Pierre-Axel Botuha

Partner
France / Private Equity
Consumer, Healthcare

Pierre-Axel is a Partner and was appointed Co-Head of the French Private Equity team in July 2023.

Prior to joining 3i in 2021, he was a Principal at L Catterton where he focused on consumer investments in Europe. Pierre-Axel began his career at La Compagnie Financière Edmond de Rothschild, advising on M&A transactions in France, Germany and China. He previously worked at BCG, supporting international strategy projects in the industrials, logistics and automotive sectors, and L-GAM, a UK-based, long-term oriented, private equity firm.

Pierre-Axel holds an MBA from INSEAD (with Distinction), a MSc in Engineering from Supelec Paris, and a Masters in Economics from Paris XI University.

William Bourne

Associate Director
UK / Private Equity

William is an Associate Director in the Banking Team within 3i Private Equity. He has worked on financings for a number of 3i's portfolio companies, including: Action, Cirtec Medical, Evernex, Formel D, Luqom, YDEON and VakantieDiscounter.

Prior to joining 3i in 2022, William spent seven years at Barclays Investment Bank working across a range of teams. He spent most of his time in Leveraged Finance, working on a range of European and cross border transactions for mid-market and large-cap buyouts and financings in all sectors, whilst specialising in TMT, Healthcare and Consumer businesses.

William holds a BSc in Geology from the University of Bristol.

Clare Calderwood

Group Deputy Company Secretary
UK

Clare joined 3i’s Group Secretariat as a company secretary in November 2018. She is currently the Group Deputy Company Secretary working closely with the General Counsel & Company Secretary on 3i Group’s corporate governance. She also acts as the company secretary for 3i Infrastructure plc and deals with all matters related to 3i’s employee share plans. 

Clare qualified as a solicitor with Freshfields in 1992 and joined Clifford Chance in 1993 in their Tokyo office, returning to London in 2003. Following a career break Clare returned to Clifford Chance as a senior associate in 2006 specialising in debt financing transactions. Following a further period abroad, she joined TSB Bank as an in-house lawyer in 2013, and became a company secretary there in 2016.

Rémi Carnimolla

Partner, Managing Director
France / Private Equity
Consumer, Services, Software, Industrial Technology

Rémi joined 3i in 2003. He is currently the Head of the Paris office and is a member of the 3i Investment Committee. He sits on the Board of Evernex.

In 2019, Rémi led 3i’s investment in Evernex, a leading European provider of third party maintenance services for data centre infrastructure and soon after, in 2020, the transformative acquisition of Technogroup. In 2017, he led 3i’s investment in Havea, a European leader in the natural consumer healthcare industry which he successfully sold in July 2022 after having tripled its results with 5 acquisitions in Europe (Aragan, Densmore, Pasquali, Calmosine and ixX Pharma), an acceleration of organic growth with an enhanced and more focused marketing strategy and a full change and upgrade of the organisation. Rémi also led 3i’s investments in Keolis, Etanco, Vedici and Trescal as well as being involved in Geka, Atesteo, Formel D, Hans Anders, TCR and in 2021 MPM in the “natural pet food” segment. 

Prior to joining 3i, Rémi founded and headed a French venture capital firm in Tunisia and spent three years with McKinsey. 

Rémi has a degree in Accounting and Finance from the Paris Business School (ESCP) and an executive MBA (sponsored by McKinsey). 

Fernando Castagnolo

Director
UK / Infrastructure

Fernando is a Director in 3i's Infrastructure team in London and joined in April 2019. He is primarily responsible for the origination, evaluation and execution of new investment opportunities in the infrastructure sector, as well as managing existing investments.

Prior to joining 3i, Fernando was a Vice President in the Project and Infrastructure Finance team at Citigroup, where he acted as advisor and lender to infrastructure, transport, power and energy transactions.

Fernando holds an MSc Finance from Warwick Business School.

Lauren Causon

Senior Legal Counsel
North America / Private Equity

Lauren joined 3i in 2019 and is based in the New York office, with responsibility for supporting the Private Equity team globally on new investments and divestments, portfolio matters and legal risk management.

Prior to 3i, Lauren was an associate in the corporate teams of Kirkland & Ellis International LLP and Travers Smith LLP in London, where she advised private equity funds and portfolio companies on international M&A, management incentivisation, restructurings and refinancings. Lauren is qualified as a solicitor of the courts of England & Wales and is registered as a foreign-qualified in-house attorney in New York.

Lauren holds a BSc in Politics from the University of Bristol and completed her post-graduate legal studies at the University of Law, Guildford and BPP University, London.

John Cavill

Partner
UK / Infrastructure

John is a Partner in 3i's Infrastructure team in London and joined 3i in November 2013.

He is responsible for asset management of greenfield and operational infrastructure projects, as well as the fund management of a number of 3i’s private infrastructure funds. He works closely with portfolio board directors and Infrastructure Managers Limited, the business’s main SPV management services provider.

John is also on the Boards of Cross London Trains and Wireless Infrastructure Group. Previously, John was a Director at Barclays Infrastructure Funds, St Modwen Properties, Land Securities and Vinci. Earlier in his career he worked for Arup.

John has a Geography Degree from the University of Liverpool, an MSc in Transport Planning & Economics from the University of Cardiff and an MBA from Cass Business School.

