We are always looking
for new talent and
to add diversity to our team

Federico Canciani

Managing Partner

Federico most recently spent c. 14 years with Oaktree Capital Management in the Opportunities Funds in London, focusing on a broad spectrum of investment styles.

Previous experience includes M&A and corporate finance with Goldman Sachs International and private equity with different investment managers.

Federico qualified with a Laurea degree in Business Administration at Bocconi University in Milan.

Maria Orlowski

Partner, Value Creation

Maria joined GTO in January 2023. Prior to GTO, she spent 15 years working with businesses to drive value creation both in a private equity context and as a consultant.

Most recently, she spent six years as a value creation specialist at Hg and then Inflexion. She worked closely with 17 portfolio companies focusing on a combination of growth initiatives and strategic projects throughout the deal lifecycle from diligence to exit, often being involved in designing the value creation plan in partnership with management.

Maria’s experience includes working on 43 relevant software or tech-enabled companies (and a further 19 in other sectors). Highlights include information services business Chambers and InFront, tech services business team.blue, and software businesses Sovos and Miratech.

Maria is a Swedish national and has worked in the US and across Europe. She holds an MSc in International Management from the Rotterdam School of Management and a BSc from Universitá Bocconi.

Alec Berghs

Partner, Capital Formation

Alec joined GTO in September 2023 and is responsible for capital formation. Prior to GTO, Alec spent over a decade raising capital from institutional investors and family offices across Europe, most recently at Golding Capital Partners and Keyhaven Capital.

Previous experience includes origination and structuring of private equity investments at ABN Amro (RBS) and execution of corporate finance transactions at Flemings (JP Morgan). Alec is a Belgian national, qualified as a UK Chartered Accountant with PwC and is fluent in several European languages.

Lawrence Dean

Partner, Investment

Lawrence brings 19 years’ deal leadership and board experience in UK and European private equity backed businesses to GTO.  He has a strong investment track record in B2B Tech, Tech Services and Software.

Most recently, he spent six years as a partner with LDC, where he managed a regional office and investment team and led a series of new platform investments and successful exits. He is recognised for building strong working relationships with Founders and Management teams to drive organic growth, value creation and M&A strategies.

Prior to LDC, Lawrence held senior investment roles at NBGI Private Equity and Stage Capital LLP. Lawrence started his career with SBC Warburg / UBS in Corporate Finance and worked for a VC-backed Travel Technology business before moving into Private Equity.

Lawrence attended the University of Durham and holds a BA Hons in Economics.

José Vidal de Sousa

Director, Origination

José holds a horizontal role focused on origination, building and maintaining relationships with management teams, advisors and investors, and helping with deal execution when needed. José will also be proactively mapping out the breadth of investable trends and themes, organizing, sizing, and identifying areas of interest within B2B technology.
 
José joined GTO on July the 20th 2020 after c. 5 years with Scottish Equity Partners where he was focused on deal origination as well as deal support. A Portuguese national and an entrepreneur at heart, José co-founded VEECEE, a networking event management platform for technology investors. José holds a master’s degree from LBS.

Emilia Studencka

Vice President

Emilia joined GTO in 2021 after spending four years at ING in Warsaw and London.

At ING Emilia was part of the M&A Advisory team where she focused on cross-border transactions in the technology, business and consumer services sectors.

Emilia is a Polish national and holds an MBA degree from London Business School.

Florian Thomann

Associate

Florian joined GTO in October 2023 after spending two years at Deutsche Bank.

At Deutsche Bank Florian was part of the Investment Banking team where he focused on the healthcare sector.

Florian is an Austrian national and holds an MSc degree in Corporate Finance & Banking with a Major in Financial Economics from EDHEC Business School.

Ruwanthie Jayakody

Chief Financial Officer / Chief Operating Officer

Ruwanthie joined GTO Partners in 2022. With over 10 years’ experience in Private Equity, Ruwanthie joined GTO from NEO Investment Partners where she was the Head of Finance, responsible for the Investor reporting and administration for the Fund and other underlying investment vehicles.

Ruwanthie is a qualified Chartered Management Accountant and holds an MSc in International Financial Management from Queen Mary, University of London.

