On The Line

Tom Coton's career hasn't followed a straight line. From PPE at Durham to audit, into fund administration at Langham Hall, and then a swerve into a chief of staff role at Terra Firma Capital Partners, before joining Climate Asset Management as its first fund operator on day one and building its finance function from scratch over the following five years. (Tom left CAM earlier this year.) 

In this conversation, Alice and Tom talk through the realities of being part of a nascent finance team with no precedent to copy. They also explore how to build culture in a remote-first team, why networking only pays off if you do it before you need it, and why Tom thinks the "traditional finance career" is largely a myth now. 

Tom is also a member of The Line Up, our next-generation steering committee, so this one is especially valuable for anyone earlier in their career wondering whether the unconventional move is worth it. 

Executive coach Cressida Hamilton returns to On The Line to unpick the most common communication failures operational leaders face, despite being subject matter experts.  

An executive coach who spent 26 years in financial services operations before moving into coaching, Cressida has spent the years since working with senior professionals on confidence and personal branding. In this episode, Cressida discusses why complexity, multiple stakeholders and a lack of structure get in the way of clear communication, and what to actually do about it. 

In this episode: 

• The three reasons why operational professionals struggle to land their message  
• The "what, so what, now what" structure for any high-stakes conversation 
• Why the power of three works, and how to use it under pressure 
• How to adapt one message for different stakeholders, without losing it in translation 
• The role tone, pitch and pace play in how a message lands, and what the research says 
• Why most people run out of time in meetings because they've prepared too much content, not too little 

With Raj Shah, CFO & Operating Partner, Claret Capital Partners 

What does it actually take to scale a private markets firm, and what does that experience teach you about building the next one? 

Raj Shah joined 17Capital when it was a ten-person team managing an £88m debut fund. By the time he left, the firm was managing more than £20bn and had established NAV finance as a mainstream asset class. Earlier this year, Raj joined Claret Capital Partners as CFO and Operating Partner, deliberately choosing to start that journey again. 

In this conversation, Alice and Raj dig into what that scaling experience really looks like from the inside: the culture and communication decisions that made it possible, the point at which technology stops being optional, and why Raj thinks the question facing almost every CFO right now isn't which system to buy, it's whether to buy one at all. 

They also get into the data foundations that underpin serious growth, the build-versus-buy tension that AI has made genuinely complicated, and why Raj has taken on something unusual for a CFO at Claret: going out and pitching to investors directly. 

In this episode: 

• The career path from internet engineering to private markets, and why falling into finance turned out to be the right call 
• What the 17Capital scaling journey looked like from inside the finance function, fund by fund 
• Why culture and communication are the real infrastructure of a growing firm, before any tech conversation starts 
• The tech landscape in private markets: from almost no choice a decade ago to almost too much, and how to navigate it 
• The build-versus-buy question that AI has made genuinely hard to answer 
• Data as the foundation: why the single source of truth is the first building block, not a nice-to-have 
• LP reporting and the speed problem and whether private markets can realistically close the gap with public markets 
• Why Raj thinks AI's biggest value isn't efficiency, it's the time it gives you to actually think 
• The CFO's expanding role: from back-office anchor to front-office presence 
• Coaching, peer groups and the softer skills that don't get talked about enough. 

CFO frustration with fund administrators has been building for a while, but is it really about the tech? Alice sits down with Justin Partington (IQ-EQ) and Matthew Devine-Hill (Belasko) to unpack legacy systems, co-sourcing traps, where Claude and Copilot are actually being used today, and why smaller managers might be ahead of the big institutions on tokenisation.

• Why CFO frustration with tech is rarely really about the technology itself 
• The trap of co-sourcing and bespoke, sub-scale system builds 
• How IQ-EQ and Belasko are each building out their data infrastructure, from Investran, Yardi, Allvue and Paxus through to Snowflake, Kyriba and OneStream 
• Where Claude and Copilot are already being used in fund admin, and where they're not 
• The regulatory reality of rolling out AI across multiple jurisdictions 
• Why smaller, newer managers might be further ahead on tokenisation and digital assets than the big institutional names 
• The generational shift reshaping expectations of what "good tech" looks like 
• What it would genuinely take for a CFO to bring fund administration in-house 
• Whether GPs will ever be brave enough to give LPs direct access to their own data 

Ten years after spinning out of Index Ventures, Medicxi's CFO looks back at one of Europe's earliest VC continuation vehicles, and why he runs LP relationships himself. 

