Agenda
Explore the agenda and build your viewing schedule. To chat to delegates, head to the chat page.
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GMT Timezone
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08:40
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08:45Morning mindfulness
Strategies to deal with stress and distractions that come from working from home.
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Innovation
Many industries were already facing huge changes. The pandemic was the catalyst to accelerate that transformation, causing companies to adapt their footprint and futureproof strategy. The trend for technology M&A seen in recent years continued in 2020, with the reliance upon the digital economy shaping consumer habits for years to come.
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09:00(It’s not just a) vaccine development
Investors are accessing ancillary technologies as investment opportunities as a multitude of global drug developers deploy funds into the development of a COVID-19 vaccine. Such technologies will not only address COVID-19 but will also have a major role to play in future pandemics. Ancillary technologies include therapeutics that address comorbidities in patients who have contracted the virus, genomic tools for testing, diagnostic tools and logistics and supply chain management.
Beyond COVID-19, companies with genomic capabilities, such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or next generation sequencing (NGS), can facilitate in quickly decoding the genetic building blocks of new viruses and not only detect infections, but also facilitate mRNA-based vaccine development.
Therapeutics for patients who contract the virus and have existing comorbidities are garnering investor interest. Healthcare systems are primarily looking for antivirals or therapeutics that help modulate inflammation. Governments are inadequately prepared for global pandemics and there are not enough therapeutics that mitigate the severity and mortality of these diseases.
Companies operating in pharma logistics – such as drug manufacturing, packaging and distribution – are equally expected to attract substantial investor interest as administering a vaccine to billions will not be easy.
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09:40Health and fitness ecommerce heats up
Health and fitness brands have accelerated digital offers in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic as consumers look to sweat outside the gym. Valuations of Gymshark, Sweaty Betty and Lululemon Athletica have provided evidence of heated interested in the athleisure space. Lululemon’s acquisition of MIRROR expands their offering into high-end workout equipment providing a recurring revenue via digital subscriptions. Behavioural user data collected is also extremely valuable to advertisers. This keynote will explore the rise of digital health and fitness brands and their expansion plans.
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10:00Uneven consumer sector recovery
Global consumer sector M&A is showing signs of an uneven post-COVID-19 recovery, with targets in lockdown-friendly niches meeting PE funds’ ample dry powder. On the other end of the spectrum, poor performers have seen their cash flows severely impacted by the pandemic and distressed situations will continue to be a significant catalyst for M&A in the months ahead.
Globally, the value of consumer-sector M&A hit a high of €448bn in 2015, then fell consecutively to €192bn last year with big-ticket deals drying up. However, modest signs of hope are apparent as lockdown eases. The high performers included producers of staple foods, certain beauty products and direct-to-consumer businesses. Recent strategic tie-ups in the food space have signalled more deals to come near the base of the supply chain.
Distressed subsectors, and therefore fertile ground of immediate M&A, include retail, travel and casual dining. Among the high-profile collapses include Hema, which was taken over by its creditors. Nearly all apparel-retail M&A tracked in 2020 involved a target being bought out of administration including SCP Private Equity’s purchase of TM Lewin, Bain Capital and Gordon Brothers Group’s acquisition of Laura Ashley and Cobepa and M80 Partners acquisition of Le Pain Quotidien.
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10:30Deal case study: Zynga’s $1.8bn acquisition of Peak
Peak Games became the first Turkish unicorn with its $1.8bn valuation when the mobile gaming company was acquired by gaming giant Zynga. The deal not only crosses the TMT and Consumer sectors, but also involved complicated insurance structures, regulatory filings in multiple jurisdictions and was completed with no physical meetings.
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10:50
Networking
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11:00Smart City and how AI is disrupting conventional industries
Ongoing urbanization with accompanying challenges such as traffic jams and air pollution call for smart solutions in public services and urban planning. As digital infrastructure being deployed across cities, the substance of “smart” is renewed by a combination of disruptive technologies and social innovations. This keynote will introduce the key technology behind some preliminary successful applications of smart city and elaborate how AI is disrupting conventional industries in time-critical emergency response scenarios.
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11:20M&A tech in troubled times: how to use technology to improve insights and successful outcomes
One of the most dominant themes of recent months has been the advantage that technological savviness has afford companies facing distancing measures. Tech eases the deal process in troubled times as the way M&A transactions are conducted. Technology is key to help mitigate time lags in deal prep and will be the number one biggest contributor to more efficient deal making in 2021.
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Globalisation
Global supply chain disruption was highlighted in the onset of the pandemic. The disruption caused to manufacturing supply chains prompted a re-think of where future capital investment should be located. Logistics businesses have been an essential component to the at-home economy. Governments retrenched to safeguard domestic employment, with more stringent reviews of foreign investment coming.
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12:00Cross-border M&A and FDI outlook
Global foreign direct investment (FDI) flow had an economic fallout from COVID-19. Lockdowns around the world and geopolitical events slowed existing investment projects and the possibilities of a recession led multinational businesses to revaluate new projects. M&A activity in the middle of 2020 was also subdued, but corporates and sponsors alike spent their way through the crisis in the fourth quarter. However, cross-border deal activity saw an overall 14.2% decline compared to 2019. Also, in Europe the pandemic has prompted EU member states to tighten their foreign direct investment (FDI) provisions in 2020 and to propose or create new regimes. This fireside chat will examine the trends that may kickstart or further stall cross-border M&A deal activity.
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12:40Deal complexity
This fireside chat will explore deals conducted in the last 12 months against the odds of supply chain disruption, regulatory policy and the global pandemic.
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13:00
Midday break
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14:00Big Tech M&A
The acceleration of the digital economy is forcing dealmakers and companies to rethink strategy and will fuel M&A activity. Key trends and challenges for cross border M&A in the digital transformation.
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14:40Understanding the UK’s new National Security and Investment Bill
The UK’s National Security and Investment Bill consultation period has received concerned responses that the Investment Bill will seek to narrow the proposed sector definitions. There are also concerns that a new agency within the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) tasked with policing the regime will be inundated with deal cases.
