Stafford Capital Partners makes senior global promotions
London, 13 July 2022 – Stafford Capital Partners (“Stafford”), a leading international private markets investment and advisory group, has promoted Michael Goodfellow from Head of Fund Operations, Real Assets, to Head of Fund Operations for the whole business globally; and Dhara Soneji from Tax Manager to Head of Tax globally. Both are based in Stafford’s London office.
Michael Goodfellow has been at Stafford for over seven years, originally heading up Fund Operations for Timberland before taking on the wider Real Assets side of the business, including Agriculture and Food, and Infrastructure. In his new role, he will assume responsibility for Stafford’s Sustainable Investing, Private Markets and Private Credit offerings also, overseeing reporting, liquidity management, acquisitions, fund structuring and due diligence for Stafford’s 150+ institutional clients.
Dhara Soneji joined Stafford ten months ago and was previously a Vice President in the Duff & Phelps Transaction Tax Advisory Practice. She will oversee all tax requirements across transactions, fund restructuring, disposals and acquisitions spanning Timberland, Agriculture and Food, Infrastructure, Sustainable Investing, Private Markets and Private Credit, as well as managing Stafford’s own compliance and tax reporting.
In their new positions, Michael and Dhara will have an integral role working closely with Stafford’s senior leadership team across Stafford’s nine offices in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Australia. Stafford regularly announces new investments and transactions, such as its recent EUR 100m secondaries investment into DIF Capital Partners’ ‘DIF Infrastructure V’ fund, which require close oversight and process from Michael and Dhara.
Commenting on the appointments Angus Whiteley, Chief Executive Officer, said: “Both Michael and Dhara have made a phenomenal contribution to Stafford Capital Partners. Their new roles will enable Stafford to further support our institutional clients with their technical knowledge and expertise.”
Michael Goodfellow said: “I’m excited to take on this new challenge. The team at Stafford is extremely skilled and I have been deeply impressed to work with them over the years as the company has grown. We work with our institutional clients on all their fund needs and it is this crucial and wide-ranging interaction which makes my job so fulfilling.”
Dhara Soneji said: “The opportunity to step into this position as Stafford’s Head of Tax, when the business is undergoing such a period of sustained growth, is an exciting one. I look forward to taking an active leadership role, whilst continuing to support the business in understanding the impact of global tax provisions, as well as monitoring the impact of upcoming legislative changes for Stafford.”
About Stafford Capital Partners
Stafford Capital Partners (“Stafford”) is an independent private markets investment and advisory firm with USD %%AuM%%bn in assets under management and advice* for more than %%numClients%% institutional clients worldwide. Founded in 2000, it has a global team of 80+ professionals investing in infrastructure, timberland, agriculture & food and sustainable private equity through secondaries, primaries, and co-investments. Stafford has been a UN PRI signatory since 2010 and has committed to the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative. It puts sustainability at the centre of its investment process and implements a well-defined ESG program across all strategies. In the UK, Stafford is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (Firm Reference Number: 225586).
* As of 30 September 2023