Christopher Allner

T 020 7710 2812

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Chris joined Octopus in April 2004 as head of the Private Equity team and chairman of the Investment Committee. Chris has over 25 years private equity experience and prior to joining Octopus was a Director at Proven and Bridgepoint as well as working at 3i and Charterhouse.

Chris graduated from Oxford University with an MA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics and holds a Certified Diploma in Accounting and Finance.

Chris is on the boards of Myla, The Kendal Group, First Retail and T4 Media and was on the boards of Covion, Plastics Capital and Gyro International prior to their exits.

Alistair Brew

T 020 7710 2817

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Alistair joined Octopus in March 2005 having spent three years at Close Brothers where he focused on investing in unquoted companies in the media, technology and leisure sectors.

Alistair began his career with PricewaterhouseCoopers where he worked in the Business Recovery Services and Corporate Finance teams.

Alistair graduated from Oxford University in 1995 with an MA in Modern History and is a qualified chartered accountant.

Alistair is on the boards of Luther Pendragon, CSL DualCom, Sweet Cred and Hydrobolt.

Andrew Cavaghan

T 020 7710 2815

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Andrew joined Octopus in October 2004 and has over six years private equity experience. Andrew worked with GLE where he established and managed a generalist venture capital fund for the DTI to co-invest with high net worth investors. In 2003, Andrew was nominated as one of the "Top Ten Venture Capitalists to Watch" in the Investor AllStar Awards.

Andrew graduated with a BA in Philosophy from University College, London. He has a postgraduate diploma in Law from the College of Law and is a qualified barrister.

Andrew is on the boards of BDA and Tristar. He was on the board of James Harvard, prior to its exit, and an observer on the boards of Covion and Plastics Capital prior to their exits.

Jane Vinson

T 020 7710 2839

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Jane joined Octopus Investments in July 2006 and her primary responsibility is portfolio management. Prior to joining Octopus Investments, Jane spent 10 years at Bridgepoint Capital. During this time she was involved in managing over 80 investments, often taking a board seat, and assisted with or led over 60 exits.

Jane is a chartered management accountant and graduated with a BA in Accounting from Portsmouth University.

Jane is on the boards of Reading Room, AVM, The History Press, Perfect Pizza and Luther Pendragon and acts as observer on First Retail. She was previously an observer on the board of Covion before it was exited.

Paddy Woods Ballard

T 020 7710 2869

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Paddy joined Octopus Investments in October 2006 and has responsibility for marketing to advisers in London and the South East with Alistair Brew.

Prior to joining Octopus Investments, Paddy was a manager at LEK Consulting where he worked for eight years in the UK, USA and Australia. While at LEK, he advised many of the UK's leading private equity funds on commercial due diligence and building value in their portfolio businesses. He has also worked with a wide range of public companies on strategic and operational issues.

Paddy has an MBA with distinction from INSEAD and graduated from Cambridge University with an MA in Economics.

Paddy is an observer on the boards of Promotion Space, T4 Media, Tristar and Hydrobolt.

Purvi Sapre

T 020 7710 2816

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Purvi joined Octopus in 2007 having previously worked at Barclays for 4 years, primarily with the Financial Sponsors Leveraged finance team. There she worked on a number of mid-market private equity transactions focusing on originating, executing and syndicating senior and mezzanine debt.

Purvi graduated from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology with a Masters in Chemical Engineering with Environmental Technology and is a qualified management accountant.

Purvi is an observer on BDA and Myla.

Jo Baker

T 020 7710 2837

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Joanna joined Octopus in July 2006 to assist the team with marketing, research and administration.

She is currently studying for her CIMA in her spare time.