Best Startup
At Best Startup UK we track over 130,000 UK startups and over 500,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top London based President operating in the Finance space. If you think a President is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.co.uk.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Companies House UK, Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Anoop Pandey
Vice President of Deutsche Bank
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About Deutsche Bank, Stroom Energy: Deutsche Bank, a Frankfurt-based global investment bank, offers financial products and services to corporate and institutional clients.
Carlo Giovanni Biggio
Vice President of Accel
Carlo Giovanni Biggio focuses on Cloud, Fintech and Security businesses. Prior to joining Accel, Carlo was with Anthemis and Rocket Internet, focusing on early-stage European startups. Carlo is from Cagliari, Italy and graduated from Bocconi University and the Rotterdam School of Management.
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About Accel: Accel is an early and growth-stage venture capital firm that helps a global community of entrepreneurs.
Hamza Farrukh
Vice President, Macro Rates Sales of Goldman Sachs
Hamza Farrukh is founder at Bondh-E-Shams and a securities analyst at Goldman Sachs.
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About Bondh-E-Shams, Goldman Sachs: Goldman Sachs is a multinational financial services firm providing securities, investment banking, and management services.
Todd Leland
Co President, Asia Pacific Ex-Japan of Goldman Sachs
Todd Leland is a Co-President, Asia Pacific Ex-Japan at Goldman Sachs.
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About Goldman Sachs: Goldman Sachs is a multinational financial services firm providing securities, investment banking, and management services.
Gavin Holland
President of Anthemis Group
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About Anthemis Group, Erevena: Anthemis Group is a global platform that cultivates change in the financial system by investing in, growing, and sustaining businesses.
Abhishek Lahoti
Vice President of Sapphire
Abhishek Lahoti currently works as the Vice President for Sapphire Ventures. He previously worked at Dropbox as the Business Development and Distribution Partnerships.
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About Sapphire: Sapphire is a venture capital firm that partners with visionary teams and venture funds to build companies.
David Checketts
President of TowerBrook Capital Partners
David Checketts was President and CEO of Madison Square Garden, L.P. for ten years. Prior to this he served as President of the New York Knicks professional basketball team, Vice President of Development for the National Basketball Association and President of the Utah Jazz professional basketball team. In 2001, he founded SCP Worldwide (formerly Sports Capital Partners), a consulting and investment services firm for sports teams and media assets.
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About TowerBrook Capital Partners: TowerBrook Capital Partners is a London-based investment management firm that funds European and North American companies.
Luke Parsons
Vice President of Summit Partners
Luke joined Summit in 2017 and focuses primarily on the healthcare and life sciences sector in Europe. Prior to Summit, Luke served as Vice President in the Mergers & Acquisitions division of Jefferies. Luke holds an MA in applied economics, with honors, from the University of St. Andrews.
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About Summit Partners: Summit Partners is an investment firm that is currently investing in to growth equity, fixed income, and public equity opportunities.
Edward Hughes
Vice President of Providence Equity Partners
Edward Hughes is a vice president based in our London office. Prior to joining Providence in 2013, Mr. Hughes was a vice president in the telecommunications, media and technology investment banking group at J.P. Morgan in London. He received a Bachelor of Science from Durham University.
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About Providence Equity Partners, Providence Strategic Growth, PSG: Providence Equity Partners is a private equity firm that focuses on media, entertainment, communications, and information investments.
Justin Arbuckle
Senior Vice President of Scotiabank
Technology executive with experience on 4 continents. Specialises in driving large scale technology transformation in global enterprises, especially agile methods, DevOps, legacy migration and data centre consolidation.
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About Scotiabank: Scotiabank offer personal, commercial, corporate & investment banking products and services.
Antonio Gagliardi
Vice President – Strategy, Product, and Analytics – Merchant Services of American Express
Before founding CompareEuropeGroup, Antonio was an Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company in their UK Financial Services practice. Prior to this, Antonio worked at Bain & Co and at JP Morgan Chase. Antonio holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, with a special distinction for finishing in the top 10%, and graduated summa cum laude from Bocconi University.
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About American Express: American Express is a global financial services company best known for its credit card, charge card, and traveler’s cheque businesses.
Judith Shackleton
Vice President M&A Integration of Visa
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About Fraedom, Visa: Visa is a multinational financial services company that facilitates electronic payment systems throughout the world.
Alisa Bornstein
CPO Europe – Vice President of Visa
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About Visa: Visa is a multinational financial services company that facilitates electronic payment systems throughout the world.
