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Private Equity Power Talks (PepTalks) Limited
Thomas House, 84 Eccleston Square, London, SW1V 1PX
Private Equity Power Talks (PepTalks) Limited
Thomas House, 84 Eccleston Square, London, SW1V 1PX
PepTalks is the UK’s leading peer to peer training provider for private equity backed CEOs and their management teams.
A library on all things associated with leading a private equity backed business.
Our Members are supported by a group of seasoned, successful but humble portfolio company leaders who share their experiences, good and bad, with our members.
I was formerly CEO of Partnership Assurance Group, a provider of nonstandard annuities for individuals with medical or lifestyle conditions. I undertook a management buyout of the business with Phoenix Equity Partners in 2005, at an EV of £14m. Just three years later I led a secondary buyout to Cinven, valuing the business at £160m, before listing the business in 2013 at a £1.6bn market cap.
I currently Chair three private equity backed businesses: Retirement Bridge (Patron Capital), Key Retirement Group, (Partners Group) and Mobius Life (Phoenix Equity Partners).
Formerly I served as Non-executive Director of Guardian Financial Services and Saunderson House, achieving stellar exits for Cinven and Epiris, respectively.
I draw on my personal experience to help PepTalks Members:
Currently I Chair The Key Support Services, backed by CBPE, PSSG, backed by Tenzing and Ticketer, also backed by Tenzing. In addition I Chair the Youth Endowment Fund and I am a Trustee of Impetus. I recently Chaired the educational safeguarding technology company, Smoothwall, another Tenzing investment, which we sold to an Australian trade buyer in August 2021 delivering a 5.7 times return.
I was previously a Founding Partner of Hg Capital, a leading private equity firm, where I spent 18 years focused largely on software and service businesses. I built and led the portfolio management team and represented Hg on the board of numerous businesses in the UK and Europe.
I will be using my experience to help PepTalks members:
I spent 29 years at ERM, the world’s largest independent sustainability consultancy, with 160 offices across 47 countries and five thousand employees. In 2021, I led the business through a fifth private equity transaction, selling from OMERS and AIMCo to KKR, at a valuation of USD$2.85 billion. I had also been materially involved in two prior ERM transactions. After almost 30 years at the firm and 5 years as CEO, I stepped down in 2022 and transitioned to a plural career involving a combination of Chair and non-exec roles across different ownership types.
I am currently Chair of Opus Recruitment (backed by Graphite since 2021), a Non-Exec Board Member at Siemens and an Independent Board Manager for The Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet.
I add value to PepTalks members in M&A, integrations, international growth, building key account management, brand, people, culture and engagement and ESG planning.
I am an Operating Partner at Cairngorm Capital and the founder of The Purposeful Leader, a leadership coaching and development consultancy.
With extensive experience in leadership development, organisation design and cultural transformation, I typically support leaders in environments requiring rapid turnaround or change.
Through my experience as a HR Director, NED and leadership expert, I help PepTalks members:
I am currently CEO at Achilles, a tech enabled provider of supply chain risk management, which is backed by Bridgepoint. My career background is in leading global technology and data analytics businesses across different sectors undergoing digitisation. I have worked with many leading private equity companies and developed businesses that have been sold to trade or floated on public markets. I was the Founder and CEO of Moneybox plc, SVP and Managing Director of First Data International, and CEO of Retail Decisions Inc and Global Navigation Solutions Ltd. I believe in supporting colleagues to reach their full potential and helping them to deliver outstanding value to customers within a vibrant and energetic culture.
I hope that I can add value to PepTalks members specifically in terms of setting strategy, culture development, investor relations and trade exits.
I am CEO of Skyes Holiday Cottages, a multi-brand holiday group with market-leading technology, service and products. After joining Sykes in 2016, following an investment from Livingbridge, I set about increasing Sykes’ property portfolio, successfully acquiring 20+ regional UK brands into the Sykes family, and expanded the business internationally by investing in New Zealand’s leading holiday rental firm Bachcare. In 2019, I secured fresh investment from Vitruvian Partners with an EV of circa £400m, delivering a 9x return for Livingbridge, who re-invested. In 2022, we completed the transformational acquisition of Forest Holidays, which has diversified our product range and added UKCaravans4hire to our family, taking our total portfolio to over 31,000 units of accommodation.
I try to support PepTalks members with value creation planning, developing their exit story, building a winning team and creating a high performance culture.
I spent more than 17 years as an investor in the private equity industry, investing and partnering with growth businesses with values of up to £150m. Latterly, I was a Partner at Dunedin LLP, a leading UK private equity house. I was also part of the founding team of SandAire Private Equity, a specialist investor in family and owner-managed businesses.
In January 2017, I joined Blackrock Expert Services (a Dunedin portfolio business at the time) as COO, to drive strategy, professionalisation and continued growth. Six months later, we completed a secondary buyout with Intermediate Capital Group. Following this deal, I succeeded the Founder as CEO. In December 2020 after both acquisitive and organic growth we sold the business to Kroll, backed by Premira, Stone Point Capital and Further Global Capital Management.
I am currently President of Governance and Risk Advisory at Kroll which has 1,700 people globally and combines human and technology solutions to the management of risk for our clients.
I advise members on how to position their businesses for exit and how to work successfully with their investors to achieve alignment, drawing on my experience of operating on both sides of the private equity fence.
The PE model requires management to double or triple the value of the business in a relatively short period of time, just 3-5 years.
This will typically require a business to grow in new and unproven ways, whilst also adapting to an inquisitive and analytical shareholder, who will require greater reporting and governance. Then of course, at the end of the investment cycle, there is the need to deliver an exit event allowing all shareholders to crystallise the value created.