One of the UK’s leading authorities on international trade policy, David Henig is Director of the UK Trade Policy Project at the think-tank European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE). Examining the economic and trade implications of Brexit and other UK trade approaches, David places these in the context of the changing trends in globalisation which he also studies. He writes about all these topics in a regular column for the specialist trade news service Borderlex, discusses this with senior policy-makers in the UK and EU, serves as Expert Adviser to the UK Trade and Business Commission, and speaks regularly in the media and at various events. Until March 2018 he worked on these issues for the UK Government. A graduate of Oxford University, David started his career in consultancy.

Edward Little joined Ardian in 2018 and is based in London. He is a Managing Director, Head of Buyout UK and a member of the Buyout Management Committee. He has a track record of investments across sectors and geographies, with a focus on Technology and Services investments in the UK. Prior to joining Ardian, he worked at TPG in their London private equity group. He previously worked at HIG Capital and Rothschild M&A advisory. Edward holds a First Class Honours degree in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Sciences.

James is the Head of J.P. Morgan's UK and Ireland M&A group, having spent the last twenty years advising global clients on a wide range of high profile public and private M&A transactions.  James joined J.P. Morgan in 2004, started in UK TMT Investment Banking covering a broad universe of clients, before moving to Australia for a number of years as part of the Diversified Industries coverage group. James graduated from UCL with a BSc in Economics in 2004.

Carly has worked in Corporate Banking for 25 years with roles spanning the UK and Singapore and is currently the Head of Corporate Finance at HSBC Innovation Banking UK. In her current role, Carly leads a team of experienced Tech Bankers based responsible for later stage, scaled companies in the tech & innovation economy. Carly and her team work in partnership with clients to tailor solutions to meet their evolving and event driven financing, treasury and risk management needs leveraging in-depth sector expertise, eco-system connectivity and global reach across the wider HSBC group.

Nicola leads the UK Deal Advisory business and is a Consumer Deals Partner with over 20 years of professional experience, almost exclusively in advising a range of corporate and private equity clients on M&A transactions.

Nicola has focussed on consumer deals, leading some of the most high profile international deals in the sector, including Mars, Froneri, Tate & Lyle, ABF, Diageo, Evergreen and Jimmy Choo. 

Chris joined Charterhouse in 2013. He is a Partner in the Deal Team. During Chris’s time at Charterhouse, he has been involved with numerous transactions including Comexposium, Mirion Technologies, Sagemcom and SLR Consulting.He previously spent ten years with ECI Partners where he completed a number of transactions across a wide range of sectors. Prior to ECI, Chris worked at BC Partners and before that as a consultant with COBA in their Strategy and Private Equity Group.Chris holds an MA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University and an MBA from INSEAD.

Imogen is a Partner and Head of Primaries in Pantheon’s European Private Equity team, and also head of the firm’s portfolio strategy and treasury & fund management teams. Prior to Pantheon Imogen worked on small and mid-market private equity and mezzanine transactions for Anglo Irish Bank in Dublin. She holds a master’s degree in natural sciences from Cambridge University.

WPC is a specialist private equity investor founded in 2009 to invest in the consumer and healthcare sectors where the team has operational experience. Jim founded WPC in 2009. He leads the investment team and chairs the investment committee. WPC has extensive experience in the healthcare sector, with a strong network of healthcare operators and  investors. Jim Weight was CFO of Westminster Health Care Group under the ownership of Goldman Sachs and Welsh Carson. This was when Westminster was the market leader in mental health through Priory Healthcare and number 2 in care homes through Westminster Health Care. Jim has also worked as an operating partner for numerous private equity firms on healthcare transactions that did not complete, including Nuffield Hospitals, Capio AB, Nestor Healthcare, Patientline, Priory, Partnerships in Care, and Westminster Care Homes. Before launching WPC, Jim boosted profits as corporate operator and private equity advisor at a series of large companies. He was CFO of HiT Entertainment backed by Apax Partners and operating partner at Fortress for the 2005 acquisition of Boxclever from administration. He also worked as a commercial and operational due diligence advisor to numerous PE houses, including Montagu, Fortress, Permira, Apax, Terra Firma, Electra, HgCapital, EPIC, and Blackstone. Prior to this Jim spent a number of years as a divisional board director of Kingfisher subsidiaries including Comet, B&Q, Staples, Entertainment UK, and e-Kingfisher. He started his career at The Boston Consulting Group where he spent eight years as a consultant. Jim was a Fulbright Scholar at Harvard Business School where he received an MBA. He also holds a BA in Engineering from Cambridge. 