Finbarr Hutcheson
President of IntercontinentalExchange
Finbarr Hutcheson is the President of ICE Benchmark Administration Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE: ICE). Previously, Hutcheson served as the Chief Executive of NYSE Liffe, the international derivatives business of NYSE Euronext, and was responsible for the Group’s European Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities (FICC) businesses. Finbarr joined NYSE Euronext in 2011. Prior to joining NYSE Euronext, Hutcheson spent 15 years working for Goldman Sachs in a variety of roles in derivatives. Most recently he was Global Head of Futures Services Business Development within the Securities Division. In that role he was responsible for defining and delivering strategic enhancements for that business, responding to evolving client needs and industry developments.
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About IntercontinentalExchange: Intercontinental Exchange is an operator of regulated exchanges and clearing houses serving the risk management needs of global markets.
Paul Swann
President and Managing Director of IntercontinentalExchange
Paul Swann is the President & Managing Director, ICE Clear Europe, the wholly-owned European clearing house of Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE: ICE). Swann was named to his post at ICE in July 2007 and was instrumental in the launch of ICE Clear Europe in November 2008. In his role, Swann oversees all technology, operations and financial functions at the London-based clearing house. Swann has over 20 years experience in European derivatives and equities clearing, and prior to joining ICE, he was most recently Managing Director, Group Risk and Managing Director, Change for LCH.Clearnet Ltd. During his tenure at LCH.Clearnet Ltd., Swann held various leadership positions in technology, operations, and risk management. In those roles, Swann worked closely with ICE on its energy futures and over-the-counter (OTC) clearing business.
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About IntercontinentalExchange: Intercontinental Exchange is an operator of regulated exchanges and clearing houses serving the risk management needs of global markets.
Esme Harwood
Vice President, Public Policy of Barclays
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About Barclays: Barclays is a global financial services company that provides various financial products and services worldwide.
Michael Karpik
Executive Vice President of State Street Global Advisors
Michael is Head of EMEA and an Executive Vice President for State Street Global Advisors (SSGA), the investment management arm of State Street Corporation and a global leader in asset management. He is also a member of SSGA’s Executive Management Group, Chairman of the Board for SSGA Limited (UK) and is a member of the board for multiple SSGA operating entities and fund companies throughout Europe. Prior to this appointment and since 2009, Michael was Head of Investments for EMEA as well as Head of UK, Middle East and Ireland. Michael moved to London in 1999 and has also had previous management positions in operations, product development and our Global Cash Investment group. He is a 25 year industry veteran and a 14 year veteran of SSGA. Michael has a BS in Finance from Gannon University and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).
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About PineBridge Investments, State Street Global Advisors: State Street Global Advisors is the investment management division of State Street Corporation
Alberto Zenga
Vice President of TCV
Alberto Zenga is a Vice President at TCV. Alberto joined TCV in 2021 and focuses on investment opportunities in the internet, software, FinTech, and technology-enabled services sectors. He supports TCV’s investment in FarEye and Dream Sports.
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About TCV: TCV provides investment capital to growth-stage private and public companies in the technology industry.
Alexander Wortmann
Vice President of TCV
Alexander Wortmann currently works as the Vice President for TCV. He previously worked at Merrill Lynch as an Investment Banking Analyst.
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About TCV: TCV provides investment capital to growth-stage private and public companies in the technology industry.
Stefan Dandl
Senior Vice President of TA Associates
Stefan also leads TA’s effort in German-speaking countries across sectors. He is fluent in German and Italian.
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About TA Associates: TA Associates is one of the private equity firms in the world.
Jérémy Dréan
Senior Vice President of TA Associates
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About TA Associates: TA Associates is one of the private equity firms in the world.
Neil Hoyne
Senior Vice President, Funds Client Service Manager of Neuberger Berman Group
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About Neuberger Berman Group: Neuberger Berman is an independent and employee-controlled asset management company, providing global investment solutions.
Deborah Rayner
Vice President and Managing Editor Europe, Middle East and Africa of CNN
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About CNN: CNN is an online broadcasting platform that offers the latest business, financial, and personal finance news.
Michael Sim
Vice President of Fidelity International Strategic Ventures
Michael sources deals, conducts due diligence and carries out financial modelling to support the Principal Investments team. He is also helping to develop Eight Roads’ position in FinTech and manages its portfolio of listed stocks.
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About Fidelity International Strategic Ventures: Fidelity International Strategic Ventures invests in fintech businesses and technologies.
