2022 Speakers

Humphrey is a Senior Partner and leads the TMT team at Graphite Capital. Since joining Graphite in 2014, he has led a number of transactions across the TMT and services sectors, including several which have gone on to execute multiple bolt on acquisitions. He currently leads Graphite’s investments in Babble, Hanson Wade, Ten10 and Random42.

Miroslav co-founded FSC following a distinguished career that’s seen him gain widespread recognition as one of Europe’s leading experts on financial services technologies. Prior to FSC, he was Group Head of Special Projects and Managing Partner of Home Credit Venture Capital. During his tenure, he founded and led the conglomerate’s corporate venture capital arm, with a focus on FinTech and enabling technology companies relevant to consumer finance and banking.

Prior to Home Credit International, Miroslav worked as the Managing Director at Craig Capital Corporation, First Deputy Chairman of BNP Paribas’ Ukrainian subsidiary and Chief Operating Officer at Alfa-Bank, the largest private sector bank in Russia, where he was responsible for the development and operations of its expansion into commercial and retail banking.
Miroslav holds an MBA from Harvard University and a degree in Computer Engineering from Brown University. Before moving into banking, he worked at IBM and McKinsey and Company, where he supported clients in the financial services, telecoms and IT sectors with their technology strategies.

Bernard is a co-founder and Managing Partner at Connection Capital, the London-based private equity and alternative investment firm. He heads up the SME Investment Team and has 30 years’ experience investing and supporting small to medium sized private companies in the UK, working alongside ambitious, entrepreneurial management teams across all sectors.

Connection Capital is a generalist investor, typically investing between £3m - £10m in UK companies within the lower middle market. It has invested £340m since 2010 and returned £185m to investors. The SME portfolio currently includes disruptive insurtech, Tempcover; pharmacy chain Mr Pickfords; and the UK’s first Starbuck’s franchisee, 23.5 Degrees.

Sean Dinnen is Managing Partner at CBPE Capital. He joined the firm in 1999 and co-led the buy-out from Close Brothers Group to form CBPE Capital in 2008. CBPE Capital is currently investing from its £561m Fund X which closed at the hard cap in November 2020. CBPE Capital was recently voted ‘UK House of the Year’ in the Real Deals 2021 Private Equity awards. Mr Dinnen holds a degree in PPE from Oxford University and has worked in private equity for over 30 years.

Stefano joined PAI Partners in 2005. In early 2020, he became one the Founding Partners of the PAI Mid-Market Fund Team, for which he led the investments in Amplitude Surgical and MyFlower/Interflora.

Previously, he was the Partner responsible for investments in the Healthcare sector for PAI’s flagship fund, for which he has been involved in several investments including Cerba Healthcare, DomusVi, Ethypharm, Elitech, Atos Medical and Zahneins.

He started his career within the R&D department of France Telecom (now Orange) for three years, and then spent four years with McKinsey & Company in their Italian and Singaporean offices, before joining PAI

John Gilligan has worked in and studied the private equity and venture capital industry for over 25 years.

He started his career in 1988 at 3i Group plc. He was a Corporate Finance Partner of Deloitte and latterly BDO for twenty years. He is currently the Director of the Oxford Saïd Finance Lab at the University of Oxford, and joint Managing Director and Investment Committee member at Big Issue Invest, one of the largest social impact investors in the UK. He wrote 4 editions of the influential text “Private Equity Demystified” with the late professor Mike Wright of Imperial College Business school.

Simon is Managing Partner of Horizon Capital, the Technology Services buy and build investor which he co-founded.

Simon has 20 years experience developing and leading buy and build strategies having started his private equity career in the early 2000’s. For the past 10 years he has focussed on the Technology sector, investing in entrepreneurially led growth businesses including, Adapt, Sabio, Digital Space and Ground Control.

Since forming Horizon Capital in 2018 Simon has led the firms investments in Juniper the provider of SaaS software to Schools and Ascent Software the data and digital transformation business.

