Deeply operational team of 16 tech and tech infrastructure experts globally with unparalleled industry expertise
Our team will be long term partners to the acquired business
Our Chief Executive Officer and Director, Karen Bach, is an accomplished business professional with over two decades of experience in growing international technology and telecommunications companies.
She is currently the Chairman of Aferian Plc (media tech, LSE: AFRN), Consult Red Ltd (IoT and connected devices IT services) and DeepMatter Plc (digitization of chemistry and drug discovery, LSE: DMTR). She is also a non-executive director of Datapharm Ltd (health-pharma tech)and Escape Hunt Plc (entertainment and escape rooms, LSE:ESC).
Previously, from 2012 to 2019, Ms. Bach served as the Independent Chairperson of IXcellerate Ltd. She has also served as a non-executive director of Belvoir Lettings Plc (LSE: BLV) and trustee of the Learning Foundation.
Ms. Bach brings significant international experience, as she served as Chief Financial Officer at growing technology businesses such asIXEurope Plc (LSE: IXE), ACS Plc and Kewill Plc, in addition to blue chip multi-national corporations, including EDS France, MCI WorldCom, General Motors (NYSE: GM) and Ernst & Young.
Ms. Bach obtained her bachelor’s degree from the University of Bradford, graduated from the EM StrasbourgBusiness School and is a qualified Chartered Accountant with the Institute of Chartered Accountants inEngland and Wales.
Our Executive Chairman and Director, Guy Willner, is a British entrepreneur with substantial experience in building, operating and investing in businesses, predominantly in the TMT and ICT industries, both in the private and public markets and both in developed and emerging markets.
Mr. Willner is the co-founder Chairman and former CEO of IXcellerate, a datacenter operator in Russia providing co-location and peering services for financial institutions, multinational corporations, international carriers, hyperscale operators and major content operators.
He has also served as the co-founder and Chairman of IXAfrica since 2018 and previously served as the CEO of IXEurope (LSE: IXE) from 1999 to 2007. Mr. Willner founded IXEurope in 1998 and oversaw the company’s growth from a sole datacenter in London to a network of 14 datacenters located in four countries (France, UK, Germany and Switzerland) and eight cities, fueled, inpart, by the company successfully executing eight acquisitions between 2004 and 2006. This rapid expansion resulted in IXEurope winning first place in the 2002 UK Sunday Times Tech Track awards as the fastest growing technology company in the UK, and Mr. Willner was a finalist in the 2003 Ernst and Young UK Entrepreneur of the Year awards. With his team, the company was successfully listed on London’s AIM market (LSE: IXE) in April 2006. That same year, the company received the Queen’s Award for International Trade in recognition of its spectacular growth across Europe. IXEurope’s share price grew by a multiple of 6.4x from April 2006 to September 2007, culminating in IXEurope being purchased by Equinix (NASDAQ: EQIX) for $555 million in September 2007. Following the sale, Mr. Willner remained as the President of Equinix’s European sector through June 2008.
Mr. Willner invested in and joined the board of directors of Teraco Data Environments (South Africa) in 2008, and remained as a shareholder and board member until 2014 when the company was sold to Permira.
In 2018, Mr. Willner founded IXAfrica, a hyperscale datacenter operator in Kenya that is projected to be the largest hyperscale datacenter campus inEast Africa by 2025.
Mr. Willner holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Oxford Brookes University.
Our Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operations Officer, and Director, Noah Aptekar, has extensive experience in innovation, finance and operations in high-technology industries, with particular expertise on terrestrial and space-based telecommunications.
From August 2016 through March 2020, Mr. Aptekar worked for SpaceX, the largest US-based “unicorn” company, where he brought financial discipline to the production division, which accounted for approximately one-third of the company’s employees actively engaged in the production and manufacturing of vehicles, and was responsible for financial planning, cost analysis and budget management activities for the division’s nine-figure annual operating and capital spend.Most recently, he was the project lead for one of the largest future budget items for SpaceX, the Starlink User Terminal. Furthermore, at SpaceX, Mr. Aptekar identified and implemented operational efficiencies to control cost and reduce risk while overseeing the development of a new consumer electronics manufacturing facility.
