. He has 17 years of experience within the Mid-Market Debt space and has led numerous notable transactions across the Ares portfolio.

Prior to joining Ares in 2007, Mr. Oliver was a Manager in the Financial Sponsor Group at Barclays, where he focused on leveraged finance. Mr. Oliver holds an M.Eng. (Hons) from Loughborough University in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering.

Amyn joined from Strategic Value Partners where he focused on European distressed debt investments. Previously he was in the London office of Clayton, Dubilier & Rice and focused on European leveraged buyout opportunities. He also worked for Goldman Sachs in New York and London in their Investment Banking Division. Amyn has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Economics and Computer Science from Dartmouth College.

Joe joined All Seas Capital Partners in 2020. Prior to All Seas, Joe was a Vice President at Lazard, where he spent close to six years in the Financial Sponsors and Industrials M&A teams. Joe worked across a variety of transactions at Lazard, including sell-side and buy-side M&A, as well as IPOs and re-financing transactions. Most recently he focussed on mid-market transactions with a range of capital solutions, from full control to minority equity

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Kimberly Romaine is Director of Private Equity Communications, a specialist provider of content and advice to the mid-market community since 2014. Focused purely on private equity, PEC is truly expert in what helps connect funders with opportunities as well as the intermediaries that help bring them together. Kimberly has over 20 years’ experience in the industry across journalism, data, fundraising, market research and events gleaned from roles publications and data providers. She holds an MSc (hons) in Political Economy from the London School of Economics and a BSc magna cum laude in International Business from The College of New Jersey.

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Ian Sale is one of the London Team heads on HSBC’s Mid Market Leverage Finance team. He has over 20 years’ experience in the leveraged finance arena. Ian and his colleagues provide senior debt, super senior debt and working capital facilities for private equity investments in the UK and overseas. Ian has served on the Member Engagement Advisory Committee of the BVCA and is an external guest speaker on debt at the CASS Business School, London for their Private Equity MBA module.

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James is the Head of Westbrooke’s Hybrid Capital business. Previously Head of Growth & Acquisition Finance at Investec, James has over 20 years’ experience in the UK lower-mid market, alternative lending space. Prior to Investec, James worked in M&A Tax and Corporate Finance advisory roles. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, and holds a MA in Classics from the University of Edinburgh.

Natalia is Head of European Private Credit at Apollo and is responsible for originating, structuring and underwriting transactions. Natalia has over 14 years of investing experience and extensive knowledge in direct lending dealflow, having worked closely with private equity houses and corporates over the years. Prior to joining Apollo, Natalia was a Managing Director at Alcentra where she was one of the founding members of its European direct lending platform.

David Wilmot is a Founder Partner of Apera responsible for developing the business in the UK and the Nordic region. David has extensive experience both of direct lending investment and management of private debt teams and portfolios. Prior to Apera, David spent 16 years at Babson Capital Management, where, as Joint Head of European Private Finance, he was responsible for the investment origination, portfolio management, and capital raising activities for several funds and investment mandates. Prior to Babson, David was head of the UK Leverage Finance team at Société Générale. David holds a B.Sc. (Hons) in Banking and Finance from Loughborough University, an MBA from Bayes Business School and is an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers.