Fund Shack

Corporate venture capital at Jaguar Land Rover, with Mike Smeed

Mike Smeed is managing director of InMotion Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of Jaguar Land Rover. In this episode of the Fund Shack podcast, he speaks to Ross Butler about what the company looks for in start-up candidates and the...

Renewables, infrastructure & regional growth equity: Bernard Fairman of Foresight Group

Foresight Group was a pioneer in renewable energy investment back in the 1990s. Today, it's a diversified investment group listed in London. Its founder and chairman, Bernard Fairman, talks about its expansion into global infrastructure, why he favours hydrogen over...

Central Europe private equity: a surprisingly big opportunity. With Robert Knorr

Mid Europa Partners pioneered private equity buyout investing in Central Europe, launching in 1999. Robert Knorr has been managing partner since 2007. He was recently awarded Private Equity Mid Market Leader of the Year at the Real Deals private equity...

Private equity secondaries uncovered: Etienne Deshormes

Deal prospects: a global lawyer's perspective, with Chris Field of Dechert

With a deal drought across the global private equity industry, we talk to Chris Field of global law firm Dechert about what's next for M&A and buyout deal flow for 2024. We discuss valuations and defensive deal structures as vendors...

African private equity: a conversation with Stephane Bacquaert

Private equity is a great way of investing in uncertain, high growth environments. Strange then, that the African private equity industry is so small. In fact, Stephane Bacquaert, managing partner of Adenia Capital, argues that the mature Western private capital...

Henry Freeman: repackaging private equity

Private equity fund managers are racing to find structures that will allow small private investors to invest with them. Meanwhile governments are introducing ELTIF and LTAF structures to encourage "democratization". Henry Freeman has been working at the nexus of public...

Daniel Zwirn, Arena Investors: Avoiding moral hazard in private markets

Daniel Zwirn is CEO of Arena Investors LP. In this episode of the Fund Shack private equity podcast, he talks to Ross Butler about the opportunities in private markets, and how to prosecute them in a way that truly aligns...

Hans Lovrek on private equity's ancient precedent

Hans Lovrek stumbled on Medieval Florentine documents that showed structures were being used to align interests in ventures with high information asymmetry that were uncannily similar to today’s limited partnerships. Through a method of historical institutionalism, Hans demonstrates how the...

Hans Lovrek on private equity’s ancient precedent

Hans Lovrek stumbled on Medieval Florentine documents that showed structures were being used to align interests in ventures with high information asymmetry that were uncannily similar to today’s limited partnerships. Through a method of historical institutionalism, Hans demonstrates how the...

Yaron Valler, Target Global - AI, VR, venture capital and separating hot air from substance

Yaron Valler is a founder of venture capital firm Target Global. He is a successful entrepreneur and investor, and was part of the team at Intel that invented the Pentium Processor. In this episode of the Fund Shack podcast, he...

Yaron Valler, Target Global – AI, VR, venture capital and separating hot air from substance

Yaron Valler is a founder of venture capital firm Target Global. He is a successful entrepreneur and investor, and was part of the team at Intel that invented the Pentium Processor. In this episode of the Fund Shack podcast, he...

Sanjay Panchal, Livingbridge

Sanjay Panchal is a partner at Livingbridge, a leading international growth capital investor, where he specialises in healthcare. In this episode he speaks to Ross Butler about the opportunities for private equity investors across the healthcare sector. [00:00:00] Ross Butler:...

Marcus Maier-Krug, Arcmont Asset Management

Marcus Maier-Krug is partner and co-head of portfolio management at Arcmont. He has been working in private credit since before the global financial crisis. In this episode, recorded in November 2023, we discuss what constitutes alpha in private credit, what...

Alejandro Alcalde Rasch, Advent International

Alejandro Alcalde Rasch is a senior director in Advent International‘s portfolio support group. He joined Advent in 2010 having been chief transformation officer and head of supply at Gröhe AG and a partner in McKinsey’s chemicals practice. In this Fund...

