John West Managing Editor M&A EMEA ION Analytics

Heading Mergermarket and Dealreporter editorial output across EMEA, leading a team of more than 50 reporters across both products.

John West Managing Editor M&A EMEA ION Analytics

Heading Mergermarket and Dealreporter editorial output across EMEA, leading a team of more than 50 reporters across both products.

Professor Anand Menon Director UK in a Changing Europe

Anand Menon is Director of the UK in a Changing Europe and Professor of European Politics and Foreign Affairs at King’s College London. He has written widely on many aspects of EU politics and policy and on UK-EU relations. He is a frequent contributor to the media on matters relating to British relations with the EU.

John West Managing Editor M&A EMEA ION Analytics

Heading Mergermarket and Dealreporter editorial output across EMEA, leading a team of more than 50 reporters across both products.

Louise Wallace Partner, Head of Corporate/M&A CMS

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.

Kirstie Maydew Head of M&A Coca-Cola Europacific Partners

Kirstie leads M&A and divestments for Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP), the world's largest independent Coca-Cola bottler, covering Western Europe, Australasia and parts of South-East Asia. CCEP is one of the leading consumer goods companies in the world, selling some the world’s most loved brands to over 600 million consumers. 

CCEP has a successful record of growth via transformational acquisitions, having itself been created in 2016 via a tri-partite merger of billion-euro businesses (each of which having grown from the consolidation of individual regional bottling franchises). Kirstie led CCEP’s EUR 6.5 billion acquisition of Coca-Cola Amatil in 2021 and has been responsible for the portfolio rationalization programme which followed. 

Prior to joining CCEP in 2019, Kirstie spent nearly 20 years working in Food & Beverage M&A for investment banks and boutiques, latterly Houlihan Lokey, and holds a maths degree from the London School of Economics. 

Pablo von Siebenthal Global Head M&A Swissport International

Pablo is Global Head of M&A with Swissport International, the world's leading provider of airport ground handling and cargo handling services with more than 45,000 employees and operations at approx. 300 airports in 45 countries. Swissport International is pursuing a growth plan that includes an ambitious acquisition agenda in the Americas, Europe and Asia. Prior to joining Swissport earlier this year, Pablo was Global Head of M&A with global logistics company Kuehne+Nagel where he managed M&A transactions with a combined deal value of around $2.5 billion. Prior to 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.

Philip Whitchelo Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer STERLING TECHNOLOGY

Philip is chief strategy & marketing officer at Sterling Technology, a premium provider of virtual data room solutions for M&A, capital markets, and real estate. He has more than 30 years' experience working in strategy, M&A, corporate development, and corporate finance leadership roles in management consulting, investment banking, public companies, and private equity backed firms. Philip is a non-executive adviser to startups, investment management and private equity firms. He has served as an honorary visiting fellow in finance, and as a member of the advisory board of the M&A Research Centre, at Cass Business School. He is a co-author of over a dozen published M&A research studies and papers, as well as a co-inventor and patent holder for computerised, networked secure collaboration technology. Philip graduated from the University of London with Masters degrees in computer science and finance.

Alasdair Steele Partner Head of Equity Capital Markets CMS

Alasdair is a Partner in our Corporate Team at CMS London and Head of Equity Capital Markets. He specialises in UK and cross-border corporate finance, including public and private M&A, strategic investments and primary and secondary equity issues, as well as regularly advising on infrastructure consortia and corporate joint venture arrangements. He regularly advises quoted companies and financial intermediaries on the UK Listing Rules, Prospectus Regulation Rules, Disclosure and Transparency Rules, AIM Rulesthe Takeover Code and general company law. Alasdair has a particular focus on the Infrastructure and Technology sectors and regularly visits clients, investors and advisers in China and India.