John Herr

Operating Advisor

John has served as CEO, Senior Executive, Board Member and Non-Executive Chair for many growth-stage software and technology companies backed by private equity, growth equity and venture capital firms. He has an excellent track record as a technology executive leader in various “go-to-market” roles including sales, marketing, M&A, international markets, channels & partnerships and product management.

John is currently CEO of Arcoro, a $50m cloud software business that serves 10k+ active customers in the SMB construction market for time & attendance, talent management and core HR. He is also a board member of 2 SPACs – VACQ and VACQU. 

Prior to this, John was CEO at Avetta for five years, having sold the company in 2018 to a consortium that included WCAS and TCV.  During his tenure, Avetta grew its top-line from $20m to $150m as well as focusing on increasing the profitability of the business.  With 100k+ active customers in over 100+ countries, Avetta provides cloud software that manages risk, safety, health, environmental and sustainability for industrial supply chain on a global basis. 

John holds a BA in Economics from Harvard University, as well as an MBA from Harvard Business School and is based in the US.

Ian Hurst

Operating Advisor

Ian Hurst is currently an Advisory Board Member for several technology growth equity companies, including companies in digital banking, crypto asset accounting and payments. He has extensive experience globally in technology and financial services.

Ian was the former General Manager of IBM’s Global Financial Services organisation.
In this role, Ian was responsible for IBM’s overall relationship with major financial services firms around the globe.

Prior to IBM, Ian was a partner with McKinsey & Company, where he was a long-standing leader in McKinsey’s Financial Institutions Practice. During his 12 years at McKinsey, Ian served many leading investment and retail banks on strategy, organisation, operations, and technology related issues.  

Ian holds an MBA from Wharton where he graduated with distinction and received a degree from Cambridge University in engineering.

Eduardo Sanchez

Operating Advisor

Over the last four years, Eduardo has served as an Independent Board Director and Chairman of fast-growing software companies (such as Contentsquare, Empathy.co and Toucan Toco), working closely with their founders and CEOs as an Advisor. Previously, he was the President and CEO of RichRelevance, a leader in CX and Personalization, where he led the transformation of the company from a single product vendor into a Customer Experience Platform provider. Prior to this, Eduardo served as Executive Vice President at MicroStrategy, where he was an early member of the leadership team and played a critical role in the development of the company, spearheading its foray into new lines of business and international expansion.    

Eduardo received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of La Plata in Argentina and a M.S. in Systems Engineering from George Mason University in Virginia. He is based in New York City.

Rob Treacey

Operating Advisor

In his previous role, he was Global Head of Public Cloud Security at Rackspace Technology, building a portfolio of security services and solutions capabilities, from the ground up.

Prior to Rackspace, Rob held senior positions at Citigroup and Bank of America and consulted for financial services institutions including Bank of New York Mellon, and Natixis Investment Managers.

Rob has a German and Business degree from Queen Mary, University of London.

In 2023 Rob was on the global judging panel for the Digital Revolution Awards.

Mads Jensen

Technology Advisor

Mads is the Managing Partner and founder of Superseed, an early stage venture fund based in London, UK. A British and Danish national, Mads’ role with GTO is to keep an eye on early stage technology to identify early in advance trends that may be relevant for GTO portfolio companies as well as potential targets.

Mads started his career with IBM in various roles, from M&A integration to full P&L responsibility. Other experiences include CEO and Co-Founder of Sefaira, an enterprise software business focused on high-performance building design.

Mads is also the author of multiple US patents in data and SaaS and holds a BSc from Copenhagen Business School and an MBA from Insead.

Hussein Kanji

Technology Advisor

Hussein is a Founding Partner at Hoxton Ventures, an early stage venture investor that backed early rounds of unicorns such as Darktrace, Babylon Health and Deliveroo.

Hussein’s role with GTO is identifying early technology trends that could impact GTO portfolio companies as well as potential targets and help with due diligence pre-acquisition.

Hussein started his career in various technology roles on the West Coast, including with Sun Microsystems and Microsoft Corporation as Senior Manager in Corporate Strategy. He also helped form Safe-View (acquired by L-3), Radiance Technologies (acquired by Comcast), and Studio Verso (acquired by KPMG). Prior to setting up Hoxton Ventures, he spent c. 4 years with Accel Partners in London.

Hussein holds an MBA from London Business School, and an undergraduate degree from Stanford University.