Grace Chang

Associate Director
UK / Private Equity
Consumer

Grace is an Associate Director in the UK Private Equity team and is involved with 3i's portfolio company MPM. 

Prior to joining 3i in 2021, Grace was an investor at Apax Partners, focused on consumer retail, digital media and technology. Prior to Apax, Grace worked at Lazard in the M&A team, after having started her career in transaction services at KPMG.

Grace holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Vanderbilt University, and a Master’s degree in Accounting and Finance from the London School of Economics.

Aaron Church

Partner
UK / Infrastructure

Aaron is a Partner in the Infrastructure team based in London, with a focus on origination, execution and asset management of investments in Europe. He has played a key role in 3i's acquisitions of Attero, Joulz, Herambiente, ESVAGT, Infinis and Tampnet, and is a director on the boards of Attero, Joulz and Oystercatcher.

Prior to 3i, Aaron worked for HRL Morrison & Co, a major Australasian headquartered infrastructure fund manager, and the Boston Consulting Group.

Aaron holds a B.Com from the University of Canterbury and a M.B.A. (Distinction) from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, where he was a Fulbright Scholar.

Sean Clark

Associate
North America / Private Equity
Industrial Technology

Sean joined 3i in 2022 as a member of its North American Private Equity team based in New York. Sean has since been involved in 3i’s investments in JMJ Associates and Dynatect.

Prior to joining 3i, Sean worked as an Analyst in the Mergers & Acquisitions Investment Banking Group at Wells Fargo, where he focused on M&A advisory and capital raising transactions across all sectors.

Sean graduated magna cum laude from Washington & Lee University with a B.S. in Accounting.

Rob Collins

Managing Partner, Head of North American Infrastructure
North America / Infrastructure

Rob joined 3i in 2017 as the Managing Partner for North American Infrastructure. He is a member of 3i’s Executive Committee. At 3i, he has led the US infrastructure team’s investments in Smarte Carte, Regional Rail and EC Waste. 

Prior to joining 3i, Rob led Hastings Funds Management’s infrastructure investment activities in North America & Europe and was a member of Hastings’ Executive Committee and Investment Committee.

Previously, Rob founded the infrastructure M&A practice at Morgan Stanley and Greenhill where he was a Managing Director, Head of Infrastructure Investment Banking for the Americas at both firms. He started his infrastructure career at Goldman Sachs after spending five years as an active-duty, Naval officer in the U.S. Navy Nuclear Submarine Program.

Rob holds an MBA from The Wharton School, a masters equivalent in nuclear engineering from the Bettis Reactor Engineering School, and a B.E., magna cum laude, in chemical engineering from Vanderbilt University.

Spencer Cotten

Associate
North America / Infrastructure

Spencer joined 3i in 2021 as an Associate in the North American Infrastructure team.

Prior to 3i, Spencer was an Analyst at Jupiter Management where he focussed on executing real estate and public equity investments. Before joining Jupiter, Spencer was an analyst at Credit Suisse IB where he focussed on M&A and capital markets transactions in the real estate sector.

Spencer holds a bachelors degree in History from Princeton University.

James Cox

Portfolio Director, Asset Management Group
UK / Private Equity

James is a Director in 3i's Asset Management Group which manages investments in a range of companies across a variety of sectors and geographies.

He has been with 3i since 1998 having started his career at PiMS UK, a London based media services company, where he headed up the financial services team. James subsequently joined 3i’s London based portfolio management team in 2002 where his focus was managing higher value minority investments.

James has more than 20 years’ experience of managing minority and majority equity positions in Growth Capital and Buyout assets across a wide range of sectors. He has both invested in, and supported, companies at various stages of growth and completed a significant number of successful realisations.

Gordon Craig

Director, Internal Audit
UK

Gordon joined 3i in 2000 and heads up the Internal Audit function based in London.

He is responsible for providing internal audit services as well as advice and support across a range of areas including corporate governance and risk management.

Prior to 3i, Gordon worked with PwC in both the UK and Netherlands before moving to the internal audit profession working initially in the consumer and healthcare sector.

Gordon has an MA in Economics from the University of St. Andrews. He is a qualified Chartered Accountant, Financial Risk Manager and Certified Fraud Examiner, and is a member of the Institute of Internal Auditors.

Stephen Daintith

Non-Executive Director
Board of Directors

Non-executive Director since October 2016. Chief Financial Officer and Executive Director of Ocado Group plc.

Chief Financial Officer and an executive director of Rolls-Royce Holdings plc. Finance Director of Daily Mail and General Trust plc (“DMGT”) from 2011 to 2017. Non-executive director of ZPG Plc.

Prior to joining DMGT he was Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Dow Jones and prior to that Chief Financial Officer of News International. He originally qualified as a chartered accountant with Price Waterhouse (now part of PwC).

James Dawes

Chief Financial Officer
UK / Infrastructure

James is Chief Financial Officer for 3i Group's Infrastructure business and joined in January 2016. He manages all of the operational, financial and reporting requirements for the Infrastructure business line within 3i Group, as well as performing CFO duties for 3i Infrastructure plc.

Prior to joining 3i, James was with Legal & General Investment Management where he held a number of senior finance roles, including Finance Director of LGV Capital from 2007 to 2015.

He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and a Member of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment.