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Summit Main Conference
Meet the Summit Main Conference speakers
Adam Shepherd
Adam Shepherd is Investment Partner and COO at European growth equity investor TempoCap, which specialises in direct secondaries in technology companies. Adam leads the firm's investment efforts in the UK. He has been closely involved with TempoCap’s investments in Depop (sold to Etsy), Talentsoft (sold to Cegid), Currencycloud (sold to Visa), Onfido (sold to Entrust), Tessian (sold to Proofpoint) and Azimo (sold to Papaya Global) and represents TempoCap interests at several other portfolio companies.
Prior to TempoCap, Adam was an investor at early-stage B2B software firm Notion Capital, and before that helped Currencycloud to raise a Series C financing round. Adam started his career at BP, negotiating financing and structuring M&A transactions, then working for several years as a global macro trader in financial markets. Outside of work, Adam enjoys spending time with his young family.
Alex Shadbolt
Alex Shadbolt is an Investment Manager and leads Future Planet Capital’s impact efforts. With a background in research, most recently with the University of Cambridge’s Keynes Fund, exploring instances of market failure, mispricing and incentive systems within VC, Alex is driving Future Planet Capital’s formalisation of impact for investment decisions, internal operations and portfolio management.
Previously, Alex spent time at the Open Data Institute, creating and embedding the groups Impact Framework, successfully bidding for key government contracts and co-authoring the company’s five-year strategy.
He looks to bring this deep impact knowledge to investments, on both the Blue Ocean Fund and Global Growth Fund, as part of the Origination Team. Additionally, Alex heads up ESG at Future Planet, as well as co-authoring Future Planet Capital’s impact reports, with Advisory Board Member, Lord Wei of Shoreditch. Alex holds a first-class degree from Exeter in Liberal Arts, majoring in Economics.
Ameila Armour
Amelia Armour joined Amadeus Capital Partners in 2009 and is a Partner in the Early Stage Fund. Her current investment focus is on AI, Photonics, and Novel Materials.
She is a Director on several boards including Xampla, who have developed novel plant-based materials to replace single-use plastics; iPronics who are building lossless optical switches for AI networking at the speed of light ; Riverlane a developer of the operating system for error corrected quantum computers; sprout.ai a provider of fast and accurate insurance claims automation and SLAMcore, a spin-out from Imperial College, developing spatial intelligence for autonomous robotics and drones.
Amy Abbott
Amy Abbott is the BVCA's Director of Industry Development. Prior to joining the BVCA in 2012, she was Head of Events & Awards at the Royal Academy of Engineering where she led a small team of event managers to deliver a highly regarded programme of events for the engineering fellowship comprising eminent chartered engineers, business leaders and Royal patrons.
During her nine years at the Academy Amy was secretary to several awards committees including the prestigious MacRobert Award; involving events at Buckingham Palace. She also played a fundamental part in the launch of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering where she was responsible for the launch event involving the former three party leaders. She has a BA Hons in Business and Marketing from Oxford Brookes University.
Anita Rana
Anita Rana is a Principal in the Portfolio Management Group, based in the firm’s London office, where she focuses on private markets portfolio management and research efforts in EMEA.
Prior to joining Hamilton Lane, Anita spent nearly 10 years at BlackRock where she specialised in multi-asset private markets portfolio management (across closed-end and evergreen), portfolio construction, research, and analytics.
Anita received a Bachelor of Science in Actuarial Science from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is also a CAIA charterholder.
Anita is a Principal in the Portfolio Management Group, based in the firm’s London office, where she focuses on private markets portfolio management and research efforts in EMEA.
Antoine Moyroud
Antoine Moyroud is a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners and sits on their European investment team since 2022. Specializing in Machine Learning and Data topics, his work on the emerging AI space has brought Lightspeed Venture Partners to partner with Mistral.ai, leading their inaugural round in 2023.
Raised in the Netherlands and proficient in 4 languages, Antoine started his career in the data ecosystem with operational roles at FlixBus and Dataiku, spanning Germany, France and the UK.
Antti Leppänen
Antti Leppänen is a partner in the Private Funds Group and a member of the firm's Private Capital industry group.
Antti advises clients on a broad range of secondary transactions, including traditional purchases and sales of fund interests, leveraged and syndicated acquisitions, fund restructurings, as well as GP-led liquidity solutions. Antti also regularly represents institutional investors on primary investments and co-investment opportunities in private equity funds across a variety of asset classes.
Antti has worked on transactions both in Europe and in the U.S., and his experience includes a client secondment in the U.K.
Archie Burgess
Archie Burgess is an Investment Director at Cibus Capital, a PE and VC fund c.$1.2bn AUM focused on the agrifood sector. He is dedicated towards venture/growth equity and focuses primarily on robotics and automation, precision agriculture, genetics and further downstream applications such as precision fermentation.
Prior to Cibus Capital, Archie was in investment banking at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in London where he worked as part of the Industrials Group. Archie holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Oxford.
Ben Wilkinson
Ben Wilkinson was appointed CEO of Molten Ventures in October 2024, having joined the Group as CFO in 2016 and the Board in June 2019.
As CFO, he joined the Investment Committee and led on strategic projects across the business. Ben successfully built Molten’s balance sheet through equity and debt financing, broadening the shareholder register, and led Molten's transition to the Main Market. His efforts were pivotal to the Company's scale and resilience during a period of extensive growth and transformation, including multiple secondary portfolio investments.
Before joining Molten, Ben served as CFO for five years at AIM-listed President Energy PLC. Earlier in his career, he worked in M&A investment banking at ABN Amro/RBS, gaining significant cross-border transaction and corporate financing experience.
Ben is a Chartered Accountant (FCA) with a BSc in Economics from Royal Holloway, University of London. He also serves as a member of Molten's Sustainability Committee.
Beth Rigby
Beth Rigby is Sky News’ Political Editor, and is co-host the Sky's political podcast Electoral Dysfunction. Prior to joining the broadcaster, she served for over a decade at the Financial Times, latterly as chief political correspondent and deputy political editor. She also fronts her own interview show on Sky, talking to people at the coal face of change about their views on what is going on in Britain and around the world. After studying social and political science followed by Latin American studies, Beth joined the FT as a trainee.
She specialised in coverage of retail, consumer industries and hedge funds before moving to the political brief. After a brief spell as The Times’ media editor, she joined Sky to lead their political coverage. Taking to the air in the midst of Brexit negotiations, Beth has been witness to some of the most unpredictable and unexpected events in Westminster history.
Known for her down-to-earth, no-nonsense approach to reporting political events she offers insights into the key personalities, plots and likely outcomes. She also reveals some of what goes on in the Westminster bars and tearooms, as well as tales from behind the scenes of political broadcasting.
Blair Jacobson
Blair 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 M.B.A., with honors, from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in Finance.
Brenlen Jinkens
Brenlen Jinkens is the Head of LP Advisory, Europe at PJT’s Private Capital Solutions team in London. Prior to joining PJT Park Hill, Mr. Jinkens was a Senior Advisor and the global co-head of Jefferies’ Private Capital Advisory group, where he was also based in London.
Prior to this, Mr. Jinkens was the Head of European Capital Advisory at Greenhill, and a former Partner and Member of the Executive Committee of Cogent Partners, and Managing Partner of Cogent Partners Europe.
Mr. Jinkens graduated with an MBA from Stanford University, and a Bachelor in International Relations from Princeton University.
Bruno Bertrand-Delfau
Bruno Bertrand-Delfau is co-head of the Secondary Transactions and Liquidity Solutions practice and a partner in the Private Funds Group. Bruno is a pioneer of the secondaries industry and has more than 20 years’ experience in this space, having represented some of the largest secondary buyers on many of the landmark deals in the market, in Europe, the U.S. and Asia.
Bruno has extensive experience in all matters connected to secondaries, including NAV financings and primary investments.
Bruno and Proskauer’s secondaries team are ranked Band 1 in Chambers UK and Bruno is recognized as a ‘Leading Individual’ in the Legal 500 UK guide.
Catherine Haumesser Balthasar
Catherine Haumesser Balthasar is a founding team member at Armen, where she heads the London office and leads the firm’s investment activity across Northern Europe. Since Armen’s inception, she has spearheaded several mid-market European GP stake transactions.
Prior to joining Armen, Catherine was a Partner at SVG Advisers, where she executed numerous investments on a global basis across four platforms, representing over €3.5bn in assets under management. She was responsible for the firm’s European investment strategy and operations, building an extensive network of GPs across the region.
Catherine holds a MA in Management from HEC, Paris, and is a CFA charterholder.
Chris Elphick
Chris Elphick is Head of Venture Capital at the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVCA). He leads on all policy areas related to venture capital and works closely with BVCA members to promote the role the industry plays in the UK economy by supporting entrepreneurs and businesses.
Chris is a member of the Independent Advisory Board for the Government’s Digital Growth Grant (delivered by Barclays Eagle Labs) and is an adviser to the APPG for Entrepreneurship.
Dana Haimoff
Dana Haimoff, Managing Director, joined the Private Equity Group in 2002. Dana is a Portfolio Manager responsible for sourcing, due diligence, leading investment recommendations and monitoring private equity funds, co-investments and secondary opportunities.
Currently, Dana serves on numerous private equity fund and direct co-investment advisory committees. Prior to joining the Group, she spent six years with Merrill Lynch working with alternative asset funds and initiating, developing and servicing new and existing client accounts. Prior to joining Merrill Lynch, Dana worked at Prudential Securities in the Corporate Finance Group’s private equity practice and at Ernst & Young as an International Tax Consultant. She earned a BS from Skidmore College and an MBA from Columbia Business School.
Dana is the co-Founder of Level 20, 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.
David Wilmot
David Wilmot has extensive experience in deal origination and portfolio management in the European leveraged finance market, most recently having spent 16 years at Babson Capital where he was Joint Head of European Private Finance.
David was instrumental in establishing Babson’s presence in the European buyout finance market, and served as either an Investment Committee member or co-Chairman for several of Babson’s private debt and CLO funds.
Prior to joining Babson, David led the UK leveraged finance team at Société Générale. David holds a B.Sc. (Hons) in Banking and Finance from Loughborough University, a MBA from Cass Business School and is an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers.
Douglas Hansen-Luke
Douglas Hansen-Luke is the Executive Chairman of Future Planet Capital. After two years of research he founded the firm in 2015, following an extensive career in global finance and as an entrepreneur in Hong Kong, London and the Middle East.
He has worked in a series of senior broking, investment and asset management roles for firms including ABN AMRO and Robeco, with a focus on emerging markets and asset classes. He was also co-founder of Hong Kong’s first regulated online equity research firm.
He has sat on the Committee of the Royal British Legion Ball and the Jesus College, Oxford, Campaign Board and has made three trips to Rwanda for social action work with Project Umubano.
Elliot Issacs
Elliot Issacs is the Founder of Medik8 Skincare – a science-led consumer brand challenging global majors in key beauty categories, channels and markets.
Medik8 started in a shed-sized lab and, always growing within its own cash flow, scaled to a team of 300 people operating out of over 100,000 sq ft of space through a full-vertical business model. In 2021, the business partnered with Inflexion Private Equity to support its next stage of growth - more than tripling sales in 4 years.
Elliot now serves as a Non-Executive Director on the Medik8 board and invests in a handful of early-stage tech start-ups. He lives in Hertfordshire with his young family.
Francesca Ficai
Francesca Ficai leads the European Private Credit coverage for LCD. Previous to LCD she worked at Debtwire and mergermarket, also as a Private Credit reporter. Before that she held various jobs in the political realm, such as the House of Commons and the European Commission.
She is fluent in four languages and graduated from La Sorbonne in Paris and holds an MA from University of Bath.
Greg Kok
Greg Kok is a chartered accountant who began his career with Deloitte in South Africa, Greg has since garnered 24 years’ experience in the finance industry, primarily with large global firms and spanning multiple jurisdictions including the UK, Bermuda, Singapore, Vietnam and Luxembourg.
He has extensive experience in running fund management businesses in both the asset management and asset servicing sectors.
Greg held a number of senior investment management and strategic leadership positions, over a 13-year period, with a global asset manager and has a specific interest in the marketing and portfolio management aspects of alternative asset classes.
Greg is a member of the Executive Committee of the Guernsey Investment Funds Association and has previously served as a member of ALFI’s Management Company Steering Committee. Greg also serves as a Director on numerous corporate and fund boards.
Harry Thomas
Harry Thomas leads value creation across Beringea’s portfolio, accelerating growth, supporting strategy at board level, and guiding companies to exit.
Since joining in 2013, he has supported the UK portfolio and driven initiatives like the Beringea Resource Hub and Scale-Up Academy to support founders and leadership teams.
He serves on the boards of Social Value Portal, My 1st Years, MOTH Drinks, WiredScore, and Andersen EV, with successful exits including D3O, Chargemaster, Aistemos (Cipher), and Dianomi.
Harry began his career in start-ups and holds an M.A. in History from St Andrews and the CFA UK Level 4 Investment Management Certificate.
Henry Freeman
Henry Freeman is a strategic adviser to Guernsey Finance and sits on a number of commercial fund and investment company boards as well as Guernsey’s sovereign wealth and pension funds and Guernsey’s Investment & Funds Association (GIFA) Executive Committee.
During his executive career in fund management, investment banking and fintech, Henry managed institutional and private client funds, advised London-listed funds and companies on strategy, structuring, IPOs and M&A, built technology and investment businesses and advised UK government on fintech and social finance, sitting on parliamentary policy groups and Downing Street roundtables.
He is proud to have established the GIFA Schools Investment Challenge, encouraging financial literacy. Henry holds the Institute of Directors’ Diploma in Company Direction.
Howard Dawber
Howard Dawber is the Deputy Mayor of London for Business and Growth, having been appointed to the role in December 2023. The focus of his role is to champion London’s interests across the globe as a place to visit, expand to and invest in, and working to protect jobs and growth in the capital.
He is also focusing on supporting the thousands of small and medium-sized businesses at the heart of London’s economy.
James Codling
James Codling is the Managing Partner of Volution, where he directs the firm's investment strategy, focusing on companies that harness transformative technologies such as AI, machine learning and blockchain to enhance productivity in capital markets and the workplace.
Volution targets companies generating £5 -20m in revenue with the potential to reach global scale. With a deep focus on FinTech, SaaS and AI, Volution’s team of experienced investors, former founders and operators has a proven track record in building, scaling and exiting successful technology businesses.
James Jupp
James Jupp is a Partner in the Investment team, leading deals and sitting on the Investment Committee. James leads the firms Vendor Origination programme, sourcing LP portfolios from vendors across multiple asset classes.
In 2018 he moved to New York to open Hollyport’s first US-based office location and over a four year period built the US team and established Hollyport’s presence in the US market. Following his move back to London, James manages the development of the junior investment team, alongside his deal appraisal and origination work. James is a qualified ACA, having qualified in Crowe audit programme before moving into the corporate finance team.
James graduated from Newcastle University with a degree in Accounting and Finance.
Jennifer Choi
Jen Choi is CEO of the Institutional Limited Partners Association (ILPA), a global membership organization dedicated to advancing the interests of Limited Partners through advocacy, education, research and industry engagement.
Prior to becoming CEO, Jen served eight years as ILPA’s Managing Director of Industry Affairs. During that time, she launched ILPA’s global advocacy platform to ensure that the LP perspective was being fully considered in global regulation and policymaking. With a focus on robust LP-GP dialogue around emerging issues, Jen led the creation and adoption of best practices such as the ILPA Reporting Template, the ILPA Principles and ILPA’s guidance on subscription lines of credit and GP-led secondaries.
In 2020, Jen founded the Diversity in Action initiative, a community of practice that has grown to more than 300 LP and GP signatories with the shared goal of taking concrete action to advance DEI in the private markets.
Before joining ILPA, Jen served as Vice President of Industry and External Affairs for the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association (EMPEA), now known as the Global Private Capital Association (GPCA), where she led the association’s research programs and industry engagement activities. Previously, Jennifer was a consultant with Boston-based Stax Inc., providing due diligence and advisory services for leading private equity and venture capital firms.
Jennifer holds a Masters in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University and a B.A. summa cum laude in Economics and Political Science from Augustana College.
Jessica Lennard
Jessica Lennard is a member of the Senior Executive Team, an advisor to the board and has overall responsibility for Strategy, Communications and Advocacy at the CMA including working with the board to develop the CMA’s strategy, providing advice to government under the CMA’s advocacy function and leading the CMA’s external communications and relations.
Jon Pollock
Jon Pollock is the Chief Executive and Managing Partner at Elbow Beach, an early-stage investor focused on climate technologies that improve industrial productivity, efficiency, and outcomes at scale. With 20 years of commercial leadership experience in the tech and telecoms sectors - including senior roles at BT Group, the FTSE 100 media and telecoms company JP brings a sharp focus on customer value, scalability, and economic impact to cleantech investing.
Inspired by COP26 and a belief that the sector needed a more commercially grounded approach, JP co-founded Elbow Beach to invest in technologies that improve customer outcomes while delivering meaningful climate impact. Under his leadership, the firm targets transformative innovations in advanced manufacturing, green computing, automation, electrification, and low-carbon materials.
JP believes the future of cleantech lies at the intersection of commercial viability and climate benefit. He encourages founders to focus on delivering real customer value - technologies that reduce costs, improve performance, and drive adoption at scale will define the next generation of climate solutions.
Leon de Bono
Leon de Bono is the BVCA's Managing Director. Before joining the BVCA in 2010 he was the Publishing Director and a member of the team that launched Private Equity News, part of eFinancialNews, which was acquired by Dow Jones in 2007. He began working in the private equity industry with Caspian Media in 2001. He has a BA from University College London and an MA from The Courtauld Institute.
Maria Carradice
Maria Carradice joined Mayfair in 2015 to work alongside portfolio companies to identify, quantify and unlock business process improvement activities. Maria’s expertise as both a former practitioner and consultant allows her to focus on opportunities to drive incremental value in areas such as tax, ESG and finance with the aim of supporting the teams Mayfair partners with to deliver their plans faster or with less risk.
Prior to Mayfair Maria worked at LDC where she advised LDC and its portfolio companies on a wide range of M&A structuring, tax, operational and accounting issues as well as advising on fund structuring and related investor issues.
Maria is a qualified accountant, tax and treasury adviser, has a first-class honours degree in Chemistry from The University of Surrey, a PhD in Nanotechnology from Cambridge University and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation.
Marion Bernard
Marion Bernard is Chief Investment Officer at Northern Gritstone, a ground-breaking investment company investing into early-stage life sciences and technology companies in the North of England, primarily backing university spin outs in Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, and Sheffield.
Active since May 2022, its portfolio of 38 companies includes opportunities in some of the UK’s fastest growing sectors such as life sciences, health tech, advanced materials, clean tech, quantum computing, AI and semiconductors.
Marion began her career at Barclays, before joining 3i where she worked in the 3i northern team and in the 3i global life sciences team. As CEO, Marion led Northstar Ventures to become a pre-eminent regional fund manager focused on university spin outs, seed and early-stage venture deals.
As a Regional Director and national member of the Investment Committee, Executive Committee and Ventures Operating Board at BGF, Marion played a pivotal role in establishing BGF as the largest UK growth capital investor. Immediately before joining Northern Gritstone, Marion was UK Managing Director for the US investment company, Firmament Group, focused on growth and venture deals.
Matt Dickman
Matt Dickman is a partner at Debevoise & Plimpton. He advises on the formation, management and reorganisation of private investment funds. Mr. Dickman is also a leader in the firm’s Private Fund Transactions Group, where he regularly advises fund sponsors and investors on GP staking transactions, including internal reorganisations and internal economic and governance arrangements, as well as seed investments in emerging fund sponsors and secondary transactions.
He is recommended by The Legal 500 UK (2025) as a Leading Partner, where clients value that he “knows his craft supremely well, delivers clear advice and also practical solutions, and is highly personable at the same time.” He is also recognised by Chambers Europe (2024) and Chambers UK (2025) as “a rising star of the next generation.”
Matthew Sabben-Clare
Matthew Sabben-Clare is a Senior Advisor to Cinven. Previously, Matthew was Head of Cinven’s Capital Markets team and Chief Administrative Officer.
He was previously at Merrill Lynch in Leveraged Finance. Prior to this he worked in the Financing & Structured Products Division at J. Henry Schroder & Co. He graduated from Cambridge University and is AMCT-qualified.
Michael Moore
Michael Moore is Chief Executive of the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVCA).
Michael and his colleagues are focused on supporting the development of the private capital industry, as it invests in thousands of businesses and supports millions of jobs across the UK. As policymakers work on the competitiveness of the UK’s investment climate, Michael is confident that private equity and venture capital will continue to create significant public value through investment in growth, innovation and people.
Over the past 30 years Michael has operated at senior levels in both politics and business. In his political career he served in the Cabinet at the time of the Coalition Government, as Secretary of State for Scotland. He was a Member of Parliament for 18 years.
After the 2015 General Election, Michael became a Senior Advisor at PwC. Prior to entering politics, he qualified as a chartered accountant with the firm.
Michelle Lamprecht
Michelle Lamprecht is Head of Corporate Affairs at Cambridge Innovation Capital where she manages the ESG and Impact strategy, marketing strategy, and is an advisor/mentor to CIC’s portfolio companies.
She has 20 years’ experience of international leadership in strategic communications and business across a range of public and privately owned organisations.
Michelle has been a board member for Byte Night (Action for Children), a trustee for Citizen’s Advice and is currently an advisory panel member for BVCA External Affairs, a steering committee member of ESG_VC and a Non-Exec Director for Form the Future.
Mo Sondhi
Mo Sondhi is a Senior Director of Debt Finance at OakNorth Bank, which he joined in 2016 after c.15 years at RBS. An expert in Structured and Corporate Finance, he has deep experience across customer relationships, portfolio management, risk, and strategy.
Mo leads on originating, structuring, and executing complex transactions that support growing businesses and ambitious funds with tailored funding solutions. Since 2018, he has spearheaded OakNorth’s work in fund finance, demonstrating a strong track record in delivering success across varied and challenging business situations against a backdrop of a constantly changing macro environment.
Nicolas Moura
Nicolas Moura is an EMEA private capital research analyst at PitchBook, where he covers the PE and VC markets in Europe. He contributes to quarterly core reports as well as analyst notes on various topics. Prior to PitchBook, Moura worked as an equity research analyst first at Berenberg and then at Mirabaud, transitioning from being a sector analyst into a generalist.
Moura received a bachelor’s degree in economics and business from University College of London (UCL) and a master’s degree in finance from Imperial College Business School. He is based in PitchBook’s London office.
Oliver Baker
Oliver Baker is part of the European Private Credit team based in London and is responsible for originating and executing Direct Lending investments across the UK and Benelux markets. He has been with Partners Group since 2014 and prior to that worked within the leveraged finance divisions of GE Capital and Lloyds Banking Group.
Patricia Volhard
Patricia Volhard is head of the firm’s European Funds Regulatory practice. She is based in the Paris and Frankfurt offices, and also spends substantial time in the London office.
She is a member of the firm’s Corporate Department, and Private Equity and Funds/Investment Management Groups. She is also a member of the firm’s core group of ESG partners. Her practice focuses on advising private funds and fund managers on structuring and setting up funds for a European investor base, as well as advising on European financial regulatory aspects for fund managers and corporates, including on SFDR, CSRD, CSDDD and other ESG-related regulation.
Ms.Volhard is one of Europe’s leading private funds regulatory lawyers and has played a prominent role in the ongoing development of the area. She is Chair of Invest Europe’s Financial Services/Regulatory Working Group, a member of its SFDR working group, and former Chair of its Tax, Legal & Regulatory Committee.
She is also a member of the Investment Management Consultative Working Group of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). In Germany, she is a member of the Board of the BVK, and heads its Legal Committee. In the UK, she is a member of the regulatory committee of the BVCA.
Phil Westcott
Phil Westcott is a former Director at IBM, and a specialist in applied Artificial Intelligence. Phil previously ran the IBM Watson platform in Europe, led their Smarter Cities business in Southeast Asia and launched IBM’s global IoT practice.
He is a specialist in AI use cases, business models and enterprise transformation. He is a regular speaker on the convergence of tech and entrepreneurship. Phil is a Chartered Engineer and holds an MBA from IESE and Columbia business schools.
Piers Johansen
Piers Johansen leads both adviser coverage and strategy & sales enablement for Aon's M&A business in EMEA, combining a diverse professional background in law, investment banking and insurance over 30 years.
His responsibilities include managing relationships with law firms, investment banks and other stakeholders as part of a structured approach focused on bringing Aon’s diversified capabilities to help create client value and drive deal-related efficiency. Working in close collaboration with business, geography and other leaders in Aon’s M&A business, Piers helps develop sales strategy focused on client engagement, deal origination and execution.
At Aon, Piers has applied his prior deal experience to help drive innovation in M&A risk-transfer products, including ‘cash confirmation’ and warranty & indemnity (W&I) insurance solutions on UK takeovers, as well as a deferred consideration solution on a $700mn carve-out transaction. He has also played an integral role in facilitating client outcomes across Aon’s core Risk and Human Capital business lines, including the introduction of a W&I solution to enable a key trade in illiquid investments after a record £4.8bn pension buy-in transaction. Since 2018, Piers has authored the editorial chapter on M&A insurance for Lexology Panoramic: Private M&A (formerly, Getting the Deal Through).
Before joining Aon in 2015, Piers was senior M&A Legal Counsel for J.P. Morgan in EMEA and, prior to that, acquired a range of public and private M&A experience as an M&A/Corporate Associate at Skadden and Norton Rose. While at Skadden, Piers spent 2 years on secondment to the UK’s Takeover Panel.
Sarah Cardell
Sarah Cardell was appointed Chief Executive of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in December 2022. She is a member of the CMA’s Board and leads the CMA’s Senior Executive Team. Sarah previously served as interim Chief Executive from July 2022. Prior to this, she was the CMA’s General Counsel (from September 2013), with responsibility for leading the CMA’s Legal Service and Policy & International directorates as well as the CMA’s Digital Market Unit.
As General Counsel, Sarah served as the legal adviser to the Board. She joined the CMA from Ofgem (the UK regulator for electricity and gas markets) where she was the Legal Partner of the Markets Division, leading on competition law matters.
She previously worked at Slaughter and May in London as a Partner in the Competition Group, advising across a wide range of EU and UK merger and antitrust cases.
Simone Tedeshci
Simone Tedeshci co-founded Juniper Investment Partners, a private equity holding that invests in tactical opportunities alongside specialist operating partners. Before establishing Juniper, he worked with Capmont, an alternative asset manager in Germany.
Prior to that, Simone was Managing Director at VTB, responsible for private equity and special situations in Europe. Earlier, he joined Standard Bank, managing capital solutions in emerging markets. He previously worked at Morgan Stanley in London and Hong Kong on equity derivatives and convertible transactions in global markets, having joined the firm after completing his MBA.
Simone started his career as a lawyer, practising at top law firms in Italy and the UK.
Sir Nigel Wilson
Sir Nigel Wilson is Chairman of CWG. Sir Nigel was Chief Executive of Legal and General from 2012 - 2024, having joined in 2009 as its Chief Financial Officer. Legal and General was Britain’s Most Admired Company in 2022 and 2023. Sir Nigel was Britain’s Most Admired Leader in 2017. Most Inspirational Leader in 2022 and 2023, Legal & General managed $1.5 trillion of assets.
Sir Nigel was knighted for services to the Financial Services Industry, Regional Development and Sport in the 2022 New Year’s Honours List. Qualifications include a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he was a Kennedy Scholar.
Stephanie Heller
Stephanie Heller's career includes founding, building and sitting on the board of several successful technology and financial companies in Zurich and London, such as the award winning fintech start-up Fractal Labs.
Stephanie takes her experiences as a founder and parlays that into guidance and direction to Bootstrap Europe’s portfolio founders in a pragmatic and compassionate way. Bootstrap Europe’s philosophy of providing debt financing for growth companies was nurtured between 2008 and 2012, when Stephanie, the managing partner for Bootstrap Europe was responsible for the private equity assets of Cape Capital AG - a Zurich-based multi-asset manager and family office, investing in a whole spectrum of companies, from start-ups to mature businesses.
Suzi Gillespie
Suzi Gillespie leads the Research team at the BVCA ensuring that the organisation is at the forefront of crucial analysis of trends and issues surrounding venture capital and private equity and the impact of the industry on the economy.
Suzi previously spent over 15 years at PwC in a variety of roles including Valuations, Pensions and Consulting. She is a Chartered Financial Analyst and hold a degree in Economics from the University of Warwick.
Tim Dunn
Tim Dunn has been with Phoenix for more than 20 years, is a member of both the Management and Investment Committee and focuses his time on originating investments in business and technology services. He is also responsible for Phoenix’s portfolio growth and value creation capabilities.
Tom Pemberton
Tom Pemberton is a Partner and the Head of the Consumer Team. He leads on investments in high growth businesses with a focus on digital consumer and consumer technology sectors. He also helps support businesses with international expansion, particularly into Asia Pacific. Tom is involved and sits on the board of Medik8 and Blue Light Card.
He also led the investments into Automotive Transformation Group, which was sold to Keyloop in 2024, The Goat Agency, which was sold to WPP in 2023, and Virgin Experience Days, which was exited to Equistone PE in 2022.
Tom started his career at strategy consulting firm Booz & Co and then joined mid-market private equity fund Crescent Capital Partners in Sydney. His investing career at Crescent involved transactions in healthcare, technology and consumer businesses, with a focus on growth into Asia. Tom also spent a year as CEO within one of Crescent’s consumer-focused portfolio companies.
Tom has a love of all sports and is a keen traveller, often combining the two by attending overseas sporting events. Having acclimatised to UK cricket conditions, he is now claiming to be more of a bowler (perhaps it’s the sandpaper!).
Tom holds a Bachelor of Commerce/Arts from the University of Sydney.
Vanessa Rocchi
Vanessa Rocchi is a Director on the Secondary team primarily focused on the origination, evaluation, and execution of non-U.S. secondary opportunities including partnership and GP-led transactions.
Vannessa joined Lexington as an associate in 2014 from Barclays where she was an associate in investment banking. She graduated from the Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi with an MS in Finance.
Will Clark
Will Clark has the ultimate respect for anyone that take the brave step of starting their own business. With an unquenchable thirst for founder stories, Will loves to promote those who are central to building high-growth innovative companies.
As a kid Will's Dad would frequently take him on weekend visits into the transport business he ran. He became fascinated by the cash office and how the business made money and decided early on that he wanted to train as an accountant and become an FD.
Having graduated with an accounting and economics degree from Liverpool University, he joined the local office of Ernst &Young and became a chartered accountant specialising in owner-managed businesses and later financial due diligence. Will was fortunate to secure a secondment which introduced him to the fascinating world of private equity and venture capital.
Will jumped at the chance to join 3i in the North West and became absorbed with their post-investment activities. Ten years flew by and after completing a project with a London-based private equity business focused on secondaries, Will joined Mercia in 2011.
Since then, Will has been involved in deploying various funds across the UK and is now fortunate to be managing a great group of people who are focused on providing pre-seed and seed investment to the very best opportunities across the UK.
Will Kier
Will Kier lead’s Aon’s IP Risk & Structured Solutions practice for Aon across EMEA.
Will specializes in structuring complex IP lending transactions, enhanced with insurance. Will is responsible for driving Aon’s go-to-market strategy in EMEA and leads engagement with both insurance providers and lending capital partners. Will also advises Aon’s European-based clients on their IP Risk needs, including the availability and applicability of innovative insurance solutions.
Will has been with Aon for over ten years sending time in both London and New York. He has always focused on intangible asset solutions for multinational clients, first as a broker within the Financial Services Group, and more recently as a Director within Cyber Solutions.
Prior to joining Aon in 2011 Will was at the University of Birmingham. During his time in the industry he has become an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute (ACII).
William Thompson
William Thompson joined HarbourVest in 2019 and focuses on analyzing, structuring, and monitoring secondary private equity opportunities, including traditional and complex transactions.
