Technical Policy Conference

Abigayil Chandra

Partner, Deloitte and Chair, UK Private Capital Taxation Committee

Abigayil Chandra is a Partner in the Private Equity funds tax practice at Deloitte with over 18 years of tax experience. Abigayil specializes in advising fund managers on a range of issues including the structuring and ongoing operation of their fund and management entities, carried interest plans and the ongoing tax reporting and compliance obligations.

Abigayil is the Chair of UK Private Capital’s Personal Tax Sub-Committee.

Alex Conway

Director, Professional Practice and Private Clients, Crowe

Alex Conway is a chartered tax advisor and accountant specialising in professional practices and individual partners' taxation, with a particular focus on the legal sector and investment management industry.
Alex advises clients on a range of personal and partnership tax matters, looking to provide a personal service which will enable them to achieve their goals.

Areas of particular specialism include advising on carried interest, disguised investment management fees , basis period reform, international expansion and salaried members legislation.

Alex has also spent time working in industry at a large mid-market private equity firm and thus understand a client’s point of view.

Alex is a member of the APP, and part of its Up and Coming Committee, as well as being a member of the BVCA Tax Committee.  
 

Andrew Howard

Partner, Ropes & Gray

Andrew Howard is a Partner in the tax practice at Ropes & Gray, specializing in UK and international tax matters. With over 20 years of experience, Andy’s practice covers all kinds of transactions involving investment funds, including private equity, finance, special situations, real estate, and GP and LP side fundraising.

Andrew Stevens

Partner, Inflexion

Andrew Stevens is a Partner and also General Counsel. He joined the firm in 2017 and since then has led and developed Inflexion’s legal and compliance function. He has broad responsibility for all transactional, regulatory and corporate legal and compliance obligations.

Andrew started his legal career at Slaughter and May, where he advised a broad range of corporate and fund clients on a variety of acquisitions, disposals and corporate finance matters. He has also worked for large international sponsors, including Och-Ziff Management Europe, where he was counsel responsible for European private equity and private debt investments, and then HPS Investment Partners, where he was Vice President, working on complex and heavily structured private equity investments.

He holds an MA in Jurisprudence from the University of Oxford.

Clare Copeland

Partner, Finance – Chief Tax Officer & Head of Tax Transformation, Carlyle

Clare Copeland is Chief Tax Officer and Head of Tax Transformation based in London. Ms. Copeland leads the global tax operations and strategy for the firm and its funds as well as driving the transformation of our global Tax function. She is also a member of Carlyle’s Operating Committee.

Previously, Ms. Copeland was Head of International Tax at Carlyle, where she had responsibility for strategy, risk management, and policy for firm and fund operations across its international platforms.

Ms. Copeland is a seasoned tax and operations professional with broad exposure across all functions and aspects of multinational asset management and private funds, and experience in delivering complex international multi-disciplinary projects. She also plays a leading role in policy development and advocacy, including roles at trade associations representing the interests of global asset managers. Most notably, Ms. Copeland chairs the Corporate Tax Sub-Committee of the BVCA and also sits on their Global Capital Committee. In addition, she co-chairs the Tax Committee of Invest Europe, is a non-executive member of their Board, and is a member of the Global Private Equity Council.

Ms. Copeland has over 25 years of experience in the asset management space. Prior to Joining Carlyle, she spent 12 years at American Capital where she was Senior Vice President, Head of Tax & Structuring Europe, where she advised on general International Tax Planning and M&A transactions. Prior to this, she spent 8 years with KPMG based in their Private Equity Tax Group in London.

Clare Gaskell

Partner, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Chair, UK Private Capital Legal Committee

Clare Gaskell advises on private M&A and public takeovers as well as equity capital markets transactions and other corporate matters, including minority and preferred equity investments, consortium transactions, restructurings and management equity plans, with a focus on private equity and other financial sponsor clients. Clare has particular experience in law and regulation applicable to UK-listed companies and handles complex cross-border transactions with international counterparties.