Josh Lerner, Harvard Business School

Harvard professor Josh Lerner explains the risks and requirements of public intervention in establishing a thriving venture capital and entrepreneurial ecosystem. Professor Lerner tells Ross Butler that seeding a venture capital industry is a difficult and slow process – it’s...

Andros Payne, Humatica

Andros Payne talks to Ross Butler about the holy grail of private equity value creation: a systematic, quantitative approach to cultural and behavioural change. What makes businesses work well? Andros Payne is an engineer and entrepreneur who has spent two...

Reynir Indahl, Summa Equity

Private equity podcast with Ross Butler and Reynir Indahl of Summa Equity on Impact investment.

Warren Hibbert, Asante Capital Group

Warren Hibbert of Asante Capital Group explains the log-jam in the private capital fundraising market on the Fund Shack podcast

Douglas Hansen-Luke, Future Planet Capital

Douglas Hansen-Luke speaks to Ross Butler on the Fund Shack podcast. Topics: impact investing, university spin-outs, pension fund reforms.

Jonathan Blake, Herbert Smith Freehills

Jonathan Blake is head of international funds strategy at Herbert Smith Freehills. In the 1980s, Jonathan was responsible for devising the very first limited partnerships for venture capital and private equity in the UK and Europe, and was responsible for...

Trevor Hope, Gresham House

Trevor Hope is Chief Investment Officer of Gresham House Ventures, the growth capital arm of one of the UK’s oldest companies. In recent years, the firm has been growing rapidly, consolidating the market for Venture Capital Trusts, tax-break vehicles for...

Macfarlanes: politics, funds & private markets

The so-called perma-crisis of political and economic volatility witnessed in the UK, and beyond, has made the business of raising and investing long-term funds is even more uncertain than usual. To help private markets practitioners navigate these choppy waters, we...

Laura Dillon, Waterland Private Equity

Laura Dillon leads Waterland Private Equity‘s Dublin office, which she established in 2020. Laura has had a varied career both in private equity and business. She has worked at several private equity firms, including Apax Partners and Riverside, and set...

Paul Newsome, Unigestion

Paul Newsome is head of portfolio management at Unigestion, a Switzerland-based asset manager with a global private markets platform. Paul has been at the firm for two decades, during which he has set up its private markets operation in North...

David Larsen, Kroll

David Larsen has been at the forefront of alternative assets valuation policy for several decades. He is managing director at Kroll, which was acquired by Duff & Phelps in 2018, and advises many of the largest alternatives institutions on private...

Michael Lindauer, Allianz Capital Partners

Michael Lindauer is co-CIO of Allianz Capital Partners. He joined the institution in 2003 and has been an influential decision-maker with regards to backing private equity managers, and a respected and informed LP. He is based in Europe and has...

Jim Strang, private markets - the inside track

Jim Strang is chairman of HgCapital Trust, a senior adviser to CVC Capital Partners, independent director at the Business Growth Fund, a senior adviser at Bain & Company, an advisory director at Campbell Lutyens, a Fellow at the London Business...

Jim Strang, private markets – the inside track

Jim Strang is chairman of HgCapital Trust, a senior adviser to CVC Capital Partners, independent director at the Business Growth Fund, a senior adviser at Bain & Company, an advisory director at Campbell Lutyens, a Fellow at the London Business...

David Ewing, ECI Partners

David Ewing is a managing partner at ECI Partners and one of the UK mid-markets best known investors. He speaks to Fund Shack's Ross Butler.

Mirja Lehmler-Brown, Hayfin

Subscribe now: Apple Podcasts | Spotify Mirja Lehmler-Brown is the founding managing director of Hayfin Capital Management‘s Private Equity Solutions investment team. She previously worked with Hayfin founder Tim Flynn (listen to his Fund Shack podcast here) at Goldman Sachs, before moving into...

#30 Tariq Fancy, a sceptical sustainable investor

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify In 2019, Tariq Fancy quit as BlackRock’s most senior sustainability investor.  In 2021, he released an in-depth three-part essay explaining his disillusionment with the concept of stakeholder capitalism and the ESG investment industry that has grown up alongside...

