I am Stephen Halliday, Chair of Aurora Energy Research, which provides data driven intelligence for the global energy transformation and is backed by CGE Partners. I am also an Advisory Board Member for Scottish Equity Partners, a growth equity investor with over $600 million under management, focusing on for high growth technology companies.
I previously was Chair of Cipher, a patent analytics software provider between March 2018 until March 2023, whilst it was backed by Beringea who have since exited following the acquisition of Cipher by LexisNexis Intellectual Property Solutions in March 2023.
Prior to my Chair roles, I was CEO at Wood Mackenzie, a global research and consultancy business powering the natural resources industry. I was with the business for 27 years, 9 of those as CEO from 2007 to 2016. During my time there, I was part of the management team that completed the buyout from Deutsche Bank in 2001, two private equity transactions, including the 2009 tertiary buyout from Candover to Charterhouse Capital Partners, and the sale to Hellman & Friedman in 2012. We subsequently completed a trade exit to Verisk in 2015, valuing the business at £1.85bn.
I hope to be able to pass on to PepTalks members what I have learnt from multiple PE investments, sharing my experience of:
- Integrating multiple acquisitions
- Scaling a people-based business rapidly.