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Paul Johnson CBE, Director Institute for Fiscal Studies

Paul has been director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the UK’s leading economic research institute, since January 2011. The IFS became the first organisation to win the Prospect ‘Think Tank of the Year’ award two years in a row in 2014 and 2015 and has won “economic and financial” think tank of the year four years in succession. The IFS hosts two major research centres and combines its leading role in public policy with world leading academic economic research.

Paul is also a visiting Professor in the Economics Department at UCL and a columnist for The Times. He is a board member of the Climate Change Committee, of the Office of Tax Simplification, and of the Banking Standards Board and is currently a trustee of the Kings Fund. He has led reviews of pension policy for government and of price statistics for the UK Statistics Authority.

Paul has spent his whole working life focussing on the economics of public policy. After graduating from Oxford he went on to work at the IFS before spells at the FSA, as chief economist at the Department for Education and as director of public spending at HM Treasury, where he also served as deputy head of the government economic service. He has also spent time working on public policy at Frontier Economics.

He is a frequent contributor to written and broadcast media and has made a number of radio programmes. He has published extensively on the economics of public policy including tax, welfare, housing, pensions, education, climate change and public finances. He is author of major books on pensions, tax and inequality.

In 2018 Paul was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s birthday honours list for services to the social sciences and economics.

Giles Reaney Managing Director Advent International

Giles Reaney joined Advent in 2014. Working closely with the sector teams, he is responsible for leading new acquisition financings and capital markets activities for Advent’s portfolio companies, as well as managing and helping to grow the firm’s relationships with investment banks. Prior to joining Advent, Giles spent 10 years working in leverage finance, most recently at Goldman Sachs in London, and also previously worked for RBS on their leverage finance team. During this time, he worked on a large number of loan and high yield bond transactions for both sponsor and corporate clients.

Giles has worked on Advent's investments in Ammeraal Beltech and Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals Limited.

Alfa Chan Partner Silverfleet Capital

Alfa joined Silverfleet Capital in 2002, and is responsible for the firm’s investment activities in the healthcare sector. Alfa is currently a Non-executive Director of CARE Fertility and was previously involved in several successful healthcare investments, including Phadia and Sterigenics.

Alfa was also previously responsible for the origination of new investment opportunities in the Nordic region, and was involved with the firm’s investments in Phase One and Cimbria.

Before joining Silverfleet, Alfa was an analyst at CSFB Private Equity and prior to that, DLJ/CSFB's leveraged finance team in London.

Alfa graduated with a BSc in Mathematics and Economics from the University of Warwick, before completing a Masters in Finance at Cambridge University.

Abhik Das Head of Private Debt Golding Capital Partners

Managing Director and Head of Private Debt; joined Golding Capital Partners in 2018. He is responsible for the selection, execution and monitoring of private debt fund investments and co-investments, as well as the portfolio management thereafter.

Prior to joining Golding Capital Partners, Mr Das spent five and a half years at BlueBay Asset Management in London, where he was responsible for primary financings for medium-sized businesses across Europe. As a Partner within BlueBay’s Private Debt Group, he was most recently focused on new investments in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Mr Das previously spent nearly three years at Macquarie in the Principal Finance division, where he was responsible for a wide range of investments across the capital structure of European businesses. Prior to that, he worked in the Leveraged Finance team at Lehman Brothers and Nomura in London. He started his career at Credit Suisse in Zurich in various areas of the Swiss investment banking franchise.

Mr Das graduated from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland with an M.A. in Law and Economics. He also holds a dual CEMS Master in International Management degree (CEMS MIM) from both ESADE Barcelona and the University of St. Gallen.

Joelle Jefferis Senior Reporter Debtwire

Joelle Jefferis is a Senior reporter at Debtwire Europe covering leveraged buyouts and refinancing in the mid-market space in the UK and Benelux regions as well as large cap syndication processes. Previously Joelle focused on international taxation and transfer pricing. Joelle has a BA in Social Anthropology with International Study from the University of Manchester.

Francesco Di Trapani Senior Advisor- Italy Pemberton Capital Advisors

Francesco has over 20 years’ experience in corporate and credit markets.

Francesco joined Pemberton as Senior Advisor, Italy in 2015 and assists the group with origination in Italy.

As Managing Director, Head of Corporates, Italy at RBS between 2002 and 2010, Francesco was responsible for building RBS’ corporate franchise in Italy from scratch to a top 5 ranking in loan syndications and debt capital markets. Francesco started his career at JPMorgan Chase where he spent five years in the Milan, London and New York offices in various coverage and product roles within the Investment Banking Department.

Francesco currently runs a corporate finance advisory firm and has acted as independent advisor to several issuers on debt transactions, including the first Italian EIB credit enhanced project bond for the financing of Passante di Mestre.

Francesco graduated with honours in Economics and Business Administration from Sapienza - Università di Roma and attended LSE, Insead and HBS post graduate programmes. He also served as Air Force officer before starting his career in banking.