Clare is recognized by Chambers UK for her private equity practice. She has also been named “M&A Lawyer of the Year” and “Best in Private Equity” at Euromoney’s Women in Business Law EMEA Awards, “Transatlantic Dealmaker of the Year” by LegalWeek, and a “Hot 100: Dealmaker” by The Lawyer. Clare is the Chair of UK Private Capital's Legal Committee.

Ed Nevens

Head of Tax, Cinven

Ed Nevens was a Tax Partner at BDO focussed on the taxation of private equity firms and their investors. Before this Ed was an Associate Partner at EY and he previously worked in-house at Apax Partners and Bridgepoint Capital.

Ed has a PhD in Pure Mathematics from Imperial College and is a qualified Chartered Accountant.
He joined Cinven in 2020.
 

Edward Foxon

Chief Compliance Officer, Vitruvian Partners

Edward Foxon is the Chief Compliance Officer at Vitruvian Partners.  He has responsibility for Vitruvian’s global compliance programme, with regulatory oversight across the Firm’s corporate, funds and investment platforms.

Edward is a member of UK Private Capital’s Regulatory Committee and regularly contributes to industry advocacy efforts on key regulatory themes.

Prior to his role at Vitruvian, Edward was in legal private practice with Kirkland & Ellis in London.

Henriika Hara

Partner, Travers Smith

Henriika Hara specialises in financial services law and regulation; her client base consists of alternative asset managers with different investment strategies, brokers and investors. Henriika advises clients on the impact of, and in preparation for, regulatory changes in the financial sector. Henriika is the vice-chair of the Legal & Regulatory Committee of Invest Europe, a member of the Regulatory Committee of UK Private Capital and sits on the Private Debt Committee of ALFI.

Ian Jack

Chief Compliance Officer, Permira

Ian Jack is the Global Chief Compliance Officer of Permira and leads the firm’s compliance and risk functions.

Prior to joining Permira, Ian spent four years as Head of Compliance & Risk at Hg. He has also held a number of other senior compliance positions across both the buy-side and the sell-side, and started his career at the Financial Services Authority (now the Financial Conduct Authority).

Isobel Clarke

Director of Policy, UK Private Capital

Isobel Clarke is Director of Policy at UK Private Capital, with Sarah Adams. Isobel and Sarah have worked as a jobshare partnership since early 2020. They lead the Policy team and their work across tax, legal, regulatory, accounting and sustainability matters, working closely with members and UK Private Capital's committees to progress key technical and strategic policy issues.

Isobel has over 13 years’ experience of working on government policy, mainly at HM Treasury but also at the Ministry of Justice. She has led policy work on business rates, tax devolution and the scrutiny of tax reliefs. She was, with Sarah, Deputy Director for Business Tax Strategy and then Deputy Director for Open Justice and Dispute Resolution.

Isobel lives in London with her family. She read French and German at the University of Cambridge, spending a year in Berlin. Before joining HM Treasury she was a research and evaluation consultant.

Jacqueline Flynn

Operations Director, Exponent

Jacqueline Flynn is Operations Director for Exponent’s Irish Operations. Ms. Flynn joined Exponent in 2023 having spent almost 20 years’ working within the Irish and UK asset management and investment funds industry both in house and in practice. Prior to joining Exponent, Ms Flynn was Chief Operating Officer for BlackRock’s Irish Operation. Prior to BlackRock, she trained and worked in the Asset Management division of PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Ms Flynn is a chartered accountant and chartered governance professional and holds a Bachelor in Commerce from University College Dublin.

James Pratt

Private Equity & Transaction Tax Partner, BDO UK

James Pratt is a partner in BDO’s private equity and transaction tax team, advising private equity funds and PE-backed companies on the full range of their tax issues.

His work includes structuring and diligence for acquisitions, disposals (including IPOs) and refinancing, structuring new PE funds, tax strategy for PE funds and navigating the increased complexity that PE or VC ownership brings to an investee company's ongoing tax position.

James works with a variety of UK mid-market private equity houses and their portfolio groups and also has experience of US PE funds investing into the UK.
 

Jennifer Wheater

Partner, Debevoise & Plimpton

Jennifer Wheater is a partner based in the London office and a member of the firm’s Tax Department. Her practice focuses on advising clients on the UK tax aspects of establishing and operating various types of investment funds, including private equity, debt and real estate funds, and the UK tax aspects of mergers and acquisition transactions.