Layton has over 20 years’ experience as an investor, the first seven years of which was spent in more traditional private equity at large-cap firm TDR Capital. For the last 15 years Layton has been serving as Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Sullivan Street Partners working with smaller UK businesses. He takes the lead in driving investments, as well as operationally improving businesses and working closely with management. In this time, he has invested in and served as a Director for companies with values of £1m to £5bn and has seen the benefits of driven ownership and the pitfalls in the market of financial machinations, short-term stewardship, and governance.

Tom is one of the three Managing Partners at ECI Partners, forming part of the Investment Committee and helping to lead the firm’s strategic direction. He leads on Origination, Portfolio Management and Investor Relations, having spent the majority of his career partnering with tech and tech-enabled businesses, supporting them in achieving their global growth ambitions, whether organically or via M&A.

Kate Cooper is an M&A and corporate partner based in London. Kate acts for international corporate and FTSE clients as well as some of the world’s largest financial sponsors.  Her areas of practice include complex public and private M&A, UK public takeovers defence and activism as well as corporate restructurings, corporate governance and general UK listed company advice. Kate's varied experience spans a range of sectors, including TMT, Industrials, Consumer and Healthcare.

Kate joined Freshfields in 2006 as a trainee, and has been seconded previously to our Tokyo office, to the Organising Committee of the London Olympics and, as a senior associate, to Goldman Sachs’ European Investment Banking Legal team.

Before becoming a lawyer, Kate obtained a first class honours degree in English Literature and French from the University of Oxford.

Andrew is a strategy specialist with 12 years experience in the energy sector. He has a background in policy and regulation at the UK sector regulator (Ofgem), where he worked on power market design and infrastructure investment frameworks. Since joining KPMG’s Advisory practice in 2018, Andrew has demonstrated a strong track record advising energy sector clients on strategy development and execution. He has helped global O&G majors and large European utilities respond to the energy transition, delivering growth strategy, transaction and transformation engagements across renewables, CCUS, hydrogen and energy storage. He is currently the chair of KPMG’s Global Energy Storage Network.

Professor Scott Moeller has been teaching at Bayes Business School since 2002. He is the founder and Director of the M&A Research Centre (https://www.bayes.city.ac.uk/faculties-and-research/centres/marc) and the former CEO and Director of Executive Education. Amongst other finance-related modules, he teaches the 'Mergers & Acquisitions' elective in the MBA 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 seven books received an award in the United States as one of the top 30 business books of the year in 2008 ('Intelligent M&A: Navigating the Mergers and Acquisitions Minefield' now in a second edition published in 2014) . His most recent book (co-authored) is 'The Deal Paradox: Mergers and Acquisitions Success in the Age of Digital Transformation', published in 2023.

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.

Taku Dzimwasha is a Senior ECM & M&A Reporter for the EMEA region at Mergermarket. He has been with the organisation for over a year, covering equity markets, M&A, and private equity. With over a decade of experience in financial journalism, he has previously covered commodities, funds, and TMT. Before joining Mergermarket, he was the editor of private equity trade publication Real Deals in London. He is based in London.

Hannah is a Partner and Head of The Strategy Group for KPMG in the UK and EMA. She is a transactions specialist with over 20 years’ experience of advising clients on how to protect and deliver maximum value from a merger, acquisition, joint venture or divestment.

She has advised many Corporate and Private Equity clients on some of the largest and most complex deals across several sectors.

During her time in deals she has worked in most geographies including spending 18 months in USA as the Strategy & Integration director for a FTSE listed company supporting a significant acquisition in the region.

