7th Private Equity Europe Forum London | September 17-18, 2024 Request Agenda

Christopher Masek, Chief Executive Officer, IK Partners

Christopher Masek joined IK Partners in 2000 and established the Firm’s French team. He became Chief Executive Officer in 2015. Since then, Christopher has led the transformation of the business from a single-strategy, Nordic-focused buyout house, to a multi-strategy, pan-European firm, more than doubling the number of staff and assets under management. Over the years, he has been involved in investments across all of IK’s geographies and funds, serving on the board of several businesses. He is also the Chairman of IKARE, the venture philanthropy arm of IK Partners. Prior to joining IK, Christopher worked at KPMG for 10 years where he was a founding partner for KPMG Corporate Finance in Paris. He holds degrees from Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po), Yale University and in French law. Outside of work, Christopher enjoys open water swimming and is an avid musician.

Christophe Baviere, co-Chief Executive Officer, Eurazeo

Christophe Bavière is co-CEO of Eurazeo since February 2023 and has been a member of the Executive Board since 2021. He was also Chairman and Founder of Idinvest Partners a Private Equity company which joined forces with Eurazeo in 2018 and was fully merged in 2020. Prior to this, Christophe Bavière held senior positions within the Allianz Group where he managed the investment programs for the group. At Idinvest Partners he successfully developed the investment activities and assets under management grew sevenfold over ten years. At Eurazeo, Christophe Bavière supervises the Private Debt, Small-mid buyout, Sec-ondary and Venture investment activities.

Nils Rode, Chief Investment Officer, Schroders Capital

Nils Rode is the Chief Investment Officer of Schroders Capital. He is a member of Schroders Capital's Management Committee and a member of the Investment Committee. Before joining Schroders in 2005, Nils was a Vice President with private equity backed SkyOnline, a US-based IT and telecommunications company, where he worked in the areas of finance and strategy from 2003 to 2005. From 1995 to 2002, Nils was a management consultant with McKinsey & Company in Germany, where he was the lead manager for several strategic, organisational and operational improvement programs for private and publicly listed companies in the technology and financial services sector. Nils is also the author of a book on strategic management of knowledge based businesses. Nils holds a Master's degree from ESCP Europe in Paris, Oxford and Berlin where he was a Siemens Scholar. He also holds a PhD in Economics from the Leuphana University of Lueneburg, Germany and a Specialisation Certificate in Data Science from Johns Hopkins University and Coursera. 

Alain Carrier, Chief Executive Officer, Bregal Investments

Alain Carrier joined Bregal in November 2021. Prior to joining Bregal, Alain was a Senior Managing Director & Head of International at Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments). He was responsible for the company’s international markets and offices in-cluding in Europe, Asia and the Americas. Alain joined CPP Investments in 2008 as Manag-ing Director for Europe and oversaw the establishment of CPP Investments’ London office. He later became Global Head of Infrastructure and Head of Europe. Prior to CPP Invest-ments, Alain spent more than ten years in the Investment Banking team at Goldman Sachs in New York and London. He started his career as an attorney at Sullivan & Cromwell in New York.

David Atterbury, Head of EMEA, HarbourVest

David Atterbury joined HarbourVest in 2004. He is currently head of the firm’s London office and co-leads the firm’s secondary investment activity in Europe. During his tenure, David has led a number of European secondary transactions, including Absolute Private Equity and SVG Capital plc. David serves on a number of European fund advisory boards. David joined HarbourVest after five years with Abbey National Treasury Services Plc, where he was Director of Private Equity.

Hazem Ben-Gacem, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Investcorp

Hazem Ben-Gacem is Investcorp's Co-Chief Executive Officer with 30 years of experience in successfully leading private equity investments across North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Today, he oversees the firm's global investment activities in the infrastructure and technology sectors, all private equity activities in Europe, Middle East, Asia and Japan. He also leads the firm's private wealth and institutional investor relations, globally. Hazem holds a bachelor’s degree with honors from Harvard University and is the founder of the Harvard Office in Tunisia. Hazem serves on the Advisory Board of the University of Oxford's Middle East Center and on the Executive Board of the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government and Harvard Medical School.

Aaron Phipps, UK Gold Medal Winner, Paralympic Champion

In 2021, Aaron and his teammates made history at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, winning the first-ever Gold Medal for Paralympics GB in a team sport. Aaron's journey began with his debut at the London 2012 Paralympics, where the GB Wheelchair Rugby team finished fifth. He took a break to focus on family but later returned to trial for the Tokyo 2020 squad, playing a vital role in their gold medal victory. In 2013, the Meningitis Research Foundation invited Aaron to join a fundraising climb. He accepted and, after three years of rigorous training and a trial climb of Mt. Blanc, began his ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro in May 2016. Early in the climb, he had to abandon his wheelchair, relying on his hands and knees. Despite offers of assistance, Aaron persisted unaided and, after four challenging days, became the first disabled person to scale Kilimanjaro unassisted.

Volker Hichert, Co-Chairman of the Advisory Board, Founder, Deutsche Private Equity

Volker Hichert, Co-Chairman of the Advisory Board and Founder of Deutsche Private Equity, was a Partner at Granville Baird, one of the leading small-cap investors in the German market for many years, before co-founding DPE. For six years at Granville, he was responsible for investments in mechanical engineering, the metal-working industry, the consumer goods industry, production and industrial services. Prior to this position, Volker Hichert held leading management positions in German SMEs for almost nine years – as a Managing Partner of Yxlon International, on the Executive Board of the Hako Group and as a Member of the Executive Board at the railway carriage manufacturer Talbot. Volker launched his career at The Boston Consulting Group in Düsseldorf and Deutsche Bank AG in Hamburg. Volker Hichert received his degree in business studies from the University of Münster.