Giovanni Pericolini joined Alice on On The Line to mark ten years since Medicxi spun out of Index Ventures as its dedicated life sciences arm. Pericolini talks through the early days of building a finance function from scratch, the 2020 continuation vehicle that enabled Medicxi to hold onto six portfolio assets through the depths of the pandemic (arguably one of the earliest CVs done in a European venture context), and providing a much-needed perspective on how the deal has played out (pretty well, given one of the assets, Centessa Pharmaceuticals, is now the subject of a $7.8bn agreed acquisition by Eli Lilly). Pericolini also discusses his role in Medicxi's recent €500m Fund V close, why he leads investor relations personally, and his take on the industry-wide re-up rate crunch. The conversation closes on team leadership, AI adoption in the finance function, and his advice to next-gen finance professionals stepping into a CFO seat for the first time. 

Highlights 

• Pericolini’s path into private capital: from product control at an investment bank to Index Ventures to ICG, and how those years shaped his approach at Medicxi 
• Building Medicxi's finance function from zero at spin-out: prioritisation, regulatory set-up in Jersey, and lessons for anyone taking a first finance hire role at an emerging manager 
• Why fund structures look similar across strategies, and what that means for operators moving between VC, growth and PE 
• The 2020 continuation vehicle: a €200m CV to acquire six portfolio companies from an Index fund, done at the height of the pandemic 
• Why biotech CVs carry a different risk profile to PE ones, and how Medicxi managed downside protection with LPs 
• Six years on: how the CV has played out, including Centessa Pharmaceuticals' agreed $7.8bn acquisition by Eli Lilly 
• What Pericolini would want standardised in the CV process next time round, including valuation and ILPA guidance 
• Fund V: closing on €500m in three months, lessons carried over from the tougher Fund IV raise, and why not every LP re-ups 
• Why Pericolini runs LP relationships and fundraising personally  
• Leadership style: empowering a small, senior finance team and giving people ownership of their area 
• Where AI and automation fit into Medicxi's finance function today 
• Pericolini’s advice to next-gen CFOs: imposter syndrome, saying yes to opportunities, and what he wishes he'd known at 32 

What does it actually take to transform a private markets firm? In this episode, Alice sits down with Sahem Gulati, a senior transformation leader who has spent 13 years working across audit, consulting, asset management and private equity; helping firms navigate some of the most significant operational shifts the industry has seen. 

They cover the long arc of technology adoption in private markets, from the early eFront-vs-Investran debates to today's AI-native ambitions, and why Sahem thinks most firms are still asking the wrong question about artificial intelligence. He also makes the case for why the industry needs to look outside itself for talent, why transformation should always be measured in outcomes rather than projects, and why the people most likely to unlock real change might be the ones who haven't grown up doing things the "right" way. 

Sahem also shares his work with EPOCH (Empowering People of Colour) and the Harmony Project, and what becoming a parent has taught him about the kind of industry he wants to help build. 

Topics covered: 

• From audit to consulting: finding private markets and never looking back 
• Why the explosion of tech options has created an integration headache - and why that's now the industry's #1 operational priority 
• The single biggest thing that separates firms that get transformation right 
• AI as an operating model question, not a technology question 
• Why specialism is the enemy of creativity, and why that matters more than ever 
• From 20 projects to 5 outcomes: what good transformation governance actually looks like 
• Is private markets too insular? Sahem makes the case for bringing in outside talent 
• Building the Next Gen pipeline: the EPOCH network, the Harmony Project, and equal access to information 
• His advice to anyone starting out: network early, don't make it transactional, and make sure you're having fun 

What does it actually look like to build a finance function from the ground up, at an AI-native GP?  

In this episode, Alice sits down with Millie Silver, CFO of Clipway, the data-driven secondaries firm that has made waves since its launch in 2023. Millie talks through her path from auditor to CFO, via Coller Capital, and the moment a wedding seating plan changed the course of her career. 

She opens up about what it really means to run finance at a firm where there are ‘no Excel heroes’, how she thinks about developing junior talent in an environment where the grunt work has been largely automated, and why scaling without just throwing people at the problem is her defining challenge right now. 

Millie also reflects on the lessons that have shaped her as a leader: the importance of EQ alongside technical skill, learning to let go of perfectionism, and why things going wrong is often where the best learning happens. 

Key topics 

• From auditor to CFO: Millie's route Chemistry graduate to Coller Capital, and into the world of emerging managers 
• What it means to be an AI-native firm in practice, and why Clipway's finance team is still heavy on Excel 
• Building a finance function from scratch, with no systems, no processes, and no playbook 
• The junior talent debate: does automating the grunt work rob analysts of the judgment they need to develop? 
• Scaling without headcount: how Millie thinks about growing the team and the technology together 
• The CFO as the steady ship: why no news really is good news, and how to make sure the team knows it 
• Internal relationships and influence: how to be in the room before the decision is made, not after 
• LP scrutiny and the rise of operational due diligence: what Millie is seeing on the ground 
• Managing up, managing out: tailoring your communication style to the big chunkers and the small chunkers 
• Advice to her younger self: stress less, embrace resilience, and remember that things going wrong is where the real learning happens. 