Caroline leads acquisition integration support globally for IBM Consulting, with 12 years M&A integration experience in IBM.  She has 40 years broad experience across M&A, alliances and account management, business development and supply chain management, with the last 30 years in management consultancy for IBM Consulting, PwC and Coopers & Lybrand.

Natalie McNelis leads Mergermarket/PaRR’s EU and UK regulatory coverage since 2025. She previously worked for MLex. Before becoming a journalist in 2017, she spent 20+ years as an international trade and competition lawyer in law firms including Stibbe and WilmerHale. Natalie has a BA in English from Mount Holyoke College, a JD from Harvard Law School and an LLM in EU law from KU Leuven. She is admitted to the bar in New York.

Paul Hutchinson joined RBB Economics in 2010 and is a Partner in our London office. Paul has over 15 years’ experience as a competition economist and has worked on competition matters including mergers, anti-competitive agreements, abuse of dominance cases and market investigations. Prior to joining RBB Paul worked for the OFT where he led the economic analysis of numerous high-profile merger cases raising horizontal, vertical, and conglomerate issues.

Paul’s experience spans a wide range of sectors, including telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, software services transport, retailing, consumer electronics, and fast-moving consumer goods. Paul is featured in Who’s Who Legal, as a leading expert in the field of competition economics. Paul’s experience spans a wide range of sectors, including telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, transport, retailing, consumer electronics, and fast-moving consumer goods. Clients he has worked for include Qualcomm, WTW, AkzoNobel, Heineken, Pfizer, Global Radio, Warner Music, iRobot and Taylor Wimpey. 

Paul has significant experience advising clients in relation to mergers.  Prior to joining RBB, Paul worked for the UK merger regulator (the OFT, now CMA) and since joining RBB has advised on a broad range of UK mergers in industries ranging from retail/local markets to satellite telecommunication services.

Paul has also acted for clients in relation to a wide range of mergers before the European Commission in industries ranging from insurance to pharmaceuticals. 

In addition to mergers, Paul has extensive experience acting on litigation matters and market studies with a UK focus.  Notable clients include Pfizer, Warner Music, Taylor Wimpey and the UK government. 

Karlis Kirsis is Chief Legal Officer. In this role, he leads GXO’s legal and compliance functions, including corporate governance, litigation and commercial matters.

Previously, he served as European Chief Legal Officer for XPO Logistics, where he held earlier positions as Senior Vice president, Corporate Counsel, and Vice President, Corporate and Securities Counsel. Mr. Kirsis spent nearly 10 years as a Senior Corporate Associate in New York and London for Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, where he executed global M&A and corporate finance transactions. He holds a Juris Doctorate from New York University School of Law and a bachelor’s degree from Amherst College.

Stephanie Adams advises corporates and private equity funds on all aspects of UK, European, and international competition matters, and on obtaining foreign investment approvals. Stephanie draws on her depth of experience navigating multijurisdictional transactions and complex antitrust matters to guide clients on a wide range of issues including UK, European, and global merger control, foreign investment screening, including the UK National Security and Investment Act, antitrust, and subsidy control. In addition to her European expertise, she unlocks the resources of Latham’s global platform to coordinate complex matters across borders. Before joining Latham, Stephanie worked in the Brussels office of another leading international law firm.

Cristobal co-founded All Seas Capital in 2019, where he plays a key role in driving transformational growth for portfolio companies. He serves on the Investment Committee, leads deal origination and execution across the UK, Spain, and Western Europe, oversees capital raising, and manages the firm's overall operations.

Before founding All Seas, Cristobal was a Director at KKR, where he joined in 2010 to work alongside Marc Ciancimino (fellow All Seas co-founder). He played a pivotal role in developing the European private credit platform, with a focus on hybrid transactions. Whilst there, he invested more than $2.2 billion into privately held businesses across the capital structure.

Cristobal began his career at Credit Suisse, later transitioning to Apollo Management. He holds an MBA from ESADE.

