OUR GUEST SPEAKERS

Peter Deming

Managing Director, Warburg Pincus

Peter Deming is a Managing Director and Heads the Financial Services team in Europe. Peter joined the firm in 2007 and has led a number of flagship transactions in financial services and fintech companies including investments in Allfunds, Avaloq, The Mutual Fund Store, Financial Engines, National Penn Bank, Source, Sterling Financial, and Webster Bank.

He is currently a Board member of Aion Bank, Evelyn Partners, Personetics, Singular, and Vodeno Technology.

Prior to joining Warburg Pincus, Peter worked at Goldman Sachs in the Fixed Income Currency and Commodities Advisory group. Peter has a BS in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University.

Marty Guinoo

Partner, Apax

Marty Guinoo is a Partner in the OEP team. He joined Apax Partners in 2016 and is currently based in New York.

Prior to joining Apax Partners, Marty had over 10 years of experience running and selling assets for private equity.

During that time he was the CEO of Sentient Jet and President of Icon Parking. Before entering private equity Marty worked at Priceline.com and Starwood Hotels. Marty holds a BA from Harvard College.

Borja Cabrera Bellon

Senior Vice President, Providence Equity Partners

Borja Cabrera is a senior vice president on the investment team based in the London office.

He is a director of VivaGym and is a member of the firm’s ESG committee. Prior to joining Providence in 2019, he worked as an analyst in the investment banking division at Goldman Sachs in Madrid.

Mr. Cabrera holds a Master of Science in finance and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Esade Business School in Barcelona.

Dan Pottorff

Head of Debt Investment, Tristan Capital Partners

Dan is Head of Debt Investment at Tristan. He is responsible for all of Tristan’s lending activities including the Tristan Income Plus Strategies (TIPS) Fund series. 

Since it’s launch in 2021, Tristan’s lending platform has originated more than €1.2bn of debt financing across Europe and the UK.  Dan has an experienced track record in real estate lending, structured finance and distressed investing, spanning 20 years.

Prior to joining Tristan in 2021, Dan was Managing Director in the Debt & Special Situations team at LaSalle Investment Management where he was responsible for originating and executing transactions for the LaSalle Real Estate Debt Strategies fund series and several separate account mandates encompassing development finance, whole loan lending and special situations. During his time at LaSalle, Dan was directly responsible for transactions representing over €1.4bn of lending and was fund manager for the Special Situations program.

Prior to joining LaSalle in 2014, Dan worked at Strategic Value Partners (SVP) where he was involved in acquiring c.€300m of distressed collateralized mortgage-backed securities (CMBS), whole loans and mezzanine loans backed by real estate in the UK, Germany and Spain.

Previously, Dan was part of the Securitized Products Group at Morgan Stanley where he was involved in underwriting c. €10bn of loans in the UK, Spain, Benelux and Germany as well as structuring CMBS for the European Loan Conduit (ELOC) program.

Dan holds an MSc with Distinction in Global Market Economics from the London School of Economics and a BBA in Business Administration and BSc in Economics from the University of Iowa. He has been living and working in London since 2002.

Elsa Palanza

Managing Director and Global Head of Sustainability & ESG - ICG

Elsa Palanza is Managing Director and Global Head of Sustainability & ESG at ICG, where she is responsible for setting the firm’s sustainability strategy across all asset classes. She oversees the integration of responsible investing practices into ICG’s investment approach, the advancement of related policy and thought leadership for the firm, and leads client and stakeholder engagement on sustainability matters.

Elsa joined ICG with over 20 years of experience working across a range of sustainability matters as a strategic advisor for companies, foundations, and civil society organizations, forging comprehensive solutions to complex global challenges. Prior to assuming this role, Elsa was Global Head of Sustainability & ESG at Barclays, where she led strategy, policy, and engagement for the bank on sustainability and ESG matters, including launching the bank’s first climate policy.

She served as Director of Commitments for the Clinton Global Initiative, a role that afforded her broad insight into best practices in sustainability, and was enlisted by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to create and launch a platform to advance progress on the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Earlier in her career, Elsa worked in Washington, D.C. delivering geopolitical and industry risk analysis to international energy companies, and in Istanbul, Turkey, leading growth and engagement for an education company.

