The Lansdowne Team
The team at Lansdowne Capital comprises senior investment bankers with extensive international investment banking and industrial experience, backed by a pool of high quality executives and support staff.
This ensures that each project enjoys senior banker involvement from start to finish and that each of our clients benefits directly from our considerable industry knowledge and transaction experience. This is in contrast to many of our competitors. We often complement our core team with industry experts and external consultants with directly relevant industry, financial and/or geographic expertise.
The core team comprises:
Alan Dargan
Alan founded Lansdowne Capital in 1997. Alan has many years experience in investment banking and was, until February 1997, Managing Director in investment banking at SBC Warburg (now UBS), responsible for investment banking with a broad group of international clients. From 1984 to 1994, Alan worked for Credit Suisse First Boston in New York and London, most recently as Managing Director in investment banking. Prior to this, he worked for S.G.Warburg/ Warburg Paribas Becker in investment banking in New York.
Alan has advised many restructuring transactions in Northern Europe, including those in the banking, insurance and consumer products sectors. In addition, he has advised Governments and major corporations in the paper, packaging and printing sectors around the world in M&A and capital raising transactions.
More recently, Alan has also led the firm’s investment activities.
Alan is an honours graduate in business studies from Trinity College, Dublin and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland.
email: adargan@lanscap.com
Orla Dargan
Orla joined Lansdowne Capital in 2000 and is responsible for M&A and strategic advisory services in the building material and related sectors. Orla was previously with ABN Amro Corporate Finance where she was a director in charge of the building materials sector team, which she established in 1997. From 1993 to 1997 Orla was head of corporate development for Hepworth PLC, a major quoted European building materials group, responsible for overseeing the group’s acquisitions and disposals. From 1989 to 1993 Orla worked at Lloyds Merchant Bank where she executed a large number of M&A and capital raising transactions in a variety of industries across Europe.
Orla is a chartered accountant and has an honours degree in business studies from Trinity College, Dublin.
email: odargan@lanscap.com
Jim Downing
Jim Downing is a senior advisor to Lansdowne Capital, providing corporate finance advice and developing private equity investments and participations.
Jim has extensive experience in investment banking in New York and London. Prior to working with Lansdowne Capital, Jim was a managing director and deputy head of European Investment banking at JP Morgan Chase. He has also held senior positions with Lehman Brothers, Wasserstein Perella and First Boston.
Jim has an MBA from the Yale School of Organisation & Management.
email: jdowning@lanscap.com
Ben Evans
Ben Evans is an Associate Director of Lansdowne Capital having joined the company in 2009 from Catalyst Corporate Finance, where he was an Executive in their deal execution team. He has worked on transactions in the aerospace, industrial, healthcare, architecture, distribution and packaging sectors. Prior to Catalyst, Ben worked at PwC from 2000 to 2006.
Ben has a degree in mathematics with German from the University of Manchester.
email: benevans@lanscap.com
Ross Finegan
Ross is a consultant to Lansdowne Capital, assisting the company in developing its investment portfolio. Ross is the founder and owner of Claver Capital, a private equity investment vehicle incorporated in 2005 to invest in UK small to mid-market enterprises, with a particular focus on cash generating businesses and strong management teams. Claver Capital has investments in the transport, telecoms and oil and gas services sectors and recently co-invested with Lansdowne Capital in Containental Offshore.
Prior to forming Claver Capital, Ross was a director of JPMorgan Partners, the private equity arm of JPMorgan, where he concentrated on investments in the telecoms/media, business services and retail sectors. Prior to JPMP, Ross worked for the Corporate Finance arm of Deloitte in London advising on management buy-outs.
Ross is a Fellow of the Irish Institute of Chartered Accountants and has a Batchelor
of Commerce degree from University College, Dublin.
email: rfinegan@clavercapital.com
John Hardy
Following a brief career in the army, John Hardy worked for Hambros Bank from 1987 to 1995, where he developed the sector-focussed organization for the bank and headed the paper, packaging, printing and distribution sector team. In 1995 John moved with his sector team to UBS and, following the merger, into UBS Warburg, where he was Managing Director of the Global Paper and Packaging group. Between 2002 and 2005 he was a partner at Deloitte and head of the paper and packaging group.
John’s sector experience includes the privatization of the Polish paper and products industry, the acquisition of 4P by Van Leer, the acquisition of Swiece by Mondi, the merger of Nampak and Malbak, the sale of Linpac to Montagu and the subsequent sale of Linpac Corrugated to DS Smith.
email: jhardy@lanscap.com
Brian Lynch
Brian Lynch works as a consultant to Lansdowne Capital identifying and negotiating investment opportunities.
Prior to working with Lansdowne Capital, Brian was CEO and an investor in City Practitioners, a financial services business specialising in the design and implementation of trading systems. City Practitioners was sold in a trade sale in July 2006.
Brian has considerable experience in the global life insurance industry, with particular emphasis on Europe and Japan. He was a managing director of the Insurance Shareholder Value team at PwC. He has also held positions with Lynch Associates, Daiwa Europe Strategic Advisors, MMG Patricof and Matsui & Co. Ltd.
Brian holds a B.Comm (Hons.) from University College, Dublin, an MSc from Trinity College, Dublin and a Diploma in Japanese management from Sophia University, Tokyo.
email: blynch@lanscap.com
Jeremy Roberts
Jeremy Roberts is a director of Lansdowne Capital having joined the company in 2002 from Credit Suisse First Boston, where he was a Vice President in the Transport and Logistics team. In addition to working for clients in the transportation sector, Jeremy has advised leisure, building materials, paper and packaging, and chemicals companies. Prior to CSFB, Jeremy worked at ABN AMRO Corporate Finance from 1995 to 2000.
Jeremy has a degree in Economics and Politics from the University of Bath.
email: jroberts@lanscap.com
Tim Rothwell
Tim Rothwell advises Lansdowne Capital as a consultant specialising in assignments and investments in the paper and packaging and media sectors.
Tim was a Director of Greig Middleton in London, and head of the company’s paper, packaging and printing industries and media sector teams. From 1987 to 1995 he was a Director of BZW and in charge of the paper, packaging, printing and media industries research teams. At BZW he participated extensively in corporate finance advisory work. Prior to becoming an equity analyst, Tim gained extensive experience of the paper, packaging and printing industries as a manager with Kimberly-Clark, Bowater-Scott and Bowater Packaging from 1975 to 1986, as well as during a period in advertising and media.
Tim holds an MA from Oxford University, is a Fellow of the Institute of Packaging and a Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. Tim is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and contributor to Packaging magazine and PIRA.
email: trothwell@lanscap.com
Tim Sanders
Tim Sanders was a founding partner of Lansdowne Capital and is a director of the company. He previously worked at SBC Warburg where he was an Executive Director in the investment banking paper, packaging and printing sector team. Tim joined Swiss Bank Corporation in 1992, charged with the task of developing the bank’s presence in investment banking in European paper and packaging. From 1980 to 1992 Tim was responsible for Corporate Development at Bunzl plc, a U.K. public company, during which time Bunzl expanded rapidly through acquisition and organic growth to become a FTSE 100 company. Tim has also held senior strategic planning positions with Ford Motor, Massey-Ferguson, Xerox and TI Group.
Tim has a masters degree in Economics from Cambridge University.
email: tsanders@lanscap.com