Livia Amidani Aliberti NED CDP

"Livia Amidani Aliberti graduated in Economics and Commerce at LUISS (Rome, Italy) and holds a Master level Diploma from FT-Pearson (UK). She is registered with the Albo dei Dottori Commercialisti (Association of Chartered Accountants) of Rome and a member of the Scientific Committee of NedCommunity. She is a consultant in corporate governance and her specialties include Corporate Governance Assessment and Redesign, Strategic Evaluation of Boards, AIM Listings; she is also engaged in gender diversity research and consulting. She is the author of several publications on gender diversity and directors. Experience in the dualistic, monistic and traditional governance system, chair/member of board committees (risk, rem, nom, RPT). Balance work to interests of the company with appropriate Board contextualised behaviour – while sensitive to group dynamics and diversity issues. "

Liana Logiurato NED Intesa Sanpaolo Bank M&A adviser

Leading Board adviser on over $100bn M&A deals and $20bn capital raisings. Creating stakeholder value by originating strategic opportunities for industry transformation & growth. Asian, European and American markets. Biotech, healthcare, technology, communications, industrials, chemicals, agriculture and financial services.

Elliot Cowan Partner CMS

Elliot is a technology focused partner in the Transaction Team at CMS, with extensive experience in Venture Capital, fundraisings, private equity, joint ventures and mergers and acquisitions.  He advises a wide range of clients ranging from start-ups to multinationals.

Sara Agullo Senior Managing Director, Global Corporate Development/M&A, GE Vernova

Sara has been with the General Electric Company for 20 years. In her current role, she is responsible for all corporate development and M&A activity across the GE portfolio outside of the US. Her broad international M&A experience spans both industrial businesses and financial services.

She started her career as a Financial Analyst in the Investment Banking division of Goldman Sachs in New York. Prior to joining GE, she was also a management consultant at McKinsey & Co.

Sara holds a B.A. in Economics with a Mathematics minor from Wellesley College and an M.B.A. from the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Caroline Bilbrough Director of Post-Acquisition, IBM Consulting Ventures, Ecosystems & Acquisitions IBM

Caroline has over 10 years experience delivering growth through IBM acquisitions. She leads IBM Consulting’s post-close acquisition support globally, with a specific focus on improving the acquired employee experience and delivering efficient support to drive the business case results.

Jonathan Aiken Partner, Head of London BDA Partners

Jonathan Aiken is a Partner based in London. He joined BDA in 2007 and is responsible for the London office and strategy. Mr. Aiken’s oversight role in London includes a broad range of sectors including industrials, technology, and consumer.

He specialises in complex, cross-border transactions including corporate carveouts. His clients include EQT, Tata Group, Actis, LDC and Donaldson. He holds an MBA and a Masters in International Affairs from the George Washington University. He is fluent in English and French and proficient in Mandarin.

Jess Zhou Director, Corporate Development and M&A Boehringer Ingelheim

Jess Zhou is an experienced Director with a demonstrated track record of acquisitions and investments. Solid professional skills in cross boarder M&A, Private Equity, Fund Raising, Project Management, and Corporate Development.

Jess specializes in cross-border M&A transactions and has successfully completed many deals in various sectors in her career. Prior to her current position as Corporate Development and M&A Director at Boehringer Ingelheim, she worked as Business Development Director for global emerging markets at ConvaTec, focusing on acquiring medical device companies.

Before ConvaTec, she led a team in PwC specialized in fund-raising for TMT companies. Prior to PwC, she worked with UCF Group where she leads the acquisition of a leading insurance company. She also led third party advisors including investment bankers, big fours and law firms on due diligence and deal negotiations.

Prior to joining UCF, Jess worked at BDA Partners, a New York based investment banking firm focused on mid-market M&A. She focused on the consumer, retail and private equity sectors.

Kristin Umbach Head of Corporate Development Swiss IT Security Group

Kristin joined Swiss IT Security Group in 2019 and has since then executed various successful add-on acquisitions, as well as the secondary buyout of Swiss IT Security Group. She has an extensive track record in M&A, working in M&A advisory as well as Corporate M&A in Frankfurt, Munich and Zurich.