Between 2012 and 2014, while working for Colorado’s then-Governor John W. Hickenlooper in the Office of Economic Development and International Trade, Mr. Aptekar co-created the $100+ million Advanced Industries fund, which matches private investments with high-tech businesses and entrepreneurs. He also established and managed the due diligence and investment committee processes for the Advanced Industries fund.
One of the first recipients of Advanced Industries funding, Lightning Hybrids, announced in December 2020 its participation in an initial business combination with GigCapital3Acquisition Corp. (NYSE: GIK.U) and began trading publicly as Lightning eMotors (NYSE: ZEV) beginning in May 2021.
Another of the first recipients of Advanced Industries funding, Solid Power, Inc., announced in June 2021 its participation in an initial business combination with Riverstone Holdings LLC’s Decarbonization Plus Acquisition Corporation III (NASDAQ: DCRC). It is anticipated that the business combination would include a $165m PIPE in addition to Solid Power, Inc’s recently-closed Series B for $135 million, which included participation by global automakers such as Ford and BMW. Currently, Mr. Aptekar is the principal of Next Century Innovations, a global consulting company.
Mr. Aptekar has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania, an MBA from Yale University and has taken courses in pursuit of a Master of Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Our Vice President, Victoria Reid, has accumulated international transactional experience across the real estate, financial services and telecommunications industries.
Victoria previously served at IXcellerate and IXAfrica and has been responsible for securing high value investments from institutional investors including the Japanese Bank Sumitomo and Goldman Sachs.
Victoria Currently serves as the Vice President of Business Development at IDC-G.
Andrew Bartley is well-versed in the business and finance aspects of the TMT industry, with extensive experience operating as an executive and finance professional in the European and emerging markets.
He has also served on the boards of directors of various telecommunications and technology companies, including serving as a non-executive director of IXcellerate, working alongside our Chairman Guy Willner and our Chief Executive Officer Karen Bach.
Mr. Bartley is a former Chief Investment Officer for TMT at the International Finance Corporation (IFC). At the IFC, he principally originated, structured and managed complex equity, mezzanine and senior debt financings in the TMT and infrastructure sectors in emerging markets.
During his career, Mr. Bartley has held various non-executive director roles in a variety of companies and has been responsible for billions in debt and equity financings in Latin America, Africa, Asia and Europe. Prior to joining the IFC, he worked for Monenco Agra in project management and systems engineering.
Mr. Bartley holds a Bachelor’s of Engineering from the University of Bristol, UK, and an MBA from The Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.
Eduardo Marini is a successful Brazilian entrepreneur and investor with expertise in building, investing in and operating technology and high-growth businesses in Latin America.
He is the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of green4T, a leading IT infrastructure services provider operating in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Costa Rica.
Prior to co-founding green4T in 2016, Mr. Marini was the Vice President and interim CEO of Aceco TI, a leader in design, construction, and maintenance of high-availability datacenters in Latin America, formerly owned by the global investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR).
Before joining Aceco TI, Mr. Marini was a private equity investor with General Atlantic (GA), a global private equity firm focused on growth investments. While at GA, he held various non-executive director roles and oversaw new investments in Latin America in the technology and financial services sectors, having completed one of the most successful investments by GA to date inXP Inc. (NASDAQ:XP), an investment management company currently valued at more than $20 billion.
His experience also includes private equity and investment banking roles at Actis, Lazard, and Bank ofAmerica, both in Brazil and in the United States.
Mr. Marini is a licensed attorney and holds an LL.B.degree from the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG) and an MBA from the Yale School of Management.
Shannon Grewer is a corporate lawyer with significant experience working with early-stage companies in emerging markets.
She spent 15 years working in Washington, D.C. with several major international law firms, where she regularly advised clients across multiple sectors, including power, oil and gas, mining, banking, retail, consumer goods, entertainment and aviation.
Ms. Grewer has significant transactional experience in project finance, private equity and corporate acquisitions and divestitures as well.