The UK government has identified 17 ‘core sectors’, in which completing a deal subject to mandatory notification before clearance is given will risk a penalty of 5% of worldwide turnover, or £10m, whichever is higher. The same maximum applies to failure to comply with an interim or final order under the regime.
Adding new, broad sectors has the potential to extend the reach of FDI screening considerably. Uncertainty over the sector boundaries and timetable could also deter investors. This session will explore the how the new bill will affect the attractiveness of the UK to investors.
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15:00Investment delivered in transportation and logistics
Stay-at-home orders and distancing measures pushed millions of people to order their food, groceries, and medicine online. The e-commerce boom led to an unprecedented surge in the demand for last-mile delivery serviced. Start-ups specialised in delivering goods purchased to shoppers’ homes,including online logistics marketplaces that connect shippers with independent drivers, are seizing the moment to raise tens of millions in fresh capital.
On the other side of the coin, the impact of COVID-19 on the logistics industry was not what many expected. Sale processes were made difficult due to the extraordinary environment leading to discontinued deals or deals ending unexpectedly. Difficulty was also experienced on the buyside where 100% virtual due diligence was required. Looking ahead to 2021, M&A in the logistics space looks set to be a very busy year as dealmakers and the public alike look towards vaccinations and an end to international lockdowns.
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15:20Deal case study: Intesa Sanpaolo takeover on UBI Banca
In this case study, join Pedersoli Studio Legale for a deep dive discussion on the tender offer on UBI Banca for over €5.48 bn.
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15:40
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15:40Hosted huddles
Join a hosted breakout room and connect with likeminded corporates, PE funds and dealmakers.
- Diversity
- Purely digital due diligence
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16:15At Home HIIT
Take a break from your desk to join a 45-minute resistance session hosted by a personal trainer.
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GMT Timezone
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08:00
5K virtual M&A mileage
Join our Strava group to take part in a global dealmakers 5k walk, jog or run. Click here to join the group.
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08:55
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Sustainability
The UK will host the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties in November 2021. Dozens of world leaders will attend to in the most important round of talks since the global Paris Agreement to tackle climate change was secured in 2015. Sustainability has climbed higher on the agendas of boards and management creating a sharpened focus on sustainability in M&A as it is increasingly seen as a question of value-generating business development.
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09:00Environmental legislation – where are we now?
Environmental issues can significantly affect the valuation of a deal for a prospective buyer. Key planned environmental changes and environmental compliance will affect businesses who will need to evaluate compliance and obligations associated with single-use plastics, decarbonisation in packaging and recycling. How will industries support the Net Zero ambition?
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09:20The energy transition
The unstoppable pressure of ESG and climate concerns is transforming all parts of the commodities value chain, from electricity supply to raw material extraction. Oil and gas has been the hardest hit sector due to the oil price crash in early March 2020, but not wholly due to the pandemic.
The more far-reaching theme of how to negotiate the energy transition and remain attractive to ESG conscious investors has put pressure on smaller listed players who may need to merge? Private equity-backed companies will need to redefine exit strategies, while the oil majors will seek to diversify from oil. The industry is increasingly committed to meeting climate change targets and this is firmly on the agenda as the economy recovers.
Power and utilities has fared better than oil and gas, acting a relative haven. Renewable deals have experienced a fairly limited impact during the pandemic as COVID-19 provided a unique opportunity to accelerate the energy transition.
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10:00Autonomous vehicle deals
First came the cars, then came the components and underlying technologies that make them move. There has been a stampede of electrical vehicle-related business deals with expectations that EVs will replace cars and trucks that run on fossil fuels. However, the structuring of these deals has been a bumpy ride with many choosing the public markets with varying levels of success.
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10:40
Networking
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11:00Recycle revolution
In June 2020, Amazon announced the $2bn Climate Pledge Fund to support the development of sustainable and decarbonising technologies and services that will enable Amazon and other companies to meet the goals set by The Climate Pledge. JB Straubel, co-founder of Tesla, has received funding for Redwood Materials, a mineral and phone batteries recycler.
The funding comes as M&A in the recycling market is expected to heat up, but concerns that the industry needs to be consistent as well as profitable may dampen investor interest. Regulation compelling the use of recycled plastic is high on the mind of several mid-sized companies; some of which argue that it would help make plastic recycling more profitable. How can high investor interest turn to investors putting their money into plastic recycling?
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11:20Protecting a deal – cyber due diligence
The acceleration of the digital economy due to the coronavirus pandemic has led to an increase in M&A deals in the TMT sector. Data vulnerabilities can threaten the value of a business and, as such, cyber-risks and cyber security is becoming a critical part of the due diligence process. This session will explore potential digital risk and solutions.
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11:5010,000 Black Interns
Diversity and inclusion initiatives are transforming the M&A industry, but in a recent study, 88% of respondents felt that their industry is poorly represented with women and people of colour. Diversity and inclusion have proven to increase financials, bring more diverse ideas to the table and attract more diverse job candidates. Despite these benefits, surveys show that investors are still not directing their goals towards racial or gender diversity.
#100blackinterns seeks to change the face of investment management by offering internships to Black students across the UK to help kick start their career in investment management. 200 of the industry's leading players are participating as a way to source a more diverse group of talent for the long-term.
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12:20
Midday break
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Private Capital
The growth seen in private equity assets has been indicative of deal flow in recent years with sponsors able to raise and deploy capital into opportunities at a record rate. Expectations are for a more active role for private equity in the next M&A cycle. The pursuit of take-privates looks set to continue. Whether SPACs will arrive in Europe and redefine the IPO exit. Abundant liquidity in debt markets supplemented with private credit. Outlook for infrastructure M&A is positive especially around digital and logistics assets.
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13:20Private equity outlook
Growth in private equity has been indicative of deal flow in recent years. Sponsors swiftly made-up lost ground at the end of 2020 after the global pandemic caused M&A markets to plummet. Buyout funds sitting on dry powder claimed more than one-fifth of overall M&A activity gaining ground over strategic players. These trends contributed towards one of the biggest buyouts in history; Cinven and Advent’s EUR 17bn takeover of ThyssenKrupp’s elevator unit.
