Posts in Private Equity
Andrew Betz | Partner, Stafford Private Equity | Los Angeles, US

Andrew works on venture capital and growth equity opportunities.

Prior to Stafford, Andrew worked with Macquarie Investment Management Private Markets and GKM Newport as an investment manager. In these roles, Andrew was responsible for due diligence of primary and co-investment opportunities.

He holds a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Southern California and a Bachelors degree from the University of California-San Diego.

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Dan Bowden | Partner, Stafford Private Equity | Sydney, Australia

Dan makes primary commitments to private equity funds in Australia and New Zealand (over $500m since joining in 2007). He sits on Investment Advisory Boards of a range of private equity funds. He also makes co-investments alongside the private equity funds, and acquires secondary private equity fund interests. Prior to joining Stafford, Dan spent three years in Investment Banking at Goldman Sachs, where he advised companies on mergers, acquisitions and capital raisings.

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Lee Brown | Associate, Stafford Private Equity | Austin, US

Lee is an Investment Associate for Stafford’s Private Equity group. He is involved primarily in due diligence, transaction sourcing and assists in manager research.

Prior to joining Stafford, Lee was a Deal Advisory Senior Associate at KPMG where he had experience in Lender Due Diligence and Corporate Finance practices.

Lee is a Certified Public Accountant and has a Bachelors Degree in Finance and Accountancy from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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Erica Bushner | Advisor, Stafford Private Equity |

Erica provides advice on all areas involving venture capital investment management.

Previously she served as a Senior Advisor for Macquarie Investment Management Private Markets. Prior to Macquarie, Erica founded GKM Newport, an investment firm specializing in venture capital and private equity. She also was co-founder of the Wilshire Private Markets Group. Erica began her career by establishing the venture capital and Private Equity Program for the PA State Employes’ Retirement System.

She earned a Masters of Business Administration from the Pennsylvania State University and holds both CFA and CPA designations.

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Kurt Faulhaber | Partner, Stafford Private Equity | Austin, US

Kurt is responsible for relationship management, sourcing and due diligence for sustainable investments.

Prior to Stafford, Kurt worked for Macquarie Investment Management Private Markets as Senior Vice President. He also spent several years identifying clean tech ventures and technologies, incubating start-ups for launch and growth, and consulting with sustainable start-ups.

He earned a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Texas-Austin and a Bachelors degree from Carnegie Mellon University.

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Ryan Franz | Principal, Stafford Private Equity | Sydney, Australia

Ryan Franz is an Investment Director in Stafford’s Private Markets team.

Prior to joining Stafford Ryan worked at Audant Investments, a Sydney-based family office, where he was focused on private capital investments. Ryan has a private equity and investment banking background and has worked across numerous industry sectors including Industrials, Technology, Real Estate and Agriculture.

He has a Bachelor of Business from the University of Technology, Sydney and a Masters of Science in Property Studies from the University of Cape Town.

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Rick Fratus | Managing Partner, Stafford Private Equity | Austin, US

Rick is involved in relationship management, due diligence and negotiation.

He was previously Managing Director for Macquarie Investment Management Private Markets which advised on over $7 billion of assets, including private funds, secondary investments and co-investments. Prior to co-founding MIMPM global private equity and real asset operations, Rick was Vice President at Pacific Corporate Group.

He earned a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Texas-Austin and a Bachelors degree from the United States Naval Academy.

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Ron Heinz | Principal, Stafford Private Equity | Austin, US

Ron is responsible for sourcing and due diligence of private markets investments.

He was previously a Principal at Sweetwater Capital Partners, a boutique private equity secondaries firm. Prior to Sweetwater, Ron held investment roles at StepStone Global and Signal Peak Ventures.

Ron holds an MBA from Mannheim University in Germany and a BA in economics from Villanova University.

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Jesse de Klerk | Partner, Stafford Private Equity | Rotterdam, Netherlands

Jesse de Klerk is Partner at Stafford Capital Partners in The Netherlands, with a focus on European private equity investments and global thematic private equity investments.

Prior to joining Stafford Capital Partners in June 2020, Jesse was Head of Private Equity at Robeco, where he worked since 2004. Prior to that, he worked as consultant at KPMG and Andersen, advising global organizations on risk management, financial management, and performance improvement. He started his career at Deutsche Bank in London, where he worked in the Global Markets Research division.

Mr. De Klerk holds an M.Sc. cum laude in Financial Econometrics from the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, an M.Sc. cum laude in M&A and Valuation from the University of Groningen, is a CFA-charter holder, and a CAIA-charter holder.

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Geoff Norman | Co-founder and Director | Sydney, Australia

Geoff is a co-founder and non-executive director of Stafford Capital Partners, and is the company’s largest shareholder. He was the founding Chairman from 2000 – 2021. Prior to this, he founded Pantheon Ventures’ Asia Pacific operations before it was acquired by Pantheon. Geoff serves on several of Stafford’s Investment Committees, as well as a continuing role on the company’s Strategy and Remuneration Committees. He holds Bachelor degrees in law and accounting from the University of Canterbury (BComm/LLB(Hons)), a Masters degree in Management (MS) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan Fellow), is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and a New Zealand Harkness Fellow.

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Kate Pargaman | Analyst, Stafford Private Equity | Austin, US

Kate Pargaman is a Private Equity Analyst in Stafford's US Private Equity Team.

Prior to joining Stafford, Kate was an International Tax Senior Consultant at Deloitte where she helped clients with compliance and strategic planning around international M&A and financing.

Kate is a Certified Public Accountant in the state of Texas and has a Bachelor degree in Business Administration and Master degree in Professional Accounting from the University of Texas at Austin.

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Amit Patel | Principal, Stafford Private Equity | London, UK

Amit Patel is a Principal in Stafford’s European Private Equity business line, involved in the sourcing, execution, diligence and monitoring of European Private Equity investments.

Prior to joining Stafford Capital Partners, Amit spent four years in the private equity team at Robeco. Amit began his career at London-based investment firm Keyhaven Capital Partners where he spent eight years.

Amit holds a Masters of Science in Investment Management from Cass Business School and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Bristol Business School.

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Haiko Sulman | Vice President, Stafford Private Equity | Rotterdam, Netherlands

Haiko is a Vice President in Stafford’s European Private Equity business, and is responsible for sourcing, execution, due diligence and monitoring of European Private Equity investments.

Prior to joining Stafford Capital Partners, Haiko was involved in multiple areas of the Robeco Private Equity team, which managed and advised over USD 2bln of assets in private equity. Prior to Robeco, Haiko worked in IT Development at Omron for five years, and as an IT Engineer and Developer specializing in Human Resource platforms.

Haiko studied Financial Control at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam.

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Stephen White | Co-founder, Stafford Private Equity | Sydney, Australia

Stephen is involved in relationship management, strategy formulation and investment sourcing and evaluation for Private Equity in Australia and New Zealand. He co-founded Stafford Capital Partners in 2000.

Prior to Stafford Capital Partners, Stephen spent over 10 years at Macquarie Bank’s Asset Management Division, where he established and invested its $220 million private equity program. Stephen joined Macquarie Bank when it acquired Risk Averse Money Managers, of which he was an owner and director.

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Angus Whiteley | Chief Executive Officer | London, UK

Angus is responsible for all aspects of the business at Stafford, working across strategy formulation, team development, relationship management and investment evaluation.

Prior to Stafford Angus worked as a direct investor in the private equity and venture capital markets. He started his career with Thompson Clive & Partners, a life sciences and technology private equity firm with investments in Europe and the US. He then co-founded Solon Ventures, a UK venture capital firm.

He received an MA in Law from Cambridge University.

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