Stephen leads Soho Square’s investment activities.  Prior to Soho Square, he co-founded the private equity firm Core Capital in 2004 and has over 25 years’ experience in investing in SMEs.  Stephen was formerly Managing Director at Beringea Private Equity and a Director of Hg Capital and Grosvenor.  He is a Chartered Accountant and started his career at PriceWaterhouseCoopers in London working in Corporate Finance where he spent six years advising on numerous private equity transactions.  Stephen has led, managed or arranged over 25 transactions and is a board member of several portfolio companies.

He has a BA (Hons) Economics, Durham University, and is an ACA (ICAEW).

Luke has been part of the Investment Team since the firm’s inception in 2019.

Experience

Prior to AshGrove: Evercore, PwC

Education: Queensland University of Technology – B Business (Finance - Honours)

Interests: Outside of the office Luke is a father of one, an avid traveller, and a fan of all sports (but master of none)

Carl is a Senior Principal in Metric Capital’s London office and has been part of the investment team since 2019, with active involvement across all aspects of the investment process. He began his career in M&A at Rothschild in London.

Prior to joining Metric, Carl was an Investment Associate at the Bronfman Family Office. Prior to that, Carl was an Associate in the Consumer, Retail & Leisure M&A team at Rothschild in London.

Carl has a BSc in Mathematics & Economics International from the University of Leeds.

Lauren is a Director in BNP Paribas’ Equity Capital Markets team, covering the UK and Ireland, and has executed IPOs, follow-on offerings and sell-downs for a wide variety of issuers and vendors across sectors. Most recently Lauren advised Canal+ on its landmark demerger from Vivendi, the largest new listing in London in 2024. Lauren joined BNP Paribas in 2021 and previously worked in RBC Capital Markets’ Corporate Broking team. Lauren graduated from Bath with a BSc in Economics in 2016.

Mark Austin advises clients on a full range of public and private securities offerings, as well as M&A and general corporate matters across multiple sectors. He leverages extensive experience to guide market-leading companies and investment banks on Initial public offerings (IPOs), Rights issues and open offers, Placings, Mergers and acquisitions, and general corporate work. A recognized industry leader, Mark is the former Chair of the Listing Authority Advisory Panel, the practitioner panel that advises the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on primary markets policy and regulation issues. He also sits on the FCA’s Markets Practitioner Panel and The London Stock Exchange’s Primary Markets Group. Separately, Mark is a member of the UK’s Capital Markets Industry Taskforce (CMIT), which was announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in July 2022 and is tasked with reforming the UK’s capital markets, as well as HM Treasury’s Digitisation Taskforce. The Chancellor of the Exchequer appointed him in October 2021 as the independent chair of the UK Secondary Capital Raising Review, which proposed reforms to the capital raising process for listed companies. He delivered the Review to the Chancellor in July 2022. He also advised Lord Hill on the UK Listing Review in 2021. He received a CBE in the King’s 2024 New Year Honours List for services to the economy. Mark was named one of Europe’s top 10 most innovative legal practitioners by the Financial Times and was included in Financial News’ Most Influential in European Finance list in 2024. In 2025, he received the Contribution to Regulatory Reform Award from IFLR Europe.

Michelle is the Finance Director for Corporate Development & Strategy at BAE Systems, a global company that provides some of the world's most advanced, technology-led defence, aerospace and security solutions. She has created a central team at BAE Systems focused on inorganic growth strategy, execution and integration.  A member of BAE Systems’ Strategy Council, Finance Council and Chief Technology and Investment Office, Michelle is also a member of the GCV Global Defence Council for defence venture investing and the UK Defence Investor Network.  She is also a Trustee of BAE Systems' Executive Pension Scheme.

Prior to joining BAE Systems, Michelle led Corporate Development for Parker's Europe, Middle East and African operations.  She was also a Director at DC Advisory, providing corporate finance advisory and started her career qualifying as a Certified Public Accountant at Ernst and Young.

Nicola leads the UK Deal Advisory business and is a Consumer Deals Partner with over 20 years of professional experience, almost exclusively in advising a range of corporate and private equity clients on M&A transactions.