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14:00Public-to-private
The trend of public-to-private transactions is not a recent one, but has grown in recent years. Although private markets were not unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic and in the short-term private equity firms focused on supporting their existing portfolio companies. But as global financial continue to feel the strain of the COVID-19 pandemic, the recent fall in capital market valuations has made public companies an attractive prospect for private equity sponsors who are looking at their pipeline and to deploy their record levels of dry powder. Several take-private deals have completed in 2020 including the successful bid to buy Madrid-listed telecoms company Masmovil by private equity firms Cinven, KKR and Providence Equity Partners for €5bn.
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14:40A day in the life
A private equity CIO shares their experience of a typical day during working from home and their outlook for private equity trends in 2021.
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15:10
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Lucinda has been in business journalism for over ten years. Lucinda has experience reporting on markets in Europe, Latin America and Asia. Prior to this post, Lucinda was deputy editor for Dealreporter Asia based in the Hong Kong office and reported on corporate events in Japan and Australia. She also headed up Dealreporter's convertible bond coverage in Europe and Asia. Lucinda's team provides intelligence for the equity and fixed income markets that is tailored to hedge funds, proprietary trading desks, security lending, ECM syndicate desks and institutional fund managers.
Anna Juricic is an Executive Coach and leadership trainer for many international and public organisations. She has worked with individuals, professionals, and teams for over twenty years to facilitate a personal and professional evolutionary path through challenges and changes.
Leveraging emotional intelligence, Anna uses her coaching skills to maximise the potential of individuals partnering with clients to achieve a higher vision and better define therir strategies through rapid changes.
Anna is an expert in the field of Mindfulness applied to business in support of making decision process and to avoid burnout. She is also an expert in Effective and Non-Verbal Communication, Agile and its benefits within the business field.
A degree in Sociology and an International Master at SDA Bocconi School of Managment structures her well-rounded profile on Management of International Organisations; she is a Certified Coach and member of the ICF adhering to its ethic and code of conduct.
As Ambassador for Gender Equality for SDA Bocconi, Anna provides pro-bono coaching to leaders of international humanitarian organizations. She has created a coaching program to empower women and has worked with groups of female leaders within the United Nations and in the European Commission.
Ingrid is a medical doctor and investment professional with background in healthcare, consumer goods and technology. She is founder and managing partner of Hadean Ventures, a European life science fund manager. Prior to starting Hadean Ventures, Ingrid served as a senior investment professional at London-based Inventages. As a medical doctor, Ingrid worked within general medicine and surgery, with exposure to both the public and private sector. Ingrid holds a medical degree from Medizinische Hochschule Hannover,Germany, and an MBA with Finance Concentration from London Business School.
Pooja has had an accomplished 15-year portfolio career in healthcare. She’s a practising General Practitioner in London and has previously taken roles in general practice turnaround, NHS commissioning and as a clinical advisor, alongside setting up a patient-facing healthcare business which was acquired 6 years later. Over the last five years Pooja has worked as a management consultant in EY’s healthcare practice, working with a breadth of clients across the NHS system, from hospitals and GP surgeries to national bodies and regulators. She developed some of the national guidance on delivering population health systems, being rolled out across the NHS today, whilst on secondment to NHS England.
Looking for a more entrepreneurial experience, Pooja helped set up the EY Ventures practice. She looked after a portfolio of health and social care ventures and developed corporate alliances. Through this she helped to coach founding teams, support disruptive business models and herself worked in a joint venture start up launching a workforce matching App in secondary care for nurses and doctors, taking on an array of scale-up activities. Pooja is also a Director of a family business launching primary care and wider health services in India. She advises on clinical and digital services strategy. A decade ago Pooja fostered her interest in health tech, knowing that over time it would become the bedrock of how patients all over the world would access and experience care. She has an MBA from Imperial Business School London specialising in digital health, gaining a research interest in the adoption challenges of health technologies in the UK.
She is known for her energy, optimism and self-starting nature and throughout her career has struck the balance between clinical expertise, commercial acumen and business creativity.
Mintoi has covered the healthcare sector for over 13 years and is healthcare editor at ACURIS. She covers pharma, biotech and medtech and has a range of experience leading on live situations, origination and market analysis.
Andreas Bösenberg has been active in the international private equity industry for more than 20 years. He started his career at 3i. Since 2000 he was responsible for leading and setting up various private equity investment teams in the small-mid market segment and was jointly responsible for over Euro 2bn of invested capital in Europe. Also, he successfully assisted many portfolio companies during their transformation and growth phase and exited several of them in international IPOs and trade sales. In May 2018 Andreas was appointed as managing director of NORD Holding an asset manager with over 2bn Euro of AUM where he focuses on transformational investments in the German speaking region with a sector specific sourcing approach.
Louise Wallace is Head of the International CMS Corporate group, leading the team of over 1000 corporate lawyers globally, corporate lead for the Consumer Products sector and also has a very active Hotels & Leisure practice, being recognised as Band 1 for Hotel and Leisure M&A.
Louise was appointed as CMS Head of Corporate in January 2021 and she specialises in acting on some of the largest multi jurisdiction transactions and advisory work across the globe and is recognised in Chambers for M&A. Most of her transactions have an international element, including recent transactions for, and advice to, for Invesco, Logistics Capital Partners and Associated British Foods as well as for long standing client including Advance Publications, Conde Nast, Lone Star, Patron Capital, DTGO and Nestle.
Dr. Jeffrey Chi joined Vickers in 2005 and is a member of the Investment Committee. He is based in Shanghai and Singapore. Between 2013 and 2017 Jeff also served as the Chairman of Singapore Venture Capital Association.
Prior to joining Vickers, Jeff was a Corporate Finance Specialist and an Executive Director at Pegasus Capital, where he managed engagements for a wide range of clients in both the public and private sectors. He was a Senior Consultant with the Monitor Group from 2001 to 2002.
