The Team
Jane Crawford
Jane is Managing Partner of Chamonix. She chairs the Boards of portfolio companies FST Technologies, Search Consultancy, and Shorterm, and is a director on the Prize Food Group Board. Prior to starting Chamonix in 2006 with Chris Edge, she was with 3i Group plc where she ran a UK investment business, started up 3i’s Asian investment businesses in Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo, and latterly ran 3i’s investment operations in Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
Jane has a BA in Philosophy from Manchester University, and qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Price Waterhouse in London.
Andrew Hartley
Andrew is a Partner of Chamonix. He was a founder and managing partner of August Equity, a UK mid market buyout firm, having joined its predecessor at Kleinwort Benson in 1995. Prior to this Andrew spent eight years at 3i. During his twenty one years in private equity Andrew has made over sixty investments and been involved with many others. As a director of a number of companies, he has worked with management teams on successful buy-and-builds, distressed purchases, expansions and turnarounds. He has led numerous exits through trade sales, IPOs and secondary MBOs.
Andrew has a BSc in Economics and Politics from Southampton University and a MBA from Cass Business School
Stephen Catling
Steve is an Associate with Chamonix. Prior to joining Chamonix, he worked in Strategy and Business Planning for the telecoms turnaround Energis which was acquired by Cable and Wireless. After the acquisition, Steve was the Investment Portfolio Manager for the combined group, managing the governance process for the company’s £240m annual Capex budget. Before joining Energis, Steve worked for ABN AMRO in London and Tokyo as an equity analyst.
Steve holds an MBA and MA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University.
Raquel Ellis
Raquel heads Chamonix’s acquisition team. Raquel has seven years experience in financing private equity deals from her time as Director and Head of Leveraged Finance UK at NIBC Bank, and Deutsche Bank’s leveraged finance team in London. She has advised venture capitalists on new business investments, and spent five years at Ernst & Young, Australia in the Corporate Finance, restructuring and turnaround teams.
Raquel holds a Bachelor of Commerce with majors in Finance, Economics, Business Law and Accounting from Bond University in Australia, and is a qualified Chartered Accountant.
Eric Soubeiga
Eric is an Associate with Chamonix. Prior to joining Chamonix, Eric worked in leveraged finance at Fortis Bank, UK and was involved in the origination and execution of UK and European mid-cap LBO transactions where Fortis acted as Mandated Lead Arranger. Before this, Eric worked in Transaction Services, KPMG in London. Prior to working at KPMG, Eric held the position of Post-doctoral Research Scientist at the University of Nottingham’s School of Computer Science where he was involved in both teaching and research.
Eric holds three degrees in operations research including a PhD (University of Nottingham, UK), a Diplome d’Etudes Approfondies (DEA, equivalent of MPhil - ENSIMAG France) and a Diplome d’Ingenieur (equivalent of Msc - USTHB Algeria).
Chris Edge
Chris is Operating Partner of Chamonix. He chairs the Boards of portfolio companies Allied Textiles, HTG Holdings, Isotrak and Mettis Aerospace. Prior to starting Chamonix in 2006 with Jane Crawford he had many years’ experience chairing and working strategically with Boards of private companies on behalf of private equity funds. Fifteen years were spent with 3i Group plc where he headed the turnaround management division , and latterly 3i Consultants. Prior to this, he was in industry with British Leyland and Philips Electronics.
Chris has masters’ degrees in Law from Oxford and London Universities, and is a qualified Management Accountant.
Dave Smith
Dave is an Investment Director with Chamonix. Prior to joining Chamonix Dave spent six years with European Aquisition Capital, a Western European mid market private equity fund, where he was responsible for five significant investments totalling €125 million. Before this, Dave spent five years in Corporate Finance with Invex Capital and Ernst & Young, specialising in private equity transactions.
Dave has a BSc in Psychology and Zoology from Bristol University and is a qualified Chartered Accountant.
Marian Chapman
Marian is the Chamonix Administration Manager. Prior to joining Chamonix, Marian was with 3i Group plc. For 3i she worked in a number of portfolio and office administrative roles in its UK investment business, unquoted funds and finance teams and managed the office start-ups in Singapore and USA.
Marian has a BEd, CNAA.
Christine Wilson
Christine provides in-house legal advice to Chamonix Private Equity. She spent twenty-eight years with 3i Group plc’s legal department and became experienced in every aspect of private company investment, both in the UK and in several western European countries, including syndications and leveraged finance. Since leaving 3i she has advised a number of private equity firms, private practice law and advisory firms.
Christine graduated from Manchester University in law before being called to the Bar.