Nicola has focussed on consumer deals, leading some of the most high profile international deals in the sector, including Mars, Froneri, Tate & Lyle, ABF, Diageo, Evergreen and Jimmy Choo. 

Imogen is a Partner and Head of Primaries in Pantheon’s European Private Equity team, and also head of the firm’s portfolio strategy and treasury & fund management teams. Prior to Pantheon Imogen worked on small and mid-market private equity and mezzanine transactions for Anglo Irish Bank in Dublin. She holds a master’s degree in natural sciences from Cambridge University.

WPC is a specialist private equity investor founded in 2009 to invest in the consumer and healthcare sectors where the team has operational experience. Jim founded WPC in 2009. He leads the investment team and chairs the investment committee. WPC has extensive experience in the healthcare sector, with a strong network of healthcare operators and  investors. Jim Weight was CFO of Westminster Health Care Group under the ownership of Goldman Sachs and Welsh Carson. This was when Westminster was the market leader in mental health through Priory Healthcare and number 2 in care homes through Westminster Health Care. Jim has also worked as an operating partner for numerous private equity firms on healthcare transactions that did not complete, including Nuffield Hospitals, Capio AB, Nestor Healthcare, Patientline, Priory, Partnerships in Care, and Westminster Care Homes. Before launching WPC, Jim boosted profits as corporate operator and private equity advisor at a series of large companies. He was CFO of HiT Entertainment backed by Apax Partners and operating partner at Fortress for the 2005 acquisition of Boxclever from administration. He also worked as a commercial and operational due diligence advisor to numerous PE houses, including Montagu, Fortress, Permira, Apax, Terra Firma, Electra, HgCapital, EPIC, and Blackstone. Prior to this Jim spent a number of years as a divisional board director of Kingfisher subsidiaries including Comet, B&Q, Staples, Entertainment UK, and e-Kingfisher. He started his career at The Boston Consulting Group where he spent eight years as a consultant. Jim was a Fulbright Scholar at Harvard Business School where he received an MBA. He also holds a BA in Engineering from Cambridge. 

Stephen leads Soho Square’s investment activities.  Prior to Soho Square, he co-founded the private equity firm Core Capital in 2004 and has over 25 years’ experience in investing in SMEs.  Stephen was formerly Managing Director at Beringea Private Equity and a Director of Hg Capital and Grosvenor.  He is a Chartered Accountant and started his career at PriceWaterhouseCoopers in London working in Corporate Finance where he spent six years advising on numerous private equity transactions.  Stephen has led, managed or arranged over 25 transactions and is a board member of several portfolio companies.

He has a BA (Hons) Economics, Durham University, and is an ACA (ICAEW).

Cristobal co-founded All Seas Capital in 2019, where he plays a key role in driving transformational growth for portfolio companies. He serves on the Investment Committee, leads deal origination and execution across the UK, Spain, and Western Europe, oversees capital raising, and manages the firm's overall operations.

Before founding All Seas, Cristobal was a Director at KKR, where he joined in 2010 to work alongside Marc Ciancimino (fellow All Seas co-founder). He played a pivotal role in developing the European private credit platform, with a focus on hybrid transactions. Whilst there, he invested more than $2.2 billion into privately held businesses across the capital structure.

Cristobal began his career at Credit Suisse, later transitioning to Apollo Management. He holds an MBA from ESADE.

Chris joined Charterhouse in 2013. He is a Partner in the Deal Team. During Chris’s time at Charterhouse, he has been involved with numerous transactions including Comexposium, Mirion Technologies, Sagemcom and SLR Consulting.He previously spent ten years with ECI Partners where he completed a number of transactions across a wide range of sectors. Prior to ECI, Chris worked at BC Partners and before that as a consultant with COBA in their Strategy and Private Equity Group.Chris holds an MA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University and an MBA from INSEAD.

Karlis Kirsis is Chief Legal Officer. In this role, he leads GXO’s legal and compliance functions, including corporate governance, litigation and commercial matters.