#29 Luke Johnson, entrepreneur, investor, philanthropist

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify  In his 20s, Luke Johnson led the acquisition of Pizza Express and as chairman, helped it become the UK’s leading pizza brand. He has since established and helped develop household names, Strada, Giraffe, the Ivy, Zoggs...

#28 Fabian Chrobog, North Wall Capital on European special situations

Fabian Chrobog is founder of North Wall Capital, a Western European special situations investor

Alistair Lester, CEO of Aon M&A on protecting and enhancing returns

Alistair Lester is CEO of Aon’s M&A and transactions services business in EMEA. This is not the conversation you think. Aon has spent recent years building out its capabilities across the risk spectrum.   Transcript Ross Butler: Alistair, you are...

Dan Aylott, Cambridge Associates

Dan Aylott is Head of European Private Investments at Cambridge Associates. This is a Fund Shack ‘private chat’ about the large opportunity set in the European private equity market, from buyouts through to venture capital, with a focus on growth...

Cyril Demaria on Asset allocation and private markets

Cyril Demaria is a leading private equity thinker, fund investor, and affiliate professor at EDHEC. He is the author of numerous books on alternative investment, most recently co-authoring Asset Allocation and Private Markets (March 2021). This is a Fund Shack...

#24 Bob Long, Conversus, on making private equity accessible

Today I’m speaking with Bob Long CEO of Conversus. Bob originally listed Conversus Capital in Europe in 2007, and it was the largest listed private equity vehicle of its day. He recently relaunched the Conversus brand within the private markets,...

#23 Simon Witney on sustainability rules and corporate governance

Simon Witney on sustainability and corporate governance. In this episode, I’m speaking with Simon Witney, who’s probably the best known private equity lawyer in Europe. He’s currently a senior consultant at Travis Smith where he spends much of his time advising clients on...

#22 Carl Bradshaw, Goodwin

Carl Bradshaw is a partner in the law firm Goodwin’s private equity group. He has advised European, American and Asian private equity sponsors on cross border LBOs, public to privates, co-investments and special situations. We talked in late March 2021...

#21 Patrick Sheehan on sustainable prosperity and venture capital

Patrick Sheehan of ETF Partners talks to Fund Shack's Ross Butler about creating sustainable prosperity with venture capital.

#20 Private equity demystified

Demystifying private equity on Fund Shack, with Oxford Said's John Gilligan and the ICAEW Corporate Finance Faculty's David Petrie

#19 Hendrik Brandis, Earlybird Venture Capital

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify  Hendrik Brandis is co-founder and partner at Earlybird Venture Capital

#18 Vania Schlogel, Atwater Capital

Vania Schlogel of Atwater Capital talks to Fund Shack's Ross Butler about bridging the world's of big buyouts and creative industries

#17 The Milton Friedman New York Times CSR Debate

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify  World leading thinkers join Fund Shack’s 50th anniversary debate on Milton Friedman’s article The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase Profits.   Ross Butler: It’s half a century since Nobel prize winning economist, Milton Friedman wrote an...

#16 Avi Turetsky

Avi Turetsky leads Landmark Partners’ Quantitative Research team, which just co-authored a new way to measure private equity performance, called the Excess Value Method. In this Fund Shack private equity podcast, Avi Turetsky, who leads Landmark Partners’ Quantitative Research team,...

Wol Kolade, Livingbridge

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify  Wol Kolade is the managing partner of Livingbridge, a mid-market private equity firm with offices in the UK, Melbourne and Boston.

#14 Mark Tluszcz

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify  Mark Tluszcz is co-founder and CEO of Mangrove Capital Partners. He was the first investor in Skype and currently chairman of Wix.

#13 Cyril Demaria

In this Fund Shack private equity podcast, we explore the intersection of private equity and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles. Cyril Demaria  shares his insights on how these two worlds can work together more effectively. Today, ESG considerations are...

#12 Mark Pinner, Interel

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify  Mark Pinner is a world-leading China expert. We discuss risk scenarios for corporate boards in the wake of Covid-19.