Private Capital Symposium 2023

Experience

Jeroen is co-founder of Truffle Private Markets and member of the Investment Committee. Jeroen has spent his career investing globally across asset classes and has also designed a range of both listed and private funds. Before co-founding Truffle, Jeroen was Investment Director at ABN AMRO Private Equity Solutions, responsible for manager sourcing & selection, vintage portfolio construction and he was member of the Investment Committee. Prior to ABN AMRO, Jeroen worked for Robeco Institutional Asset Management as IR Director Private Equity.

Jeroen started his career as portfolio manager at a Single Family Office where he has managed the in-house hedge fund, investing long/short across asset classes worldwide. Jeroen holds an MBA degree from London Business School.

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Experience

Gbenga is a partner at QED focusing on Africa investments as part of the international team.

Gbenga has spent his career working across fintech/tech and Africa in a variety of roles from product development to growth to marketing to partnerships. He has had experience working across Africa, Europe and the U.S. markets. Prior to joining QED, Gbenga was co-founder of Kanza Ventures, a boutique seed investment and advisory firm focused on fintech in Africa.

Before that, Gbenga was product director for SMB growth at Wise (formerly TransferWise), a global cross-border remittance fintech. Prior to that, he was head of strategic partnerships at Revolut, Europe’s biggest neo-bank, managing teams responsible for product integrations such as Xero, Quickbooks and Expedia.

Previously, Gbenga spent six years at Google in a variety of roles from managing telecom industry partnerships and strategy in Africa to leading Google’s mobile app business and strategy with clients spread for different companies from banking to travel to e-commerce companies across Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa. He was also a product partnership lead in Europe and Africa where he worked on localizing Google Search in Africa and launched Google Events Search in Germany, the U.K., Spain and France.

Gbenga is passionate about the tech ecosystem and mentors many founders, especially in Africa. He is a global advisory board member for Antler, a global startup accelerator, co-organizer for Stockholm Tech Fest and also a fellow of the Nigeria Leadership Initiative. Gbenga holds an MBA from London Business School and received his Bachelor of Science degree in economics from Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria.

Gbenga is fluent in both English and Yoruba and has a basic working knowledge of Swedish.

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Experience

Luisa Alemany is an Associate Professor of Management Practice at London Business School. She was formerly at ESADE Business School and a Visiting Professor at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. She is also a Fellow at St Hugh’s College, Oxford University. Her main areas of interest are Entrepreneurial Finance, Venture Capital, Entrepreneurial Education, Business Angels, and Venture Philanthropy. She holds a MBA from Stanford University and a PhD in Economics and Business from Universidad Complutense (Madrid).

Luisa began her career as a Financial Analyst at Procter & Gamble in Madrid. She subsequently worked as a consultant for McKinsey & Co in Madrid, Barcelona and Lisbon. Later, she worked at Goldman Sachs’ Investment Banking Division, in the venture capital fund Europ@Web and as a Senior Associate of the American private equity fund The Carlyle Group, in its European buyout team.

Luisa Alemany was the director of the ESADE Entrepreneurship Institute for nine years (2009-2017) and the academic sponsor of ESADE BAN (Business Angels Network), that was awarded the Best BAN in Europe in 2016. She seats in the investment committee of two early stage investors and is involved in Rising Tide Europe I and II, the first European Women-only business angels’ fund. In the past, she was in the Board of EBAN, the European Business Angels Network.

Her research is published in top academic journals and she has written several books, the most recent being “Entrepreneurial Finance: The Art and Science of Growing Ventures” (Cambridge University Press, 2018), the first European textbook on the topic.

She has taught at the Master of Science, MBA and executive education level in different programs in London, Oxford, Barcelona, Madrid, Amsterdam, Milan, Miami, Mexico and Shanghai. She has received the Best Teacher Award 2017, ESADE’s Executive Master in Finance and her case “Scytl”, regarding exits options for investors, was honoredBest Entrepreneurship Case Award

Experience

Carmen Alonso joined Tikehau Capital in 2015 and serves as Head of the United Kingdom and Iberia. Previously, Carmen was Vice-President of Corporate Finance at GSK where she gained an exposure to financing as an issuer. Prior to joining GSK, she held the position of Managing Director at Morgan Stanley (European Leverage Finance).

Carmen started her career in 1996 in Leverage Finance departments of UBS, Merrill Lynch and then HVB. She has originated and led the execution of numerous transactions across Europe in bank debt, mezzanine and high yield. Carmen holds an MBA from Babson F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business.