Previously, he served as European Chief Legal Officer for XPO Logistics, where he held earlier positions as Senior Vice president, Corporate Counsel, and Vice President, Corporate and Securities Counsel. Mr. Kirsis spent nearly 10 years as a Senior Corporate Associate in New York and London for Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, where he executed global M&A and corporate finance transactions. He holds a Juris Doctorate from New York University School of Law and a bachelor’s degree from Amherst College.

Edward Little joined Ardian in 2018 and is based in London. He is a Managing Director, Head of Buyout UK and a member of the Buyout Management Committee. He has a track record of investments across sectors and geographies, with a focus on Technology and Services investments in the UK. Prior to joining Ardian, he worked at TPG in their London private equity group. He previously worked at HIG Capital and Rothschild M&A advisory. Edward holds a First Class Honours degree in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Sciences.

James is the Head of J.P. Morgan's UK and Ireland M&A group, having spent the last twenty years advising global clients on a wide range of high profile public and private M&A transactions.  James joined J.P. Morgan in 2004, started in UK TMT Investment Banking covering a broad universe of clients, before moving to Australia for a number of years as part of the Diversified Industries coverage group. James graduated from UCL with a BSc in Economics in 2004.

Carly has worked in Corporate Banking for 25 years with roles spanning the UK and Singapore and is currently the Head of Corporate Finance at HSBC Innovation Banking UK. In her current role, Carly leads a team of experienced Tech Bankers based responsible for later stage, scaled companies in the tech & innovation economy. Carly and her team work in partnership with clients to tailor solutions to meet their evolving and event driven financing, treasury and risk management needs leveraging in-depth sector expertise, eco-system connectivity and global reach across the wider HSBC group.

Taku Dzimwasha is a Senior ECM & M&A Reporter for the EMEA region at Mergermarket. He has been with the organisation for over a year, covering equity markets, M&A, and private equity. With over a decade of experience in financial journalism, he has previously covered commodities, funds, and TMT. Before joining Mergermarket, he was the editor of private equity trade publication Real Deals in London. He is based in London.

Luke has been part of the Investment Team since the firm’s inception in 2019.

Experience

Prior to AshGrove: Evercore, PwC

Education: Queensland University of Technology – B Business (Finance - Honours)

Interests: Outside of the office Luke is a father of one, an avid traveller, and a fan of all sports (but master of none)

One of the UK’s leading authorities on international trade policy, David Henig is Director of the UK Trade Policy Project at the think-tank European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE). Examining the economic and trade implications of Brexit and other UK trade approaches, David places these in the context of the changing trends in globalisation which he also studies. He writes about all these topics in a regular column for the specialist trade news service Borderlex, discusses this with senior policy-makers in the UK and EU, serves as Expert Adviser to the UK Trade and Business Commission, and speaks regularly in the media and at various events. Until March 2018 he worked on these issues for the UK Government. A graduate of Oxford University, David started his career in consultancy.

Paul Hutchinson joined RBB Economics in 2010 and is a Partner in our London office. Paul has over 15 years’ experience as a competition economist and has worked on competition matters including mergers, anti-competitive agreements, abuse of dominance cases and market investigations. Prior to joining RBB Paul worked for the OFT where he led the economic analysis of numerous high-profile merger cases raising horizontal, vertical, and conglomerate issues.

Paul’s experience spans a wide range of sectors, including telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, software services transport, retailing, consumer electronics, and fast-moving consumer goods. Paul is featured in Who’s Who Legal, as a leading expert in the field of competition economics. Paul’s experience spans a wide range of sectors, including telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, transport, retailing, consumer electronics, and fast-moving consumer goods. Clients he has worked for include Qualcomm, WTW, AkzoNobel, Heineken, Pfizer, Global Radio, Warner Music, iRobot and Taylor Wimpey. 

Paul has significant experience advising clients in relation to mergers.  Prior to joining RBB, Paul worked for the UK merger regulator (the OFT, now CMA) and since joining RBB has advised on a broad range of UK mergers in industries ranging from retail/local markets to satellite telecommunication services.

