Adnan Khalef is a Managing Director on the Carlyle Credit Opportunities team, focusing on structured capital investments across equity, hybrid, and debt instruments. He is based in London.

Prior to joining Carlyle, Mr. Khalef was a Vice President at TPG Sixth Street Partners (TSSP) in London, where he worked for four years. During his tenure at TSSP, Mr. Khalef principally focused on making structured equity and debt investments to fund M&A, growth, and balance sheet solutions. Prior to that, Mr. Khalef was an Analyst in the Financial Sponsors and Leveraged Finance team at Credit Suisse.

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.

Alice Squires is a Partner, Head of Investor Advisory and co-Head of Shareholder Engagement. She joined Scott Harris in 2012 which was subsequently acquired by Rothschild & Co in 2015 as part of the foundation of Investor Advisory businesses. 

Alice specialises in activist defence, ESG issues and covers all aspects of shareholder engagement for clients including messaging, Board engagement, remuneration support, retaining and finding new long term buyers. 

She leads a number of high profile accounts including Royal Dutch Shell where Investor Advisory run the European investor engagement programme and provide feedback and insight across the investor universe. 

Alice began her career with NatWest Markets in Corporate Finance in 1995 working with UK and European clients. She moved within NatWest to Equity Sales, which was acquired by Bankers Trust (BT) and to its successor company, Deutsche Bank, after it acquired BT in 1999. 

She was Head of Mid Cap European Equity Sales and ran the number one ranked team for 6 years until 2005 covering all sectors and European countries for stocks under €5bn market cap and led a wide range of IPO’s, placings and takeovers. 

Alice holds an MA (Hons) Economics and Politics from Edinburgh University and a Post Graduate Dip in Integrative Counselling and Psychotherapy. 

Amelia Pan is a Managing Director in the Strategic Advisory Group at PJT Partners, based in London.

Amelia originates and develops board and senior-executive relationships across PJT's UK advisory platform, working with the chairs, chief executives, chief financial officers of UK-listed companies and connecting them to the firm's strategic advisory, shareholder advisory and capital markets capabilities. A particular focus is helping boards engage the rising influence of private capital - and US private equity in particular -  in UK M&A. 

Prior to joining PJT Partners, Amelia was a Partner at Brunswick Group in London, where she founded the firm's global ESG advisory practice. Before that, as an Executive Director in International Equity Sales at J.P. Morgan in New York and London, she created and led the bank's first dedicated international access team, introducing corporate leadership across EMEA, Asia and Latin America to its institutional investor platform. At Cazenove in New York she advised UK-listed management teams on US investor strategy. 

Amelia serves on the Advisory Board of Workiva (NYSE: WK) and as an Expert in Residence with Extraordinary Women on Boards. She holds a postgraduate certificate in Sustainable Business from the University of Cambridge, an MSc from SOAS, University of London, and an AB from the University of Michigan.

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.

Ben Bishop is Chief Technology and Product Officer at Bright Software Group, a PE-backed B2B SaaS business serving 40,000 accounting practices and payroll bureaus across the UK and Ireland. He holds responsibility for product strategy, engineering, AI, and support across a nine-product portfolio, and his scope extends into commercial operations, M&A evaluation, and operating model design, reflecting the practical reality of leading transformation in a PE-backed business.

Over the past two years Ben has taken a multi-million-pound AI investment programme from business case to live products and architected the Accountant Operating System vision that now anchors Bright's AI narrative with its PE backer, Hg Capital. 

His primary area of interest is the intersection of AI and regulated professional services. Where compliance-heavy workflows, mandated processes, and deep domain trust are in play, he argues that the moat is not the model — it is the context, the data, and the proprietary workflow intelligence that generic AI platforms cannot easily replicate.

Before Bright, Ben held leadership roles at Advanced , XCD, Sage Accountants Division, and IRIS. His career spans 35 years in B2B software, consistently in regulated markets under PE ownership.

He is a frequent speaker on AI strategy, product-led growth, and the practical realities of technology transformation at scale.