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Experience

Mr. Avner joined Bain Capital in 2006. He is Head of Bain Capital Credit Europe, Portfolio Manager of the Special Situations Europe fund, a Partner in the Special Situations Group, and an Investment Committee member based in Bain Capital’s London office. Between 2006 and 2009, Mr. Avner was responsible for Bain Capital Credit's European Telecom and Media investments.

Previously, Mr. Avner was a Manager at Bain & Company. In addition, he worked in operations and marketing roles at Comverse Technology and Creo/Scitex. He is currently an Executive Fellow of Finance at London Business School. Mr. Avner received an MBA from INSEAD and a B.Sc. from Tel Aviv University.

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Experience

Benedetta heads all private equity business development activities of Federated Hermes GPE in EMEA and is a non-voting member of the Investment Committee of co-investment funds and hybrid strategies.

She has over ten years of private equity experience across funds, direct and co-investments, business development and placement activities.

Previously she was a director at Raymond James - Cebile Capital Private Advisory team responsible for private equity, private debt funds and co-investment placement in Europe. Prior to that Benedetta worked at Europe’s third largest insurance company Generali, as part of the PE team, as well as the BD and institutional relations units of the Investments, Assets and Wealth Management division.

Previously she was part of the investment team of Italian growth capital GP Synergo, and M&A teams of Lazard and Nomura in Milan.

Benedetta is a guest lecturer at PE & VC courses at the London Business School and Bocconi University – CEMS, MBA and Executive MBA courses in Milan, London and Dubai.

She is an active speaker and panel speaker at several Private Markets and Private Equity conferences across EMEA and her views on PE have been featured on several financial publications globally.

Benedetta holds an MSc degree in International Management from Bocconi University (Milan, Italy), a Masters degree in Corporate Management from Fudan University (Shanghai, China) and a BSc degree in Business Administration from Bocconi University (Milan, Italy).

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Experience

Pascal Böni is Professor of Practice in Finance and Private Debt at Tilburg University, the Netherlands. He is the managing director of Tilburg Institute for Private Debt (TiPD) at Tilburg School of Economics and Management. His research interest is in private markets and especially private debt. Apart from his involvement in academia, Pascal provides research-based consultancy to a series of institutional investors in private markets. He chairs Remaco, a Swiss financial services firm and member of Nexia International, a global top 10 network of independent accounting and consulting firms.

Pascal acts/acted on the board of various listed and unlisted national and international companies in the media, the energy, the IT, and the financial services industry, such as for example the Swiss Association of Securities Firms (SASF). He advised some 100+ corporate finance and M&A transactions. Pascal earned a PhD in Finance from Tilburg School of Economics and Management, Tilburg University, and graduated with a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Rochester, New York, as well as a Master in Business Law (MBL) from the Graduate School of Business, Economics Law and Social Sciences at the University of St. Gallen.

 

Experience

H.E. “Bud” Scruggs has learned, after more than 30 years in business, politics, government, and academia, that helping leaders reach their fullest potential is the best part of his professional life.

Currently a director of Lendio, Fresh, Build Group, Avalon Advisors, and Snowbird Ski Resort as well as several other boards, Bud has had an extensive career advising high-net-worth families and their respective companies. His wide-ranging background includes working as director of both public and private companies, serving as Chief of Staff to Governor Norman Bangerter, and being a co-founder and partner of the Public Affairs Advisory Group. He earned his degree in Political Science and his JD from Brigham Young University.

Bud’s parents had low expectations for his professional potential and high expectations for his personal character, which both liberated and bolstered his drive to succeed with integrity, decency, and putting clients’ interests first. But, as his mother predicted, Bud did not earn his Eagle Scout.

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Experience

Dr Gary Dushnitsky is an Associate Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at London Business School. He also serves as a Senior Fellow at the Mack Institute for Innovation Management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

His work focuses on the economics of entrepreneurship and innovation. He explores the shifting landscape of entrepreneurial finance, exploring such topics as corporate venture capital, crowdfunding and accelerators. His research has appeared in leading academic journals, including Organization Science, the Strategic Management Journal and Nature Biotechnology.

Dr Dushnitsky has received several academic distinctions, including the 2013 SMS Emerging Scholar Award, the 2009 Kauffmann Junior Faculty Fellowship and several best dissertation prizes. He serves as the Co-Editor at the Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal and a Senior Editor at Organization Science.

