Judges
National Judging Panel
Bill Priestley, LGV (Chairman)
Bill is a Managing Director of mid-market private equity firm, LGV Capital. ...Read more
Mark Advani, ISIS EP
Mark is a partner with ISIS Equity Partners and a member of its investment committee. ...Read more
Jonny Allatt, Palatine Private Equity
Jonny is an Investment Director at Palatine Private Equity. Jonny joined Palatine in March 2008 with over eight years of private equity experience. ...Read more
Tim Farazmand, LDC
Tim is responsible for originating transactions for LDC London and is particularly focused on equity investments of between £25million and £100million. ...Read more
Jeremy Hand, Lyceum Capital
Jeremy is co-founder and Managing Partner of Lyceum Capital and is Chairman of its Management Committee. During the past twenty years, he has worked on numerous buy-outs, buy-ins and growth capital situations. ...Read more
Hugh Lenon, Phoenix Equity Partners
Hugh Lenon is Managing Partner at Phoenix Equity Partners
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Ross Marshall, Dunedin Capital Partners
Ross Marshall joined Dunedin in 1994. He has over 20 years private equity experience, including leading the negotiations for the MBO of Dunedin in 1996. ...Read more
Mike Reeves, Clearwater Corporate Finance
Mike is joint MD of Clearwater. Mike qualified as a chartered accountant with Touche Ross in Manchester, specialising in corporate restructuring and corporate finance. ...Read more
Midlands Judging Panel
Mark Advani, ISIS EP (Chairman)
Mark is a partner with ISIS Equity Partners and a member of its investment committee. ...Read more
Phil Burns, Clearwater Corporate Finance
Phil is Joint Managing Partner of Clearwater, and has been involved in corporate finance and restructuring work for over 20 years. ...Read more
Jonathan Earl, Catapult
Jonathan Earl is an Investment Director of Catapult, having joined the firm in January 2006 ...Read more
Andrew Ferguson, Maven Capital Partners
Andrew Ferguson is a Partner at Maven Capital Partners UK LLP. Based in Maven’s Birmingham and London offices, Andrew is responsible for new investments in the Midlands and Southern England. ...Read more
Paul Franks, Gresham Private Equity
Paul joined Gresham in 2003 from PricewaterhouseCoopers. Paul has been involved in corporate finance for 12 years and now runs the Midlands office of Gresham focusing largely on new investments. ...Read more
Owen Trotter, Key Capital Partners
Owen was a founder partner of Key Capital Partners (“KCP”) on the establishment of the firm in 2006. ...Read more
Tim Whittard, The Business Growth Fund
Tim joined the Business Growth Fund in September 2011 as an investment director to identify, execute and manage investments for the Fund.
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Northeast Judging Panel
Paul Jones, Clearwater Corporate Finance
Paul qualified as a chartered accountant in Manchester in 1993 and is one of the founding partners of Clearwater Corporate Finance. ...Read more
Ed Fazakerley, Palatine Private Equity
Ed is founding partner at Palatine Private Equity and has twelve years private equity experience. ...Read more
Peter Armitage, Key Capital Partners
Peter is an Investment Partner with Key Capital Partners. ...Read more
Peter Clarke, ISIS Equity Partners
Pete joined ISIS in 2002 to open the Manchester office and head up new investment activity in the region. ...Read more
Craig Hopwood, Northstar Ventures
Craig Hopwood is responsible for managing a £48 million equity fund on behalf of Northstar Equity Investors, primarily investing development capital into small and medium sized businesses. ...Read more
Ian Marwood, Grant Thornton
Ian Marwood is a partner heading the Yorkshire and North East Corporate Finance team of Grant Thornton. ...Read more
Nigel Owens, YFM Equity Partners
Nigel Owens has been a Portfolio Director with YFM Equity Partners for six years. ...Read more
John Rastrick, Phoenix Equity Partners
John Rastrick joined Phoenix in January 2007, prior to which he was working for 3i in Manchester and Leeds for four years. ...Read more
Colin Sterling, Spirit Capital Partners
Colin is a founder partner of Spirit Capital Partners LLP having been part of the team which bought out the former Aberdeen Asset Managers Private Equity to form Spirit in 2008. ...Read more
Andy Strickland, Clearwater Corporate Finance
Andy joined Clearwater as a manager in 2010 having previously worked at Ford Campbell in Manchester where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant. ...Read more
Northwest Judging Panel
Mike Reeves, Clearwater Corporate Finance (Chairman)
Mike is joint MD of Clearwater. Mike qualified as a chartered accountant with Touche Ross in Manchester, specialising in corporate restructuring and corporate finance. ...Read more
Clive Austin, NVM Private Equity
Clive Austin, of NVM Private Equity Limited, is responsible for NVM's investment business in the North of England. ...Read more
Jonathan Bell, LDC
Jonathan is Investment Director with LDC. Jonathan is responsible for sourcing and completing transactions in the £2million - £100million equity range. ...Read more
Ryan Bevington, Maven Capital Partners
Ryan is a Senior Investment Manager responsible for new investments in the north of England. ...Read more
Jonathan Diggines, EV Group
Jonathan joined EV in 2005 as Chief Executive, after eleven years with Murray Johnstone Private Equity, followed by four years with Aberdeen Murray Johnstone Private Equity. ...Read more
Andy Gregory, Regional Director, North of England and Northern Ireland, Business Growth Fund
Andy is a member of BGF’s Investment Committee and leads our investment team in the North of England and Northern Ireland, identifying and executing investments. ...Read more
James Hales, Clearwater Corporate Finance
James is part of the Deal Origination team and is based in Manchester. James read Economics at University and post graduating, worked in business development for Pareto Law. ...Read more
Steve O'Hare, Barclays Private Equity
Steve O'Hare is a Director based in the Manchester office. Steve joined Equistone Partners Europe (formerly Barclays Private Equity) in 2004 from KPMG's Corporate Finance Department where he qualified as a chartered accountant and gained an MBA. ...Read more
Gary Tipper, Palatine Private Equity
Gary has sixteen years private equity experience. Gary was previously Head of Limited Partnership Investments at Aberdeen Murray Johnstone Private Equity. ...Read more
Scotland & Northern Ireland Judging Panel
Ross Marshall, Dunedin Capital Partners (Chairman)
Ross Marshall joined Dunedin in 1994. He has over 20 years private equity experience, including leading the negotiations for the MBO of Dunedin in 1996. ...Read more
Andrew Craig, Maven Capital Partners
Andrew Craig is a Partners with Maven Capital Partners.