Paul has also acted for clients in relation to a wide range of mergers before the European Commission in industries ranging from insurance to pharmaceuticals. 

In addition to mergers, Paul has extensive experience acting on litigation matters and market studies with a UK focus.  Notable clients include Pfizer, Warner Music, Taylor Wimpey and the UK government. 

Tom is one of the three Managing Partners at ECI Partners, forming part of the Investment Committee and helping to lead the firm’s strategic direction. He leads on Origination, Portfolio Management and Investor Relations, having spent the majority of his career partnering with tech and tech-enabled businesses, supporting them in achieving their global growth ambitions, whether organically or via M&A.

Layton has over 20 years’ experience as an investor, the first seven years of which was spent in more traditional private equity at large-cap firm TDR Capital. For the last 15 years Layton has been serving as Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Sullivan Street Partners working with smaller UK businesses. He takes the lead in driving investments, as well as operationally improving businesses and working closely with management. In this time, he has invested in and served as a Director for companies with values of £1m to £5bn and has seen the benefits of driven ownership and the pitfalls in the market of financial machinations, short-term stewardship, and governance.

Nicola leads the UK Deal Advisory business and is a Consumer Deals Partner with over 20 years of professional experience, almost exclusively in advising a range of corporate and private equity clients on M&A transactions.

Nicola has focussed on consumer deals, leading some of the most high profile international deals in the sector, including Mars, Froneri, Tate & Lyle, ABF, Diageo, Evergreen and Jimmy Choo. 

Hannah is a Partner and Head of The Strategy Group for KPMG in the UK and EMA. She is a transactions specialist with over 20 years’ experience of advising clients on how to protect and deliver maximum value from a merger, acquisition, joint venture or divestment.

She has advised many Corporate and Private Equity clients on some of the largest and most complex deals across several sectors.

During her time in deals she has worked in most geographies including spending 18 months in USA as the Strategy & Integration director for a FTSE listed company supporting a significant acquisition in the region.

Natalie McNelis leads Mergermarket/PaRR’s EU and UK regulatory coverage since 2025. She previously worked for MLex. Before becoming a journalist in 2017, she spent 20+ years as an international trade and competition lawyer in law firms including Stibbe and WilmerHale. Natalie has a BA in English from Mount Holyoke College, a JD from Harvard Law School and an LLM in EU law from KU Leuven. She is admitted to the bar in New York.

Kate Cooper is an M&A and corporate partner based in London. Kate acts for international corporate and FTSE clients as well as some of the world’s largest financial sponsors.  Her areas of practice include complex public and private M&A, UK public takeovers defence and activism as well as corporate restructurings, corporate governance and general UK listed company advice. Kate's varied experience spans a range of sectors, including TMT, Industrials, Consumer and Healthcare.

Kate joined Freshfields in 2006 as a trainee, and has been seconded previously to our Tokyo office, to the Organising Committee of the London Olympics and, as a senior associate, to Goldman Sachs’ European Investment Banking Legal team.

Before becoming a lawyer, Kate obtained a first class honours degree in English Literature and French from the University of Oxford.

Lauren is a Director in BNP Paribas’ Equity Capital Markets team, covering the UK and Ireland, and has executed IPOs, follow-on offerings and sell-downs for a wide variety of issuers and vendors across sectors. Most recently Lauren advised Canal+ on its landmark demerger from Vivendi, the largest new listing in London in 2024. Lauren joined BNP Paribas in 2021 and previously worked in RBC Capital Markets’ Corporate Broking team. Lauren graduated from Bath with a BSc in Economics in 2016.