Experience

Sanjay is a Managing Principal and Head of Co-investments at Moonfare. He has more than 20 years of experience in private equity most of which was investing in funds, co-investments/directs, or secondaries. He has deployed over $3bn in dozens of investments over the course of his career and has generated a top quartile track record.

His last position was global head of private equity at UBP. Prior to this, he led the US private equity funds platform at a major Canadian pension fund, CDPQ. His experience spanned co-investments/directs, secondaries, GP stakes, etc. Prior to that, he headed US private equity at Adveq (now Schroders Capital). Earlier in his career, he was an investment banker at Lehman Brothers.

Sanjay holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and a BSc in Economics from George Washington University.

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Experience

Simona Heidempergher is currently the Managing Director of a Dutch-in-origin, large family office based in Brussels on whose board she has served as an executive director for 20 years. This single-family office was a pioneering equity investor in venture capital and private equity, both through funds and direct investments. Sector experience encompasses healthcare (pharma, devices and services), consumer, AI, cybersecurity, as well as a range of specialised engineering businesses.

Over the past 10 years she has acquired additional main board-level and asset allocation/portfolio risk supervisory experience serving also on the boards of third-party asset management companies, including listed and family-owned entitles, located in Europe and in the USA. She has acted as lead-director in listed companies and served on both compensation as well as audit committees as a member and/or chair. She sits on various fund advisory boards in the US and Europe, mainly in tech, life sciences, and mid-market PE.

She travels extensively and has supported the work of some charitable private foundations; notably, as a board member of Fondazione Bruno Kessler in Trentino (technology innovation and university tech transfer), and as an ambassador for Telethon in Milano, in its pioneering work in life sciences.

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Experience

Megumi Ikeda  is the managing director of Hearst Ventures and oversees the investments across the UK and Europe. She is based in London. Hearst Ventures has been actively investing in tech startups for nearly 30 years across the US, Israel, Europe/UK and China.

Ikeda previously ran the European arm of the Peacock Equity Fund, GE Capital and NBCUniversal’s $250 million venture fund. Previously, she worked in corporate M&A and distribution deals at NBCUniversal. Ikeda started her career in Tokyo as a reporter for Dow Jones and an international business manager at  Wired  in San Francisco.

Ikeda received her undergraduate degree from Columbia College, Columbia University and earned her Master’s degree at UCLA’s the Anderson School.

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Experience

Mr. Jacobson is a Partner and Co-Head of European Credit in the Ares Credit Group and serves on the Ares Executive Management Committee and the Ares Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council. He also serves on the boards of Ares Management Limited and Ares Management UK Limited. Additionally, Mr. Jacobson serves on the Ares Credit Group's European Direct Lending and European Liquid Credit Investment Committees, the Ares Secondaries Group's Credit Investment Committee and the Ares Sports, Media and Entertainment Investment Committee.

Prior to joining Ares in 2012, Mr. Jacobson was a Partner at The StepStone Group, where he focused on building and running European operations, including oversight of private debt and equity investments. Previously, Mr. Jacobson was a Partner at Citigroup Private Equity and Mezzanine Partners in London and New York. In addition, he has held a variety of roles in investment banking and mergers and acquisitions in a broad range of industries, including at Lehman Brothers. Mr. Jacobson holds a B.A., magna cum laude, from Williams College in Political Economy and an MBA, with honors, from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in Finance.

Experience

Rob is a Managing Partner at CVC, a leading global alternative Investment Manager.

He is lead Managing Partner of the Investment Committee for CVC’s European and Americas and Strategic Opportunities funds, and jointly oversees the European and Americas Private Equity strategy of the firm.
Based in London, Rob has been with CVC since 1996. Trained as an engineer, Rob graduated from Imperial College, London and spent his early career with 3i.

Outside of work, Rob is married with two children. He is a keen mountaineer and has over the years climbed a number of significant peaks around the world including Everest in 2016 and K2 in 2021.

Experience

Niels Nielsen is a London based serial entrepreneur and tech investor. He was an early investor in Quantum computing and today leads the quantum efforts within 2xN.

Niels was the Chairman and an early investor in Cambridge Quantum Computing, a world-leading independent quantum computing software company. Cambridge Quantum eventually merged with Honeywell Quantum Solutions to form Quantinuum, one of the largest and most advanced integrated quantum computing companies in the world. Niels is on the board of Quantinuum.

