How We Work

Our Role & Aim

We help our clients plan and implement corporate development and exit strategies. We serve as a sounding board for corporate acquisition, divestiture and financing issues. We provide our clients with expert valuations and evaluations of strategic opportunities. We leverage our clients time by qualifying acquisition, sale and financing opportunities - allowing our clients to remain focused on important business management issues. We extend their reach into the financial industry, expand their relationships with potential acquirers and financing sources and help them obtain the best valuation and transaction structure available.

Ultimately, we help our clients maximise the potential for corporate development and the potential for maximising shareholder value through mergers, acquisitions, sale and financing transactions.

Select Projects

We work only on a limited number of transactions a year. The projects we focus on are typically complex and require significant senior advisor involvement. Such aspects include companies undergoing operational and strategic change, companies with multiple stakeholders and/or owners and situations which involve complex financial and financing issues.

Partner to client

Due to the nature of our projects we work very closely with our clients throughout the transaction process. We become intimately familiar with all major aspects of our client's business, assessing current competitive positioning and potential for future development.

We listen, we exchange ideas - and then we help our clients achieve their acquisition, divestment or financing objectives.

We work with company owners, CEOs, CFOs, treasury staffs, and corporate development teams.

Project management

We manage and coordinate the entire transaction process - from engagement through to closing.

We endeavour to structure a transaction process that will generate competitive interest and manage other transaction advisors in respect of due diligence and documentation.

We pursue rapid progress to secure a momentum in the transaction to ensure that each assignment is completed on schedule and to our client's satisfaction.

Senior & Dedicated

Our Partners are all senior advisors who are actively involved throughout the project - from initiation to completion, ensuring that our clients benefit from our experience and expertise at every stage. We are committed to delivering execution of the highest quality and aim to always be available and responsive.

Team of Advisors

Alex Daniels

Alex Daniels' experience includes Harmon & Co, an M&A advisor and private equity investor in middle market companies. CIBC Oppenheimer where he worked on M&A transactions, strategic advisory assignments, equity and debt offerings and private placements. Prior to CIBC, Alex worked at PriceWaterhouseCoopers in its strategy consulting practice covering the Entertainment, Media, and Communications sectors. Alex started his finance career with Chase Manhattan Bank in New York.

Alex received his MBA from Harvard Business School.

Dennis B. Mendiola

Dennis Mendiola's prior experience includes a role as Managing Director of Next Century Partners a private equity fund backed by George Soros. Prior to Next Century Partners, he was an investment banker at Bankers Trust. He began his career as a management consultant at McKinsey & Co. Dennis is an electrical engineer by education, with training in programming and logic design and holds a BS in Electrical Engineering.

He later graduated with an MBA (with honors) from Harvard Business School.

Francois Bonemi

François Bonemi has worked since 1995 in London as an Investment Banker at Citibank, Bear Stearns and WestLB Panmure, covering telecom and IT Services companies. His experience spans different products including corporate finance advisory, high yield debt, private placements, equity offerings, mezzanine finance, project finance and M&A. Among others, he advised Telefonica in their 3G European Strategy, France Telecom on the value of Mobistar in Belgium and Apax Partners in their leveraged acquisition of Gifi in France. IT Services clients include Anite, Unilog, Sopra, Reply, Aedian, TietoEnator, Sesa, Syzygy, Attenda, Hexaware, Xansa and Intech among others.

He graduated from Ecole Supérieure des Sciences Commerciales d'Angers in 1989 and obtained an MBA in Finance from the Anderson School at UCLA in 1995.

Hedyeh Alwani

Hedyeh's investment banking background includes nearly 15 years in debt capital markets and structured financial products. Hedyeh was most recently in debt capital markets at Standard Bank in London covering institutional and high yield investors in Europe and The Middle East. Prior to that, she was at ABN AMRO Bank involved with emerging markets debt financing. She started her career with West LB as an emerging markets fixed income broker.

Hedyeh Alwani received a BA (Honours) from European Business School.

Hiten Shah

Hiten Shah has over 15 years of Merchant Banking experience having previously worked for UBS and Hawkpoint Partners, a leading European corporate finance boutique. Hiten has advised on several M&A and capital market transactions and has considerable experience of Management Buy-outs. Prior to working in Merchant Banking, Hiten was a strategy consultant with LEK Consulting.

Hiten graduated with first class honours in economics from Bath University and holds an M.PHIL in Finance from Cambridge University. Hiten also holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Dr. Joerg Otzen

Joerg Otzen was previously a senior manager at UBL Corporate Financial Services AG, where he managed numerous financial transactions including fundraising, investment review, interim management of companies in external portfolios and private equity funds for different clients. Joerg began his professional career with SBC Warburg in 1995, as a vice president of equity research. In 2000, he became head of corporate development at the industrial group Ascom (Switzerland) and was in charge of all group divestments during Ascom's 4 year period of financial distress. He led the team which managed projects in international corporate finance, merger and acquisitions, corporate lending, and the establishment of new management in distressed subsidiaries.

