Giles Derry

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.