Elsa currently serves in several industry leadership positions, including Chair of the iCI Net Zero Working Group, member of the iCI Steering Committee, and member of the PRI Private Debt Advisory Committee, and has done extensive public speaking on sustainability and ESG.

She has a BA in international studies from Middlebury College and attended the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, where she concentrated on international security studies.

Nicki Boyd

Founder & Managing Partner, Sphera Partners

Nicki is an experienced investor, serial entrepreneur and competitive athlete.

She recently founded Sphera Partners, a growth equity investment firm focused on accelerating the growth of women’s sport, while delivering superior financial returns and positively impacting social equality.

She was previously a founding partner at Apiary Capital, a leading UK lower mid-market investor, and prior to that she was a senior member of the investment team at Inflexion Private Equity. She began her career as a strategy consultant at Deloitte before moving into private equity with her initial role at NBGI Private Equity.

Nicki is an active angel investor and mentor. She also serves as a mentor on a UK government women in sports accelerator programme, and is a Board Member and Former Chair of the Senior Leaders Committee at Level 20. In her spare time, Nicki is a competitive endurance athlete, who enjoys running across deserts (Marathon des Sables) and cycling across continents (Race Across the West), Nicki is a member of team GB representing Great Britain at triathlon.

Nicki has a BSc (Hons) in Psychology and Physiology from Brasenose College, Oxford, and a Masters from Stanford Business School.

Ian Marcus OBE

Senior Advisor, Eastdil Secured

Ian graduated from the University of Cambridge in 1981 with a degree in Land Economy. Ian was in the banking industry for over 32 years having previously worked for Bank of America, UBS, NatWest and Bankers Trust/Deutsche, always focusing on the real estate industry.

Ian joined Credit Suisse First Boston in 1999 to establish the Real Estate Group, and became Managing Director and Chairman of the European Real Estate Investment Banking.

Ian is a member of Redevco’s Advisory Board, Chair of Europe’s Largest Self Storage Business, Shurgard, and  The Senior Non-Executive Director for Town Centre Securities Plc. He is a Senior Adviser to both Eastdil Secured and Anschutz Entertainment Group.

He is the Senior Advisor to two new Businesses, Work Life and Elysian Residences. He is a Deputy Chair of the Saracens Multi Academy Trust and a Non-executive Director of a data centre business, Green Mountain Global. He chaired the Princes Regeneration Trust for 11 years and was a Trustee of the Princes Foundation.

Ian is a former Crown Estate Commissioner, former Senior Independent Director of Secure Income REIT, a past President of the British Property Federation, past President of the Cambridge University Land Society, past Chairman of the Investment Property Forum, a Fellow of the RICS and for 10 years chaired the Bank of England Commercial Property Forum.

Ian was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in HM Queen’s 2020 Birthday Honours List.

Venika Kapur

Director, PSP Investments

Venika Kapur is a Director in Private Equity at the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments) where she actively contributes to the European efforts in TMT.

Prior to joining PSP Investments, Venika worked at Investcorp, where she focused on mid0market opportunities within the MENA region.

She holds a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Indiana University Bloomington and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Benoît Durteste

Chief Investment Officer and Chief Executive Officer, ICG

Benoît joined ICG in Paris in September 2002 from Swiss Re where he was a Managing Director in their London Structured Finance division.

Benoît is an experienced investor with a strong understanding of the markets in which the Group operates. During his time on the Board he has been a strong contributor to the Group’s strategic development.

Prior to Swiss Re, Benoît worked in the Leveraged Finance division of BNP Paribas and in GE Capital’s Telecom and Media Private Equity team in London. He moved to ICG’s London office in 2007 and became ICG’s CEO and Chief Investment Officer in 2017 leading the European investment business. He contributes a thorough understanding of financial markets and the Group’s investment portfolio to Board proceedings.

Miguel Toney

Partner, CVC Credit

Miguel Toney, Partner at CVC is a member of the Private Credit team based in London.

Prior to joining CVC, Miguel was a Partner at Park Square Capital. Miguel also spent 11 years at MezzVest (now MV Credit), and two years at Credit Suisse.

Miguel holds an MBA from Said Business School (University of Oxford), and a BA in Economics and International Politics from Vassar College, New York.

Dana Haimoff

Managing Director, JP Morgan Asset Management

Dana Haimoff, Managing Director, joined the Private Equity Group in 2002. Ms. Haimoff is a senior Portfolio Manager in the London office. 