For those who don’t believe a humanities degree can lead to a graduate scheme at EY, think again. Imogen Sanders completed her classics degree and did just that – and it turns out the skills aren't as different as you'd think. In this episode, Alice sits down with Zetland Capital's VP Finance and Senior Fund Controller to talk honestly about the journey: the decisions that shaped her career, the mistakes she doesn't regret making, and why she loves the variety and comradery or working in a smaller firm. 

Imogen is a founding member of our next gen The Line Up, and this conversation has that spirit running through it. It's all about what it actually feels like to be mid-journey: navigating your role, your network, your identity at work, and an industry that's changing faster than anyone predicted.  

Key discussion points:

• From classics to accounting: why Imogen chose a degree she loved over one that made obvious career sense, and how EY actively welcomed it 
• Starting out at a Big Four firm: the underrated value of a peer group when you're new to the working world and sitting professional exams 
• Cutting her teeth at Coller Capital: what a large, best-in-class institution gives you, and when it's time to want more 
• Joining Zetland Capital: why she chose a smaller, faster-moving firm and what that's meant for the breadth of her experience 
• The evolving finance function: how the role has shifted from predominantly backward-looking reporting to something far more strategic and forward-facing 
• LP demands in an uncertain market: why investor requests are at an all-time high, and what that means for the finance team's role 
• AI in practice: how Zetland uses Claude, what it's genuinely saved in time and effort, and why the implementation behind it matters as much as the tool itself 
• On the word "culture": Imogen's original opinion, and why she thinks culture is something you create rather than inherit 
• Smaller vs. larger firms: the honest trade-offs, and why the right answer depends entirely on your personality 
• Networks and peer groups: why the people you qualify alongside matter more than you'd expect, years down the line 
• Never stop learning: how Imogen thinks about career progression in an industry that's changing faster than ever 

In this episode of On The Line, Alice Murray speaks with Meera Savjani, Fund CFO at Arrow Global, about what it really means to lead a modern finance function. 

Yes, they discuss governance, controls, technology and scaling a multi-strategy platform. But for Meera, clean audits and timely reporting are simply table stakes. What differentiates a finance function today is not just technical excellence, but the ability to build capability, create trust and develop commercial thinkers inside the team. 

From managing a 28-person function to institutionalising a fast-growing platform, Meera shares how she balances rigour with humanity, governance with growth, and strategy with authenticity. 

In this episode, they discuss: 

• What the Fund CFO role looks like inside a growing, vertically integrated asset manager 
• Why “clean audit delivered timely” is simply the starting point 
• How finance becomes a true operating partner to the business 
• Scaling processes without defaulting to headcount 
• Making technology decisions with a five-year lens 
• The transition from individual contributor to people leader 
• How executive coaching reshaped Meera’s approach to management 
• The importance of clarity, accountability and thoughtful delegation 
• Why honest, grown-up conversations matter more than ever in a hybrid world 
• “The grass is never greener, it’s just a different shade of green” and what that means for career development 
• Why patience and commercial acumen matter more than rushing titles 

In this episode, Alice is joined by Tom Seymour Mead, CFO at SIGNAL, for a practical conversation on what it takes to run a high-performing finance function in private markets. Tom shares how his experience across institutional and leaner environments has shaped his view of “what good looks like”, why communication is the foundation of trust and influence, and how calmness under pressure becomes a real professional advantage.

They dig into decision-making with imperfect data, what actually creates pressure in a CFO role (and what does not), and how to build teams and operating models that scale as a firm grows.

Episode highlights

• Why “institutional grade” controls matter, and how to pursue that standard without losing speed and pragmatism.
• What makes a strong CFO beyond technical excellence: being a trusted adviser with a rounded commercial view.
• How decision-making changes with experience and why faster does not mean careless.
• The reality of imperfect data: how to make calls at 75% today vs 90% tomorrow, and why transparency matters.
• Where pressure really sits for CFOs: live, P&L-impacting decisions (cash, FX, transactions), not backwards-looking accounting.
• A simple routine for staying grounded during intense periods: carving out 15 minutes to triage what is non-negotiable, what can be delegated, and what can wait.
• Building trust and influence through over-communication, showing your workings, and bringing people into the “why”.
• How to develop a finance team in both growth phases (scalability, efficiencies) and slower phases (broader exposure, role rotation).
• Tom’s longest leadership lesson: remaining calm under pressure, and focusing on solutions first, debriefing the “why” later.
• Advice for next-gen leaders: step away from the detail to create capacity for higher-level work, and invest early in a strong network.