Speakers
Discover this year’s leading speakers taking the stage.
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Alex van Hoek is Lead Partner for European Private Equity at Apollo.
Alex joined the firm in New York in 2010 and since 2021 has been based in London, overseeing the Firm’s efforts in various sectors in Europe, including Consumer, Retail, Hospitality, Leisure, and Transportation and Logistics. Alex has been involved in various private equity transactions including EVRi, The Restaurant Group, The Travel Corporation, Ingenico, Great Canadian Gaming, The Venetian, Hilton Grand Vacations, Diamond Resorts, Constellis, Caesars Entertainment, Aliante Casino, and Quality Distribution. Alex currently serves as a director of EVRi, The Restaurant Group, The Travel Corporation, Ingenico, Great Canadian Gaming and One Toronto Gaming.
Prior to joining Apollo, Alex was an Analyst in the Financial Sponsor Investment Banking group at Deutsche Bank. Alex graduated cum laude from Princeton University with a dual BSE degree in Aerospace Engineering and Mechanical Engineering.
Ben leads Shoosmiths’ national Corporate team, which advises on M&A, private equity and venture capital transactions. He works closely with high‑growth businesses, entrepreneurs and private‑equity‑backed corporates across sectors including technology, consumer, financial services and national security.
Since joining Shoosmiths in 2013, Ben has led on complex cross‑border transactions and strategic restructurings. Recent highlights include advising the shareholders of Fosroc on its $1bn+ disposal to French industrials group Saint‑Gobain, Heligan Private Equity on its investment and fundraising programme, and household brands such as Waterstones and Peloton, as well as a US‑listed software business, on UK and cross‑border acquisitions.
Christian has more than 20 years of experience in private equity and business transformations across Europe. He held Senior Managing Director roles with a leading global Private Equity House and with an European Private Credit House. Being an operator at heart and by background, Christian held multiple executive and non-executive C-Level roles at portfolio companies delivering carve-outs, build-and-build strategies and strategic transformations. He has been chairing investments such as Office Deport Europe or Getronics. The pursued investment strategy focuses on carve-outs and complex transactional situations requiring to deliver clarity, transaction security and performance improvement to lay the foundation for future growth trajectory.
Christian is fluent in English, German and Spanish. He calls London home.
Dr. Stefan Sambol is Founding Partner at OMMAX, where he advises mid- and large-cap Private Equity funds and Family Offices on commercial, digital, tech, data, and AI-driven value creation across transactions, strategy, and portfolio acceleration. He works across industries including Consumer & Retail, Healthcare, B2B Services, and Technology.
At OMMAX, Stefan co-leads the Transaction Advisory team, supporting end-to-end deal processes and post-deal value creation. With over 15 years of experience, he has led numerous digital, tech, data, and AI due diligences and growth initiatives, helping portfolio companies scale through data-driven strategies and AI-enabled business models.
Stefan is a recognized European thought leader on digital transformation and AI commercialization, with publications in Handelsblatt, Capital, Marketing Review St. Gallen, CIO Magazine, and The Times. He advises leading investors such as Advent, EQT, CVC, and KKR.
He holds an M.Sc. in Economics from LMU Munich and a Ph.D. from the University of Bayreuth, focusing on digital transformation and data-driven business models.
Dwayne is Co-Head of EMEA M&A and before that was head of Corporate Finance and M&A for J.P. Morgan Cazenove. He joined J.P. Morgan’s UK M&A Team after graduating from University College Dublin with a joint honours degree in International Commerce and Spanish.
Dwayne was appointed as Staffing Officer for J.P. Morgan's London Advisory Group in 2003, after which he joined the EMEA Healthcare Team, focusing on pharma and medtech coverage in the region. On establishment of the J.P. Morgan Cazenove joint venture, Dwayne re-joined UK M&A running the business until 2019 when he took on his current role.
Dwayne has worked on over $550bn of transactions across a variety of deal types and sizes, industries and geographies.
Marc is the UK Head of Integration and Separation and UK Sellside Advisory Lead. He has 25 years of experience in advising clients on delivering successful strategic portfolio change including carve-outs, divestments, acquisitions and Joint Ventures from strategic option support to execution and implementation. Marc has a strong track record of delivering value on complex global transactions across a wide range of sectors including Chemicals, ENR, Automotive, Industrial Markets, TMT, Business Services, Leisure and Private Equity.
Nassim is AnaCap’s Managing Partner. He joined AnaCap in 2008 and has been responsible for establishing and building AnaCap’s investment strategy in the French market as well as more broadly in Europe and the UK.
Prior to AnaCap, he worked at Lehman Brothers in London where he was a member of the Financial Institutions Group, advising clients in insurance, banking, and consumer finance.
He holds a Master de Grande École de Commerce in Management and Finance from ESCP Europe Business School.
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.
Péter Harbula is Group Head of M&A for SPIE, a Paris listed European Corporate. He is in charge of mergers and acquisitions transactions. After starting his career at Deloitte, Péter joined what would become Edenred (Accor Services) in 2007 and served as Edenred’s Group M&A Director from 2010 to 2022, when he joined the InVivo Group as Group Head of M&A & Integration.
During his 19 years leading M&A transactions at Edenred, InVivo, and SPIE, Péter completed more than 160 deals - including over 120 acquisitions - across five continents and 40 countries, with the cumulative 100% enterprise value of these transactions exceeding €7 billion.
Péter holds a Master of Science from the University of Economic Sciences of Budapest (Corvinus), as well as a Master degree in Financial and Banking Techniques and a PhD in Management Sciences from the Paris II University. He is the author of several published papers in the field of corporate finance and corporate governance and has been teaching corporate finance at HEC for over 20 years.
Stuart Hawkins is Head of Private Credit UK & Managing Director at Ardian.
Stuart Hawkins has over 20 years of experience in the European leverage buyout market. He began his career working in the leveraged finance team at UBS, and then spent 9 years in the European mezzanine and private debt group at Barings investing in European middle market credit. Prior to joining Ardian he worked at TSSP, TPG's credit platform, as a Director helping develop its European private debt business. He is based in the London office.
Education: University of Warwick
Tristan Nagler is a Partner and Head of AURELIUS Investment Advisory. He leads AURELIUS’ investment activities in the United Kingdom, Ireland and North America.
After joining AURELIUS in 2014, he played an instrumental role in the successful build-up of the Investment Advisory team in the UK and Ireland. He was responsible for numerous deals, including the corporate carve-outs of Office Depot’s European operations, McKesson’s UK operations and Smurfit Kappa’s solid board operations.
He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Leeds, an Executive MBA from École des Pontes Business School and a Certificate in International Business from the University of Edinburgh. After his studies, he worked at KPMG in Audit (1998-2001), followed by Corporate Finance (2001-2010) and subsequently the financial services provider Investec for three years.