ALPHASKILL - Key Persons
Agnes Babule is a Director at Alphaskill with a focus on our CFO and Consumer practice. She is a +20 years executive search professional with a track record of more than 200 senior executive level hires across a wide range of sectors and a well-rounded understanding of the challenges companies face in attracting outstanding talent.
A French national, she has worked in Belgium, UK and France. She holds a finance degree from Universite Paris Dauphine (1988).
Job Titles:
- Sector Advisor Consumer & Healthcare
- Sector Advisor for Consumer & Healthcare
Andreas Bauer is sector advisor for Consumer & Healthcare at Alphaskill. He currently holds a Chairman role in Vitafy, a portfolio company of Capiton Private Equity, and is a member of the advisory board of Fremman Capital and the Institute of Brand Logic. Prior to that, Andreas was leading the Consumer Business Practice at Deloitte Consulting and before, the global Consumer & Retail Practice at Roland Berger. During that time, he also held Non Executive Positions in MarcO'Polo and Tom Tailor, two renowned fashion brands.
Andreas holds a Masters Degree of Leopold-Franzens Universität in Innsbruck and an MBA Degree of INSEAD Fontainebleau
Job Titles:
- Client Engagement Manager
Andrew Symons is a Client Engagement Manager at Alphaskill. Before joining Alphaskill, he spent over a decade playing professional rugby in the UK, France and New Zealand.
Andrew holds a BSc Leadership and Management from the University of Northumbria.
Job Titles:
- Business Manager
- Business Manager at Alphaskill UK
Aru Jolly is Business Manager at Alphaskill UK. Prior to that, she was an Account Officer at Bank of America and worked in Retail Management at Mexx. Aru has also been an independent artist for the last 15 years, having recently launched Art by Aru.
Barbara Pusca is an Associate Director (part-time) at Alphaskill. She focuses on our Healthcare and CTO practice. She has more than 10 years in executive search working at Skillcapital and Nurole, where she placed senior management teams for private equity and hi-growth VC backed portfolio companies throughout Europe.
Barbara Pusca holds a BSc in Management and Economics from Royal Holloway, University of London.
Donia Sharma is a Consultant at Alphaskill. Prior to that, she led global Research Teams and Deal Advisory Teams at the Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG) for many years.
Donia studied Business Administration at the Welingkar Business School in India, and holds the degree Master of Business Administration.
Job Titles:
- External Sector Advisor
- Sector Advisor Industrials
Dr. Markus Böttcher is external Sector Advisor Industrials at Alphaskill and draws on a 20-year career in line management, consulting and portfolio company management. He has successfully executed numerous due diligence and value creation projects in private equity portfolio companies. As a partner of Ernst & Young, he currently advises private equity funds in operational due diligence and value creation.
Markus studied in Germany and Japan. After kicking off his career at former Mannesmann AG, he joined Bain & Company. There he built and led the Performance Improvement Practice Group in Europe and was a member of the European Leadership Team. After activities in portfolio company management and various advisory board mandates, he has again turned to advisory services.
Job Titles:
- Sector Advisor Healthcare
Dr Michelle Tempest is on the Advisory Board of Alphaskill and brings many years of experience as a Private Equity advisor. Michelle is Partner at Candesic, healthcare consultancy, where she has led multiple projects reviewing market opportunities for investors. She practised as a front line hospital doctor for over 13 years and has experienced the vital importance of multidisciplinary team working across life sciences, hospital and community care.
She is passionate about helping investors understand the importance of people within the care sector, inclusive of digital healthcare, technology, AI, AR and VR, where human personalities remain a priority. Michelle studied medicine at the University of Cambridge. @DrMTempest
Francois is on the Advisory Board of Alphaskill. He is a Partner and the Co-Head of origination at Coller Capital, a global leader in the Private Equity Secondary Market, and is based in London. Prior to joining Coller Capital in 2007, Francois worked in the Investment Banking division of UBS in London. Previously, he worked at Gimar Finance and PAI Partners in Paris, and at Société Générale in New York.
Gerald Hellmer - CEO, Founder, Managing Director
Job Titles:
- Founder
- Managing Director
- Managing Partner
Gerald Hellmer is Founder and Managing Partner of Alphaskill. Prior to that, he worked as an Operating Partner/HR in a leading Private Equity Fund. Before that, Gerald was Managing Partner at Skillcapital and responsible for building the DACH Practice. Before Skillcapital he worked as a Strategy Consulting Partner at Roland Berger and Deloitte Consulting.
Gerald studied at the Vienna University of Economics, holds a degree in Business Administration and an MBA from INSEAD in Fontainebleau.
Jon Stephansen is a Director at Alphaskill where he is responsible for the Nordic Practice. He has a background from executive search, management consulting and tech start-ups. For 20 years he has worked globally with numerous reputable companies and clients. He has lived and worked in Norway, Singapore, Germany, USA, Canada and the UK, and he is currently based in London.
Jon holds a Siviløkonom degree (equivalent to a MSc in Business degree) from the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH).
Marcia Weber is Office Manager at Alphaskill and supports the team in all administrative matters.
Marcia gained excellent experiences in the international hotel industry and worked for well-known hotel chains such as Holiday Inn and Accor.
Prior to joining Alphaskill, she worked in the Finance and Admin department of Diva-e, a digital agency.
Job Titles:
- CTO
- Expert
- Specialist Advisor - CTO
Mark Bromwell is our expert PE CTO specialist, with 20+ years' experience as CTO of leading technology organisations through significant product development, value creation and scale up. With a proven value creation track record in a PE environment, he advises multiple PE Funds in pre-deal situations and board roles.Under PE ownership he played a key role in transforming a logistics business with warehouses, depots etc. into a software / SaaS business. He combines deep technical experience across a range of emerging technologies with technical directorship in Tech-M&A and rapid scaling situations.