William joined the Firm from Goldman Sachs, where he was most recently an executive director in the Investment Banking division focused on mergers and acquisitions in the healthcare sector.
Prior to this, he was a senior analyst in the Healthcare Investment Banking division at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.
William received a BS (with distinction) in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2008, where he received the Walter S. Spearman Chancellor’s Award for achievement in scholarship, leadership, and character.
Zoë VanderWolk
Zoë VanderWolk joined ETF Partners as Head of IR and Sustainability in 2019 and became a Partner in 2023.
Following a degree in statistics and Mandarin Chinese, she practiced as a corporate lawyer in the City of London in the Environmental Finance group at Baker & McKenzie LLP. In 2013 she co-founded Accessible Clean Energy LLP, a listed fund investing across the clean energy value chain.
She is a musician, cook, party-thrower, reluctant cold-water swimmer, and a trustee of an educational charity serving the visually impaired. She lived on a houseboat but now lives in a school boarding house with her husband, two sons, 52 teenage boys and a golden retriever puppy.
She is a graduate of Harvard College (BA, Class of ’05) and the College of Law, London (LLB (Distinction), 2008).
UK Pensions Investment Summit
Meet the UK Pensions Investment Summit speakers
Ben Wilkinson
Ben Wilkinson was appointed CEO of Molten Ventures in October 2024, having joined the Group as CFO in 2016 and the Board in June 2019.
As CFO, he joined the Investment Committee and led on strategic projects across the business. Ben successfully built Molten’s balance sheet through equity and debt financing, broadening the shareholder register, and led Molten's transition to the Main Market. His efforts were pivotal to the Company's scale and resilience during a period of extensive growth and transformation, including multiple secondary portfolio investments.
Before joining Molten, Ben served as CFO for five years at AIM-listed President Energy PLC. Earlier in his career, he worked in M&A investment banking at ABN Amro/RBS, gaining significant cross-border transaction and corporate financing experience.
Ben is a Chartered Accountant (FCA) with a BSc in Economics from Royal Holloway, University of London. He also serves as a member of Molten's Sustainability Committee.
Douglas Hansen-Luke
Douglas Hansen-Luke is the Executive Chairman of Future Planet Capital. After two years of research he founded the firm in 2015, following an extensive career in global finance and as an entrepreneur in Hong Kong, London and the Middle East.
He has worked in a series of senior broking, investment and asset management roles for firms including ABN AMRO and Robeco, with a focus on emerging markets and asset classes. He was also co-founder of Hong Kong’s first regulated online equity research firm.
He has sat on the Committee of the Royal British Legion Ball and the Jesus College, Oxford, Campaign Board and has made three trips to Rwanda for social action work with Project Umubano.
Ian Sandiford
Ian Sandiford leads the Private Markets investment team at Border to Coast Pensions Partnership and is responsible for overseeing the investment of £19bn in commitments from its 11 LGPS Partner Funds.
He has more than 20 years’ investment experience and joined Border to Coast in 2018 following a role as Senior Portfolio Manager at East Riding Pension Fund.
John Gilligan
John is Director of a globally recognised programme at one of the world’s premier business schools. He is also an educator, trainer and co-author of a series of books on Private Equity that have been adopted by global business schools, institutions and academia. John is a partner level Corporate Financier in global professional service businesses for 20+ years and has raised over £1.5bn of private equity with realised cash profits exceeding £2bn. John is also a Trustee of The Big Issue Invest Trust.
Lucie Mills
Lucie Mills joined NorthEdge in 2019 to bring her experience of delivering change in a fast growth business to the private equity house itself.
As a Partner, Lucie supports NorthEdge portfolio companies to operationalise and deliver their value creation plan; facilitates portfolio connectivity to share learnings, best practice and access to the operating partner network; supports with Investor Relations and fundraising activities; and takes responsibility for ESG – recognising the role it plays in building better businesses and driving long-term value creation.
Lucie is also very active in wider industry advocacy, including taking on the role of Chair of the BVCA’s Responsible Investment Advisory Group in 2024 and regularly engaging with senior ministers to ensure the Lower-Mid Market & the UK regions are well represented in conversations regarding reform and policy development.
Michael Marshall
Michael Marshall is Director of Investment Risk and Sustainable Ownership at Railpen, the investment manager and fiduciary adviser for the c£35bn UK railways pension schemes. Michael’s department is responsible for ensuring client capital is invested on a sustainable and risk-efficient basis. This includes investment governance, risk management of public and private markets, performance reporting, manager oversight, asset valuations, ODD and sustainable ownership.
Prior to joining Railpen Michael held a variety of senior roles in pensions, asset management and sustainability advisory. He is a member of advisory groups at the British Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (BVCA) and the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) and is a Board Director of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC). He studied economics at Bristol University.
Michael Moore
Michael Moore is Chief Executive of the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVCA).
Michael and his colleagues are focused on supporting the development of the private capital industry, as it invests in thousands of businesses and supports millions of jobs across the UK. As policymakers work on the competitiveness of the UK’s investment climate, Michael is confident that private equity and venture capital will continue to create significant public value through investment in growth, innovation and people.
Over the past 30 years Michael has operated at senior levels in both politics and business. In his political career he served in the Cabinet at the time of the Coalition Government, as Secretary of State for Scotland. He was a Member of Parliament for 18 years.
After the 2015 General Election, Michael became a Senior Advisor at PwC. Prior to entering politics, he qualified as a chartered accountant with the firm.