Jeff’s operational background includes working on the management team of an engineering and construction group where he oversaw operations in Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and Indonesia from 1992 to 1998. As the Managing Director, he guided the group into tripling its revenue in a mere 3 years, which helped the group clinch a spot in the Enterprise 50 awards in Singapore.
Jeff graduated from the University of Cambridge with a First Class Honors in Engineering and has a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is also a CFA charterholder, and is fluent in English and Mandarin.
Eren Kurşun heads the M&A and private equity practices of Esin Attorney Partnership, a member firm of Baker & McKenzie International, a Swiss Verein. He graduated from İstanbul Bilgi University, Faculty of Law in 2004. Eren holds an MBA degree from Boğaziçi University. He began his career in 2005 at a global law firm, specializing in M&A, private equity and capital markets. He has worked on some of the landmark M&A transactions in Turkey including Peak Games, Garanti Bank, Doğan Media, Trendyol, U.N. Ro-Ro, Acıbadem Hospitals and OYAK Cement transactions.
Deane McRobie is a senior reporter in London for Mergermarket and its affiliated publications Dealreporter, Activistmonitor, and PaRR. His reporting focuses on the consumer, retail and leisure sectors, including scoops on such megadeals as AB InBev’s acquisition of SABMiller, British American Tobacco’s purchase of Reynolds American, and EssilorLuxottica’s bid for Grandvision. Originally from Canada, he graduated from McGill University with a degree in political science and East Asian language studies in 2013, obtained a certificate from Harvard Business School in 2015, and, before moving to the UK, was a political journalist in Ottawa.
Dr Min is one of the world's leading authorities on AI who brings a wealth of first class experience to his talks.
Between 2013 & 2018 Dr Wanlin Min was the Chief Machine Intelligence Scientist at Alibaba Group where he started to lead the project to develop “Ai”. Prior to Alibaba, he had taken research role at IBM T. J. Watson Research Centre and held the senior statistician role at Google.
In 2017, Forbes recently cited him as “One of the World’s top AI Leaders” and last year he spoke at the prestigious Mobile World Congress.
After accumulating extensive experience in digital transformation of traditional industries, Dr Min founded North Summit Capital which focusses on a new investing philosophy of technology consulting plus financial investment.
As one of its AI leaders, Dr. Min devotes himself to attain the vision of advancing inclusive technology for social good, through accelerating digital transformation of the traditional industries and combining AI intelligence with traditional sectors, specifically in manufacturing, agriculture and healthcare.
He graduated from his bachelor and started to pursue master in Physics at the age of 19 and then received his Ph.D in Statistics from The University of Chicago in 2004.
Dr. Min holds a number of patents in his research interests including probability theory, stochastic process, time series analysis and network flow dynamics. His research on traffic flow estimate in 2011 had been widely cited. He also made contribution to smart cities development in New York, Singapore and Sweden.
Stuart leads the global growth strategy for Ansarada. Prior to Ansarada, Stuart was the Founder and CEO of thedocyard. In December 2020 thedocyard merged with Ansarada to form the world's leading information governance platform.
Prior to founding thedocyard Stuart was a corporate lawyer. He practiced both as a partner at an Australian law firm and acted as a senior in house counsel with the Tesco Group in London.
In private practice Stuart acted for a variety of large private and listed corporate clients, primarily on M&A and transactional matters. His focus at Tesco was on both corporate and commercial transactions. This deep experience both on advisor and client side uniquely positions him to fulfil Ansarada’s mission to help businesses safeguard their critical information so they can execute their most critical business events.
Julie leads a diverse team of 10,000 EY professionals, plus a family of four from her base in London. With her heart in design and head in finance, she has literally been the architect of her own career, having previously run her own design consulting and construction business in Australia prior to joining EY in 2003.
Julie never shies away from a challenge –professionally and personally. During her EY career and 20+ years as deal advisor, she has helped clients through their most challenging and complex capital strategies across a range of sectors including power and utilities,financial services, industrial and consumer products, infrastructure and government sectors.
Outside of EY Julie has recently taken part in The Clipper Race – described as an endurance test like no other – joining the crew for a month on a 70-foot ocean racing yacht as part of a 40,000 nautical mile race around the world.
Passionate about building a better world for the next generation, Julie actively supports charities working in developing countries, enhancing education to realise equality for all, and sharing her business experience by coaching and investing in diverse entrepreneurs.
Iain has over 20 years of experience in leading corporate finance transactions for clients. Providing innovative solutions to the business finance sector, Iain has worked within a range of sectors on diverse projects delivering strategic advice on mergers, acquisitions, management buyouts, finance-raising and disposals.
Iain has led a Buy and Build for Suez, acquiring six companies in an 18 month period, driving scale in the water testing and laboratories market.
Recent transactions include four technology SAAS transactions, an MBO for Sparkol to create a platform in the video editing market, a Series A fundraise for Cybsafe to scale up in the cyber security training market, a fundriase for Conversity in the guided buying market and the sale of ResponseSource to Access Intelligence plc.
Charlie Taylor-Kroll is a reporter for Mergermarket and its affiliated publications Dealreporter, Activist monitor and PaRR. His reporting focuses on the telecoms, media and technology sectors, including scoops on megadeals such as Takeaway.com’s acquisition of Just Eat, Inmarsat’s take-private buyout by Apax and Worldline’smerger with Ingenico.
Originally from Devon, he graduated from Durham University with a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, before working for The Daily Telegraph as a business and economics journalist
Professor Scott Moeller has been teaching at Bayes Business School (formerly Cass) since 2002. He is the founder and Director of the M&A Research Centre (http://www.cass.city.ac.uk/research-and-faculty/centres/marc) and the former CEO and Director of Executive Education. He teaches 'Mergers & Acquisitions' in the MBA and MSc programmes and has also taught 'Business Intelligence and Social Networking' in the MBA programme and 'Corporate Finance' in the executive education programmes. He has also been a visiting lecturer at Imperial College (London) and Oxford University.