His other technology investments include Darktrace (DARK), Divido, Trade Ledger, Kompasbank, The Plum Guide, WealthKernel, Labster, Tomorrow, Field (formerly Virmati Energy), Protium Green Solutions, Kbox Global, QuantrolOx, Kvantify, Sparrow Quantum and Celus.

Niels has invested in and managed a number of businesses within financial services (Zedra, LGT Vestra, Vistra, Kinetic Partners, Saffron Tax, Gabelle Tax and others) as well as invested in Tuxedo Money Solutions and Ecoveritas. Niels is also the co-owner of Azure Hotels.

He earned his Bachelor of Arts in Business and Economics at Brown University, and his MBA from Yale School of Management.

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Experience

François Ortalo-Magné is the ninth Dean of London Business School, a position he has held since August 2017. As Chief Executive Officer of the School, he is implementing a plan to fulfil a vision of LBS as an engaged community walking the learning journey together.

With a faculty recognised for its world-class academic research and a School community rich in diversity, LBS advances careers, transforms organisations and shapes policy. Its London and Dubai campuses are at the hub of a prestigious global network inspired by their own stories of life-changing impact.

Dean Ortalo-Magné serves on the board of directors of the Graduate Management Admission Council and on the International Advisory Board of BritishAmerican Business. His research on the economics of land and housing markets has been published in leading academic journals and he has advised private, governmental and multilateral organisations around the world.

Prior to his appointment, Ortalo-Magné was the Albert O. Nicholas Dean and Robert E. Wangard Professor of Real Estate at the Wisconsin School of Business. He grew up in France in the Pyrénées and on the family farm in the Lot Valley, before training as an agricultural engineer. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Minnesota and his first academic appointment was at the London School of Economics.

Experience

Maria joined Octopus Ventures in 2021 to build its First Cheque Fund, which is its pre-seed fund backing the most dynamic ideas at the pre-seed stage. Maria brings an operator’s background to investing and is a specialist in early stage companies.

She previously worked as a managing director at the Oxford Seed Fund, which invests in the University of Oxford’s affiliated startups in the pre-seed and seed stage. Maria was also on the investment team at Hustle Fund, a pre-seed fund in the US, investing up to $100,000 in startups across North America, Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia.

Her operations experience at multinational tech companies, including Uber and personal finance app Branch.co, have given Maria a keen insight into the challenges of scaling technology startups up to millions of users.

Maria is also a chartered accountant and graduated with a degree in Computer Science from Covenant University. She holds an MBA from the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School.

Maria believes that great founders can look like anyone and come from anywhere. She also believes that founders solving painful problems in large markets should not struggle to raise funding, because building a fast-growing business is hard enough already.

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Experience

Deep Shah is a Partner and Co-President of Francisco Partners. Based in the firm’s London office, he supports on new investments, portfolio companies and with managing the overall investment team. Prior to joining Francisco Partners in 2003, Deep held a range of roles at Morgan Stanley within both their Investment Banking and Private Equity groups.

Deep currently serves on the board of directors of Bybox, e2open, iConectiv and GainSystems. He previously served on the board of Attenti, BluJay Solutions, Click Software, C-MAC MicroTechnology, eFront, EG Software, Ex Libris, Lumata, Masternaut, Metaswitch Networks, NexTraq, Operative, Paysafe, Prometheus Group, and SmartFocus. Deep holds an M.A. in Economics from the University of Cambridge with First Class Honours.

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Experience

Mr. Shiraki founded Akebono Asset Management Ltd, former Aiazwa Asset Management Co., Ltd. and was appointed as CEO in 2015.

Mr. Shiraki has over 25 years of experience investing in private equity, venture capital funds and hedge funds in both Japan and globally. He launched and managed several portfolios of hedge funds and private equity funds for Sanwa Bank, now part of the Mitsubishi UFJ Group. He was a founding member of Monex Alternative Investments established in 2004 and served as its CEO and CIO.

He also served on a board of directors at Aizawa Securities Co., Ltd. TSE1 listed security broker company in 2019 and joined the board of directors at Asuka Asset Management in June 2020.

Mr. Shiraki has been a board member of the Alternative Investment Management Association of Japan (AIMA Japan) since 2001 and has been its Chairman and currently serves as its Vice Chairman.

He is also a director and committee member Japan Venture Capital Association for LP relationship committee.

He earned a Masters in Finance at London Business School.

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Experience

Jim Strang has over 25 years experience as both a consultant to and an investor in the Private Equity market. His experience extends from time as a strategy consultant at Bain and Company through working across both General Partner (GP) and Limited Partner (LP) roles as a Private Equity investor, latterly as Chairman EMEA at Hamilton Lane, the largest investor in Private Markets globally.