Brian Kelly is Portfolio Manager, Head of Equity Strategies at Sona Asset Management. Brian joined Sona with 16 years of experience across investing and strategic advisory with leading international firms. Prior to joining Sona, Brian was at PJT Partners, a leading advisory-focused investment bank, where he advised clients on complex public M&A, capital markets and investor issues. Brian joined PJT Partners from Highbridge Capital Management where he helped to build the firm’s Event Driven strategy. Brian graduated from University College Dublin with a Bachelor’s in Business & Law.

Chris Boulter is currently Head of M&A at Serica Energy, a UK listed E&P company, where he leads the company’s M&A activities. With over 15 years’ experience in the energy sector, he has worked across technical, commercial and strategic roles. Prior to joining Serica, Chris spent seven years at Neptune Energy, a private equity-backed E&P company, where he held a number of M&A and commercial roles, culminating in the company’s $5 billion sale to Eni in 2024. He brings extensive experience in transaction execution, value creation and growth strategy across the UK and international energy sector.

Chris Brass is a Senior Director and Head of the HSBC UK Leveraged Finance Propositions & Distribution team. He joined HSBC in 2003 and has 20 years’ experience of working within the UK Leveraged Finance Market, across a variety of roles including Origination, Sponsor Coverage and Distribution/Syndication. The HSBC UK Leveraged Finance team is focussed on providing Debt products on Financial Sponsor backed transactions. The team is the market leading bank in the UK Mid-Market and was voted Lender of the year for the fourth year in a row at the 2025 Merger Market British Private Equity Awards.

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.

Head of Leveraged Finance, EMEA – SMBC Group

As Head of Leveraged Finance, Dan is responsible for overseeing SMBC’s leveraged finance and private credit strategies across Europe. The business comprises over 100 investment professionals across four European offices, with $10bn AUM.

Prior to joining SMBC Group in 2015, Dan was a Managing Director in GE Capital’s European leveraged finance business and has 25 years of experience lending to private equity owned companies.

Dr. Michael Engel is a partner in White & Case’s global antitrust and FDI practice in London. 

Dual-qualified in England & Wales and Germany, he advises clients on the full spectrum of EU, UK, German and multi-jurisdictional competition and regulatory issues, including merger control, foreign direct investment screening and the EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation. He regularly represents clients before the European Commission, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and Germany’s Federal Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt). He has extensive experience in complex merger control remedy cases and Phase 2 investigations, as well as cartel and State aid matters. 

Prior to joining White & Case, Michael was a Partner at Kirkland & Ellis in London and previously worked at Sullivan & Cromwell. He is also a non-governmental advisor to the CMA. Michael studied at the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg and the London School of Economics and Political Science, and holds a Dr. iur. (doctorate in law) from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. 

Dwayne is Co-Head of EMEA Investment Banking with Alberto Piana. Prior to that that he was 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 in 1996 after graduating from University College Dublin with a joint honours degree in International Commerce and Spanish.

Dwayne started his career in the UK and Ireland M&A Team before becoming Staffing Officer for the London Advisory Group in late 2002. After 15 months as Staffer, he joined the EMEA Healthcare Team, focusing on pharma and medtech coverage.  On establishment of the J.P. Morgan Cazenove joint venture, Dwayne re-joined UK&I M&A running the business until 2019 when he took on his current role.

 Dwayne has worked on over $600bn of transactions across a variety of deal types, industries and geographies.

Gareth runs the Large Corporate Lending team at Barclays, a 70-person team responsible for originating, structuring and executing loan transactions for clients of Barclays’ UK Corporate Banking division. Working with Owner Managed business, as well as listed and Sponsor Backed companies, the LCL team provides debt capital for all purposes including general corporate needs, M&A, expansionary CapEx and LBOs.

Hamish Lazell is the Group Strategy Director at Octopus Energy, where he leads M&A and strategic initiatives across the Group. In the past couple of years he has led Octopus's acquisitions of Bulb off of the UK government and Shell's domestic energy supply business which collectively moved Octopus to become the largest household supplier in the UK, as well as led the expansion of the business into over a dozen new markets. Hamish began his career at Boston Consulting Group, advising clients in aviation, technology, finance, energy, and retail. He is passionate about driving sustainable, customer-focused innovation in the energy industry.

Heba has more than 25 years’ experience in financial journalism. She has edited and reported on transactions across Europe, covering areas such as public takeover offers, regulatory approvals, corporate carve-outs, and auction processes. Heba holds a BSc in Statistics from the London School of Economics.