Ms. Wheater is recommended by The Legal 500 UK (2025), with one client noting that she is “an absolute star.” Clients have also said that she is “extremely dedicated, brilliant and gets things done.” She is also recommended by Chambers Global (2024) and Chambers UK (2025), where she is praised for having “technical knowledge, a client-oriented mindset and a sound understanding of risk.”

A long-standing, prominent member of the London tax and investment management community, Ms. Wheater sits on the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (“BVCA”) Tax Committee and, in this capacity, has regularly been involved in discussions with HMRC and HM Treasury on behalf of the investment fund industry. She is also the lead editor of the book Global Tax Aspects of Private Fund Formation published in 2016, and is the editor of the IBA publication Business Law International. Ms. Wheater is a regular speaker on fund related tax issues. Recent examples include Invest Europe’s Fund Secondary Transactions course 2024, Informa Connect Tax and Regulatory Issues for Funds 2024 and BVCA Tax, Legal and Regulatory Conference 2023.

Ms. Wheater is admitted to practise in both England & Wales and New York.
 

Jill Hardie

Global Head of Fund Tax, Patria

Jill Hardie is Global Head of Fund tax for Patria Investments, a global alternative asset manager specialising in mid market private equity, infrastructure, credit, real estate, and public equities. Jill covers all tax aspects of fund formation, investment structuring and tax reporting, with a particular focus on European and North American structures. Jill previously worked in the business tax advisory team at EY in Edinburgh. She is a Chartered Accountant and Chartered Tax Advisor. 

Jonathan Martin

Partner, Head of Private Equity UK Audit, KPMG, and Chair, UK Private Capital Accounting, Reporting & Governance Committee

Jonathan Martin is global head of Private Capital, Asset Management (PCAM) Audit at KPMG and a Partner in KPMG UK where he is responsible for the audit of the funds and management company structures of a range of Houses in the LBO, mid-market and Venture sectors spanning the UK, Europe and US.

He currently chairs UK Private Capital’s Accounting, Reporting & Governance Committee and is a former member of the Professional Standards Committee at Invest Europe  . He also co-leads KPMG’s “Portco+” program which ensures a co-ordinated approach to the audit of portfolio companies.
 

Karim Palant

Director of External Affairs, UK Private Capital

Karim Palant is Director of External Affairs at UK Private Capital, where he leads the organisation's public affairs, communications and research work.

With over twenty years' experience spanning politics, technology and economic policy, Karim works at the intersection of business, government and public debate. He leads UK Private Capital's engagement with policymakers, stakeholders and the media, and oversees the industry's flagship research programme on investment activity and long-term fund performance.

Prior to joining UK Private Capital, Karim held senior public policy roles at LinkedIn and Facebook. Earlier in his career, he served as Head of Policy to the Shadow Chancellor.

He studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford and was educated at Calderstones School in Liverpool.

Laura Charkin

Partner, Goodwin

Laura Charkin is a partner at Goodwin and Head of its London Tax Team. She specializes in taxation matters affecting the private investment funds industry, advising fund sponsors and investors on a broad range of issues.

She has particular expertise in structuring private funds, separately managed accounts, secondary transactions, carried interest arrangements, investment vehicles and investment management platforms. Laura also advises on international tax issues and multijurisdictional fund management structures.

She is a member of Invest Europe’s Tax Committee and Chair of the UKPC Business Tax Sub-Committee, through which she is actively involved in tax policy affecting the private capital industry.
 

Lord Spencer Livermore

Spencer Livermore was Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Growth Minister. He had Treasury responsibility for growth, productivity and investment, particularly focusing on AI and innovation, industrial strategy, the EU reset, the National Wealth Fund, nuclear investment, and Heathrow expansion.

Previously, in the private sector, he worked as a strategist at McKinsey & Company, Teneo Blue Rubicon, and Saatchi & Saatchi. Prior to working in business, he was Chief Strategy Adviser to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and then Director of Strategy to the Prime Minister. He has been a senior adviser on five general election campaigns.

