NorthEdge Capital has made a series of promotions in its investment team. Jon Pickering takes on the role of Head of New Business, while both George Potts and James Marshall have been promoted to Investment Directors and Greg Holmes has been promoted to Investment Manager. Pickering joined NorthEdge in 2013 and has been involved in the majority of the firm’s North West investments and exits to date. Jon will retain his role as Head of the North West, whilst also overseeing the new investment activity regionally from both NorthEdge’s buyout and SME funds.   Having joined the firm in the

BGF has appointed Grant Paul-Florence to lead its London investment team. Paul-Florence joins from Octopus Investments, where he was Head of Intermediate Capital for five years, responsible for a GBP150 million fund focused on investing in smaller businesses. He brings extensive investment and multi-sector portfolio management experience to the role, as well as experience in building a successful team of investors and developing internal talent.   Prior to Octopus Investments, Paul-Florence held investment roles at Levine Leichtman Capital Partners and AAC Capital Partners.   Paul-Florence will lead a team of 18 investors in BGF’s growing London team, reporting to Gavin

International law firm Clifford Chance has appointed Toby Parkinson as a partner in the firm’s European Infrastructure Group, based in London. Parkinson began his career at Clifford Chance’s London office in 2006, and worked in the firm’s Infrastructure and Private Equity practice for ten years, where he specialised in infrastructure transactions and cross-border M&A. During this time, he also spent three years in the firm’s Tokyo office, advising on M&A transactions in the infrastructure and energy sectors.   In 2016, Parkinson joined OMERS Infrastructure in London as Director, Legal where he provided legal advice and support on new investment opportunities,

Allen & Overy (A&O) has appointed Tim Watson as a restructuring partner in its London practice. Watson re-joins the firm from a global institutional investment management firm with assets under management in excess of USD30 billion, where he has spent the past four years working closely with and advising the distressed investment desk on transactions across Europe and Asia Pacific.   Prior to this he was a senior associate in A&O’s restructuring team.   Ian Field, head of the global restructuring group, says: “Tim has developed an excellent reputation in the funds and distressed debt world. Funds and asset managers

Private equity funds lawyers Daniel Quinn and Aleksander Bakic are to join Akin Gump in London as partners. Quinn and Bakic focus on private equity secondary transactions, institutional investor representations and private equity fund formation. They will come to Akin Gump from O’Melveny & Myers in London. They will join the firm’s investment management practice and transactional platform in London and will work closely with established teams across the United States and Asia.    Their considerable secondary transactions experience includes advising on highly sophisticated and complex general partner-led fund restructurings as well as more traditional portfolio sales. Their institutional investor

Equistone Partners Europe (Equistone), one of Europe’s leading mid-market private equity investors, has made four appointments to its investment team across Europe. The new appointments strengthen Equistone’s origination and investment capabilities across its core markets. Two of the appointments have been made in Equistone’s Munich office: Julia Brunswicker will join the firm as an Investment Manager, and Hubert van Wolfswinkel as a Director, operating across Germany and the Netherlands. Additionally, Isabella Boman-Flavell and Caroline Pinton have each been appointed as Investment Managers and will join Equistone’s offices in London and Paris, respectively.   Guillaume Jacqueau, Managing Partner of Equistone, says:

BTG Advisory, a division of Begbies Traynor Group plc, has appointed experienced funding experts David Smithies, Stephen Couldwell and Andy Chaffer to its corporate solutions team. David, Stephen and Andy will work with banks and professionals to help businesses across the North to access unsecured lending, in partnership with European credit specialist Caple. The move strengthens BTG Advisory’s offering of tailored funding solutions. David has over 35 years’ corporate and commercial banking experience as a banking relationship director with NatWest, working with a portfolio of businesses across a range of industries.   Stephen also has extensive relationship and bank lending

Macfarlanes has appointed Tim Plews as a consultant in the firm’s financial services regulation team, effective 1 May 2019. Plews specialises in financial services markets law and regulation, financial institution mergers and acquisitions, the development of new financial products, governance of financial institutions and regulatory investigations and enforcement.   He was a partner in Clifford Chance for 23 years before becoming a senior advisor in 2017. During this time he had a number of roles including co-heading the global financial services practice and running the firm’s Middle Eastern financial services practice.   He will bring his wealth of experience to

Tosca Debt Capital (TDC) has appointed Stuart Thwaites as Investment Director as it strengthens its regional deal making and advisory team ahead of its next fundraising launch.  As Investment Director, Thwaites will leverage his extensive financial due diligence experience throughout TDC’s growing deal opportunities pipeline to convert new transactions, as well as working together with portfolio companies to execute strategic growth plans that drive wealth for shareholders and investors. He will also support Fund reporting to current and prospective investors.   Prior to TDC, Stuart spent more than 20 years with EY, most recently as a senior due diligence professional

London-based venture capitalist firm, Luminous Ventures, has appointed John Spindler as a Venture Partner. The highly regarded entrepreneur, investor and venture capitalist has a distinguished career spanning more than 15 years.   As CEO of Capital Enterprise, and Founder/General Partner of AI Seed and London Co-Investment Fund, which is supported by the London Mayor, John has been a key player in establishing a culture of innovation and investment in the UK’s fast-growing tech scene.   He is also a director of Conception X, an accelerator programme for PHDs backed by Barclays. In a private capacity, John’s angel investments include UXCam,