Cameron Joyce has 10 years of experience in the investment industry and is currently part of Preqin’s Research Insights team based in London. He previously worked on the international equity desk of one of the largest pension funds in Latin America where he managed a $5bn allocation to Emerging Market equities in Asia. Cameron later went on to work for a Vietnam based investment bank, writing investment research for global institutional clients. Cameron is also a CFA Charterholder and an Economics graduate from the University of Manchester.

Michał Kędzia concentrates on the FMCG, financial services and healthcare sectors. His most important projects to date include Dino, Intersport ISI, Nu-Med Grupa, Pan-Pek and Studenac. Prior to joining EI, Michał worked in the mergers and acquisitions team at EY in Warsaw.

Wol has been instrumental in developing the Livingbridge strategy, leading the spin out from its parent F&C in 2005, building the team and a strong internal culture. He joined a predecessor of Livingbridge in 1993 and has led the business since 1998. His role encompasses overall responsibility for the leadership and strategic development of Livingbridge, senior-level involvement in winning deals and active involvement in selective key 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 before joining Livingbridge. Wol takes an active role in private equity industry initiatives and issues. He was previously a Chairman of the 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. Wol is Chairman of the Guys and St Thomas’ Charity, which has assets in excess of £800 million, making it one of the largest medical charities in the UK. The charity awards grants to facilitate improvements to healthcare services in the London Boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark. In 2018 he was also appointed as a Non-Executive Director to the NHS Improvement Board and more recently as Trustee of Somerset House Trust. Wol received an honorary doctorate from the University of Exeter in 2014.

Mr. Karsten Langer joined Riverside in 2006 and is the Managing Partner of Riverside Europe. Mr. Langer previously led multiple teams and investments in various parts of Europe and created Riverside’s European origination team. Mr. Langer also served as chairman of Invest Europe. Prior to Riverside, Mr. Langer was Managing Partner of an independent corporate finance firm in Brussels, advising on numerous transactions across Europe for multinationals and private equity firms. Mr. Langer also spent five years with GE Capital Europe, including as Chief Operating Officer of TIP and Modular Space, and in corporate business development. Mr. Langer began his career with Danske Bank in Copenhagen. Mr. Langer holds a BSc from Copenhagen Business School, and a master’s in Management from ESCP Europe.

Charlotte is a Managing Director for PSG’s investment team in Europe, a global growth equity firm that partners with middle-market software and technology-enabled services companies to help them navigate transformational growth. Charlotte currently represents PSG on the board of three investments, Mapal Group, Nalanda and Visualfabriq. Previously to PSG, she spent over a decade investing for The Carlyle Group’s European Technology Fund, including representing them on the board of Eggplant, Itconic, Graze and The Foundry. Prior to The Carlyle Group, Charlotte worked in mergers and acquisitions at Merrill Lynch and UBS and received a Masters degree in Physics and Philosophy from Oxford University.

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.

Rudi is a Partner at Zetland and a member of the Investment Committee. Rudi leads all corporate investments for Zetland, focusing on mid-market special situations in Europe. Zetland Capital is a London based private equity firm with over EUR 800m of assets under management. The firm invests across Europe, leveraging decades of investing experience, a unique skillset and flexible capital solutions to bring about better outcomes for businesses, asset owners and the wider community. Zetland is currently raising its second fund.

Jose is co-founder and joint Managing Partner of Queen’s Park Equity. He has over 20 years of experience in the private equity and financial services industry.

Before QPE, Jose spent 15 years at Sovereign Capital, sourcing, executing and leading investments in the education and healthcare sectors. Jose co-led Sovereign’s education team for over a decade and backed many founders and management teams, helping them grow their businesses, implement buy & build strategy and expand internationally.
He also sits on the board of Learndirect, DCSL and Sagacity as a non-executive director on behalf of QPE.
Jose holds an MBA from London Business School and a BSc in Economics from ITESM.