He currently serves as Chairman of the Board at HgCapital Trust plc, a FTSE250 listed Investment Company that invests in software and technology enabled business services companies across Europe and North America, and as an Independent Director at the Business Growth Fund plc. In addition to his Board roles, Jim serves as a Senior Adviser to CVC Capital Partners, Bain and Company, Campbell Lutyens and Hamilton Lane.

His research interests in Private Equity include performance drivers in Private Equity and Venture Capital (PEVC) in developed and developing markets, strategy, organisational design and team effectiveness in PEVC managers and innovative models for delivering PEVC to investors

Jim has been a Teaching Fellow at London Business School since 2019 where he teaches the School’s Private Equity and Venture Capital elective class as part of its MBA and MiF programmes.

Jim holds both Bachelor of Commerce and Ph.D. degrees from The University of Edinburgh Business School, a Master of Philosophy in Finance from Cambridge Judge Business School and an AMP, CGM and IDP-C from INSEAD. He is a member of the CFA Institute.

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Experience

Mr. Edward Talmor-Gera is the Founding Partner at Fund Placement Israel, a boutique private capital placement agent in Israel that has successfully raised over $5 billion of new relationship LP commitments for top private investment firms. He is the Founder and serves as Chief Executive Officer at NewVest.

He leads private equity teaching at the Israel Finance Institute, including the training of investment committee members of institutional investors and an annual private equity course for capital markets executives. He also lectures at the Israel College of Management and is the Private Equity Industry Coach at London Business School. He is a frequent speaker on private markets to Israel's leading institutional investors, and he has been asked by the Bank of Israel and the Ministry of Finance to opine on the asset class and the regulatory environment governing both domestic GPs and LPs. Prior to founding FPI, he had several finance and investment banking roles with Arison Investments (one of Israel's largest family offices), Goldman Sachs, and Rothschild. He started his professional career, following his military service, with Sotheby's.

He previously served as an NC Captain in the Special Forces Unit of the Israel Defence Force. He holds an Executive MBA from the London Business School and a BS in Mathematics from Tel-Aviv University.

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Experience

Shmuel Chafets is General Partner of Target Global where he oversees the early stage practice, co-founding projects and strategic development of the firm. He is also the CEO of Target Global Acquisition Corp I, a NASDAQ listed SPAC. Throughout his 15+ year career as an investor, Shmuel has invested in over 50 companies across SaaS, B2C and Fintech. His investments at Target Global Include Auto1 (AG1), McMakeler, TravelPerk, Patiant21, Fresha, MAYD, Voyantis, Cybellum (Sold to LG), Zooz (Sold to PayU) and others. He is also Chairman of The Vets, a home veterinary care business that he co-founded with Target Global.

Prior to Target, Shmuel was a Partner at Berlin-based Hasso Plattner Ventures where he led the firm’s investments in iZettle (sold to PayPal) and Hansoft (sold to Perforce). He began his career in venture as a Partner at Giza Venture capital and as Co-founder of GPV, a pioneer investor in the CEE region. Shmuel also co-founded a company in the gaming sector (LocaLoco, sold to Say Media Group) and a cybersecurity venture called Securing SAM.

Shmuel began his professional career as a strategic and media consultant working in the Israeli parliament and government.

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Academic Focus

Current developments and best practices in M&A, private equity perspectives on M&A, valuation and structuring of M&A transactions and negotiations of M&A terms. Florin received the Best Teacher Award in 2021 voted by the MiF 2021 programme. 

Recent Clients

Florin has been advising companies across sectors including manufacturing, construction, hospitality and financial services.

Experience

Florin has a PhD in Management with a specialisation in accounting and finance. He sits on the editorial board of two top academic journals and has published extensively in top tier U.S. based business academic journals. He has been pursuing research on private equity topics and debt markets and is regularly invited to present his research at major business schools around the world. He has long combined his academic expertise with the practice; advising several large investment funds and serving on few advisory boards.

Experience

Abdulaziz AlTurki is the Managing Partner of Khwarizmi Ventures' MENA-focused $70m fund investing in early-stage startups. He held numerous leadership positions in different companies, including his role as an engagement manager of the McKinsey & Company subsidiary, Elixir Management Consulting, SABIC, as well as a number of startups and VCs.

Abdulaziz completed his Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland and holds an MBA from London Business School.

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