Dr. Otzen holds an MSc and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from RWTH Aachen (Germany) and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Mark Gleave

Mark Gleave's experience includes Managing Director of Subsea Resources PLC, Director API Petroleum PLC, Company Secretary to Apollo Advisors and previously CIO at ANZ Private Banking and Head of Fund Management Consulting at Deloitte & Touche. Mark has considerable capital raising experience and has developed a unique insight into the investment management industry, as a consequence of his work creating and implementing strategies for both retail and institutional investment businesses. His career in financial services started 1983 and he has held senior roles in both buy and sell sides of the industry.

He holds an MBA from Imperial College London.

Morten Bligaard

Morten Bligaard has worked within Merchant Banking and Private Equity for nearly fifteen years. Prior experience includes a role as Principal with Doughty Hanson & Co, one of the largest European private equity firms based in London with a fund of USD 3.5 billion, where he was involved in deal origination, transaction execution and portfolio management. Before this Morten worked in investment banking at Merrill Lynch, one of the largest global US investment banks where he was involved with M&A and capital markets transactions across Europe including the IPO of Deutsche Telekom.

Morten graduated with an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Mustafa Jama

Mustafa Jama has more than ten years of Investment Banking experience. His career includes a position as Managing Director within principal investing at Morgan Stanley, a large US investment bank and a similar role with Glenwood Capital Investments. Prior to that, Mustafa managed client capital at Deutsche Bank utilising option strategies in equities, fixed income, currencies and commodities. He also managed Deutsche Bank's proprietary capital.

Mustafa received an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Pascal Miaris

Pascal Miaris started his investment banking career with Merrill Lynch in London, a large US investment bank, then moved on to work for CSFB. He later joined NBGI, a European bank, where he has been involved with capital raising and financial restructuring for a broad spectrum of European companies including KLM, L�Oreal, Renault, Petrofina and Ahold. Prior to this, he spent four years with Alcatel and was involved with the development of mobile telephone networks in Germany and France.

Pascal holds an MSc in Electronic Engineering from the Universities of Karlsruhe in Germany and E.S.I.E.E. in Paris as well as an MBA from INSEAD in France.

Sean Masters

Sean Masters started his investment banking career with Merrill Lynch in London, a large US investment bank, then moved on to work for CSFB. He later joined NBGI, a European bank, where he has been involved with capital raising and financial restructuring for a broad spectrum of European companies including KLM, L'Oreal, Renault, Petrofina and Ahold. Prior to this, he spent four years with Alcatel and was involved with the development of mobile telephone networks in Germany and France.

Sean holds an MSc in Electronic Engineering from the Universities of Karlsruhe in Germany and E.S.I.E.E. in Paris as well as an MBA from INSEAD in France.

Board Advisors

John Peters

John is CEO of Northcap, a German investment firm.

Laszlo Horvath

Laszlo Horvath is CEO of Active Media Inc, an international media agency. He was previously a director with AOL prior to the company's merger with Time Warner. Laszlo serves on the board of directors of the American Hungarian Executive Circle and Carnation Consulting. He is a sought after speaker at US and International conferences on media exposure and marketing, including Fortune Magazine, the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, and the CEO Clubs International. He graduated from the Film Academy of Budapest in 1989, as a film director, including a study period at the BBC in London. Laszlo received his Bachelor of Arts degree in languages literature from the ELTE University of Budapest, Hungary.

Laszlo received his MBA from Harvard Business School.

Lars Soderstrom

Lars Soderstrom is a Business Development and General Management specialist with hands-on B2B and B2C experience from US and Europe. Lars experience includes BBC Technology, (London) where he was involved with the GBP 3 billion divestment to Siemens which included preparing business plans for all (six) business product groups: Internet, Broadband content distribution, Wireless Video to mobiles, Broadcasting services, Content Management Database/Editing software. Prior to this he was a consultant with Stram Management Consulting (London) and involved with strategy projects in the Telecoms, IT/information and Communication industries. Lars started his career with Bertelsmann in business development (Hamburg).

Lars has an MSc in Mechanical Engineering from Chalmers University of Technology, (Sweden) and an MBA from Harvard Business School where he was a Marcus Wallenberg scholar.

Ori Kalechman

Ori Kalechman is a lawyer with extensive experience in the international hi-tech and finance industries. Educated at the Tel Aviv University, Ori has worked for several years in leading Israeli commercial law firms, specializing in Intellectual Property, Licensing, Venture Capital and Mergers and Acquisitions, becoming a partner at Ori Rosen & Co. Law Firm, a leading Hi-tech boutique law firm. Ori has also worked at Hassans International Law Firm in Gibraltar, where he was part of the Funds team, representing various hedge funds and property funds.

Who We Are