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.

Anu Aiyengar Global Head of M&A JP Morgan

Anu Aiyengar is the Global Head of Mergers & Acquisitions at J.P. Morgan, a member of the Global Banking Management team and serves on the Steering Committee of Women On the Move for JPMorgan Chase.

Since 1999, Anu has advised both domestic and international clients on nearly $1 trillion dollars’ worth of transactions including mergers, acquisitions, divestitures/separations, leveraged buyouts, proxy contests, unsolicited transactions and special committee assignments.

Transactions she advised on include: She recently advised on Subway's sale to Roark Capital Group, Omni Logistics's merger with Forward Air, United Parcel Service, Inc.'s acquisition of MNX Global Logistic, Ortho Clinical Diagnosic’s sale to Quidel, Maxar Technologies to Advent International, LVMH on its acquisition of Tiffany, E*Trade on its sale to Morgan Stanley, Home Depot on its acquisition of HD Supply, Navistar on its sale to Traton, Siemens Healthineers on its acquisition of Varian, Allergan on its sale to Abbvie, Standard Industries on its acquisition of W.R. Grace, and Waddell & Reade on its sale to Macquarie.

Anu serves on the Board of Trustees of Smith College and is on the Board of Youth INC and Dress for Success. She is also a founding member of the Smith Business Advisory Council.

Anu was named to Barron’s “100 Most Influential Women in U.S. Finance” list and recognized by American Banker as one of the “Most Powerful Women in Finance”. She was also the recipient of the “Impact and Innovation Award” by Dress for Success, the “Rising Star Award” by Women’s Bond Club, and the 2022 Ascend A-list award.

Anu is involved with several initiatives across J.P. Morgan and Wall Street to recruit, mentor and develop women. Anu is often a panelist and speaker at industry events including Wall Street Women’s Forum, Women Corporate Directors, Women’s Private Equity Summit, The Asian Women in Business, and the South Asian Bar Association Leadership Awards. Anu is frequently quoted in the financial press and interviewed on CNBC and Bloomberg TV.

Anu holds a BA in economics from Smith College and an MBA from Vanderbilt University. She lives in New York City with her husband.

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).

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.

Stuart Ord Co-Head of M&A Deutsche Numis

Stuart Ord is Co-Head of M&A at Deutsche Numis. His 25-year investment banking career has specialised in UK public and private M&A acting for corporates and private equity. He previously worked at Barclays and ABN Amro and represents UK Finance as a Member of the Takeover Panel.

Tim Medak Co-Head, M&A, Investment Banking Liberum

Tim joined Liberum in July 2021 as Co-Head of M&A from his own boutique corporate finance firm.

Prior to joining Liberum, Tim had spent more than 30 years in a variety of roles as a Managing Director/Partner at Stifel, EY, Houlihan Lokey and HSBC and at Barings, Lazards and PWC. He is a qualified chartered accountant, and graduated from Birmingham University with a BSc in Chemical Engineering.

Tim has had extensive experience of leading significant projects with median deal values of c£200m and in a range of £30m to £5bn involving public and private M&A, equity and debt capital markets, restructuring and distressed M&A. Alongside a core UK focus he has worked internationally on projects across Europe, North and South America, Asia and the Middle East. Transactions encompass a variety of sectors: consumer and retail, financial services, telecoms, media and technology, industrials, support services, energy, utilities, pharma, healthcare and real estate. Clients include corporates, entrepreneurs and private equity.

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.

Liana Logiurato Non-Executive Director Intesa Sanpaolo Bank.

Liana Logiurato is a Non-Executive Director on the Board of Intesa Sanpaolo Bank, as well as a member of the Board’s Remuneration Committee and the Board’s Committee for Transactions with Related Parties.
As a leading board adviser she worked on over $100bn of M&A, JV and licensing transactions as well as raised capital for over $20bn through IPO. She worked as a strategic consultant at Ernst & Young Ltd (Zürich), where she was Equity Partner and Head of Chemicals EMEIA, Strategy e Transactions (2018-2021); she was Global Head of M&A (2010-2017) at Syngenta AG (Basel); she was Executive Director (1999-2009) at Nomura International plc (London); she was Associate Director (1998-1999) at UBS AG (London & Zürich).
In her professional career, she developed a strong track record in Corporate Defence, ESG and sustainability driven finance and in creating Long Term Stakeholder Value by identifying and originating strategic opportunities for industry transformation and growth in Asian, European and North/South American markets and in several sectors.

A graduate in Business Administration from Bocconi University in Milan, she earned an MBA and pursued further post-graduate studies at IMD (International Institute for Management Development) in Lausanne.