He is a member of the House of Lords, a former Visiting Senior Fellow at the London School of Economics, and a former member of the Lords Economic Affairs Select Committee.

Lucie Mills

Partner, NorthEdge

Lucie Mills joined NorthEdge in 2019 to bring her experience of delivering change in a fast growth business to the private equity house itself.

As a Partner, Lucie supports NorthEdge portfolio companies to operationalise and deliver their value creation plan; facilitates portfolio connectivity to share learnings, best practice and access to the operating partner network; supports with Investor Relations and fundraising activities; and takes responsibility for ESG – recognising the role it plays in building better businesses and driving long-term value creation.

Lucie is also very active in wider industry advocacy, including taking on the role of Chair of the BVCA’s Responsible Investment Advisory Group in 2024 and regularly engaging with senior ministers to ensure the Lower-Mid Market & the UK regions are well represented in conversations regarding reform and policy development.

Paul Ellison

Partner, Clifford Chance

Paul Ellison specialises in advising on UK financial services regulatory matters. He advises a broad client base on a wide range of matters including the regulation of private funds, providing advice on structuring, the regulatory aspects of corporate transactions, FCA authorisations and variations of permission, the ongoing compliance obligations of FCA authorised firms and assisting firms with their response to FCA enquiries.

Paul has recently been advising on the impact of changes to EU and international fund marketing rules for private fund managers, the potential impact of AIFMD 2 and UK regulatory divergence on the market and the impact of key ESG disclosure legislation on fund managers and other industry participants, including the EU's SFDR and the UK's SDR proposals. Paul also participates on industry bodies, including the BVCA regulatory committee.

Paul is listed as a Leading Individual in Chambers UK for Financial Services: Non-Contentious Regulatory.

Peter Moore

Head of Compliance, Cinven

Peter Moore is Head of Compliance and a member of Cinven’s Legal and Compliance Department. He is a member of UK Private Capital’s Regulatory Committee and Invest Europe’s Legal and Regulatory Committee.

Prior to joining Cinven, Peter held in-house compliance roles at HSBC and Credit Suisse as well as performing regulatory roles at the UK Financial Services Authority and overseas financial regulators.

Peter has a LLB and LLM from the Queen’s University, Belfast.

Sarah Adams

Director of Policy, UK Private Capital

Sarah Adams is Director of Policy at UK Private Capital, with Isobel Clarke. Isobel and Sarah have worked as a jobshare partnership since early 2020. They lead the Policy team and their work across tax, legal, regulatory, accounting and sustainability matters, working closely with members and UK Private Capital's committees to progress key technical and strategic policy issues.

Sarah has over a decade of experience making policy in the centre of government, mainly at HM Treasury. She has led on policy areas across tax, spending and financial services, including pensions tax, venture capital and insurance markets. With Isobel, she has been deputy director for business tax strategy at HM Treasury, and deputy director for open justice and dispute resolution at the Ministry of Justice.

Sarah lives in London with her family. She studied economics at the University of Cambridge and worked on global health economics before joining the civil service.

Sarah-Jane Denton

Director, Travers Smith

Sarah-Jane Denton is a Director in Travers Smith's Operational Risk & Environment Group, and a member of the firm’s ESG and Impact and Sustainability Committees. Sarah-Jane’s practice is focused on sustainability including climate change, environmental issues, human rights and other topics under the ESG umbrella.

She has extensive experience advising asset managers and corporates on UK and EU legal frameworks governing sustainable finance, responsible business conduct and reporting. Sarah-Jane is a regular writer and speaker on ESG topics, a member of the UK Private Capital Sustainability Committee and Chair of its Sustainability Regulation and Reporting Taskforce.

Shakeeb Ahmed

Vice President, Compliance, Bain Capital

Shakeeb Ahmed joined Bain Capital in 2024. He is a Vice President on the Compliance team, leading the team in Europe.

Prior to joining Bain Capital, Shakeeb worked at Permira Credit where he was responsible for the delivery of the Compliance program. Immediately prior to this, he was based on the London trading desk providing Compliance coverage to the Global Spread Products business at Citigroup.
 