Isabella is a Vice President at Hg and focuses on software investments in the Regulatory & Compliance space. She works across Hg funds and portfolio companies to cover the Nordics and the UK software space driving new investment activity and portfolio M&A.

She joined Hg as a founding member of the Origination team. Prior to Hg, she worked as an investor at Allstate and began her career in banking at J.P. Morgan. She is Swedish and has spent over a decade in London.

Jean is a UK small and mid-cap fund manager at Schroders since 2016. She is lead manager of investment trust Schroder UK Mid Cap plc. Jean joined the City on the Morgan Stanley graduate programme in 1999, earned the CFA designation and became an award-winning sell-side equity analyst. She has also worked for the UK Government, including HM Treasury. Jean is a mathematician by training and speaks fluent French. She was appointed to the Code Committee of the UK’s Takeover Panel in 2024.

Jeremy Chelot is an internet entrepreneur, computer scientist, and thought leader in the UK telecommunications industry. Holding MSc degrees in Computer Science and Telecommunications, Jeremy brings over two decades of experience across leading UK operators, including Vodafone, O2, BT, 3, and EE.  

In 2014, he became CEO of Community Fibre, where he successfully raised significant equity and steered the company through substantial network expansion. Five years later, he founded Netomnia and YouFibre, which today stands as the UK's second-largest alternative network provider. 

Most recently, Netomnia announced a landmark strategic partnership with Nexfibre, which, subject to regulatory approval, will combine scale, investment, and wholesale infrastructure to create the largest alternative fibre platform in the UK. 

As CEO, Jeremy continues to drive innovation and growth in UK FTTP infrastructure and services.

Laura joined Federated Hermes in November 2015 when the private credit platform was being established. Laura is the portfolio manager of the third vintage of Federated Hermes’ European Direct Lending franchise, as well as Junior Portfolio Manager of the second vintage. Laura is also responsible for managing the team of direct lending analysts. Laura sits on the Private Debt Investment Committee which considers investments across all direct lending strategies at Federated Hermes Limited. Laura joined from GE Capital, where she was an associate in its mid-market leveraged finance execution team. At GE, Laura focused on arranging financings for European private equity-backed acquisitions funded through senior, second lien, mezzanine and unitranche facilities. Prior to this, Laura worked for three years at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi in its acquisition finance team in London, focusing on opportunities in European large-cap leveraged finance transactions and on portfolio management. Her previous role was at Allied Irish Bank in Dublin in its Corporate Banking North America division, in which she analysed US large-cap and middle-market leveraged finance transactions, and performed portfolio management functions. She has an Economics degree from University College Dublin, is a CFA charterholder and holds the CFA Certificate in ESG Investing.

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.

Matthew is a senior advisor at Cinven, a senior advisor at Marlborough Partners and a board member, and formerly Chair, of UK Private Capital. Previously, he spent 18 years in senior leadership roles at Cinven, including as Head of Capital Markets and latterly COO. Before Cinven he was in leveraged finance at Merrill Lynch, following a period in investment banking at Schroders.

Nassim Cherchali is the Managing Partner at AnaCap, where he developed the firm’s next-generation platform focused on asset-light services, technology, and software within the financial ecosystem.

Under Nassim’s leadership, AnaCap has successfully executed 100+ acquisitions (platforms and add-ons) and raised over €1bn in capital in the past 5 years.

 Before joining AnaCap, Nassim was part of the Financial Institutions Group at Lehman Brothers in London, where he advised clients across insurance, banking, and consumer finance sectors. He graduated from ESCP Europe.

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.

Patrick Sarch is a partner in White & Case’s Global Mergers & Acquisitions practice and co-founder of the Firm’s Shareholder Activism practice. A leading corporate finance adviser, he has advised numerous major corporates on shareholder activism defence strategies, engagement campaigns and other high-profile governance matters, as well as acting for several leading activist investors.

Recognised as a heavyweight boardroom adviser on critical and transformative issues facing companies, Patrick is also widely regarded as an expert in corporate governance. He has been involved in a number of market-leading and innovative transactions and situations, earning a reputation for navigating complex and challenging circumstances to deliver smooth, commercially sound outcomes. His solutions are often uniquely structured, unlocking value for all stakeholders while balancing competing interests and strategic objectives.