 Resident in Switzerland, she lectures on M&A, governance and climate finance at IMD in Lausanne, IESE in Madrid and the University of Zürich.

Christopher Couvelier Managing Director & Head of the European Shareholder Advisory Lazard

Christopher Couvelier is Managing Director, head of the European Shareholder Advisory practice. In his capacity, Mr. Couvelier advises clients in connection with preparing for and responding to shareholder activism as well as other strategic shareholder engagement, corporate governance and takeover defense matters. Mr. Couvelier is based in Paris and works closely with all of Lazard’s European offices.

Mr. Couvelier joined Lazard in 2014 in the Capital Markets Advisory Group in New York, where he focused on activism defense and shareholder matters in the U.S. market. Mr. Couvelier was appointed Managing Director in 2021. Prior to joining Lazard, he was a corporate lawyer at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP in New York, where his practice focused on mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, syndicated lending, corporate governance and shareholder activism.

Mr. Couvelier earned a B.A. with Distinction in Economics from Stanford University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Liad Meidar Founder and Managing Partner Gatemore Capital

Liad Meidar oversees all aspects of portfolio management including our direct investments.

Prior to founding Gatemore in 2005, Liad had a background in both finance and operations, including running a Seattle-based technology company incubator. Liad began his career in New York in leveraged finance at BT Alex Brown, the investment banking division of Bankers Trust (Deutsche Bank).

Liad has extensive experience as a board member of companies undergoing turnarounds, including Jazz Technologies, a publicly-traded semiconductor wafer foundry based in Newport, California, and MAG Industrial Automation Systems, a privately-held global machine tool builder with dual headquarters in Michigan, USA and Germany.

Liad is Chairman of GSE Worldwide, Inc, a fully integrated talent and sports marketing agency which is a Gatemore Partners LP portfolio company. He also serves on the Dean’s Advisory Council at Princeton University and on the Board of Trustees of the American School in London. He received an AB in economics from Princeton University.

Anthony Kluk Head of Market - UK & Nordics Georgeson

Anthony has an extensive background in corporate advisory. He joined the firm in 2016 and has worked on many large-cap M&A transactions, such as Philip Morris' acquisition of Swedish Match, Flutter's acquisition of Stars Group, Takeda's acquisition of Shire, and Linde's merger with Praxair. Anthony has extensive experience in activism mandates across Europe and Asia, including BP's defence against Follow This, Toshiba's defence against Effisimo & Farallon, TCI vs London Stock Exchange, and Third Point vs Nestlé.

Prior to Georgeson, Anthony was a director at Loeb Aron & Co for 10 years, where he led a variety of advisory mandates including capital raising, debt-for-equity, new admissions, and proxy contests. Anthony studied physics at the University of Leeds and is certified by the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI).

Mark H. Shay Senior Partner Accendo Capital

Roles as active owner in Accendo:

•Impact Coatings, Chairman, since 2018

•Modelon, Board of Directors, since 2021

•Hexatronic Group, Nominating Committee, since 2019

•Hexatronic Group, Board of Directors 2016-2018

•Doro, Nominating Committee, since 2015

•Cision, Nominating Committee, 2012-2014

Background in fundamental equity research and active ownership in European small cap companies

•Senior Equity Analyst, Coghill Capital Management, London & Chicago

•Manager, Accenture, USA/Latin America/Nordic

MBA, MIT Sloan School of Management, USA

- Wallenberg Foundation merit scholarship

M.Sc., B.Sc. Electrical Engineering, Northwestern Univ., USA

Swedish/U.S. dual citizen

Anette Jönsson Editor-Asia Pacific Dealreporter

A Swedish national, Anette has lived in Hong Kong for the past 23 years, covering corporate news, ECM and M&A. She is currently editor of Dealreporter Asia-Pacific, which focuses on event-driven and special situations, and have previously worked with FinanceAsia (where she covered ECM primarily for the website), South China Morning Post and Dow Jones Newswires.

In her current role at Dealreporter, she reports and edits stories on Risk Arb, Specials and Trends with a particular focus on Greater China, Australia, Japan and Southeast Asia, as well as outbound M&A into Europe and the US. As a team, Dealreporter also covers international deals that need approval from Asian regulators.

Stefano Manna Head of GP Advisory Investec

Stefano Manna has over 12 years of experience in the private equity industry.