She is responsible for sourcing, due diligence and monitoring private equity primary venture capital, growth and buyout funds, secondary and co-investment opportunities on behalf of the PEG’s comingled and client separate account funds. 

Currently, she serves on numerous private equity LP advisory committees.  Dana is the co-Founder of Level20, a not-for-profit organization set up to encourage women to succeed in the private equity industry. She is a member of the British Venture Capital Association’s Limited Partner Committee.  Dana is a director on the board of JPMorgan Asset Management International Ltd and JPMorgan Asset Management (UK) Ltd and is responsible for the firm’s SMCR’s EMEA Alternatives.

Andrew Fairbairn

Executive Vice President, SEO USA

Andrew Fairbairn is the Senior Vice President of SEO, overseeing SEO’s five professional programs: Career, Tech Developer, Alternative Investments, Law, and Leadership Institute.

Andrew has been involved with SEO for almost three decades, beginning in 1995 as an SEO Career intern for Lehman Brothers, which launched his career in finance, consulting, and executive leadership. In 2000, Andrew co-founded SEO London while on assignment with Deutsche Bank, and after many years on the board of directors, he became the CEO in 2016. Under his tenure at SEO, Andrew oversaw the growth of all SEO London programming. Andrew knows firsthand the power and impact of SEO and believes that SEO is a “powerful vector for hope in our society.”

Andrew’s upbringing has been influential throughout his life and has solidified his focus on racial equity and social justice. Although he was born in Massachusetts, Andrew spent his first 10 years in Jamaica, West Indies, in his mother’s hometown. He moved back to the Boston area for middle school and high school. Being mixed race, Andrew is simultaneously an insider and an outsider in many of the conversations on race and differences in our society. Throughout his formative experiences, he saw how systemic factors can be limiting for so many individuals and communities, which solidified his commitment to ensuring opportunity is available to all.

Andrew brings an entrepreneurial and cross-industry perspective to his role and is passionate about seeing young people succeed.

Beth Carter

Partner, Just Climate

Beth Carter joined Just Climate in 2022 and is a Partner on the Investment Team. She leads the technical due diligence and risk evaluation for the investment portfolio.

Previously, Beth was the senior business leader for clean hydrogen at Honeywell UOP, where she led the commercialisation of hydrogen and carbon capture technologies. Beth spent 14 years at Honeywell UOP, with her early career in international field service and engineering, followed by leadership positions in research and development, where she was accountable for the design and optimisation of new energy technologies from conceptual design through to commercial implementation.

Beth received a BSc in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University, is a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of Illinois, and is a co-inventor for six US patents.

Khalil Mair

Growth Equity Strategy, Generation IM

Khalil Mair is a member of Generation's Growth Equity strategy. He joined Generation in 2021 and was previously a consultant at McKinsey & Company.  

Khalil received a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University, St Hugh’s College. 

Rob Williams

Managing Director, Temasek

Rob Williams joined Temask in 2015. He covers Temasek’s UK investments and across EMEA in the energy transition and education sectors.

Rob is a Board Director at UK education business Busy Bees, Board Director at investment company Tana Africa Capital, Board Observer at Danish catalyst & technology business Topsøe, and sits on the advisory board of French investment firm Tikehau Investment Management.

He also is a member of the Business Leaders Council of UK education charity TeachFirst. Previously, Rob was in Citi’s investment banking team, focusing on mergers & acquisitions in the industrials and services sectors. Rob has a BSc in Economics from the University of Warwick.

Lynn Akashi

Founding Partner and Chief Strategy Officer, Zetland Capital Partners LLP

Lynn is a Founding Partner of Zetland Capital, leading the firm’s growth and change initiatives to bring about our long-term goals and vision. She believes we must all live our values, with a leadership style that is grounded in inclusion, transparency and clarity of purpose.

Lynn has over 20-years of experience in both public and private markets. She joined the founding team of Salomon Smith Barney’s proprietary Special Situations and Distressed desk in New York, including the expansion of the business to Tokyo at the back-end of the 90s.

Lynn was then asked to join Citigroup’s nascent London Leverage Finance team building both the primary markets across Europe and secondary loan sales and trading businesses. Lynn is a graduate of Wellesley College in Economics and Political Science.