She spent four years as the General Counsel for Towershare, the largest independent tower company based in the Middle East.
Ms. Grewer has also led Towershare’s raise of the necessary capital to transition from three employees to more than one hundred employees in Dubai and Pakistan, oversaw multiple tower acquisitions, and closed a successful exit for the company’s investors through a sale to Edotco. She continued to work as a consultant to Edotco and advised on telecommunications infrastructure deals across the Edotco portfolio of companies for two years.
In 2020, she helped a team of former Edotco executives raise significant capital from Digital Colony to launch a new infrastructure sharing company focused on Southeast Asia. She is currently working as an advisor to Frontier Tower Associates Philippines, Inc.
In addition to telecommunications, Ms. Grewer has negotiated infrastructure projects, including mining, power and commercial agriculture in South America, Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia.
Ms. Grewer holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Connecticut and a juris doctor degree from Fordham University School of Law.
Ms. Barger is a founder of the emerging markets listed-equity investment fund, Cartica Management.
Prior to founding Cartica, she spent 21 years at the International Finance Corporation investing in emerging markets companies in nearly all regions of the world. At IFC, among other positions, she was Division Manager for Africa, Deputy Director of Credit/Investment Review, and Director of Private Equity and Investment Funds. In that post she created the first index for EM private equity and co-founded the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association (EMPEA).
Ms. Barger also developed the first two corporate governance funds in the Emerging Markets, for Korea and Brazil. She was subsequently Director of Corporate Governance and Securities Market Development. In this position she was responsible for the governance aspects of IFC investments and using governance as a value addition strategy. She also created the innovative Gemloc bond fund, index, and market development program for local currency bonds.
Before joining IFC, Ms. Barger was with McKinsey & Company. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the boards of American University in Cairo, the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund of India, and ANERA. She also serves on the Advisory Council for Princeville Global Climate Tech Fund. She is a Latin Grammy winner.
Ms. Barger received her AB magna cum laude from Harvard College and her MBA from the Yale School of Management. She did post-graduate work at the American University in Cairo. She speaks Arabic and French.
Frank Hasset is an experienced manager with a demonstrated track record in the IT construction and operations industry.
He spent 20 years working in Equinix (NASDAQ: EQIX) and was a part of the company’s first prefunding as a European start up, and oversaw the progressive annual expansion cash out budget of more than $1.1 billion.
As the Vice President of EMEA DataCentre Infrastructure, Mr. Hassett led the teams that designed, developed and delivered more than 55 world-class datacenters across almost 200 project phases, with a portfolio size of more than 260,000m2 (2.8 million ft2 ) and 1300MW in more than 25 cities and 16 countries, with an expansion spend of more than $5 billion only in the last seven years.
Mr. Hassett holds a Bachelor’s of Engineering from South Bank London.
Tim Parsonson is a successful entrepreneur and investor, with years of experience in the technology industry.
He founded and sold two companies in South Africa: the first company, a telecommunications company, was acquired in 2008 for $50 million, and the second, Teraco Data Environments, which is now the largest datacenter company in Africa, was acquired in January 2019.
Since returning to the UK in 2014, Mr. Parsonson has been an active investor in early stage software companies in Cambridge. He is the Chairman of Undo Software and serves on the board of various others such as Cambridge Angels, a leading UK business angel network.
Mr. Parsonson currently serves as an advisor to, and co-investor with, Actis Private Equity and Convergence Partners in ColoWest, an African datacenter investment company.
He holds a Master of Arts in mathematics from the University of Cambridge.
Isfandiyar “Asfi” Shaheen is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of NetEquity Networks, an infrastructure sharing start-up based in San Francisco.
Previously, Mr. Shaheen helped create Towershare (acquired by Edotco in 2017). In addition, he served as a director on the boards of two publicly traded companies, Engro Corporation and Engro Foods (51% acquired by Friesl and Campina in 2016).
He was also the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Kadmos Initiative, a financial services company founded in 2009.
