Global cybersecurity and advanced technologies investor, Paladin Capital Group, has expanded its European operations with two strategic appointments, Pratima Aiyagari, Director, and Conor O’Sullivan, Vice President, who will focus on European investment opportunities for Paladin’s Cyber Funds.Aiyagari and O’Sullivan will work alongside team lead, Ken Pentimonti, Principal, who has been developing Paladin’s presence in Europe since 2015, and Francois Ruether, Associate, who joined earlier this year.
A software developer by background, Aiyagari joins Paladin from Cisco’s corporate development group in Europe where she led investments and acquisitions with a focus on artificial intelligence/machine learning and enterprise collaboration. Previously, Aiyagari spent several years in Silicon Valley working on developing intelligent network services in the network management domain. Aiyagari is a co-author of a US patent in the area of network device clusters and high availability. She holds an MBA from INSEAD and an MS in Computer Science and Applications from Virginia Tech.
Prior to joining Paladin, O’Sullivan was Investment Manager at Seraphim Capital, a venture capital fund focused on start-ups in the space industry. Prior to that, Conor worked with close to 100 space start-ups during his time as Head of Business Strategy at the Satellite Applications Catapult, a technology and innovation company backed by the UK Government. O’Sullivan spent five years in sales, trading and operations roles at two global investment banks. O’Sullivan holds an MBA from University of Oxford and completed his BA in Business and Economics at Trinity College, Dublin. Conor also holds a private pilot’s licence, flying single and multi-engine aircraft in the US and Europe.
Michael Steed, Paladin’s Founder and Managing Partner, says: “We’re delighted to have Pratima and Conor joining our growing team in Europe where Paladin is in a great position to help more start-ups to scale up and break into new markets. Our prediction that cyber innovation in Europe was going to boom has proved true and, over the last five years, we’ve established a strong European portfolio of investments, networks among local start-up ecosystems, governments and investors.”
