High flyer

What encouraged you towards a career in corporate finance?

I grew up in New Zealand and had a family friend who was also my flying instructor. He was at KPMG and told me that his successful career had all started from his accounting degree. This is why I had my eyes set on joining the Big Four.

I did an audit internship at PwC and on graduating I joined EY in Auckland, going straight into its transaction services team. It was my first exposure to deals and I loved it. I also took the chartered accounting exams equivalent to the UK’s ACA. I definitely don’t miss the study, but I’m glad I have the technical and analytical foundation that qualification provided.

How was your next move from EY?

I left EY in August 2020 to join New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) as an analyst. The people I worked alongside were ex-Big Four and investment bankers, who had been in and around the M&A space. We supported export-focused businesses, helping them with models, pitch decks and other materials to raise capital.

The role helped me develop new skills. But, as was the case at EY, I still felt it was a small part of the investment process. I wanted to become more involved in the full deal process and be a part of what happens next too. That’s why I moved to Pioneer Capital, a private equity fund in Auckland, in July 2021.

What made you decide to move to the UK and to Agathos?

I loved my role at Pioneer and enjoyed being in the New Zealand private equity market. The exposure was brilliant – I worked on five deals in 18 months – but I wanted a change. Other colleagues had been to the UK and talked about the size of the market and how there are so many more funds, more businesses, and more advisers. I was excited about the idea of working in a much bigger private equity ecosystem.

So I resigned and travelled around Europe, then headed to London looking for a role. It was slightly stressful, coming over with no job, but I joined Agathos as an investment associate within weeks of arriving in March 2023. With Agathos the big selling point was the people. I met some of the senior team and was really impressed by them and felt a strong cultural fit, which gave me confidence it was the right choice.

What is your current role?

I’m an investment manager at Agathos. Part of my work is origination – building networks and identifying investment opportunities. I’m also doing deal execution – working on transactions end-to-end, including value-creation planning, managing due diligence workstreams, and internal investment committee engagement. Finally I do portfolio management too, where I hold two board observer roles. It’s a nice mix.

What transactions stand out?

In general, it’s the investments that support businesses to do valuable work – and that have a materially positive impact on individuals and on the organisations that those businesses serve – that stand out.

At Agathos in July last year I helped lead our investment into Lexxic, a B2B neurodiversity services business, and its subsequent acquisition of Do-IT Solutions, a tech-led neurodiversity and wellbeing screening and training profiler.

Do-IT brought digital solutions to Lexxic’s core psychologist-led services, making it a more scalable proposition, and expanded the customer base to include public sector too. We also brought in a new CTO, CFO and chair on completion. There are so many people needing support around neurodiversity and it’s great to be working with a business that can provide this help. It is important to me that our investors’ funds are being put to work in businesses that can genuinely change people’s lives.

What are your ambitions?

I have found my dream job in private equity and I’m really enjoying the diversity in my role. Ultimately, I want to build a track record of growing great portfolio businesses, increasing the impact each one has in its market, and seeing success on exit. Over time I would also like to grow into more of a leadership role.