Before joining Investec, he was a Director in the GP Advisory group at Eaton Partners, where he was responsible for the sourcing, structuring, and execution of the secondary transaction mandates in the EMEA region. Previously, Stefano was at Cebile Capital (now part of Raymond James) and Greenhill, specialising in private market secondary advisory. Before that, he was on the buy side at Advanced Capital SGR, a leading alternative asset and fund-of-funds manager, now part of Capital Dynamics.

He also has M&A experience from previous experiences at Palladio Finanziaria and Rabobank.

Gary Tipper Managing Partner Palatine Private Equity

I am managing partner of Palatine having co-founded the business with Ed and Tony in 2005. I am also the Chairman of Palatine’s Buyout Investment Committee and a Member of the Impact Investment Committee.

My passion lies in identifying and supporting ambitious entrepreneurial management teams in achieving their ambitions. As an entrepreneur myself I understand the challenges all businesses face and how these challenges can be overcome. I am proud of the culture and team within Palatine and I encourage my team to be fully engaged in all aspects of the business. I am also proud of the developments Palatine has led in sustainability and being the first mainstream PE house to raise an Impact Fund. I am also responsible for fundraising and relationships with investors within Palatine and am acutely aware that without their support Palatine would not be in existence.

With almost thirty years’ experience in private equity, having held several non-executive board positions I have been instrumental in helping many management teams execute their business plan successfully, whilst generating excellent returns for investors.

Outside of work and with the family I am a big sports fan. I follow Manchester City home and away and yes I was there at York away in 1998 before anyone accuses me of being a glory hunter!! I also play golf badly and enjoy boxing, both watching and training. I have always been fascinated by wildlife and have had some unbelievable experiences such as cage diving with great white sharks in South Africa, swimming with whale sharks in Mexico, diving with bull sharks in Florida and also getting close to blue, humpback and grey whales in Alaska and Mexico.

Jason Zemmel Partner CMS

Jason Zemmel is a Partner based in the CMS London office.

Jason advises a wide range of private equity houses, management teams, corporates, investors and advisers on the full range of private equity, M&A, corporate finance and other commercial transactions. 

Charlie Taylor-Kroll Head of TMT Coverage EMEA Mergermarket

Sector lead for Telecoms, Media and Technology coverage in EMEA 

Mikhael Rawls Director Teacher Retirement System of Texas

Mikhael Rawls is a Director on the Private Equity team at the Teacher Retirement System of Texas. Mikhael leads the pension’s private equity fund investment activities across Europe and Asia. He is a member of the TRS Private Equity Investment Committee, tasked with evaluating all fund and co-investments, representing approximately $3 billion of committed capital per year.  In addition, Mikhael leads the private equity team’s portfolio construction efforts. Prior to this role, Mikhael worked in the External Public Markets team at TRS, supporting a $39 billion portfolio of externally managed public market assets. In this role, Mikhael maintained coverage of both hedge fund and long-only mandates across several geographies and strategy types.

Mikhael is a CFA Charterholder and received his B.A. in Economics from Harvard University.  Mikhael lives in London with his wife and four children. 

Delaney Brown Head of Capital Solutions Bregal Investments

Delaney is Head of Capital Solutions, working across the Bregal platform and its underlying strategies to deliver optimized strategic solutions for all clients. Delaney joined Bregal Investments following ten years at CPP Investments where he was Head of Funds & Secondaries, Private Equity, responsible for managing a team of 50 professionals investing in funds and secondaries across buyouts, growth equity, venture capital and co-investments in Europe and North America.

Prior to joining CPP Investments in 2013, he spent eight years at Hermes GPE LLP as Head of the Americas, focused on both private equity fund investment and co-investment. Before that, he was an Associate Director with Almeida Capital in London for five years and a Research Scientist for GlaxoSmithKline in the UK.

He has also been a prior chair of the BVCA’s LP Committee.

Delaney holds a BSc (First Class Hons) in Biochemistry from the University of Leeds

Petros Krappas Senior Investment Director Private Investments Cambridge Associates

Petros Krappas is a Senior Investment Director at Cambridge Associates and is based in the London office.

As a member of the EMEA private equity and venture capital research team, his responsibilities include identifying and monitoring investment firms and their portfolio companies, as well as carrying out due diligence. Additionally, Petros is responsible for analyzing market conditions and tracking the private equity and venture capital industry trends.

Prior to joining Cambridge Associates, Petros was at Pathway Capital Management, a private markets investor, where he was a Vice President with focus on European private equity primary investments and co-investments. Before that, he was a member of the investment team at VenCap International, a UK-based venture capital investor.

Petros received a MSc in International Money, Finance, and Investments from Durham University Business School and a BSc in Statistics from University of Piraeus. He is a CFA® charterholder.

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.