Stuart Clowser

Partner, RSM

Stuart Clowser is RSM UK’s head of private equity, leading RSM’s cross disciplinary private equity team. Stuart supports clients across the private equity market across funds, transactions and portfolio companies with audit, tax and consulting.

He works closely with founding partners and CFOs of private equity funds, supporting them through the fund lifecycle, including fundraising, deployment of capital, implementation of investment thesis and realisation. Stuart has significant experience in valuation, fund structures and the regulatory environment they operate in.

He is a member of the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVCAs) Accounting Committee. Stuart is used to working with deal teams and private equity backed businesses, working with their local management teams to deliver a coordinating portfolio of solutions to support the transaction, post deal implementation, optimisation and preparation for exit phases.

'I take real satisfaction of helping people succeed, whether that is my clients or developing our enthusiastic talented people at RSM and those specialists in our private equity team.'

Stuart trained as an auditor and started his career working with portfolio companies and owner manager businesses before specialising in fund audit and building RSM’s fund audit team. He has significant experience in financial reporting including IFRS, FRS 102 and FRS 101 accounting standards, plus the IPEV guidelines.

Stuart took a sabbatical during 2022 and spent 12 months with his young family in the French Alps embracing the outdoor lifestyle and introducing his children to his passions of snowboarding, cycling and the local community.
 

Thomas Woodhead

Partner, Kirkland & Ellis

Thomas Woodhead co-leads the European regulatory practice at Kirkland & Ellis and is a member of the UK Private Capital Regulatory Committee.

Thomas has extensive experience advising private fund sponsors on financial services regulation, the regulatory aspects of fund structuring, and on M&A in the financial services sector. His experience spans all major alternative investment strategies, with a particular focus on new industry developments and regulation, including tokenisation and the use of AI.

Before joining Kirkland, Thomas advised international banks and brokers on their regulatory obligations. He previously worked at the Financial Services Authority.

Tim Lewis

Partner, Financial Services & Markets, Travers Smith, and Chair, UK Private Capital Regulatory Committee

Tim Lewis specialises in financial services law and regulation. He acts for a wide variety of retail and wholesale financial services institutions. His clients include alternative asset managers, traditional asset managers, trading venues, payment systems operators, payment institutions, banks, brokers, and investors.

Tim is Chair of UK Private Capital's Regulatory Committee. He is a member of the European Private Equity and Venture Capital Association's Financial Services/Regulatory Working Group.

Tim Spence

Partner and CFO, Graphite Capital

Tim Spence is a member of Graphite’s Board. He joined Graphite Capital in 2005 and is responsible for the finance team and regulatory compliance. He also provides support to the Investor Relations function.

Previously he spent eight years in Audit & Assurance at Deloitte. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Deloitte and holds a degree in Mathematics from Oxford University. He has been a member of various BVCA technical committees since 2009.
 

Veronica Roberts

Partner, Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer

Veronica Roberts heads our UK Competition/Antitrust, Regulation and Trade practice and also leads the firm’s Global Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Group.  Veronica has over 25 years’ experience dealing effectively with merger/FDI clearances and high profile competition investigations in the UK, EU and worldwide. She regularly advises on competition compliance (including setting up compliance programmes/audits) and strategic behavioural matters.

Veronica is expert at co-ordinating merger control and FDI filings for cross-border transactions and has secured a number of clearances where commitments have been agreed to deal with competition/national security concerns, including under the UK’s NSI regime.
 

Yasir Aziz

Partner, Investment Management & Private Equity, Deloitte

Yasir Aziz is a Partner in the Investment Management & Private Equity practice in London. He has over 14 years’ experience in financial services providing both advisory and assurance services, focusing on private equity clients. Yasir has also worked in New York within the Deloitte US firm where he served on a number of large fund audits. Yasir has wide experience in financial reporting in UK, US and International standards.

Yasir specialises in the audit of private equity funds and corporates, including providing regulatory reviews and controls assurance engagements within the industry.

Yasir is Deloitte's representative on the British Venture Capital Association (BVCA) Legal and Accounting Committee, a role which gives him great insight into the evolving landscape of technical matters in relation to Private Equity.