Julie Kainz
Vice President of Dawn Capital
Julie Kainz currently works as the Vice President for Dawn Capital. She previously worked at Salesforce Ventures as a Senior Associate.
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About Dawn Capital: Dawn Capital is an early-stage venture fund that focuses on investing in the enterprise software and FinTech sectors.
Ryan Jones
Principal & Vice President of HarbourVest Partners
Ryan Jones is the Principal & Vice President at HarbourVest Partners.
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About HarbourVest Partners: HarbourVest is an independent investment firm that provides innovative private equity solutions to institutional clients worldwide.
Julia van Tuyll
Vice President of Investor Relations of Lion Capital
Julia van Tuyll is a Vice President of Investor Relations at Lion Capital. Prior to joining Lion Capital, Julia was employed by Vision Capital where she was involved with the implementation of the fund raising programme including raising capital from new and existing relationships. She was previously with the European Department at the Royal Netherlands Embassy in London. Julia graduated from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne where she obtained an Honours Degree in International Politics.
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About Lion Capital: Lion Capital is a consumer-focused investor passionate about investing in brands about which people are passionate.
Simon Van Den Born
President of Marex Spectron
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About Marex Spectron: Marex Spectron is a broker offering unrivalled breadth of commodity market.
Jan D McGill
Vice President of Bank of America Merrill Lynch
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About Bank of America Merrill Lynch: Bank of America Merrill Lynch is the corporate and investment banking division of Bank of America.
Tosin Awoyinka
Senior Vice President of Helios Investment Partners
Tosin Awoyinka is the Senior Vice President and part of the Investment Team at Helios Investment Partners.
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About Helios Investment Partners: Helios Investment Partners is a private equity and venture capital firm that focuses on African companies.
Jurgen Heppe
Executive Vice President of Standard Bank
Jurgen is an Executive Vice President with Standard Bank Group. He has over 20 years investment banking experience, including 17 years focused on telecoms and media transactions. He has led multiple public and private capital raising and M&A transactions in developed and emerging markets, involving both strategic and financial investors. Clients have included MTN, Orange, Telefonica, Vivendi, Telenor, Telenet, Eutelsat, Batelco, Econet, Celtel, De Agostini, Prior to joining Standard Bank Group, Jurgen was with Deutsche Bank, Lehman Brothers and Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Jurgen graduated from London Business School with a Master in Finance degree.
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About Standard Bank: Standard Bank has a long history in banking and operates in thirty three countries.
Paul Newrick
President & Managing Director of Altavair
Mr. Newrick has been involved in the commercial aviation industry, with a focus on financing and leasing activities for 37 years. Mr. Newrick co-founded Altavair L.P. in 2003 and is responsible for the overall strategy and management of its affiliate, Altavair Limited. Prior to co-founding Altavair L.P., Mr. Newrick worked with Mr. Rimmer in the formation of XS Aviation Ltd. in 2000. Prior to XS Aviation, Mr. Newrick founded aircraft investment management company Xavian Limited in 1998, and from 1988 to 1998, he held senior management positions at several banks specializing in aviation finance, including Industrial Bank of Japan, Ltd., Svenska Finans, and HypoBank International S.A., having started in the banking sector with Security Pacific National Bank. He commenced his career in aviation undertaking an undergraduate apprenticeship in Aeronautical Engineering with British Aerospace in Filton from 1979 to 1988, during which time he worked extensively within the ongoing Concorde program and completed his honors degree at Bristol University.
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About Altavair: Altavair is an asset management firm focused exclusively on managing commercial aviation assets.
Richard Wray
Vice President of Operations of Carta Worldwide
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About Carta Worldwide: Carta Worldwide is an international leader in digital transaction technology, specializing in mobile & emerging payments.
Jack Diamond
Vice President of Kreos Capital
As a Vice President, Jack supports the General Partners and Principals in the entire deal life cycle including assessing potential deals and performing investment analysis, as well as post-investment monitoring. Prior to joining Kreos, Jack qualified as a solicitor working in the City with a focus on venture capital and private equity. Jack holds a degree in law from the University of Sheffield.
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About Kreos Capital: Kreos Capital is a growth debt firm that provides financing solutions for high-growth companies across Europe and Israel.
Jack Diamond
Vice President of Kreos Capital
As a Vice President, Jack supports the General Partners and Principals in the entire deal life cycle including assessing potential deals and performing investment analysis, as well as post-investment monitoring. Prior to joining Kreos, Jack qualified as a solicitor working in the City with a focus on venture capital and private equity. Jack holds a degree in law from the University of Sheffield.