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Gary LeSueur, SEP
Gary is a partner at SEP. He focuses on investing in technology companies in the oil & gas, environmental and cleantech sectors, as well as cross-sectoral and later stage companies. ...Read more
Simon Munro, Business Growth Fund
Simon is Regional Director for Scotland at the Business Growth Fund. ...Read more
Paul Newell, Clearwater Corporate Finance
Paul Newell is a partner of Clearwater Corporate Finance. Prior to his present position, he worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers Corporate Finance and BDO Stoy Hayward Corporate Finance, the latter as a partner ...Read more
Steve Scott, Penta Capital
Steven is a founding Director of Penta. He was formally a Director in the private equity division of The Royal Bank of Scotland. ...Read more
Norman Yarrow, NVM Private Equity
Norman is a director of NVM and responsible for investments in the AIM market. ...Read more
Southeast Judging Panel
Tim Farazmand, LDC (Chairman)
Tim is responsible for originating transactions for LDC London and is particularly focused on equity investments of between £25million and £100million. ...Read more
Paddy Bamford, Clearwater Corporate finance
Paddy joined Clearwater in 2011 as a deal leader based in their London office.
Paddy graduated from the University of Warwick in 2002 with an honours degree in Law and Business Studies. ...Read more
Marion Bernard, Business Growth Fund
Marion Bernard is Regional Director for London & the South East, Business Growth Fund ...Read more
Tony Dickin, Palatine Private Equity
Tony has ten years of private equity experience. Tony was Head of Aberdeen Murray Johnstone Private Equity's London office responsible for sourcing and completing transactions in the South of England. ...Read more
Tim Dunn, Phoenix Equity Partners
Tim Dunn joined Phoenix in 2004 having spent four years at Monitor Clipper Partners ("MCP"), a middle-market private equity investor. ...Read more
Andrew Ferguson, Baird Capital
Andrew joined Baird in 1996 having spent three years with North of England Ventures investing across a number of industry sectors. Prior to that he worked for 7 years with Price Waterhouse, latterly within the corporate finance department. ...Read more
Marc Gillespie, Clearwater Corporate Finance
Marc joined Clearwater from Deloitte Corporate Finance to help set up and develop the London office, building on his extensive knowledge of private equity and mid-market M&A across a wide range of sectors. ...Read more
Ken Lindsay, ECI Partners
Ken is a director of ECI Partners, based in London. He joined ECI in 1998 from BUPA, where he was financial controller of the UK hospitals business. ...Read more
Ernie Richardson, Eastwood Langley
Ernie Richardson is a graduate chemical engineer and chartered management accountant with many years’ experience in finance and general management in various process industries, prior to joining MTI Partners in 1985. ...Read more
Wales & SouthWest Judging Panel
Jonny Allatt, Palatine Private Equity (Chairman)
Jonny joined Palatine Private Equity in March 2008 with over eight years of private equity experience. ...Read more
Julian Dennard, YFM Equity Patrners
Julian is Investment Director at YFM Equity Partners where he joined 2006. He began his career at the Bank of England and then spent four years as an investment manager on the Shell UK Pension Fund. Julian then worked for six years in KPMG Corporate Finance in London and Sydney.
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Paul Oldham, LDC
Paul has a degree in Economics and Accounting from Sheffield University. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG in Manchester before joining 3i. ...Read more
Ian Podmore
Ian joined LDC in July 2008 as an Investment Director in the Bristol office, after five years at Ernst and Young as Director of Mergers and Acquisitions. ...Read more
David Staziker, Finance Wales
David is a Strategic Investments Manager and one of Finance Wales' most experienced investment experts. ...Read more
Judges from the BVCA Executive
Mark Florman, Chief Executive, BVCA
Mark Florman is Chief Executive of the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVCA). ...Read more
Jane Houghton, BVCA
Jane leads the Member Services team, which is committed to identifying and serving the needs of the entire membership through a comprehensive programme of training courses and events. ...Read more