Mark Austin advises clients on a full range of public and private securities offerings, as well as M&A and general corporate matters across multiple sectors. He leverages extensive experience to guide market-leading companies and investment banks on Initial public offerings (IPOs), Rights issues and open offers, Placings, Mergers and acquisitions, and general corporate work. A recognized industry leader, Mark is the former Chair of the Listing Authority Advisory Panel, the practitioner panel that advises the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on primary markets policy and regulation issues. He also sits on the FCA’s Markets Practitioner Panel and The London Stock Exchange’s Primary Markets Group. Separately, Mark is a member of the UK’s Capital Markets Industry Taskforce (CMIT), which was announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in July 2022 and is tasked with reforming the UK’s capital markets, as well as HM Treasury’s Digitisation Taskforce. The Chancellor of the Exchequer appointed him in October 2021 as the independent chair of the UK Secondary Capital Raising Review, which proposed reforms to the capital raising process for listed companies. He delivered the Review to the Chancellor in July 2022. He also advised Lord Hill on the UK Listing Review in 2021. He received a CBE in the King’s 2024 New Year Honours List for services to the economy. Mark was named one of Europe’s top 10 most innovative legal practitioners by the Financial Times and was included in Financial News’ Most Influential in European Finance list in 2024. In 2025, he received the Contribution to Regulatory Reform Award from IFLR Europe.

Andrew is a strategy specialist with 12 years experience in the energy sector. He has a background in policy and regulation at the UK sector regulator (Ofgem), where he worked on power market design and infrastructure investment frameworks. Since joining KPMG’s Advisory practice in 2018, Andrew has demonstrated a strong track record advising energy sector clients on strategy development and execution. He has helped global O&G majors and large European utilities respond to the energy transition, delivering growth strategy, transaction and transformation engagements across renewables, CCUS, hydrogen and energy storage. He is currently the chair of KPMG’s Global Energy Storage Network.

Caroline leads acquisition integration support globally for IBM Consulting, with 12 years M&A integration experience in IBM.  She has 40 years broad experience across M&A, alliances and account management, business development and supply chain management, with the last 30 years in management consultancy for IBM Consulting, PwC and Coopers & Lybrand.

Stephanie Adams advises corporates and private equity funds on all aspects of UK, European, and international competition matters, and on obtaining foreign investment approvals. Stephanie draws on her depth of experience navigating multijurisdictional transactions and complex antitrust matters to guide clients on a wide range of issues including UK, European, and global merger control, foreign investment screening, including the UK National Security and Investment Act, antitrust, and subsidy control. In addition to her European expertise, she unlocks the resources of Latham’s global platform to coordinate complex matters across borders. Before joining Latham, Stephanie worked in the Brussels office of another leading international law firm.

Carl is a Senior Principal in Metric Capital’s London office and has been part of the investment team since 2019, with active involvement across all aspects of the investment process. He began his career in M&A at Rothschild in London.

Prior to joining Metric, Carl was an Investment Associate at the Bronfman Family Office. Prior to that, Carl was an Associate in the Consumer, Retail & Leisure M&A team at Rothschild in London.

Carl has a BSc in Mathematics & Economics International from the University of Leeds.

Michelle is the Finance Director for Corporate Development & Strategy at BAE Systems, a global company that provides some of the world's most advanced, technology-led defence, aerospace and security solutions. She has created a central team at BAE Systems focused on inorganic growth strategy, execution and integration.  A member of BAE Systems’ Strategy Council, Finance Council and Chief Technology and Investment Office, Michelle is also a member of the GCV Global Defence Council for defence venture investing and the UK Defence Investor Network.  She is also a Trustee of BAE Systems' Executive Pension Scheme.

Prior to joining BAE Systems, Michelle led Corporate Development for Parker's Europe, Middle East and African operations.  She was also a Director at DC Advisory, providing corporate finance advisory and started her career qualifying as a Certified Public Accountant at Ernst and Young.

Professor Scott Moeller has been teaching at Bayes Business School since 2002. He is the founder and Director of the M&A Research Centre (https://www.bayes.city.ac.uk/faculties-and-research/centres/marc) and the former CEO and Director of Executive Education. Amongst other finance-related modules, he teaches the 'Mergers & Acquisitions' elective in the MBA 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 seven books received an award in the United States as one of the top 30 business books of the year in 2008 ('Intelligent M&A: Navigating the Mergers and Acquisitions Minefield' now in a second edition published in 2014) . His most recent book (co-authored) is 'The Deal Paradox: Mergers and Acquisitions Success in the Age of Digital Transformation', published in 2023.

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.