Judges
GP Judges
LP Judges
Rebecca Boscott
Head of Projects
Hanover Investors Management
Rebecca has over 20 years’ experience as CFO /COO of private equity and hedge fund management firms. Having been CFO and COO of Hanover Investors for 8 years, Rebecca is now Head of Projects consulting on new fund launches and deal execution as she reduces her time commitment to build a portfolio of roles. Previously, Rebecca co-founded Oxford & Cambridge Investment Management where she led the operations and finance functions until the business transferred to Bank Insinger de Beaufort. Rebecca remained with Insinger for two years heading operations for the OCIM business unit. Rebecca is a chartered accountant and a trustee of the FairLife charity.
Steve Darrington
Partner & Chief Financial & Risk Officer
Phoenix Equity Partners
Partner at Phoenix since 2001, Steve is Chief Financial & Risk Officer and sits on Phoenix’s Board & Management Committee. Steve is also a director of the Phoenix Boards in Guernsey. Before Phoenix, Steve held senior finance positions in the US and UK, including four years as CFO at Netnumber (previously Unifi Communications) in Boston and five years as Controller at The Economist. Steve is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and has degrees from Leicester Business School and Manchester Business School (MBA). Steve recently completed a Certificate in Business Data Analytics at Columbia University.
Malcolm Goddard
Partner
Zetland Capital Partners
Malcolm Goddard is a Partner of Zetland Capital; a European distressed and special situations manager whom he joined in 2016. Zetland manages €1.3bn of assets and was Special Situations House of the Year, 2022.
Before Zetland he spent 10 years as Partner and COO of Altima, who managed $5bn of hedge and private-equity assets. He joined Altima after 15 years in investment banking where he performed a number of development and operational roles.
Malcolm is a frequent speaker at industry conferences; has sat on industry committees, has consulted to emerging managers and was the Drawdown’s COO of the year, 2020.
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Jackson Heddy
Chief Financial Officer
Northzone
Jackson is Northzone’s CFO, and is based in London. His role is focused on ensuring Northzone runs a tight ship, including investor reporting and meeting the firm’s obligations.
Prior to joining Northzone, Jackson was Financial Controller at IP Group – a FTSE-listed Venture firm specialising in University spin-outs, and trained with PwC in their investment management assurance department. Jackson holds an ACA from the ICAEW, and an MA in Global Political Economy and a BSc in Nanotechnology, both from the University of Sussex.
Jason Howard
Chief Operating Officer/Chief Financial Officer
Headway Capital Partners
Jason is CFO/COO and joined Headway Capital in 2018
He previously spent over 5 years as Managing Director of EQT Services UK, EQT’s London based AIFM.
Prior to this, Jason worked as the COO for Neovara LLP, the spin out of the Lehman Brothers European Mezzanine Fund which he joined in 2004.
Jason has also held roles at Deutsche Bank, 3i plc and Nestlé.
Jason is a qualified Chartered Accountant (CGMA) and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Surrey.
Manoj Jain
Director- Group Finance Operations
3i Group
Manoj is Director, Group Finance Operations at 3i Group plc (FTSE 100) and is responsible for the financial management and financial reporting functions in the context of a £26bn investment portfolio spanning Europe and North America. He has broad audit, FP&A, reward, risk and compliance experience in asset management and private equity, plus a good understanding of the real estate, technology and software sectors from previous roles. He has strong experience in business transformation, delivering significant cost reduction, improvement in risk management and service delivery enhancement covering major organisational redesigns, end-to-end systems implementations, and process reengineering across the organisation. Before joining 3i, Manoj had various roles in the Alternative Investment Industry, and before moving to the UK in 2007, he worked with various Multinational IT corporates in India.
He is a member of Invest Europe Working Group on Accounting Reporting and Valuation, and is a member of the Indian Institute of Chartered Accountants and holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Delhi University, India.
