Biography

I am Chief Managing Officer for Taxand Global, but I am not your traditional COO, rather I am at my core a tax practitioner and have been for over 25 years.

In the first half of my career I trained and was a tax advisor at PricewaterhouseCoopers where I specialised in Private Equity and M&A, before moving “in house” to become a client. I have been the Head of Tax for global and UK mid-market focused Private Equity funds, working on fund structuring, fund raising with investors, across transactions and with portfolio companies and their management teams and board members.

My first “in-house” role was as Global Head of Tax at EQT, where I established and built the tax department. During my time at EQT, the number of personnel doubled, global mobility accelerated, new advisory offices were opened and we established several new General Partner hubs. I was also lucky enough to work as an integral part of our funds teams on 14 successful fundraisings culminating in cEUR25 billion of capital being raised. This included the launch of new investment strategies across Credit, Mid-Market, Real Estate and Ventures. Today EQT has just over EUR70 billion of assets under management and 27 active funds which invest across multiple geographies, sectors and strategies.

Before joining Taxand Global, I was the Head of Tax at Lloyds Development Capital (“LDC”) a highly transactional UK mid-market private equity house. LDC offered me the chance to return to my deal doing roots and to reinvigorate an existing tax function within a more “corporate” environment, given LDC’s backing by Lloyds Bank Plc. Established in 1981 LDC has invested over £5 billion supporting over 600 management teams and is the UK’s most active mid-market investor, with 9 offices around the UK and a portfolio typically of circa 100 groups at any given time. In addition to the internal management of the tax department and all tax aspects of LDC’s transactions, working with the LDC team offered me the opportunity to partner with Board members and management teams within the portfolio companies themselves, during the lifetime of LDC’s investment.

I have experienced first-hand how people can perceive tax as a subject matter and the assumptions that they can make about us as tax professionals traditionally; I have spent much of my time working with deal makers, entrepreneurs and board directors alike to showcase the breadth of skills, knowledge and commercial value add we can bring to the table with the perspective that our work gives us – needing to understand the business model, the structure, the figures, to problem solve, to partner with the business, not only identify risks but opportunities as well.

Tax often touches so many aspects of the organisation and all other departments, it truly affords us the opportunity for a unique overview and armed with that, there is so much we have to offer our many stakeholders, if we have the chance and we ourselves are willing! Supporting the development of and investment in tax professionals, as well as evolving perceptions of our industry to our advantage and that of the businesses we really can make a significant contribution to, is a particular passion of mine and I hope I can continue to make my own contribution to these ideals through my work here at Taxand Global.