Mr. Shaheen graduated from Franklin and Marshall College with a degree in Economics and Mathematics.
Paul Berriman is a seasoned expert with over 40 years of international experience in telecommunications, media and convergence.
He currently serves as a non-executive director on the board of: (i) Spark New Zealand, the country’s largest telecommunications and digital services company and
(ii) Rain Group Holdings Pty Ltd., a South African mobile operator.
From 2002 until earlier this year, Mr. Berriman worked for HKT (previously known as PCCW-HKT) and served as the Group Chief Technology Officer of HKT Trust’s Hong Kong office for the last ten years, where he led the group’s product and technology roadmap and strategic development.
Prior to retiring from HKT, he was also a director of Lynx Analytics Pty, a data analytics company based in Singapore and the global Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance (NGMN e.V) of mobile network operators.
Furthermore, he was previously the Managing Director of management consultancy at Arthur D. Little’s Hong Kong office and has held roles in Reuters and several major Hong Kong service providers.
He is a Chartered Engineer who holds a Bachelor’s of Science in electro-acoustics from the University of Salford (UK) and an MBA from the University ofHong Kong.
Chris Godsmark has been a distinguished corporate finance advisor in the telecommunications and IT industry for almost two decades.
Mr. Godsmark co-founded Oakley Advisory Limited, which is one of Europe’s leading independent corporate finance firms, offering expert, specialist advice across a range of sectors including telecommunications, IT, datacenters, web hosting and online matters generally.
Oakley Advisory Limited has advised on approximately 125 transactions since 2007, many of which were originated by Mr. Godsmark.
He previously worked at Investec Investment Banking for ten years as the head of telecommunications, media and technology, and was also ranked as the number 1 investment analyst for several years.
Mr. Godsmark began his career as a financial journalist with BBC News in the 1990s and also served as the Business Correspondent for the Independent newspaper.
Simon Vye has over three decades of experience in the telecommunications, media and technology sector and has an excellent track record in sales, marketing and general management.
Since May 2020, Mr. Vye has spearheaded the commercial, business development and customer success strategies of Globalinternet, a global supplier of managed internet access services that was acquired by Expereo in November 2020.
Prior to Globalinternet, Mr. Vye was the Chief Executive Officer of IX Reach Ltd, where he helped the company consummate a successful shareholder exit through its sale to BSO Networks in September 2019.
Mr. Vye also served as the head of sales at Telia Carrier for seven years and as the Chief Executive Officer for Telstra Global (EMEA). Mr. Vye has previously held senior commercial management roles at AT&T, Colt, Liberty Global and Sprint.
Mr. Vye graduated from the Bournemouth & Coole College of Further Education.
Viktor Kovacs has spent over 30 years in the information and communications technology industry, bringing cutting-edge technologies to emerging markets.
He started his career in 1990 with EDS Corporation and has since worked with a number of highly innovative technology companies, supporting growth and exit strategies to major industry players such as Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, Lucent Technologies, and Cisco.
In 2008, Mr. Kovacs co-founded Neostratus, a cloud services company that serves as a Microsoft partner and delivers cloud portfolio services to telecommunications companies in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Since exiting Neostratus in 2013, Mr. Kovacs has spent his time investing in and supporting European technology and financial services companies scaling globally through expansion.
He currently sits on the boards of Clavister Holding AB, one of Europe’s leading cyber-security vendors, and EMFC, a boutique financial services provider which supports African companies in accessing developmental credit markets.
Mr. Kovacs holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from the Milwaukee School of Engineering.
Paul Garnett is an accomplished leader with over two decades of experience in telecommunications and technology law and policy, market development, business development, strategic alliances, and technology and business model incubation.
Prior to founding the Vernonburg Group in 2020 and serving as its Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Garnett was the Senior Director of Microsoft’s Airband Initiative from 2015 to 2020. The Airband Initiative’s portfolio encompassed dozens of projects in more than a dozen countries across 5 continents, where Mr. Garnett and his team worked with internet service providers, energy access providers, and other partners to deploy new last-mile access technologies, cloud-based services, and business models that extended broadband internet access for tens of millions of people.