Mark is an award-winning Chartered Engineer with a 1st class Masters-Degree in Electronic Systems Engineering from Aston University.
Martina Caiazzo is a Consultant at Alphaskill. Previously she has worked at Dealogic as a product expert for IB clients and at Guidepoint, where she connected buy side institutions with key industry experts. She has 8+ years of experience developing and maintaining relationships with C level executives, private equity firms, hedge funds and asset management firms.
Martina holds a BA in French and Spanish Language & Literature from Royal Holloway, University of London.
Miriam is a Consultant at Alphaskill focusing on the Health Care Sector. Prior to that she worked in the in Business Development and HR Management where she gained first international experience.
Miriam holds a degree in Hotel & Tourism Management of Hochschule Fresenius and Pace University New York, and she holds an MBA in Sustainable Marketing and Leadership from Hochschule Fresenius.
Nick Harlock is a Director at Alphaskill. He leads our Business and Technology Services Practice. Prior to that, he spent a decade at another leading executive search firm focused within the UK & European Private Equity market.
Earlier in his career he worked with growth focussed technology companies in the UK and Australia.
Osman is an Analyst at Alphaskill. He joined as part of our Analyst-Intern Program assisting consultants with sector mapping, talent pool research and monitoring the Private Equity market in Europe. Prior to that he worked as Head of Accounting for a IT and Data services company.
Osman holds a BSc in Accounting and Finance from the University of Sussex
Job Titles:
- Consultant
- Consultant / Barbara
Pascal Philipp Buck is a Consultant at Alphaskill and leading the Industrial Sector Practice. Prior joining Alphaskill, Pascal worked for Executive Search firms such as Heidrick & Struggles, where he specialized in the executive talent, leadership, and organizational Practice.
Pascal holds an MA in Political Science from Otto-Friedrich University in Bamberg, as well as a BA in Political and Economic Sciences from Martin-Luther-University in Halle-Wittenberg.
Priyanka Goyal is a Consultant at Alphaskill. Prior to that she worked in the Expert Network Industry managing research projects at Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG) in India and at Innosquared in Germany.
Priyanka Goyal has studied Economics at the Delhi University in India and holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Economics from the London School of Economics.
Robert is a consultant at Alphaskill with a focus on the Financial Services Sector. Before joining Alphaskill, he worked in the hedge funds space, both in investment management and consultancy.
Robert holds a BSc in Politics and Philosophy with courses in Economics from the London School of Economics and is an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Securities & Investment.
Sophie is an Analyst at Alphaskill. She joined as part of our Analyst-Intern Program assisting consultants with sector mapping, talent pool research and monitoring the Private Equity market in Europe.
Stephan Niser is a Director at Alphaskill. Prior to that, he was General Manager at Executives Global Network, an exclusive and private C-Level Network. He was responsible for the German Market and led their Munich Office. Before that he held Manager Positions in leading international Executive Search Organisations such as Catenon Worldwide, working in Munich, Brussels and Madrid, focussing on Cross Boarder Placements.
Stephan studied Political & Social Science at HU University in Berlin, as well as International Relations in Göttingen, Brussels and Berlin.
Thomas Weinmann is on the Advisory Board of Alphaskill and brings many years of experience as a Private Equity Investment Manager to this role. Thomas was a Partner at BC Partners in Hamburg for almost thirteen years before setting up Astorius Capital at the end of 2012. His aim is to make Private Equity an asset class accessible to private individuals, family offices and institutional investors. Before that, he held a board role in the German Private Equity and Venture Capital Industry Association from 2011 to 2015.
Thomas studied Business Administration at the University of Passau.
Tom Cox is a Consultant at Alphaskill with a focus on Business and Technology Services. He joined Alphaskill as part of our Analyst-Intern Program assisting consultants with sector mapping, talent pool research and monitoring of the Private Equity market in Europe.
Tom holds a BA in History from the University of Bristol.
Tom is a Principal at Alphaskill with a focus on building our CFO practice , having spent two years as a Consultant at a Venture Capital focused Executive Headhunter.
In his previous career he spent nearly a decade working within Wealth and Investment Management, both in a Boutique and at one of the world's largest Private Banks. Following this, he spent a year as the Finance and Operations Director for a retailer, before moving into Executive Search and Consultancy.
He is a Chartered Wealth Manager, has an Executive MBA, and holds a BSc in Business Management with honours from Queen Mary University.
Vivek Batra is a Managing Partner at Alphaskill and has built our UK Practice. He looks back upon a long international career in the Consumer, Retail and eCommerce sector, where he held various CEO/COO and NED roles in Private Equity portfolio companies in Germany and Benelux. He started his career at MEXX and worked for Sara Lee Apparel across various Northern European countries and the U.K.
Vivek holds a B.Com with Honours from Delhi University, is a qualified Chartered Accountant and an MBA from INSEAD Fontainebleau.
Job Titles:
- Advisor to
- Sector Advisor TMT
Volker Gerlach is an advisor to Alphaskill and supports us with his many years of experience in technology, digitalistion and strategy consulting.
For more than 25 years Volker Gerlach was a member of the international leadership at Capgemini Consulting, the transformation and strategy consultancy of the Capgemini Group. Since 2008 he holds various positions in supervisory and advisory boards with focus on digitalisation, such as, Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Kraft Baustoffe GmbH, Chairman of the Advisory Board of Bragi GmbH edgeAI/Wearable Technology, and member of the Non-Executive Board at Lumenion GmbH Energy Storage Solutions.
Volker Gerlach studied at the EBS University of Economics and Law and holds an MBA degree of IMD Business School, Lausanne.