Meet the team

Joining Investec in 2018, Jonathan has over 17 years of Corporate Finance experience, which included selling active assistance in 2018 to montreux capital management. Jonathan is also the Co-Head of Investec’s Private Equity Client Group. Jonathan was previously managing director at DC Advisory and manager at PwC, where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant. Jonathan graduated from Bristol University with a First-Class Honours degree in Maths & French.

Charles joined Investec in 2017 to lead the bank’s cross border corporate finance business.  With over 26 years of investment banking experience, he has advised clients on international transactions around the world, including in Europe, Asia, the Americas and Africa.  Charles previously worked for Renaissance Capital, Greenhill and Deutsche Bank.  He qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Arthur Andersen and graduated from the University of Cape Town with a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) Degree.

Ervin Schellenberg is Managing Partner, and a member of the leadership Team at Investec’s European Business Advisory Group.

For more than 30 years Ervin has acted as a trusted advisor to the boards and owners of mid-cap and large-cap companies, on 100+ complex mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, financings and buyout transactions – worth a total volume of several billion euros.

Ervin also serves on the advisory board of Hochrein GmbH, a private German technology holding; and is a member of the board of trustees of “Junge Deutsche Philharmonie” .

Ervin is fluent in German, English and Slovene.

He is a Co-founder of Capitalmind, which he co-build over 20 years with his Partners and successfully merged into Investec PLC. Before that, he held several senior positions at leading private equity and investment banking firms such as Duke Street Capital, London, a €3 bn alternative asset manager focused on middle market equity and debt investments, where he served as Managing Partner of their GSA business and Citigroup’s Salomon Smith Barney, where he was part of the senior team in their European Industrials investment banking group in London.

Ervin holds a master’s degree in business administration from Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt. He is married and has two children.

Jan Willem is a Managing Partner and a member of the leadership Team at Investec’s European Business Advisory, which he co-founded in 1999. He has 25+ years of experience in M&A and has successfully closed 100+ deals (mainly cross-border), focusing on Consumer/Food, Business Services and TMT. Jan Willem speaks Dutch, English, German and French.

Before Jan Willem founded Investec’s European Business Advisory, he was a corporate banker and regional director of commercial banking for ABN AMRO Amsterdam, managing several branch offices.

Jan Willem is also a guest lecturer at Tilburg University; Chairman of one of the oldest football & cricket clubs in the Netherlands, HC & FC Victoria 1893; and from 2009 until 2015, Chairman of the Dutch Corporate Finance Association.

He has a degree in Marketing & Business Administration from Wageningen University, and later earned his second license in Financial Economics and International Business in Antwerp, Belgium.

Michel is a Managing Partner and a member of the leadership Team at Investec’s European Business Advisory Group and heads the French Investec Business Advisory team in Paris.

Michel started his career by founding Capital Partner (an M&A advisory boutique) in Paris in 1999. He then merged it in 2004 with Dutch firm Bluemind Corporate Finance to create Capitalmind, which expanded until 2023 across Europe (in Germany, the Nordics and Swizterland), before joining forces with Investec to create a global Mid-Market M&A advisory player.

Michel has worked in M&A for over 25 years, as the lead dealmaker on more than 100 transactions, including divestitures, buy-outs, financings and acquisitions. Michel assists all types of clients, from large corporates to entrepreneurs, families and private equity houses.

He has a deep understanding of company strategies and international deal-making – notably in Business Services, Industrials, and Food & Agro.

Michel also acted as board member and then chairman of the supervisory board of Davey Bickford, a €80m revenue high-tech family group, which ran a buy-out with Argos Soditic in 2007 and was sold in 2015 to the Chilean group ENAEX.

Michel holds an MBA from ESSEC Business School.

He is fluent in French and English.

Marleen is a Partner of Investec and joined the company in 2009. In the period 2019-2021, Marleen has temporarily worked from the San Francisco / Silicon Valley region in the US.

Over the past 10+ years, Marleen has successfully closed more than 50 (crossborder) deals, naturally in several sectors, including business services, TMT, and industrials. Her main responsibilities include advising on sell-side transactions, funding, MBOs, and company acquisitions.

Marleen was chosen as number 1 female dealmaker within M&A community based on number of deals.

Besides Dutch, Marleen is fluent in English.

Between 2005 and 2009 Marleen worked at another corporate finance firm as well as a family office active in a broad range of financial services, where she was responsible for M&A. 

From 2010 to 2017, Marleen was an active member of Junior Chamber International in Tilburg, where she also served as a board member for part of that period.

Marleen studied Business Economics at Tilburg University and graduated on the topic ‘Business Valuation’.

Ed leads the Services M&A team at Investec and focusses on providing high quality advice to privately owned and private equity-backed businesses. He has over 10 years’ experience of advising across the UK mid-market on a variety of transactions such as sale processes, equity raises, acquisitions and IPOs.

Ed has worked with a broad range of Services clients but has a specific focus on tech-enabled businesses within the areas of professional services; testing, inspection and certification; and fund and trust administration.

Marc brings almost 30 years’ worth of experience within financial services – having previously held leadership roles at Jefferies, Nomura, Richmond Park Partners, Citigroup and KPMG – and expert knowledge of the industrials sector, having worked on more than 50 deals with a transaction value in excess of $50bn. 

Marc oversees Investec’s advisory activities on the buying and selling of companies in the industrials sector, including aerospace & defence, automotive, building products, capital goods, chemicals, industrial services and packaging. Key themes he covers include energy efficiency/transition, industrial automation and technology and sustainability. 