Mr. Garnett also worked at the FCC in the Wireline Competition Bureau from 2000 to 2004, leading complex rule makings on universal service and intercarrier compensation regulations. Mr. Garnett was an Associate in Swidler Berlin’s telecommunications practice from 1997 to 2000 and a Consultant at Price Waterhouse from 1993 to 1995, advising on the privatization of state-owned telecommunications and utility monopolies.
Mr. Garnett earned his bachelor’s degree in political science at Union College and his law degree at the Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law. He is a member of the Bar of the District of Columbia.
Ted Chen is the Founder and Managing Partner of Carnegie Park Capital LLC, a firm whose team has invested across the full lifecycle of SPACs since 2008, including SPAC IPOs, companies emerging from SPACs (“deSPACs”), and in private investments in public equity (“PIPEs”).
Carnegie Park Capital was formed in 2021 and is focused on advising and providing capital to SPAC sponsors, including 2 that have announced business combinations in 2021.
Prior to this, Mr. Chen was a Portfolio Manager for eight years at Water Island Capital LLC, where he led investment portfolios of event-driven equities across all sectors. The core investment strategy focused on generating alpha from securities undergoing corporate change or catalyst events, including spin-offs/split-offs, break-ups/asset sales, bankruptcies, activism, de-SPACs, and speculated M&A.
Mr. Chen was previously a Managing Director at Jefferies & Company, where he conducted research and due diligence of announced mergers and acquisitions, spin-offs, tenders and bankruptcy exits, while managing a proprietary portfolio of event driven investments.
Prior to Jefferies, Mr. Chen was at Citigroup Global Markets where he was responsible for idea generation and due diligence on U.S. and Canadian merger arbitrage, hard-catalyst event opportunities (hostiles, tenders, etc.), SPACs, and relative value situations.
Jonathan Schildkraut is a finance and strategy executive with more than 20-years experience in the communications infrastructure space. Most recently, Jonathan served as the Chief Strategy Officer at CyrusOne, an $11B enterprise value public data center operator, where he led the company’s global expansion efforts – adding 15 new major markets, in 10 new countries, across three new continents. Jonathan oversaw the company’s M&A, JVs, and strategic partnerships as well as organic market expansion (i.e., land acquisition). Additionally, he played a critical role in developing and refining the company’s strategy for on-going growth and market share expansion.
Prior to CyrusOne, Jonathan spent more than 15 years as a research analyst, covering 100+ names in his career across the data center, towers, fiber, and telecommunications services sectors. During his tenure on Wall Street, Jonathan earned numerous accolades including awards from Institutional Investor, Thomson Reuters (formerly FT Starmine), and Forbes. Jonathan held senior roles at Guggenheim Partners, Evercore ISI, Jefferies, and Cowen & Co. Prior to entering research, Jonathan ran business development for WinStar Communications, an enterprise focused CLEC using fixed wireless over the last mile, and worked as an investment banker at Salomon Brothers.
Jonathan received a JD and an MBA from New York University and a BBA from the University of Michigan.
Paul Garnett is an accomplished leader with over two decades of experience in telecommunications and technology law and policy, market development, business development, strategic alliances, and technology and business model incubation.
Prior to founding the Vernonburg Group in 2020 and serving as its Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Garnett was the Senior Director of Microsoft’s Airband Initiative from 2015 to 2020. The Airband Initiative’s portfolio encompassed dozens of projects in more than a dozen countries across 5 continents, where Mr. Garnett and his team worked with internet service providers, energy access providers, and other partners to deploy new last-mile access technologies, cloud-based services, and business models that extended broadband internet access for tens of millions of people.
Mr. Garnett also worked at the FCC in the Wireline Competition Bureau from 2000 to 2004, leading complex rule makings on universal service and intercarrier compensation regulations. Mr. Garnett was an Associate in Swidler Berlin’s telecommunications practice from 1997 to 2000 and a Consultant at Price Waterhouse from 1993 to 1995, advising on the privatization of state-owned telecommunications and utility monopolies.