Limited Partner Summit
Meet the Limited Partner Summit speakers
Imogen Richards
Imogen is a Partner and Head of Primaries in Pantheon’s European Private Equity team and also a member of the Global Primary Committee, ESG Committee and Allocation Committee. Imogen joined Pantheon in 2005, and prior to joining the primaries team, she was a member of Pantheon’s secondary team and also headed up the Investment Structuring and Strategy division. Imogen is also on the board of Level 20 and chairs the Senior Leader’s Committee. Prior to Pantheon Imogen worked on small and mid-market private equity and mezzanine transactions for Anglo Irish Bank. She holds a master’s degree in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University. Imogen is based in London.
Isobel Clarke
Isobel is Director of Policy at the BVCA, with Sarah Adams. Isobel and Sarah have worked as a jobshare partnership since early 2020. They lead the Policy team and their work across tax, legal, regulatory, accounting and sustainability matters, working closely with members and the BVCA committees to progress key technical and strategic policy issues.
Isobel has over 13 years’ experience of working on government policy, mainly at HM Treasury but also at the Ministry of Justice. She has led policy work on business rates, tax devolution and the scrutiny of tax reliefs. She was, with Sarah, deputy director for business tax strategy and then deputy director for open justice and dispute resolution.
Isobel lives in London with her family. She read French and German at the University of Cambridge, spending a year in Berlin. Before joining HM Treasury she was a research and evaluation consultant.
Jennifer Choi
Jen Choi is CEO of the Institutional Limited Partners Association (ILPA), a global membership organization dedicated to advancing the interests of Limited Partners through advocacy, education, research and industry engagement.
Prior to becoming CEO, Jen served eight years as ILPA’s Managing Director of Industry Affairs. During that time, she launched ILPA’s global advocacy platform to ensure that the LP perspective was being fully considered in global regulation and policymaking. With a focus on robust LP-GP dialogue around emerging issues, Jen led the creation and adoption of best practices such as the ILPA Reporting Template, the ILPA Principles and ILPA’s guidance on subscription lines of credit and GP-led secondaries.
In 2020, Jen founded the Diversity in Action initiative, a community of practice that has grown to more than 300 LP and GP signatories with the shared goal of taking concrete action to advance DEI in the private markets.
Before joining ILPA, Jen served as Vice President of Industry and External Affairs for the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association (EMPEA), now known as the Global Private Capital Association (GPCA), where she led the association’s research programs and industry engagement activities. Previously, Jennifer was a consultant with Boston-based Stax Inc., providing due diligence and advisory services for leading private equity and venture capital firms.
Jennifer holds a Masters in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University and a B.A. summa cum laude in Economics and Political Science from Augustana College.
John Euers
John Euers joined M&G plc in 2006 and is Head of Private Equity and Real Assets, a division within M&G’s Private Markets business. John is a member of the investment committee and has led a number of private equity primary, secondary and co-investment transactions. In turn, he represents M&G on a number of LPACs globally. Prior to joining M&G, John spent seven years with the UK medical research foundation Wellcome Trust where he helped to manage their global private equity fund-of-funds portfolio. John began his career with State Street Bank. John received a BA (Hons) in Business Studies from Leeds Metropolitan University in 1995 and qualified as an Associate of UKSIP in 2001.
Michael Moore
Michael Moore is Chief Executive of the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVCA).
Michael and his colleagues are focused on supporting the development of the private capital industry, as it invests in thousands of businesses and supports millions of jobs across the UK. As policymakers work on the competitiveness of the UK’s investment climate, Michael is confident that private equity and venture capital will continue to create significant public value through investment in growth, innovation and people.
Over the past 30 years Michael has operated at senior levels in both politics and business. In his political career he served in the Cabinet at the time of the Coalition Government, as Secretary of State for Scotland. He was a Member of Parliament for 18 years.
After the 2015 General Election, Michael became a Senior Advisor at PwC. Prior to entering politics, he qualified as a chartered accountant with the firm.
Nicolas Moura
Nicolas Moura is an EMEA private capital research analyst at PitchBook, where he covers the PE and VC markets in Europe. He contributes to quarterly core reports as well as analyst notes on various topics. Prior to PitchBook, Moura worked as an equity research analyst first at Berenberg and then at Mirabaud, transitioning from being a sector analyst into a generalist.
Moura received a bachelor’s degree in economics and business from University College of London (UCL) and a master’s degree in finance from Imperial College Business School. He is based in PitchBook’s London office.
Sarah Adams
Sarah is Director of Policy at the BVCA, with Isobel Clarke. Isobel and Sarah have worked as a jobshare partnership since early 2020. They lead the Policy team and their work across tax, legal, regulatory, accounting and sustainability matters, working closely with members and the BVCA committees to progress key technical and strategic policy issues.
Sarah has over a decade of experience making policy in the centre of government, mainly at HM Treasury. She has led on policy areas across tax, spending and financial services, including pensions tax, venture capital and insurance markets. With Isobel, she has been deputy director for business tax strategy at HM Treasury, and deputy director for open justice and dispute resolution at the Ministry of Justice.
Sarah lives in London with her family. She studied economics at the University of Cambridge and worked on global health economics before joining the civil service.
Suzi Gillespie
Suzi Gillespie leads the Research team at the BVCA ensuring that the organisation is at the forefront of crucial analysis of trends and issues surrounding venture capital and private equity and the impact of the industry on the economy.
Suzi previously spent over 15 years at PwC in a variety of roles including Valuations, Pensions and Consulting. She is a Chartered Financial Analyst and hold a degree in Economics from the University of Warwick.