Scott is a frequent commentator on business issues related to M&A on television (BBC, CNN, Bloomberg, CNBC) and in the press (Financial Times, Sunday Times, Independent) and has written for the Wall Street Journal, the BBC and other publications. One of his books received an award in the United States as one of the top 30 business books of the year in 2008.
Scott had a long career in banking prior to his move to academia. During his six years at Deutsche Bank, Scott was Global Head of the bank’s corporate venture capital unit, Managing Director of the Investment Bank's Global eBusiness Division and Managing Director of the department responsible for world-wide strategy and new business acquisitions. Scott worked first at Booz Allen & Hamilton Management Consultants for over 5 years and then at Morgan Stanley for over 12 years in New York, Japan, and then as co-manager and then member of the board of Morgan Stanley Bank AG in Germany. Scott has held a number of other board seats throughout Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas and is currently a non-executive director on several boards.
Alessandra leads the editorial teams of Mergermarket, Dealreporter and Activistmonitor for public markets coverage across EMEA. Based in London, Alessandra is also focusing in identifying new content sets within the public markets. She has over 15 years of experience in financial journalism having covered large scale of M&A deals.
Alessandra joined Acuris in 2004 as a research analyst. Since then she has worked on both Mergermarket and Dealreporter editorial teams, first as Head of Italian coverage, then Deputy Editor and Editor of Dealreporter. Alessandra previously worked as a training lawyer for a Milan-based law firm.
She holds a degree in law from the Catholic University of Milan.
Timo Tauber is Head of M&A at theViessmann Group. The Viessmann Group is one of the leading internationalmanufacturers of heating and cooling systems. Founded in 1917, the familybusiness maintains a staff of approximately 12,000 employees and generates EUR2.4bn in annual group revenue. With 23 production companies in 12 countries,subsidiaries and representations in 74 countries and 120 sales offices aroundthe world, Viessmann is an internationally orientated company.
Prior to joining Viessmann, Mr. Tauber workedfor 5 years in Private Equity, as Investment Manager for Brockhaus PrivateEquity and for 5 years as an M&A Consultant for Rödl & Partner Groupadvising on small and midcap transactions in the DACH region.
Emma-Victoria reports on M&A activity in the DACH region for Mergermarket. Previously she has worked for Bloomberg in Frankfurt, The Daily Telegraph in London, Deutsche Presse Agentur (dpa) in Berlin, and Falter Verlag in Vienna. She has a Masters in German Literature from Oxford University.
Lori Vokes is Chief Commercial Officer at Wireless Innovation.
Prior to this, Lori Vokes was the Sr Director of Sales Acquisition Integration. She led the integration of all sales capabilities of Cisco acquisitions from early due diligence and go-to-market strategy through to full integration.
During Lori’s 13 year career at Cisco she had a number of positions both in Sales and Strategy and Planning. Lori was the Director for the British Telecom account leading the partnering business globally. BT is a significant partnership for Cisco covering all geographies, market segments and technologies. Delivering over $650M in revenue, it is one of the largest partners in Europe and Globally. To expand her background into the Consumer space, Lori also held the role of Operations Director for Linksys Service Provider where she was responsible for establishing the foundation to build and scale this business from $99M to over $400M in 3 years by selling Consumer and Small Business solutions through targeted SPs worldwide. Lori also spent many years as a Director of Strategy and Planning for Cisco’s European Markets, where she led the development, implementation, and measurement of Europe’s long range plan. Her key focus areas were organizational alignment, sales readiness and accelerating the time to market of strategic initiatives. In this capacity she led a core and virtual team, and incorporated all aspects of the business including countries, customer segments, marketing, operations, and technology and services. Some key strategic projects she led were Scientific Atlanta integration, start-up of the Emerging Markets theatre and development of the EMEA Vertical Go-to-Market model. Lori was also a member of Cisco’s Worldwide Sales Strategy and Planning team.
Prior to Cisco Lori was a management consultant with a Canadian consulting firm, Turnkey Management Consulting, leading and growing the Cisco EMEA account. She was also part of the leadership team that started up and took Group Telecom public when the Canadian telecommunications market deregulated. Throughout her career she has worked with various industries including oil and gas, manufacturing, airline, transportation, automotive, consumer goods, and medical technologies.
Lori has a Masters of Arts from Royal Roads University, Canada where she focused on Leadership and Growth in High Tech. She also has a Bachelor’s degree from the School of Kinesiology and Health Studies from Queen’s University, Canada.
Jean-Marc is Co-Managing Partner at Partech, also responsible for the early stage fund. He joined in 1996.
Prior to joining Partech, Jean-Marc was a partner at Finovelec, a Paris based venture capital firm and managed Genèse Investissements, the first French seed capital fund. He started his career as an engineer with Cegelec and worked in the Nuclear Power Plant division.
Jean-Marc currently serves on the board of Alltricks, DayUse, Happytal, Novasparks, Sensee, Sigfox and Privitar.
He has a long track record of successful exits including IPOs with Lannet (GIAN), RadVision (RVSN), ALLOT (ALLT), Buongiorno (BGN.MI), and Alvarion (ALVR) and trade sales with Fluxus (acq. by British Telecom), Digitick (acq. by Vivendi), ISDNet (acq. by Cable and Wireless), Jungo (acq. by NTS), Jobpartners (acq. by ORCL), Apogee (acq. by Colt), LaFourchette (acq by TRIP) and Teads (acquired by Altice).
He earned an MBA from HEC and an MS in Engineering from SUPELEC both in Paris. Married, with three children, Jean-Marc lives in Versailles. He has sailed on most of the oceans, is a Commander of the French navy and has climbed numerous peaks in the Andes, the Cascade Mountains, the Tetons, and the Alps. He is also an avid cave explorer and flies every week over the Vallee de Chevreuse.
Martijn joined Endeit Capital at the start as Partner in 2006. Today, he is responsible for deals in DACH, UK, Nordics.
