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,

Beechbrook Capital, a specialist direct lender, has appointed Peter Gottron as Investment Director, DACH, covering Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Gottron will be based in Frankfurt, establishing Beechbrook’s first office in Germany. Gottron was previously head of corporate banking for Mainzer Volksbank and before that a director and head of acquisition finance, Germany, for Lloyds Bank International/Bank of Scotland in Frankfurt. He will join Beechbrook’s private debt team, originating and executing investments, as well as providing portfolio management support across the DACH region.   Beechbrook’s private debt fund provides loans to private-equity backed companies in the lower mid-market across the UK

AMP Capital has appointed Thomas Preising as a senior adviser to its infrastructure equity business. Preising was most recently the Global Business Operations Director for Apple, based in Cupertino, US. He had joined Apple in 2004 as the Operations Director for Apple Europe, before moving to Delhi as the Sales Director of Apple India. In other roles at Apple, he established its first office in the Middle East and led sales operations and planning for its Latin America business. Before joining Apple, Preising had worked at Hewlett Packard for a decade. He began his career in infrastructure, working at US

UK mid-market private equity investor LD has strengthened its London team with the appointment of two new investment directors. Joseph Fison and Joe Tager have joined the 11-strong team, supporting Head of London, Yann Souillard, and directors, Christian Bruning and Steve Aston, to help identify new investment opportunities across the capital, lead transactions and support the growth ambitions of LDC’s portfolio of companies. Joseph Fison joins from Cumulus Asset Management, where he was a partner and Director of Principal Investments, leading a number of investments into technology businesses internationally. He has more than 15 years’ experience supporting the growth of

Private equity and M&A lawyer Omari Sealy has joined Holland & Knight as a partner in Miami. He was previously a partner at DLA Piper. “Omari is an extremely focused and driven attorney with private equity transaction experience that is hard to match,” says David Barkus, co-leader of the firm’s South Florida Corporate Practice. “Many of Omari’s transactions have been in healthcare, which is a particular strength of our firm. We are very pleased to welcome him to our team.” Sealy represents private equity firms and corporations in connection with mergers and acquisitions and other general corporate matters, including control