Charlie Tafoya

Co-Founder and CEO, Chronograph

Charlie is the Co-Founder and CEO of Chronograph, provider of next-generation portfolio monitoring and reporting solutions to private capital LPs and GPs. He previously was a private equity secondaries investor with Pantheon Ventures and investment banker with Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Charlie is an SEO alum and current mentor of both the Investment Banking Career program and Alternative Investment Fellowship and joined the SEO Junior Leadership Board in 2018.

SEO Investment Banking Career Alum 2008, Mentor

SEO Alternative Investments Fellow 2012, Mentor

SEO Junior Leadership Board 2018

Suzana Perić

Managing Director, Oaktree Capital Management

Ms. Perić is a managing director in Oaktree’s Sourcing & Origination group, focusing on private credit sourcing and deal origination across Europe. She joined Oaktree in 2023 from Bridgepoint Credit (previously EQT Credit), where she served as a managing director and Head of Origination and Opportunities for its opportunities fund and built the fund’s pan-European origination function.

Previously, Ms. Perić led Santander’s EMEA Loan Sales team across project finance, real estate, leveraged finance, corporates and infrastructure. In her early career, she worked at HSH Nordbank, Natixis and Hamburg Hafencity. She graduated from ESCP Europe Business School (London/Madrid) and holds an M.A. in philology from the University of Hamburg, Germany. Ms. Perić is a native German and Croatian speaker, and business fluent in Spanish.

Dami Lalude

Managing Director, Bregal Sphere

Dami Lalude is a Managing Director at Bregal Sphere, the impact investing platform of Bregal Investments, investing in climate and nature-based solutions. Prior to joining Bregal, Dami was a senior investment professional with Helios Investment Partners where she was part of the founding team of the firm’s climate impact fund.

She started her career in investment banking at Goldman Sachs where she worked in European mergers & acquisitions and high-yield capital markets.

Dami is currently an independent member of the Ethical Investment Advisory Group of the Church of England. She holds an MEng in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College (first class honours) and received her MBA from Harvard Business School.

Raj Rao

President and COO, Global Infrastructure Partners

Raj Rao is the President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) and is a founding partner of the firm, having joined at GIP’s inception in 2006. He is a member of the Office of the Chairman and is a member of the firm’s Executive Committee and Investment Committee. Mr. Rao was previously GIP’s Global Head of Energy. He is based in New York.

Before GIP, Mr. Rao worked in the Global Energy Group of the Investment Banking Division of Credit Suisse and, prior to that, was in the Energy Investment Banking Group at Barclays Capital in London. He began his career in the equity sales group of Kotak Securities in Mumbai.

Mr. Rao currently serves on the board of directors of Naturgy and Vena Energy. He has previously served on the board of directors of CLH, London City Airport, Saeta Yield and Transit Gas Pipeline. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Asia Society, as well as the Board of Directors of Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO).

Mr. Rao holds a Bachelor of Engineering from the National Institute of Technology Karnataka, an M.B.A. from the Faculty of Management Studies of Delhi University and a Masters in Finance from London Business School.

Sabrina Colin

Partner, Divergent Investments

Sabrina Colin is a Partner at Divergent Investments, a €300m private equity fund with offices in London, New York and Lisbon.

For 14 years prior to joining Divergent, Sabrina held positions at IH International Advisors, a global asset management firm that manages capital on behalf of the Interogo Foundation. She started her tenure as an Investment Analyst and rapidly advanced to the role of Investment Director. Over time, she further advanced her career and became the Co-Head of the Investment Team. In her capacity as Co-Head, Sabrina shared the responsibility for formulating the investment strategy and allocating capital across private equity funds, co-investments, and direct investments.

Sabrina began her career as an equity analyst at Aurel BGC in Paris and graduated from NEOMA business school.

Jamaria Kong

Managing Director, Towerbrook

Jamaria Kong is a Managing Director of TowerBrook, where she co-leads Digital. Jamaria is responsible for Digital Value Creation across nearly 30 European portfolio companies and has been actively implementing Artificial Intelligence.

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

Jamaria earned her B.Sc. in Business Information Technology and M.Com. in International Business from the University of New South Wales.

Vladimir Balchev

Managing Director, Hayfin

Vladimir joined Hayfin in 2018 and is a Managing Director in the Private Equity Solutions team, which focuses on single-asset GP-led secondary opportunities in the European mid-market across Healthcare, Technology and Business Services.