Until 2006 he was a member of the Executive Director team of Endemol Group, the world’s largest independent provider of multi screen content. He joined Endemol in 1996.
In 2004, Martijn acted as Interim Director at mobile game developer/publisher Overloaded and exited to Norwegian telco Telenor. Early 2005, Martijn became Executive Director at Endemol for International Operations, responsible for managing the worldwide key subsidiaries, especially related to developing new business and new markets. Prior he was heading the M&A activities at Endemol. Martijn Hamann gained extensive experience in various M&A transactions until 1996 as consultant of the Dutch M&A boutique Reitsma & Wertheim (Investec). He holds a BA Economics and MsC Business Administration from the Erasmus University – Rotterdam School of Management – Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
He is currently Boardmember at portfolio companies Chronext (CH/DE, new & pre-owned luxury watches platform), TourRadar (AT, multi-day travel tours booking platform) and Blis (UK, global leader in location & movement data technology). Martijn was previously on the Board at (exited) portfolio companies Contorion (DE), Gastrofix (DE, online POS for gastronomy), Unruly (UK), Smartclip (DE), Improve Digital (NL), Spil Games (NL), Advance (NL), CBV (PT) and Accepte/Paylogic (NL).
Francesca heads merger control coverage for Mergermarket publications Policy and Regulatory Report (PaRR) and Dealreporter out of the Brussels bureau.
In her role she coordinates coverage and reports on regulatory risk associated to major global M&A. She also reports on other EU and national competition law and policy developments.
Francesca has 12 years' experience in media from both the journalism and public relations side, gained in Milan and Brussels.
A graduate of the College of Europe, she has an in-depth knowledge of EU affairs, from both an academic and practical day-to-day perspective.
Darren Jones MP is the chair of the House of Commons Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Select Committee. The committee is responsible for scrutinising the government across business, energy and industrial strategy policy and its public bodies (such as the Committee on Climate Change). It also undertakes inquiries and suggests policies to the government.
The BEIS committee supports workers and UK businesses by investigating a range of issues from workers rights, workplace safety and corporate governance to environmental policy, government assistance programmes and product safety.
Darren's priority as chair is that we ensure proper and effective support for businesses and workers during the pandemic, take proper action to recovery and grow the economy in a more equal and sustainable way, and ensure proper leadership at home and abroad on tackling climate change.
Jeremy is the Editor and Brussels Bureau Chief at the Public and Regulatory Report (PaRR). With a decade of experience covering Brussels legal and political scene, Jeremy is a journalist with roots working as a solicitor in the City of London.
Jeremy returned to legal sector journalism at PaRR from EurActiv, where he covered finance, trade and tech regulatory issues at the multilingual on-line news site. After working as a corporate litigator with Travers Smith Braithwaite, Jeremy became City correspondent for the Law Society Gazette. In 2005, he set up European Lawyer magazine’s Brussels bureau, and has covered regulatory and political issues affecting trade and competition freelance for Europolitics, the UK Press Association, Financial Times and Strategic Risk magazine.
Pablo is Global Head Mergers + Acquisitions with Kuehne + Nagel, one of the world's leading logistics providers with more than 80,000 employees and a footprint of 1,300 offices in over 100 countries. Kuehne + Nagel completes around 3-5 acquisitions per year globally. Prior to joining Kuehne + Nagel, Pablo was an M&A advisor with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Switzerland and Australia. Pablo holds a Master of Arts in Business Administration and a Bachelor of Arts in Banking & Finance from the University of Zurich and has passed all CFA exams.
Lucinda has been in business journalism for over ten years. Lucinda has experience reporting on markets in Europe, Latin America and Asia. Prior to this post, Lucinda was deputy editor for Dealreporter Asia based in the Hong Kong office and reported on corporate events in Japan and Australia. She also headed up Dealreporter's convertible bond coverage in Europe and Asia. Lucinda's team provides intelligence for the equity and fixed income markets that is tailored to hedge funds, proprietary trading desks, security lending, ECM syndicate desks and institutional fund managers.
Anna Juricic is an Executive Coach and leadership trainer for many international and public organisations. She has worked with individuals, professionals, and teams for over twenty years to facilitate a personal and professional evolutionary path through challenges and changes.
Leveraging emotional intelligence, Anna uses her coaching skills to maximise the potential of individuals partnering with clients to achieve a higher vision and better define therir strategies through rapid changes.
Anna is an expert in the field of Mindfulness applied to business in support of making decision process and to avoid burnout. She is also an expert in Effective and Non-Verbal Communication, Agile and its benefits within the business field.
A degree in Sociology and an International Master at SDA Bocconi School of Managment structures her well-rounded profile on Management of International Organisations; she is a Certified Coach and member of the ICF adhering to its ethic and code of conduct.
As Ambassador for Gender Equality for SDA Bocconi, Anna provides pro-bono coaching to leaders of international humanitarian organizations. She has created a coaching program to empower women and has worked with groups of female leaders within the United Nations and in the European Commission.
Nils Rynning Mork is a Business Development Manager at Admincontrol. He has 10 years of experience in company management and accounting, including working with automation software for the latter.
He is passionate about the future ecosystems of business process SaaS solutions and especially deal-tech innovation.
Before joining Admincontrol in 2018 he worked at Norian Accounting.
Nils holds a Batchelors degree in Media Management from NTNU.
Sindre is the Head of Mergers and Acquisitions in Visma. He is responsible for coordinating all M&A related processes for the entire Visma group – across all divisions and geographies. Sindre started in Visma in 2009 as a Management Trainee, and his quick progression is a result of Visma's successful management trainee program. During his time in Visma, Sindre has been involved in more than 150 acquisitions in ten countries. His knowledge and expertise have been important contributors to Visma's successful growth over the past decade. A crucial part of his daily business is getting to know new companies. Sindre is in his element when meeting with passionate entrepreneurs and hearing their stories. He has the ability to both see the big picture and dive into the details. Sindre holds an MSc in Finance from Regents University in the UK and a BSc in Economics and Business Administration from NHH, including an exchange period at the University of Barcelona.
