CortenCapital

Joseph Schull

Joseph is the Managing Partner and Chairman of the Investment Committee of Corten Capital and one of the industry’s most experienced investors in the technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) sector, across early stage, development capital and leveraged buyout investments. Having joined Warburg Pincus, one of the world’s leading private equity firms, in 1998, Joseph led the firm’s TMT group in Europe as well as its investment activities in Emerging Europe. He has led growth and buyout investments in B2B software and technology-enabled services, information services, cable broadband services and digital media. He also served as WP’s Head of Europe and was a member of the firm’s global Executive Management Group.

Joseph holds a B.A. and M.A. from McGill University, where he studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics and was a Guy Drummond Scholar, and he received a D. Phil from Oxford University, where he was a University Lecturer during 1990-1991.

He is Chair of the Investment Committee of venture philanthropy organisation Impetus Trust, a Board member of the Social Science Research Council, and a member of the International Advisory Board of McGill University.

Simon Begg

Simon is a co-founder and Investment Committee member of Corten Capital, with 20 years’ TMT investing experience as well as leadership roles in capital markets and financing, transaction execution and portfolio support. Prior to co-founding Corten Capital, Simon was a Partner at Warburg Pincus, one of the world’s leading private equity firms. At Warburg Pincus, he was involved in the structuring, execution and value realisation of more than $20B of investments across its European portfolio and was a senior member of the TMT team. Simon served as COO of its European business, was a board director of Safetykleen and Mercator, and played a lead portfolio support role with several Warburg Pincus portfolio companies including Ziggo.

Prior to Warburg Pincus, Simon worked at Apax Partners in London and at Time Warner in New York. He received an M.Eng in Engineering, Economics and Management from Brasenose College, Oxford.

Andrew Sukawaty

Andy is a Co-founder and Investment Committee member of Corten Capital. He is also the Chairman of Inmarsat, having previously served as its CEO and Chairman between 2003 and 2012. He led the company through its privatisation and subsequent listing on the London Stock Exchange, and more recently led its delisting in a take private completed in 2019. Andy has worked with fellow Corten founders, Joseph Schull and Simon Begg, since 2006 when he joined the Board of Ziggo, the leading Dutch broadband services provider. As Chairman of Ziggo, Andy led the company through seven years of rapid growth and value creation, culminating in a highly successful IPO on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange of Warburg Pincus’ most successful investment to date in Europe.

A renowned entrepreneurial business builder, Andy is a pioneer in communications services who has been backed by some of the world’s leading private equity firms and led the IPOs of three PE-backed businesses. He was involved in launching some of the first US mobile phone systems and then crossed the Atlantic to start a UK mobile operator (which became T-Mobile UK). He went on to run NTL in the UK and later returned to the US to start up the US national mobile phone operator, Sprint PCS. Andy was Senior Independent Director at Sky and is a current board member of RELX.

Andy is a graduate of the University of Minnesota (MBA) and the University of Wisconsin (BBA).

Don Robert

Don is a Co-founder and Investment Committee member of Corten Capital. He is also the Chairman of the London Stock Exchange Group, the leading global financial markets infrastructure business. Don is a pioneer in the information services industry with a long history of building businesses internationally, bringing a relentless focus on talent development. He joined Experian as COO of its troubled North America subsidiary in 2001 and spent the next 18 years, latterly as CEO and then as Chairman, transforming it into a £20 billion global market leader listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Don is a Technology Advisor to the Bank of England and was a Non-Executive Director of the Court of Directors of the Bank of England during 2014-19. He chairs Validis, a financial accounting software company, based in the UK and was previously a Board member of Compass Group.

Don is a graduate of Oregon State University (BA, Business Administration/Finance).

Alexandre Michelson

Alexandre is a Principal in the Corten Capital investment team. Prior to joining Corten, Alexandre was a Vice President in the Technology, Financial and Business Services vertical at Bain Capital, one of the world’s largest private equity firms. During his time at Bain Capital, Alexandre focused on buyout investments across Europe, spanning multiple sectors including B2B software, business services, industrials and consumer retail. He also played a key role supporting several portfolio companies across growth, turnaround and M&A strategies as well as leading on various financing and capital markets transactions. Prior to this, Alexandre was a consultant with The Boston Consulting Group in London where he worked on a number of private equity due diligence projects as well transformation projects for companies in TMT and retail. Before that, he worked as a credit hybrids trader within J.P. Morgan’s Global Markets division.

Alexandre holds an MS in Mathematics and Physics from Ecole Polytechnique (France) and an MS in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University (US).

Caroline Watteeuw

Caroline is Corten’s Chief Technology Officer with lead oversight of technology-related due diligence and portfolio company support. She is one of the most experienced CTOs in the technology industry. Prior to joining Corten, Caroline served as Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer of Caliber Home Loans, where she was responsible for the technology infrastructure supporting Caliber’s aggressive growth plan and digital transformation.​ Previously, she served as Technology Officer at Warburg Pincus.

Caroline also has served as Global Chief Technology Officer at PepsiCo, held senior technology roles at iFormation Group, TradingEdge and Credit Suisse Group, and has acted as a senior technology advisor to CEOs and corporate boards at Innovation Through Technology. Caroline is a Board member of New Relic, previously served on the board of Capgemini SE, and has been a Trustee of New York Institute of Technology since 2015.

Caroline received her undergraduate degree from the University of Ghent in Belgium and has an M.S. in Biochemical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. Caroline is Belgian and lives in Dallas, Texas.

Neil Patel

Neil is a member of the Corten Investment team. He was previously Global Finance Director for Lumesse, a Human Capital software business, where he was responsible for finance strategy and operations, corporate development and business operations. He played a leading role on a number of transformational projects at Lumesse, including a complex transition from license to SaaS and from on-premises to cloud, a new ERP and MIS implementation, the redesign of sales incentives, as well as the disposal and closure of non-core assets and debt refinancing. These initiatives contributed to Lumesse achieving record levels of growth prior to its sale in 2018.

Prior to Lumesse, Neil served as Head of Financial Planning at the UK’s largest rent-to-own retailer, and also held roles at Credit Suisse and PwC across consulting and corporate finance.

Neil is a chartered accountant, having trained at PwC, and he received a BSc. in Economics from University College London.

Clay Gibson

Clay is a member of the Corten Investment team. Clay was previously an Associate at Accel-KKR, where he focused on buyout and growth equity investments in B2B software companies in Europe and North America. Prior to this, he worked in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, where he focused on transactions involving middle market companies in the software and technology-enabled services industries.

Clay received a B.A. in Economics and History from the University of Virginia.

Joanna Coates

Jo works as a PA at Corten Capital. Previously, she worked with Joseph Schull and Simon Begg at the London office of Warburg Pincus for 11 years. Originally from Warwickshire, Jo has lived in London since leaving secretarial college in Oxford where she completed an English and French bilingual secretarial course.

Lillie Allen

Lillie works as a PA and Office Manager at Corten Capital. She previously worked as a Recruitment Advisor, sourcing staff for UHNW Family Offices. Lillie grew up on the North Yorkshire/Cumbria border and moved to London in 2010 to study Theatre Arts at Goldsmiths University.