Carmen Alonso Head of Iberia Tikehau Investment Management

Carmen Alonso joined Tikehau Capital in 2015. She is the Head of Iberia responsible for Tikehau’s business in Spain and Portugal. Previously, Carmen was Vice-President of Corporate Finance at GSK where she gained an exposure to financing as an issuer. Prior to joining GSK, she held the position of Managing Director at Morgan Stanley (European Leverage Finance). Carmen started her career in 1996 in Leverage Finance departments of UBS, Merrill Lynch and then HVB. She has originated and led the execution of numerous transactions across Europe in bank debt,mezzanine and high yield.

Education: Boston University, School of Management; Babson College, Franklin W. Olin Graduate School of Business.

Ben Davis Partner Proskauer

Ben Davis is a partner in the Corporate Department and a member of The Private Credit and Finance Groups.

Ben’s practice focuses on advising on acquisition and leveraged finance facilities, corporate facilities and debt restructurings in the middle market and upper market. He represents a variety of clients including alternative lenders, private equity sponsors and corporates on unitranche loans, second-lien financings, first out / last out structures, mezzanine facilities, investment grade facilities, high yield bonds, real estate financings, litigation funding and distressed situations among other innovative, first-in-kind transactions involving private sources of capital.

Tristan Nagler Managing Director Aurelius Invest

Tristan Nagler joined Aurelius in January 2014 as Managing Director of the firm’s London office and is responsible for sourcing, identifying and executing equity investments across the UK and Ireland.

Tristan started his career with KPMG where he held a variety of roles including the position of Director in the London-based M&A team. In 2010 he joined Investec as a senior banker in the firm’s Growth & Acquisition Finance department, originating and executing a number of UK mid-market debt facilities including company refinances, MBOs and acquisition finance transactions.

Tristan is a Chartered Accountant and holds an MBA in Business Administration from École des Ponts Business School as well as a BA in History from the University of Leeds.

Ciara O'Neill Managing Director DC Advisory

Ciara  O’Neill joined DC Advisory in October 2011 as a Managing Director in the  European Debt Advisory Group.

Ciara has  sixteen years’ experience in the leveraged finance market and has arranged  financing for a number of high profile clients including Biffa, EMAP, TDC and  Formula 1 during her career.  She joined DC from Mizuho Bank where she was  Head of Capital Markets in Europe for the leveraged finance division.  Previously Ciara worked in the leveraged capital markets team at RBS for 9  years and in the acquisition finance team at Lloyds for 4 years. 

Ciara  holds a degree in Civil Law from University College Dublin and a BSc in  Financial Services from UMIST.

Alex Griffith Partner Proskauer

Alex Griffith is a partner in the Corporate Department and a member of The Private Credit and Finance Groups.

Alex’s practice focuses onleveraged finance and general debt finance work, advising senior, mezzanine,second lien, unitranche and other private capital providers.

His extensive experiencecovers a wide range of transactions, including corporate refinancings,management buyouts and buy-ins, recapitalizations, institutional acquisitions,restructurings, public-to-private takeovers (both domestic and international),and other innovative, first-in-kind transactions involving private sources ofcapital.

In addition, Alex advises financial sponsors, corporates and management teams on the raising of debt finance in the European Markets.

Ian Tetsill Managing Director, Structured Finance Barclays Corporate

Ian joined Barclays in 2000, after undertaking a variety of roles with NatWest. During his time at Barclays, Ian has specialised in Corporate Finance in the mid market and has run various debt origination teams both regionally and nationally.

Ian now co-leads the Structured Finance business which is responsible for debt origination and business development across UK mid-market financial sponsors and project finance. He is also responsible for developing our structured lending business supporting growing mid corporate clients.

Ian is married with 2 daughters, is a keen sportsman and enjoys the close association between success in business and sport.

Howard Sharp Partner Park Square Capital

Howard Sharp is a partner at Park Square Capital, a leading independent provider of debt financing to private equity-backed acquisitions.  He oversees the firm’s mid-market direct lending strategy, supervising a team which has extensive relationships with private equity sponsors and their advisers.  He also spends a lot of timing fundraising from pension funds, family offices and sovereign wealth funds. 

Prior to joining Park Square, Howard was head of origination and sponsor coverage at GE Capital’s European acquisition finance business and won awards in 2014 and 2015 as Debt Provider of the Year, pioneering the use of unitranche financing in European buyouts and overseeing new business for the firm’s $4 billion book of assets. 

Before his five years at GE, Howard spent eight years at RBS, his final role being deputy head of leveraged capital markets in the number one loan franchise in Europe.  During his time at RBS, he underwrote and oversaw the distribution of some of the largest leveraged buyouts in Europe. 

Prior to RBS, Howard held senior debt underwriting positions at Société Générale, working in both Paris and London. 

Joelle Jefferis Senior Reporter Debtwire

Joelle Jefferis is a Senior reporter at Debtwire Europe covering leveraged buyouts and refinancing in the mid-market space in the UK and Benelux regions as well as large cap syndication processes. Previously Joelle focused on international taxation and transfer pricing. Joelle has a BA in Social Anthropology with International Study from the University of Manchester.