Rebecca has been the General Counsel at FSN Capital since 2015, and is also heading up the FSN Capital ESG team. FSN Capital is Pan-European mid-market buyout firm, currently investing Fund V, which was closed at hard cap of 1 Bn EUR in 2016. Before joining FSN Capital, Rebecca worked several years as an M&A lawyer at the law firm Schjødt in Oslo, Norway. She was also the General Counsel of Validus (FSN Capital Fund IV investment) for 1,5 years before joining FSN Capital. Rebecca holds a Cand. Jur (Master’s in law) from the University of Oslo, as well as an MBA from Bond University, Australia.
Mrs Torborg Chetkovich, BSc Business Administration and Economics at Uppsala University and MBA at IMD Lausanne, has over 25 years of experience from leading positions within the transport, real estate and infrastructure sector.
During the years her main focus has been to successfully increase profitability and create share-holder value through in-depth turn-arounds in complex environments involving many stake holders, always with the customer needs in focus for the company and employees to act upon.
She began her career at Swedish State Railways between 1991 – 1999, before moving on to Veolia Transport, at the time Sweden´s largest passenger transportation company, as Transport Director. During 2006 - 2008 she served as Deputy CEO at Veolia Transport Sweden. 2008 she took the position as CEO for MTR Nordic and won their first contract in the region being the tender of the metro operations in Stockholm (contract worth 30 billion SEK). In only 9 months she built up the new company and delivered a successful takeover of the metro operations. Between 2010 - 2015 Mrs. Chetkovich served as Group CEO at Swedavia, a company established 2010 operating ten climate neutral airports across Sweden, still focusing on customer and employee satisfaction, profitability and sustainability in order to secure competitive strength over time.
Mrs Chetkovich has served at several boards over time including Stockmann Plc, ACI (Airports Council International) Europe, Almega, MTR Nordic, Veolia Transport Sweden being some of the examples. She has also served as Industrial Advisor for EQT Partners / EQT AB but also as Independent Advisor to owners, boards and management teams.
Currently she is a Partner at CapMan Infra, part of the CapMan Group. She holds the position as Chairman of the Board of Directors at Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce in Sweden , Acting Chairperson at Norled AS and Board member of Center for Higher Ambition Leadership Europe.
Mrs Chetkovich has successfully developed large organizations over more than 25 years and have a strong interest in leadership and is also acting as a mentor since several years in official mentor programs.
Øyvind has long experience within Mergers & Acquisitions, and acts for numerous Norwegian and international private equity and venture capital firms, family offices, founders and private companies in M&A transactions within a broad range of industries.
Robin joined FSN Capital in 2018 and is based in our Munich office. Previously, he was with Apax Partners for more than 10 years, in Munich and London, where he worked on a large number of Digital-, Consumer- and Healthcare investments. During this time, Robin served on various boards. Prior to Apax, Robin worked with The Boston Consulting Group in Zurich in their Industrials - and Healthcare Team. Robin holds a MSc in Physics from ETH Zurich and an MBA from London Business School.
Bagrin Angelov is an M&A Executive Director in the Investment Banking division of China International Capital Corporation Limited (CICC) based in Beijing, where he is exclusively dedicated to China cross-border M&A situations. Mr. Angelov has profound experience in supporting multinational corporations, private enterprises and state owed enterprises with their cross-border M&A undertakings. To date he has advised on 100+ M&A deals globally (both in emerging and developed markets such as USA, Germany, Korea, Japan, Israel and Australia), with a combined transaction value of some US$100bn. Prior to CICC Mr. Angelov worked in the Investment Banking divisions of Barclays, ABN AMRO, The Royal Bank of Scotland, and a Middle Eastern SWF.
Emma-Victoria reports on M&A activity in the DACH region for Mergermarket. Previously she has worked for Bloomberg in Frankfurt, The Daily Telegraph in London, Deutsche Presse Agentur (dpa) in Berlin, and Falter Verlag in Vienna. She has a Masters in German Literature from Oxford University.
Chandradev Mehta is currently Director, Mergers and Acquisitions at LyondellBasell Industries and is responsible for its M&A efforts globally. He has more than 12 years of experience in M&A and Corporate Development, across US and Asia and is currently responsible for overseeing LyondellBasell’s global acquisition and divestitures program. He has also been instrumental in developing of global acquisition processes, including integration and separation best practices, at LyondellBasell.
Chandradev has worked on number of buy and sell side M&A transactions, in energy and chemicals sectors, across United States, Europe and Asia. Prior to working at LyondellBasell, Chandradev worked with Citigroup for 9 years where he advised global chemicals companies on M&A and led the chemicals investment banking efforts for Citigroup in Asia. Additionally he has also worked with Honeywell International for 5 years, focused on engineering and project management for Oil & Gas, Refining and Chemical sector clients globally.
Chandradev earned a bachelor's degree in engineering from India and an MBA from The Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.
Claudia is a multilingual reporter covering shareholder activism, corporate governance and ESG trends in Europe. Before joining Activistmonitor and DealReporter in 2018, Claudia held different editorial positions at Euromoney PLC and Newsquest Media Group. Claudia has experience working in print, online and radio. She holds academic qualifications from Ghent University, Aarhus University and City University London.
Mari Nygård is responsible for the Data Room business area in Admincontrol. She is passionate about digitalization and about providing smart solutions that facilitate decision making processes for owners, management and key stakeholders.
Mari has 14 years of experience in sales, business development and management, mainly in software and telecom. Before joining Admincontrol in 2015, she worked in Telia.
She holds an MSc degree within Business Administration and Marketing from RSM Erasmus University, Rotterdam.
Jason has more than twenty five years of leadership and experience in establishing successful Global Information Technology organisations within large Global Enterprises and Mid-sized Global Corporations.
In particular, he has held ‘C’ Level Executive level positions within a series of Private Equity owned software companies and has been a key contributor in their transformation and resulting business success. He is very familiar with protecting and enhancing the value of acquisitions, the art of divestitures and has additionally been through the lifecycle of a very successful IPO.