Kristin holds Degrees in Economics and Management from University of Reutlingen and Zeppelin University.”

Alberto Onetti Chairman Mind the Bridge

Forward-looking, dividing his time between Europe and the US, Alberto works on bridging the world of startups and the world of established businesses.

Alberto Onetti is a seasoned serial entrepreneur with core competencies in corporate strategy and finance. Among the others, he founded Funambol, Inc., a mobile personal cloud company based in Silicon Valley with R&D and Operations in Europe.

Alberto is Full Professor of Entrepreneurship and Management at University of Insubria. In 2009 he was appointed as Chairman of the Californian Mind the Bridge, global organization that provides innovation advisory services working at the intersection between Startups and Corporates. Since 2014 Alberto has been selected by the European Commission to help drive the Startup Europe Partnership (SEP), the first integrated open innovation platform to support growth and sustainability of European companies. Thanks to its work at Mind the Bridge Alberto is today recognized as one of the thought leaders in open innovation and startup-corporate collaboration. Alberto is invited keynote and panelist at main Conference and Forums (among the others: LeWeb, 4Y4N, IBA European StartUp Conference, SME Assembly, Scaleup Summit, European Innovation Day, Merger Integration Management Forum, Net Futures, Global Entrepreneurship Congress, SVC2UK, Digital Action Day, European Makers Fair, …), guest columnist at Sifted, EconomyUp and Crunchbase (and more), beyond being very active on LinkedIn, Twitter (@aonetti), Instagram, Facebook and Telegram.

Tristan Nagler Partner Aurelius

Tristan Nagler joined Aurelius in January 2014 to lead the London office and is responsible for sourcing and executing investments across the UK and Ireland. He began his career with KPMG, where he became a director in the London-based M&A team, and in 2010 joined Investec Growth & Acquisition Finance.

Samuel Kerr Senior ECM Editor MERGERMARKET & DEALOGIC

I am the senior ECM editor at Ion Analytics working on producing equity capital markets intelligence for Dealogic and Mergermarket. 

Emilio Zito Group Head of M&A & Investments, EDF Invest and Investor Relations EDF Group

Based in Paris, Emilio Zito is EDF Group Head of M&A, Investments and EDF Invest. He is also in charge of Investor Relations.

Emilio joined EDF in 2008 and since he originated, led and executed a wide range of greenfield and brownfield transactions across the energy chain and related infrastructure. He has also been holding Boards positions within several subsidiaries of the Group, mainly in the Renewables business.

Emilio started his career as an investment banker in London, covering natural resources, energy and power sectors. He joined EDF in 2008 as an M&A and Investment Manager and relocated to London in 2011 to take on the M&A and Investment responsibility of EDF Energy, the largest subsidiary of the Group. Between 2018 and 2020 he also held the position of Deputy Head of M&A for EDF Group, before being appointed EDF Group Head of M&A and Investor Relations. On March 1st, 2023, Emilio had his responsibilities widened to include the Group’s principal investments activity and EDF Invest.

Originally from Milan, Emilio holds a double MSc in General Management from Milan Bocconi University and HEC Paris. He also graduated from the University of California San Diego with a major in Corporate Finance.

Emilio is an Italian native speaker, and speaks fluent English and French.

Annabel Thomas CEO and Founder Mc'nean Distillery

Annabel is the CEO and Founder of Nc’nean Distillery on the west coast of Scotland. A former strategy consultant, she set out to create Nc’nean in 2013 with a mission to change the way the world thinks about whisky from Scotland. Innovation and creativity are at the heart of the company’s philosophy and their award winning, organic single malt whisky has been making waves since its launch in August 2020 (including a world record-breaking £41,000 bid for the first bottle). Nc’nean has an uncompromising focus on sustainability: in July 2021 Nc’nean became the UK’s first whisky distillery to be verified as net zero for scopes 1 & 2, all its products are certified organic and its bottle is 100% recycled glass. In January 2022 it announced it was certified a B Corp.