2023 Advisory board

Frode Strand- Nielsen

Frode Strand- Nielsen

Founder and Chairperson

FSN Capital

Frode Strand- Nielsen

Frode has entrepreneurial, strategy and M&A experience from Arkwright and Bain & Co. Prior to founding FSN Capital in 1999, he was a founding Director and the Chairman of the Executive Committee of Arkwright. Arkwright is a corporate advisory firm specialising in strategy consulting and M&A work. The firm had 120 professionals located in five offices; London, Paris, Hamburg, Stockholm and Oslo. Before Arkwright, Frode was a Manager with Bain & Co, London.
Frode holds a B.A. (Hons) from Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, B.C., and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. In 1978, he was named Scholar Athlete of the Year by the North American Intercollegiate Association (NAIA).
Christopher Parmo

Christopher Parmo

COO

Verdane

Christopher Parmo

Christopher joined Verdane as Chief Operating Officer in 2018. He has experience from a number of executive management positions, such as SVP at Linas Matkasse, Deputy CEO at Godtlevert as well as Finance Director at Software Innovation and Visma. Christopher’s previous experience further includes management consulting at Deloitte.

Christopher holds a MSc of Civil Engineering in Computer Science from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and an MBA in Finance from NHH Norwegian School of Economics.
David Samuelson

David Samuelson

Managing Director

Nordic Capital

David Samuelson

Joined in January 2010. David is part of the Nordic Capital Evolution advisory team and is primarily focused on investments in the Financial Services sector. He has served on the boards of eight Nordic Capital portfolio companies. Before joining, he worked as a Management Consultant at McKinsey & Company in Stockholm (2006-2009). David holds an MSc in Economics and Business Administration from the Stockholm School of Economics and ESADE in Barcelona, Spain.
Jan Johan Kühl

Jan Johan Kühl

CEO

Polaris

Jan Johan Kühl

Jan Johan Kühl joined Polaris as Managing Partner in April 2007. Prior to joining Polaris, he was Group Director (Koncerndirektør) of Icopal, where he started in 2000.
He was previously employed as Equity Analyst with Gudme Raaschou Investment Bank (1989-1993), as Project Manager with Aarsø Nielsen & Partners and as CEO of Monarflex (1995-2000).
He achieved a M.Sc. in Economics and Business Administration from Aarhus Business School in strategy and Finance (cand. merc.) and a diploma in Business Administration in organization (HD (o)).
Pia Kåll

Pia Kåll

CEO

Capman

Pia Kåll

As of March 2023 Pia is the CEO of CapMan Plc, a pioneering Nordic private asset specialist established in 1989. CapMan has EUR 5bn assets under management and invests in the lower mid-market with strategies covering real estate, infrastructure, privateequity and credit.

Pia joined CapMan Buyout in 2016 and during 2017-2023 she was the Managing Partner heading the Buyout investment team. Before joining CapMan Pia was a member of the Executive Board of Outotec and held the position of Senior Vice President Strategy, Marketing and Operational Excellence. Outotec (later merged with Metso) was a listed company offering minerals and metals processing technology to the mining industry globally, with a revenue of 1,5-2 bn EUR and around 5000 employees. Prior to Outotec Pia was an Associate Principal at McKinsey&Company.

Pia holds a M.Sc. (Eng.) in Engineering Physics and Mathematics.
Sverre Flåskjer

Sverre Flåskjer

Managing Partner

Equip Equity

Sverre Flåskjer

Sverre has 17 years of private equity experience and 27 years of experience in total from Equip, McKinsey, Herkules Capital and Orkla. He has previously held positions as Associate Principal at McKinsey, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer at Herkules Capital, interim CEO at Estrella Maarud, interim CEO at Nille and Marketing Director at Orkla Confectionary. Sverre has been Chairman and board member of a number of companies including Espresso House, Elektroimportøren, Estrella Maarud and Didriksons 1913. Sverre holds a Master of Science with a Major in Finance from the Norwegian School of Economics.

Sverre is currently the chairman of the board of Makeup Mekka, Funplays, Holy Greens,
Bastard Burgers, and a board member of Rush, Ryde, Cure Media and Mountain Village”
Sandro Naf

Sandro Naf

CEO

Capital Four

Sandro Naf

Sandro co-founded Capital Four in 2007. Prior to this he was at Nordea Investment Management, where he was responsible for the European High Yield business, which he initiated in 1999.

Prior to that, Sandro worked with Credit Suisse in New York (fka BEA Associates), London (CS-FirstBoston) and Zürich in various roles in Fixed Income and Corporate Finance / Mergers & Acquisitions.

He holds an MBA from the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University and a BS in Computer Science from ITR Rapperswil.
Nina Von Holten

Nina Von Holten

Director

Trill Impact

Nina Von Holten

Nina is a Director focusing on Private Equity. She has around 10 years of professional experience in private equity. Prior to joining Trill Impact, she spent nine years with IK Partners, most recently as an Investment Director. She has further experience as an investment banking analyst with Goldman Sachs in London, where she was part of the healthcare team. She also has experience as a board member from a number of private companies.

Nina holds a BSc in Business Administration & Commercial Law and an MSc in Finance & Strategic Management from Copenhagen Business School.
Isabella de Feudis

Isabella de Feudis

CEO

SVCA

Isabella de Feudis

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Alan Gauld

Alan Gauld

Senior Investment Director

abrdn

Alan Gauld

Alan is an Investment Director in the abrdn Private Markets team. He is responsible for sourcing, evaluating and executing private equity investments, including primary fund investments and co-investments. Alan has a strong network and extensive experience with leading private equity funds, particularly pan-European and Iberian GPs. As such, Alan sits on a number of LP advisory committees across Europe. He joined the company in 2014 as part of the Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP) transaction. Prior to joining SWIP in 2013, Alan worked for Lloyds Banking Group in its private equity team. Alan holds a BSc (Hons) in Genetics from the University of Edinburgh and is a qualified chartered accountant.
Alice Murray

Alice Murray

Editorial Director

Real Deals Media

Alice Murray

Alice established The Drawdown in 2017, and now heads up all editorial activities across Real Deals Media.
She previously headed up communications and marketing at a UK early-stage venture capital firm, where she managed investor reporting and marketing activities. Prior to that, Alice was Editor of European private equity publication "unquote” where she directed all content and events including The British Private Equity Awards.

Alice began her career at London-based publishing house Caspian Media, where she was a reporter for private equity-focused publication Real Deals. She then went on to join Argus Media, where she was Acting Editor of Argus FMB Ammonia.