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About Kreos Capital: Kreos Capital is a growth debt firm that provides financing solutions for high-growth companies across Europe and Israel.
Chris Church
Vice President of Kreos Capital
As a Vice President, Chris supports the General Partners and Principals in the entire deal life cycle including assessing potential deals and performing investment analysis, as well as post-investment monitoring. Prior to joining Kreos, Chris worked as a Senior Associate for The Parthenon Group performing commercial diligence for private equity funds and large corporates. Previously Chris worked in the corporate finance teams of EY and Deutsche Bank in Melbourne. He holds a BCom in Finance and Economics from Otago University and is a Chartered Accountant with the Institute of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand.
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About Kreos Capital: Kreos Capital is a growth debt firm that provides financing solutions for high-growth companies across Europe and Israel.
Chris Church
Vice President of Kreos Capital
As a Vice President, Chris supports the General Partners and Principals in the entire deal life cycle including assessing potential deals and performing investment analysis, as well as post-investment monitoring. Prior to joining Kreos, Chris worked as a Senior Associate for The Parthenon Group performing commercial diligence for private equity funds and large corporates. Previously Chris worked in the corporate finance teams of EY and Deutsche Bank in Melbourne. He holds a BCom in Finance and Economics from Otago University and is a Chartered Accountant with the Institute of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand.
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About Kreos Capital: Kreos Capital is a growth debt firm that provides financing solutions for high-growth companies across Europe and Israel.
Richard Smith
Vice President, Finance Director, European Capital of Ares
Your two biggest considerations when hiring a tree care company are preserving the long term value the tree adds to your property if you’re keeping it, or the safety practiced by the company that’s removing one. In both cases, the Santa Clara County firm of Bay Area Tree Specialists in San Jose CA has it covered. With over 2,000 customers a year, previous customers throughout Santa Clara County, San Mateo County and the Bay Area cite Bay Area Tree Specialists for their superior knowledge and superior safety procedures. Owned by ISA Certified Arborist Richard Smith, Bay Area Tree Specialists provides reliable tree maintenance to clients throughout the North, South, and East Bay Area, the Peninsula, and Santa Cruz.
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About Ares: American Capital with $20 billion in capital resources under management,1 is the only private equity fund and the largest.
Andrew Dyson
Executive Vice President & Head of Global Distribution of Affiliated Managers Group
Andrew Dyson joined AMG in 2011 as Executive Vice President responsible for managing the Company’s global distribution business. Prior to joining AMG, Dyson served as Head of BlackRock’s Global Institutional Client Business, following the merger of BlackRock and Barclays Global Investors. In prior roles at BlackRock and Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (MLIM), Dyson held senior distribution positions, including Head of the International Institutional Business, and, before that, Head of the Institutional Business for Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific. Prior to joining MLIM, Dyson was Head of U.S. Multinational Investment Consulting for William M. Mercer, and also served as Head of U.K. Pension Fund Investment Consulting for the firm. Dyson is a fellow of the Institute of Actuaries. He earned an M.A. degree in Mathematics from Cambridge University.
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About Affiliated Managers Group: Affiliated Managers Group is a asset management company with boutique investment management.
Thomas Scott McDonald
President and chief executive officer of Oliver Wyman
Scott McDonald is the Chief Executive Officer of Oliver Wyman Group. In his role, Scott provides global leadership to the entire set of industry practices and horizontal capabilities within Oliver Wyman. Scott also leads Oliver Wyman Group, which includes Oliver Wyman, NERA, and Lippincott. Previously, Scott was the Managing Partner of Oliver Wyman’s Financial Services practice. In that role, he managed the practice globally across all of its service lines and advised senior executives in financial services around the world, especially on matters of competitiveness and industry regulation and reform. Scott joined the firm in 1995, was elected a partner in 2000, and elected by his partners as Managing Partner in 2007. Prior to becoming Managing Partner of Financial Services, Scott was the Global head of the Corporate & Institutional Banking practice within Financial Services, which includes the firm’s activities in Corporate Banking, Investment Banking, Capital Markets, Asset Management, Exchanges, and other related businesses. Scott has a special interest in the role that financial services firms play in society at large. He has sat on various international industry working groups, such as the International institute of Finance Committee on Market Best Practices, Her Majesty’s Treasury Professional Services Global Competitiveness Group, the World Economic Forum Steering Committee for Future Financial Architecture, and the McGill University’s Expert Panel for Strategy and Global Leadership. Scott is also a regular speaker at events held by the Council of Foreign Relations in New York, the World Knowledge Forum in Seoul, and at Oliver Wyman’s annual World Economic Forum lunch in Davos. Before joining Oliver Wyman, he was an M&A investment banker with RBC Dominion Securities in Toronto. Scott has degrees in Finance & Economics from McGill University and International Relations from Cambridge University. A marathon runner, he makes his home in London. Scott is an avid fisherman and specializes in finding any fish at all in the English Channel.
