People: Beech Tree Private Equity; Heligan; Prosperity Group

Beech Tree Private Equity has announced the recruitment of Claudia Haywood as an investment manager in the team.

Haywood joins Beech Tree’s Birmingham office from Springboard Corporate Finance where she had spent the last two years advising a range of private equity and corporate transactions including the acquisition of Forest Holidays by Sykes Holiday Cottages and the sale of JW Doubleday to Ben Burgess & Co.

Prior to joining Springboard, Haywood spent three years in EY’s audit department working on both private and PLC clients. Haywood has a Biochemistry degree from University of Bristol and is a Chartered Accountant.

Haywood’s appointment rounds off a fantastic year for Beech Tree, having deployed £60m across four new investments in 2023; Obsequio (fire safety & compliance business), Covertswarm (a cyber-security automated ethical hacking platform), Arc Systems (IT managed services) and Learnlight (digital language training provider) as well as completing the first close of its fourth fund (Beech Tree PE IV).

Haywood said: “It’s an exciting time to join the firm as we start to deploy Fund IV. I’m looking forward to the opportunity to partner with management teams of high growth UK businesses across our core sectors of Technology, Financial Services and Tech-enabled Services. I’m really looking forward to being part of a team that has a real focus on specific sectors in this part of the market”.

Managing partner Paul Franks added: “We’re delighted to welcome Claudia to the team on the back of our busiest ever year in terms of new investments. This is an exciting time for both Beech Tree and Claudia as we enter 2024 with a strong pipeline of high-quality opportunities that we are currently working on, despite the broader economic environment”.

Heligan Group, an investment and advisory group has announced the appointment of four professionals as Senior Advisors to the Board. The addition of Lord Stanley Fink, Walid Kamhawi, Michael Perry and Ben Turner marks a significant milestone in Heligan Group’s ongoing expansion and enhancement of its service offerings.

Lord Stanley Fink – a luminary in the financial services and fund management sector, brings a wealth of experience from his illustrious career, notably as the former CEO of Man Group plc. His diverse roles in organisations like Marex Spectron, Hay Hill Wealth Management, and Bud Financial Limited, coupled with his philanthropic endeavours, make him an invaluable addition to Heligan Group.

Walid Kamhawi has more than 30 years in finance and investments, and was formerly at Blackstone as well as co-founding a late-stage technology investment firm. Kamhawi was involved in transactions exceeding $25 billion, mainly in the TMT sectors.

Michael Perry has over 40 years experience in advising on technology and risk assessment to a wide range of businesses. He was an early member of Warwick University Angels Committee and has held various posts as CEO and Non Exec Directorships.

Perry began his career as a rocket thermodynamicist on the UK Black Knight and Blue Steel engines, then later the NASA Apollo 11 Eagle Moon Lander engines.

More recently his family company, FIC Newborough Investments – a Heligan Partner, provided early funding to Heligan and also manages and advises on a diverse range of P.E. investments covering climate change, finance, property development and defence activities.

Ben Turner brings more than 25 years of transactional experience in M&A and private equity. He’s the head of the national M&A and PE teams at Shoosmiths, and joins the Board at Heligan as a Senior Advisor.

Recognised by Legal500 and Chambers, and a two-time Thomson Reuters Stand-Out Lawyer, Ben has been a trusted advisor to Heligan Group since 2016.

Birmingham-based residential developer and investor Prosperity Group, has continued its growth with three new additions across the group.

Steve Mason

Risk manager, Steve Mason, arrives at Prosperity Group with 20 years of experience in City trading where he developed an acute understanding of the potential ‘downsides’ in business and a strong inclination for identifying the less obvious risks. Within his new role at Prosperity Group he will be focused on systematically auditing the business and its processes, from supplier pricing to health and safety.

Molly Ellis

Alongside Steve is Molly Ellis who joins the business as a Mortgage Co-ordinator, drawing on over five years of expertise within the world of both residential and Buy to Let mortgages.

Katie Frost completes the trio of hires appointed to the group’s lettings and management business, Lamont & Co, as junior property manager. With previous experience as a sales consultant within the property industry she will continue to deliver excellent customer service to clients.

Katie Frost

Joe Billingham, CEO at Prosperity Group, said: “We’re delighted to welcome our new additions to the Prosperity Group of companies. They are all highly experienced professionals who bring a wealth of experience that will help us to continue to thrive as a business.

“The ability to bolster our ranks with high quality colleagues is testament to our growth over the last year, where we have continued to build our offering. As we head into 2024 this will be an exciting period for us as we continue to deliver high-quality places to live through our development pipeline.”