Jason has a track record of building robust ‘Business engaged IT Organisations’ that operate on the principles of honesty, transparency, Business-IT partnerships and value creation. He is also experienced in and knowledgeable of; IT Strategy and Programme development; Global Systems Architectures (Cloud, Business Applications and Infrastructure); IT Organisational Design and Behaviours; IT Fiscal management and optimisation; Vendor Management and Commercial Negotiation and Cybersecurity.
Jason has contributed to the wider IT industry through Key Note speeches, Advisory Board/Panel contributions and through published articles and webinars.
Rupert Cocke has been the Acuris Spanish bureau chief since 2005. He splits the week between Madrid and Barcelona. Rupert has more than 20 years of experience as a financial news reporter. He began to specialize in Spanish M&A in 2002 when he joined the group as a senior reporter in London. He previously worked with Dow Jones Newswires in London and Madrid, where his work was regularly featured in the Wall Street Journal Europe. He has a Philosophy degree from the University of Leeds. As bureau chief, he studied for an MA in Media Management Practice from Bournemouth University's Centre for Excellence in Media Practice in his spare time, successfully completing this degree in 2015.
My name is Dawid Konotey-Ahulu; I am a mixed-race British Ghanaian, aged 57, the son of a Ghanaian doctor and an English nurse.
I qualified as a barrister in 1987 but switched careers to become an investment banker in the early 90s. I spent 16 years working at NatWest Capital Markets and Merrill Lynch, where I was responsible for the bank’s strategic solutions group in the UK and Scandinavia. In 2006, I left Merrill Lynch to co-found Redington, an investment consulting firm advising pension funds. Today, Redington is the 4th largest advisor to large defined benefit pension schemes in the United Kingdom. I remain a board director but have largely stepped away from the day-to-day running of the firm. In 2009, I also founded Mallowstreet, an online collaboration platform for the pensions industry. Mallowstreet runs conferences, summits and forums for pension fund trustees and asset managers with the aim of educating and informing the institutional pensions industry.
Both Mallowstreet and Redington now have their own chief executives and management teams. This has allowed me to focus on working with organisations that deliver social impact in areas that I care passionately about. Specifically, I am very involved with initiatives that improve the lives of Black people in the United Kingdom.
I am a Governor at the University of Hertfordshire which has a large ethnic minority student body. I also sit on the University’s Finance Committee. I am a patron of the EY Foundation which provides opportunities for young people who are bright and ambitious but who come from a disadvantaged background. I am a Trustee of the Chineke! Foundation which encourages and facilitates classical music amongst children and young people from the Black community. In 2015, I set up Spellbound, a training programme to teach young people, particularly from a Black background, the art of public speaking. I have since rolled it out amongst Black prisoners serving long sentences for serious crimes and I have spent a lot of time with prisoners at HMP Swaleside on the Isle of Sheppey, working to help them find their voice. I also sit on the Advisory Council of the Diversity Project, a platform to enable the asset management industry to give more opportunities to Black employees.
I am a member of the Court of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, where I am currently engaged in helping to fundraise for the building and development of a new research facility. In 2018, I was named Black British Business Entrepreneur of the year. I am a Trustee of the Legacy of War Foundation, a charity set up to highlight and alleviate the plight of victims of conflict and war. I am also a Trustee on the Board of the Centre for Ageing Better where I also sit on the Finance Committee.
In August 2020, I co-founded 100 Black Interns, an initiative to find 100 asset management internships in Summer 2021 for Black undergraduates. This proved very successful (200 firms offered 250 internships) and in October 2020 we launched an expanded programme, 10000 Black Interns. This has already garnered 490 companies offering 1,000 internships.
Pia Kåll joined CapMan Buyout in 2016 as a partner and was designated managing partner in 2017. Before joining CapMan, Kåll was on the Executive Board of Outotec, where she was responsible for Strategy, M&A, Marketing and Operational Excellence. Previously she worked eight years at McKinsey&Company where she was an Associate Principal.
Nuala Higgins is responsible for Financial Sponsor Coverage at Carnegie Investment Bank. Nuala joined Carnegie's Stockholm office in 2011 and has a total of 15 years' experience in Financial Sponsor Coverage and Corporate Finance. Nuala spent 10 years in the City of London where from 2007 she focused on European Financial Sponsor Coverage, extensively covering European and Nordic private equity clients.
Nuala is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland.
Joao Grando is Mergermarket’s Private Equity Editor, EMEA. He has been a journalist covering industrials and private equity-related M&A across Europe with Mergermarket since 2015.
Alessandra leads the editorial teams of Mergermarket, Dealreporter and Activistmonitor for public markets coverage across EMEA. Based in London, Alessandra is also focusing in identifying new content sets within the public markets. She has over 15 years of experience in financial journalism having covered large scale of M&A deals.
Alessandra joined Acuris in 2004 as a research analyst. Since then she has worked on both Mergermarket and Dealreporter editorial teams, first as Head of Italian coverage, then Deputy Editor and Editor of Dealreporter. Alessandra previously worked as a training lawyer for a Milan-based law firm.
She holds a degree in law from the Catholic University of Milan.
Karen is Chief Investment Officer at Beringea, responsible for making new investments and working with portfolio companies through to exit. Her investments have included Fnatic, Watchfinder, Thread, Blis, Monica Vinader, and MatsSoft amongst others.
Karen was previously with the Boston Consulting Group and ran the Watch division of Swiss Army/Wenger. She also has experience with start-ups as both a founder and advisor. Karen has lived and worked in the US, Europe, and Asia, and has an MBA from INSEAD and a BSBA from Boston University.
Greg Gille joined Unquote in 2010 as a reporter, initially focusing on the French private equity market. He was promoted to senior reporter and then news editor, before becoming deputy editor in 2013 and online editor a year later. He is currently editor, overseeing editorial content in print and online.
Greg graduated from Sciences Po Paris with a Master's degree in media management in 2009. He started his career in Paris before moving to London in 2010.