Raxita Kapashi
Chief Finance Officer
Dawn Capital
Raxita is the CFO at Dawn and manages all the finance and operations for Dawn.
Before joining Dawn, Raxita was a CFO of a Fintech group called TruFin plc. Raxita was instrumental in taking the group to IPO on AIM raising £70m of proceeds. Prior to TruFin, Raxita has held senior finance roles at Inflexion Private Equity and before that Oakley Capital Private Equity.
Raxita qualified as a chartered accountant with BDO and has a Civil Engineering degree from Cardiff University.
Iain Katimbo
Head of Funds
LDC
Iain is Head of Funds at LDC and oversees LDC’s fund reporting and operations function, to ensure a high standard of fund information quality, accessibility and enhanced processing capabilities across the business.
He joined LDC in 2017 from global asset manager ARES, where he was Vice President in the firm’s real estate private equity division. He has more than 16 years’ experience in private equity having previously held senior roles with Apax and ICG.
Iain originally qualified as a Chartered Accountant and trained as an auditor with Deloitte.
Diana Meyel
Managing Partner
Cipio Partners
At Cipio Partners, Diana is a Managing Partner and the company’s COO/CFO. She is located in Munich and leads our funds’ operations and investor relations. In addition, she also oversees transaction structuring and represents Cipio on the board of selected portfolio companies. Prior to Cipio, Diana was a Finance Manager at Wellington Partners, the pan-European venture capital firm and worked as a Senior Risk Analyst for Dresdner Bank group aka Commerzbank in Germany and Bogotá, Colombia.
Diana holds a degree in Banking Administration from Frankfurt School of Finance & Management.
Kevin Muller
Head of Business Change & Services
Coller Capital
Kevin is Head of Business Change and Services. He is based in the Firm’s London office. As Head of Business Change and Services, Kevin is responsible for leading and supporting a range of transformation, data and business change initiatives.
Kevin has been in Financial services for over 25 years (18 years in private equity). He is actively involved in data and technology industry initiatives and is well connected across the private markets community of both managers and service providers.
Prior to joining Coller Capital in 2011, Kevin worked for 7 years at Climate Change Capital. Kevin has a Bachelor of Commerce degree focussed on Accounting, Management Accounting and Finance and Tax.
Karen Sands
Chief Operating Officer
HGPE
Karen is Hermes GPE’s COO with overall responsibility for operating a best-in-class organisational infrastructure to support clients, investment teams and business development activities. She joined Hermes Private Equity (a Hermes GPE predecessor organisation) in 2004 and previously worked in finance at Matrix Property Management and Equity Asset Management. Karen is a member of the Hermes GPE Executive Committee, the Private Equity and Infrastructure Management Committees and Chair of the Hermes GPE Operational Management Committee. Karen is Vice-Chair on both Invest Europe’s Working Group on Accounting Standards, Valuation and Reporting, and Invest Europe’s Professional Standards Committee. She is a member of the BVCA Legal & Accounting Committee, and a Member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment.
James Bryden
Chief Operating Officer
abrdn Private Equity
James Bryden MBE is the COO of abrdn Private Equity who manage circa £11bn AUM with team members in Edinburgh, London, Boston, Philadelphia and New York. Prior to this he was Chief of Staff to abrdn's CIO. He originally joined Standard Life Investments in 2014 prior to which he spent 19 years in the British Army.
Carolina Espinal
Harbourvest
Ashley Wassall
Head of Client Communications
Pantheon
Ashley is the Head of Client Communications for Pantheon, a global private markets asset manager investing across private equity, global infrastructure and real assets, real estate and private debt. He is responsible for all global client communications activity, as well as coordinating external relations with media stakeholders and overseeing internal communications across the firm. Prior to joining Pantheon, Ashley worked as a Senior Writer/Editor in the Group Internal Communications team at HSBC, before which he spent 10 years working as a financial journalist, including editor roles at the FT Group and The Week.