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George Whitfield (British), Chairman
George is CEO of Pace Capital Ltd, a capital and property investment company. From 1983 to 2004, George was MD of Pace Shipping Services Network (PSSN), responsible for running a network of maritime agencies throughout Eastern Mediterranean handling funds of more than €1.5 billion on behalf of major shipping companies. PSSN diversified into real estate and from 2006 became Pace Capital to more accurately reflect its growing priority and interest in real estate investments. Operating under hindsight of real estate trends from Greece's entry into the European Common Market, Pace Capital is focusing a large portion of its real estate investment portfolio in Romania.
George brings a wealth of international business, finance and investment management experience to the Fund
George Alberts (Dutch), Managing Director
George has been active in finance, investment and agriculture throughout his 30 year career, of which the last 15 have been spent in Romania. He is currently President of KD Investments Romania SA, an asset management company active on the Bucharest Stock Exchange and authorized by the Romanian Securities and Exchange Commission. Previously George was Deputy General Manager of Piraeus Bank Romania SA and before that a Senior Vice President of Banca Tiriac SA, now Unicredit Tiriac SA. In Romania he has also been CEO of Tiriac Holdings, the largest privately held conglomerate in the country and was a co-founder of the country's largest independent leasing company, Motoractive, which was sold to GE Capital in 2005. George also worked as an EU recognized financial consultant for the EU's Phare Project (Pre-Accession) for the “Technical Assistance for the Privatization of Agro Industrial Companies in Romania” between 1996 and 1997. Prior to having relocated to Romania in 1995, George was Director of New Ventures and Acquisitions of BP Nutrition, British Petroleum's agricultural division which had a turnover of EUR 5 billion. During his 5 year tenure with BP Nutrition he spent 3 years in the Far East, acquiring companies and developing new ventures in Thailand, Taiwan and China. George started his career at Amro Bank in The Netherlands as a portfolio manager for institutional clients and thereafter as a senior advisor in Amro's mergers and acquisitions unit.
George will be in charge of total management and will be responsible for managing investor relations and corporate governance.
Colin Whitfield (British), Investment Director
Colin has been managing Pace Capital's Romania office since 2007 and is responsible for deal sourcing, due diligence, project management, negotiations and deal transactions. Pace Capital Ltd, a capital & property investment company evolved from Pace Shipping Services Network S.A. (PSSN). PSSN ran a network of maritime agencies throughout Eastern Mediterranean handling funds of more than US$1.5 Billion on half of major shipping companies. From 2000 till 2005 PSSN diversified their investments into real estate and from 2006 became Pace Capital to more accurately reflect its growing priority and interest into real estate investments. Pace Capital's management team has over 5 years experience of real investments and fund management in Romania.
Pace Capital have studied the agricultural sector and potential investment opportunity since June 2007. Through Pace, Colin brings investment evaluation and management expertise not readily available in the agriculture sector and has built up a network of deal sourcing opportunities, farm management professionals as well as, irrigation and agronomy consultants across Romania.
Colin trained for an ACA with Burgess Hodgson, one of Kent's leading Accountants and Tax advisors. Colin graduated top of his class with an MSc in International Business from the University of Kent and received the Kent Business School prize for his thesis “Leveraging Remittances for Global Development and the Impact of the Global Banking Industry”. Colin has been involved in setting up and managing Pace Capital's high performance real estate private equity funds, which have achieved a return on investment in excess of 40% per annum.
Colin will be responsible for managing and monitoring the Fund's investment portfolio in order to maximize performance within the risk appetite as defined by the investment scope.
Theodoros Karkantzos (Greek), Financial Director
Theodoros graduated with a Distinction and first in his class for his postgraduate degree in Real Estate Finance from the University of Cambridge. He received the Alister Ross-Goobey Award for the best overall performance on the Masters in Real Estate Finance as well as The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors Award 2009 for the highest grade in Real Estate Investment and Risk Analysis. During his undergraduate degree at the University of Warwick he graduated with a First Class Honors in Management Sciences with a focus on applied econometrics and operational research. Theodoros specialises in financial modeling and risk analysis and is currently Project Manager at Pace Capital where he heads project identification. He also manages a EUR 15 million real estate investment portfolio focusing on residential and commercial income-generating properties in high-end locations in Athens and London. Theodoros is a part-time PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge and his thesis focuses on “Agricultural Real Estate Investments and the Global Food Crisis”.
Theodoros will be responsible for finance and accounting, including risk management of the Fund.
Technical Team
Agri Business Development was established in 1999, but already operating in Romania since 1995. ABD is a business development consultancy company, with 15 years of experience in the agri-business sector in Romania with a track record of delivering investment programs and acquisitions on behalf of international clients, in addition to assisting in the privatisation of state farms. ABD offers extensive experience in the sector and thus in the process of identifying suitable targets for acquisition and assist private clients in all of the acquisition activities from identification of suitable targets up to and including the structuring and concluding of a transaction.
ABD will act as the Technical Team providing due diligence and valuations for acquisitions and lease agreements with tenant farmers as well as providing ongoing support for monitoring land governance.
van Tuyll van Serooskerken (Dutch)
Frederik is a lawyer and economist with 30 yrs of world wide experience in management, business and management consulting in agri-business. In Romania, Mr van Tuyll headed a large acquisition program on behalf of Friesland Dairy Foods, a leading Dutch dairy production company. Friesland was with ABD's assistance profitable from the first year in Romania and market leader within a period of three years. Frederick brings a successful track record in the identification of investment opportunities, feasibility studies, business plans, company and project finance and specialist knowledge in mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures; financial, legal and commercial due diligence in the agri-business sector.
Daniela Ruda (Romanian)
Daniela is an MBA graduate (IEDC Bled Management Institute Slovenia) with an Msc Economics and Management in Food Industry (Greece). Dana specialises in market analysis, feasibility studies, business plans and assessment of investment opportunities while offering inside knowledge of financial and commercial due diligence of agri-business in Romania. Daniela as a partner of ABD has close to 15 years of experience in this field.
Didier Lepoutre (Belgian)
Didier graduated with joint business / engineering degrees at UCL in Belgium and Brandeis University, USA. He is also a Fullbright Scholar and a MBA graduate from Cornell University. Didier worked in investment banking in New York and London, structuring transactions for institutional and corporate investors for The Chase Manhattan Bank, Barclays's BZW Ltd and The Bear Stearns Companies Inc. In 2003 Didier left Bear Stearns as a Managing Director to settle in Romania where he has since been involved in business development, cross-border M&A and capital raising, performing business due diligence, business planning, valuation, financial and transaction advice. Didier is also co-founder of Neuron Global Inc. and a board member of the Belgian software company Lambda Plus.
Farm Advisor/Portfolio ValuatorBrown & Co.
Brown & Co is a UK based firm of Agricultural Business Managers and Chartered Surveyors who have over 15 years direct experience in setting up and operating very large scale commodity crop agricultural operations in Central & Eastern Europe.
Brown & Co. is the farm advisor to the Fund and will provide additional due diligence support for acquisitions, structuring lease agreements with tenant operators. Brown and Co. is also the Valuator for the Fund’s portfolio,