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About British Council(BIRAX), Oliver Wyman: Oliver Wyman is a management consulting firm that specializes in strategies, operations, risk management, and organizational transformation.
Emmanuel Jaclot
Executive Vice President of Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec
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About Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec: Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec is a Canadian fund management company focused on retirement plans and insurance policies.
Mark Harries
Executive Vice President, MillenniumIT and General Manager, Technology Services, LSEG of MillenniumIT
Mark joined the London Stock Exchange in 1997 and has been involved in a number of the major projects and strategic initiatives since then. Following the acquisition of MillenniumIT in October 2009, he is currently responsible for the LSE Group – MillenniumIT interface and splits his time between London and Colombo. Mark is a graduate engineer and prior to joining the LSE worked as a consultant project manager in the engineering, construction and financial services sectors.
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About MillenniumIT: MillenniumIT is a leading innovative trading technology business.
Jason Welham
Vice President of Lazard
Jason Welham joined Lazard in 2017 and is a Vice President in the Financial Institutions Group with a primary focus on Fin Tech. Jason has over 7 years of mergers and acquisitions experience and provides strategic advice to a number of Lazard’s Fin Tech clients. Most recently, Jason was Corporate Development Manager at VocaLink having led large aspects of the corporate development efforts including bidder selection, deal execution and regulatory approval efforts that resulted in the sale to MasterCard. Previously, Jason worked at PwC, where he specialized in M&A Advisory Services advising a range of clients across various sectors including Financial Services, Technology, Media and Telecommunications. Jason is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales, ACA and attended Loughborough University where he obtained a BSC in Business Economics & Finance.
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About Lazard: Lazard is a financial advisory and asset management firm focused on income strategies, alternative investments, and private equity funds.
Kriti Madan
Vice President of Northleaf Capital Partners
Kriti participates in due diligence, execution and asset management of Northleaf’s infrastructure investment program in the UK and Europe. Prior to joining Northleaf in 2018, Kriti worked at KPMG in the Infrastructure Corporate Finance group in both London and Melbourne, where she was most recently an Associate Director, responsible for originating and executing infrastructure transactions. Previously, she worked at ANZ Bank in Melbourne as part of the Structured Derivatives group. Kriti received a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) from the University of Melbourne. She holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.
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About Northleaf Capital Partners: Northleaf Capital Partners is private equity firm that manages pension plans, endowments, foundations, financial institutions accounts.
Adrian Stanley
Vice President of Publisher Business Development of Digital Science
Adrian joined Digital Science in May 2014, coming over from portfolio company ReadCube, where he held the equivalent position. Previously, Adrian was CEO of the Charlesworth Group USA and brings over 20 years of experience in the global scholarly publishing industry, having lived and worked on 3 continents (Europe, Asia and North America). He holds a number of industry board and committee posts including at the Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP), and the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) and is an active member of scholarly publishing community. Outside of the publishing world Adrian likes playing cricket in the USA, watching American football (and soccer), supporting animal rescue foundations, and global travel, keeping in touch with friends and family from around the world.
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About Digital Science: Digital Science is a scientific research software technology company.
Rob Young
President, International of OnDeck
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About OnDeck: Ondeck is a technology-enabled financial platform that provides loan financing to small and medium-sized businesses.
Keith Waterman
President and Co-Founder of BankBI
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About BankBI: BankBI is a Business Intelligence and Analytics for financial institutions.
Paul Lees
President of CheckoutSmart
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About CheckoutSmart, CheckoutSmart: CheckoutSmart is a mobile application that gives you rewards for uploading pictures of shopping receipts.
Peter Erceg
Senior Vice President of Lockton
Peter joined Lockton from EE in June 2016, the largest telecommunications company in Britain. As the CISO he was responsible for the security of the companies and their customer’s information. He led a team that covered all areas of Information and Cyber Security, Technology Risk Management and Business Continuity for the company. Prior to joining EE Peter was the VP of Information Security at Visa Europe, responsible for the protection for Visa’s sensitive data for the company which had a turnover of over €1 trillion per year.
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About Lockton: Clients across the globe count on Lockton for risk management, insurance and employee benefits.