Prior to joining Hayfin, he was a Vice President in the European Private Equity team at Pantheon Ventures, focusing on origination, execution, and monitoring of secondary and direct co-investment transactions across Europe.

Before this, Vladimir worked at Rothschild’s M&A advisory team in London, at European Investment Fund and at McKinsey & Company.

Michaela Wood

Director, KRR

Michaela Wood has worked in private equity for around 10 years, focused on the UK and on Financial Services. She is currently a Director at KKR and previously was at CVC Capital Partners.

Transactions / portfolio companies she has been involved in include ERM, Wella, Six Nations, Pro14, QA Group, Neptune Energy and the RAC. She started her career at the Boston Consulting Group and General Electric (in the internal M&A team). Michaela holds an MPhil from the University of Cambridge and a BA from the University of Oxford.

She is the Chair of Impetus Futures, aimed at funding charities that support disadvantaged young people in the UK.

Assia Belkahia

Partner, Antin Infrastructure Partners

Assia Belkahia joined Antin in 2017 and is based in London.

She holds board seats for CityFibre, the UK’s third largest full fibre network; Wildstone, Europe’s largest owner of outdoor media infrastructure; Hippocrates, the leading Italian independent pharmacy platform; as well as Consilium Safety, a global leader in safety management infrastructure.

Assia led the feasibility phase, preparation and launch of Antin’s NextGen infrastructure strategy.

Prior to Antin, she was with CPP Investments, focusing on core infrastructure.

Assia started her career in M&A at Rothschild and holds an MSc in Business from ESSEC Business School.

Xunhua Wong

Managing Director, Hayfin

Xunhua joined Hayfin in 2013 and is a Managing Director and Trader within the Private Credit team

Prior to joining Hayfin, she was a trader and Vice President of Canyon Capital Advisors (Europe) Ltd. based in London. Before joining Canyon, Xunhua worked at Amaranth Advisors LLC for four years in both the United States and United Kingdom. She graduated from Harvard College with an AB in Economics.

Nakul Sarin

Managing Director, Blackstone

Nakul Sarin is a Managing Director and Co-Head of UK Origination and Sponsor Coverage for Blackstone Credit and Insurance (BXCI) based in London.

Mr. Sarin previously worked for Bridgepoint Credit as a Partner. Prior to his time at Bridgepoint, he was a Partner with EQT Credit.  He also served as an Investment Director with Permira Credit. Prior to Permira, Mr. Sarin was a member of the M&A and Financial Advisory group at Blackstone.  He also has held roles with Merrill Lynch and CIBC.

Mr. Sarin graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce from McGill University and received a Master of Science from the University of Warwick.

Greg Coates

Member of the Genesis Team, Hg Capital

Greg focuses on software in the Legal & Compliance verticals. He is involved in Hg’s investments in Litera and Mitratech, where he works closely with management on strategic and M&A initiatives.

Greg joined Hg in 2016 from OC&C Strategy Consultants where he worked on private equity transactions and strategy projects in the TMT team. Prior to this he was an early team member at Sportpursuit, an e-commerce startup backed by DFJ Esprit.

He holds a MMath in Mathematics from Brasenose College, Oxford University.

Blanca Almoguera

Executive Director, Goldman Sachs

Blanca is an Executive Director in the Real Estate Finance team of Goldman Sachs, where she is responsible for back leverage solutions for EMEA and she also focuses on origination of new direct CRE financings in Italy and Spain.

Prior to joining the firm, Blanca spent 9 years at JP Morgan, where she started in fixed income structuring and later joined the Real Estate finance team. Blanca earned a BA in Business Administration from ICADE University, Madrid, in 2009.

Randeesh Sandhu

Co-Founder and CEO, Precede Capital Partners

Randeesh co-founded Precede Capital in 2021 as a portfolio company of Towerbrook Capital Partners. In 2022 the Company received a commitment of £1bn of new capital from QuadReal, who also acquired an equity stake in Precede.

Prior to founding Precede, Randeesh was the CEO of Urban Exposure Plc, building the company over nearly two decades into one of the UK’s leading residential development lenders.

In 2018 Randeesh led the company to a successful flotation on the London Stock Exchange. Over the years, Randeesh has successfully executed strategic joint ventures, credit lines, and loan syndications with numerous institutional investors and asset managers.