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.

Rachel is Mergermarket’s co-Head of News, overseeing the publication's private markets coverage in Europe. 

Ritesh Tiwari is the Global Head of M&A, Treasury and Ventures at Unilever, where he leads the company’s global transaction agenda, capital allocation strategy, and investment portfolio. In this role, he is responsible for shaping Unilever’s business portfolio through acquisitions, disposals and partnerships, while ensuring disciplined deployment of capital to drive long-term value creation.

Prior to this, Ritesh served as Executive Director, Finance & IT and Chief Financial Officer of Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), one of India’s leading publicly listed companies with a market capitalisation of over £50 billion. During his tenure, he led significant portfolio transformation, including strategic transactions, structural simplification, and capital reallocation towards high-growth segments, while sustaining strong performance in a volatile environment.

Ritesh brings over 25 years of global experience across developed and emerging markets. Since joining Unilever as a management trainee in 1999, he has held leadership roles across finance, supply chain, procurement and performance management in India, the UK, Singapore and wider Asia.

He has led large-scale transformation programmes, delivered significant cost and cash outcomes, and played a key role in navigating periods of disruption through dynamic capital allocation while continuing to invest for growth.

He is known for combining strategic foresight with execution discipline and is guided by his purpose of reimagining possibilities and delivering value with values.

Beyond his corporate role, he serves as an Independent Director on the board of ONDC (Open Network for Digital Commerce), a not-for-profit company aimed at democratising digital commerce in India. 

Rohit Shiralkar is a Senior Managing Director at Arma Partners which he joined in 2014. He has over 15 years’ experience in technology investment banking, advising on over $50bn worth of global M&A transactions in the technology sector with a focus on Software. 

He previously worked for Capital Strategy Corporate Finance, a technology M&A advisory boutique in London, where he advised companies across Software and IT services. He began his career in investment banking with Lehman Brothers in London. He has also previously worked in engineering roles in the US and Asia.

Serge Toppjian is a Managing Director in Brookfield’s Private Equity Group. In this role, he is responsible for leading industrials coverage, deal sourcing and execution in Europe. Mr. Toppjian joined Brookfield in 2013, having worked in Toronto, Sao Paulo and London and on multiple investments in the Americas and Europe. He currently serves on the boards of IPL Schoeller and Unidas.

Previously, Mr. Toppjian worked as an investment professional at a global infrastructure asset manager and began his career as an analyst at a Brazilian investment advisory firm.  

Mr. Toppjian holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, having also attended the London School of Economics. He is a CFA charterholder.

Sinan is a Partner in the Strategy and Transaction Advisory team and Head of the UK at OMMAX in London. His focus is on advising PE funds and their portfolio companies on their transaction, digital growth strategy, and respective execution. 

Prior to OMMAX, Sinan gained 15+ years healthcare, consulting and tech experience working for St. Jude Medical, Boston Consulting Group, o9 Solutions, and Bain & Company, primarily focusing on commercial excellence and top-line growth.

Sinan’s focus is on developing innovative and efficient digitization strategies and concepts to create sustainable, repeatable value. Within BCG, he was Head of BCG’s investment software “Catalyst”, and within o9 Solutions, he was the Global Vice President heading the Revenue Growth Management division, looking after digital growth strategies for o9 and its enterprise clients.

Sinan holds a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Biomedical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from INSEAD.

 Stuart 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

Suzana Perić is a managing director and Co-Head of Oaktree’s Sourcing & Origination group, where she focuses on private credit sourcing and deal origination across Europe.  She joined Oaktree in 2023 from Bridgepoint Credit (formerly EQT Credit), where she was managing director and Head of Origination for the firm’s opportunities fund.  In that role, she established and led the fund’s pan-European origination platform.  Prior to that, Ms. Perić led Santander’s EMEA Loan Sales team, overseeing transactions across project finance, real estate, leveraged finance, corporate lending, and infrastructure.  Earlier in her career, she held roles at HSH Nordbank, Natixis, and Hamburg Hafencity.  Ms. Perić holds an M.A. degree in philology from the University of Hamburg and a degree from ESCP Europe Business School (London/Madrid).  She is a native speaker of German and Croatian and is business fluent in Spanish.

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.