Tom Lewin is Head of the Financial Institutions Group (FIG) at Investec in London and is responsible for leading Investec’s FIG M&A Advisory team. Tom works with companies and private equity funds across the spectrum of financial services, with a focus on growth and tech-enabled companies. Tom is focused on building long term relationships and providing independent, strategic advice. Tom has over 20 years of experience in financial services with extensive M&A and capital markets advisory experience including public and private M&A, restructurings, equity raising (IPOs and rights issues) and hybrid capital issuance for a wide variety of public, private, and private-equity backed companies. Tom joined from KPMG where he was a Partner in the FS M&A team and prior to that spent 15 years in Investment Banking at Barclays and Rothschild.

Seb is Head of Technology, Media & Telecoms Investment Banking based in London. He joined Investec in August 2011 and specialises in transactions across the M&A and IPO markets, predominantly for Software, IT Services and Technology Consultancy companies.

Chris joined Investec in January 2012 having previously been at Evolution Securities and Head of Pan European Energy ECM at Credit Suisse. With over 30 years of experience in Investment Banking, Chris has specific focus on the Energy Sector currently.

He started his career with Barclays NZ and then joined BZW in the UK. Chris is a CA (NZ) and CFA (UK). During the course of his career has worked on a broad range of ECM and M&A transactions.

William is Head of the Education sector advisory team in London and also works extensively across the Business Services sector with a particular focus on growth and tech-enabled businesses.

William joined Investec in 2012 and specialises in providing M&A advice to a wide variety of clients including private and public companies, entrepreneurs and private equity funds.

Dan is Head of Investec's M&A team in the North of England as well as leading various sub-sector initiatives nationally. He has over 20 years of experience advising entrepreneurs, private companies and shareholders seeking to raise finance or deliver M&A.  He has deep experience and investor relationships when raising growth and de-risking capital from Private Equity and Venture Capital.  This experience is enhanced by having advised Private Equity buy-side throughout his career, gaining a clear perspective of their priorities and tactics. Dan enjoys building trusted relationships with entrepreneurs advising them to deliver their long term objectives and not just one-off transactions.

Dan joined Investec in 2015 to develop its Northern M&A practice having spent his career working as a Lead Advisor in Big 4 and Investment Banks. He was attracted to the chance to work for an entrepreneurial bank where he could build his own franchise and he has since created a team of experienced advisors working across the region.  The greatest complement for his team’s services is the significant level of repeat mandates from clients, where Dan and his team have advised entrepreneurs through multiple fund raises and on to an eventual exit to a strategic buyer. Dan and his team are on the whole sector generalists who bring in Investec’s sector advisory and international partners to support a transaction where needed.  However Dan does have sector specialisms in the automotive and e-commerce sectors with multiple transaction credentials.

Stefano leads the GP Advisory team at Investec and provides strategic advice to financial sponsors, offering a comprehensive range of private capital raising and liquidity solutions.

Stefano has over 12 years of experience in the private equity industry. Before joining Investec, he was a Director in the GP Advisory group at Eaton Partners, where he was responsible for the sourcing, structuring, and execution of the secondary transaction mandates in the EMEA region. Previously, Stefano was at Cebile Capital (now part of Raymond James) and Greenhill, specialising in private market secondary advisory. Before that, Stefano was on the buy side at Advanced Capital SGR, a leading alternative asset and fund-of-funds manager, now part of Capital Dynamics. Stefano also has M&A experience from previous experiences at PFH and Rabobank.

Joining Investec in 1999, Gary has over 24 years of Corporate Finance experience and head the Healthcare M&A team at Investec. Gary focuses on privately owned and private equity backed healthcare services companies as well as acting for a number of UK listed healthcare PLC’s. In addition to the healthcare focus Gary has significant experience in Public to Private (P2P) transactions having completed over 15 P2P deals. Gary is a qualified solicitor and graduated with a BComm, LLB and MBA.

I joined Investec in 2021, and as of July 2024, I lead our Private Company Fundraising (PCF) team. We advise private European technology and sustainability companies on £10-200m equity funding rounds. Our team covers more than 1500 investors and has experience across various structuring and transaction types.

I have more than 10 years of experience in investment banking. Before Investec, I worked for a family office and an emerging market impact fund. I began my career in M&A (Lead Advisory) at EY. I am a Chartered Accountant and hold a BA from Durham University.

I joined Investec in January 2017 and I’m an Associate Director in the Private Company Fundraising team. My core responsibilities include client origination and management, full end-to-end transaction process management, deal structuring and supporting entrepreneurs strategically in their growth journey. Experience with technology, and sustainability focused businesses.

Previous experience includes debt lending, providing tailored private capital solutions for early-stage companies and entrepreneurs, supporting them with personal and business financing requirements.

I hold a Bachelor of Business Science in Accounting and Finance and a Postgraduate Diploma in Accounting from the University of Cape Town.

I joined Investec in October 2020 and I’m an Associate in the Private Company Fundraising team. My core responsibilities include day-to-day transaction management and supporting entrepreneurs in their growth journey. Experience with technology, fintech and sustainability focused businesses.

Previous experience includes working for Outward VC, a fintech focused venture capital fund and the Private Capital team at Investec, providing tailored private capital solutions for early-stage companies and entrepreneurs.

I hold a Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Economics and Finance from Queen Mary University of London and a Master’s in Management (with Distinction) from London School of Economics and Political Science.

I joined Investec in 2023 as an Analyst in Private Company Fundraising team.  Prior to joining Investec, I worked at InMobi for 3 years in the Corporate Development team in the Consumer Tech and AdTech space supporting M&A, fundraising and Investor Relations. I hold a bachelor’s degree in commerce from Lady Shri Ram College for Women.