Venn Partners is an investment manager focused on direct lending opportunities in Europe. Our current investment activity extends across commercial real estate finance, residential mortgage finance and other asset-backed lending markets.

Kobe works within the operations team as a treasury associate. Prior to working at Venn, he joined Goldman Sachs on their graduate program. During his two years there he worked within the treasury and prime brokerage businesses. He has a first class honours degree in Business & Management from the University of Kent.

Lukas de Rooij is a senior mortgage underwriter at Venn Hypotheken, where he is responsible for new mortgage underwriting and business process monitoring. Prior to joining Venn, Lukas worked at Stater Nederland as a mortgage underwriter for several lenders, including Venn Hypotheken. Lukas holds a degree in Business Economics from the University of Utrecht.

Jon Taylor provides CRE underwriting advisory services to Venn. He runs Northdale Asset Management, a real estate asset management company, and has been involved in the real estate industry for 20 years. His experience covers a broad range of originating, underwriting and asset managing debt and equity investments across the UK and Europe, and he previously worked at Citigroup and Merrill Lynch Real Estate Finance groups. Jon is a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

Roger Bright was appointed Chairman of PRS Operations Ltd in August 2015. Roger’s career spans some 40 years at the public/private sector interface, much of it in the real estate and housing sectors. Following 17 years in Whitehall at the Department of the Environment, he became Deputy Chief Executive at the Housing Corporation where he led the introduction of risk-based regulation for the housing association sector as it became increasingly reliant on private finance. After a stint in financial services regulation, he became Chief Executive of The Crown Estate in 2001, where he led the modernisation and commercialisation of the business until retiring in 2011. He now holds a number of non-executive roles, including board member at London First, where he chaired a task force which published “Home Truths – 12 steps to solving London’s Housing Crisis” in 2014. He chairs the Advisory Board at Curtin&Co, a public affairs company specialising in planning and development; is deputy chairman of the council at City University London, a council member of the Royal Veterinary College and a board member of The Royal Parks.

Richard is a partner in the Commercial Real Estate business and was part of the founding team at Venn. Formerly in the asset backed financing groups at JP Morgan and Fitch Ratings, he has over 21 years’ experience in the asset finance and credit markets having worked across a spectrum of asset classes including commercial and residential real estate financings. He has a proven track record in building and managing innovative financing platforms, as well as the development of risk management tools. Richard has a Master’s in finance and a degree in law.

Peter Impey is a non-executive director of PRS Operations Limited, a 100% subsidiary of Venn Partners and the operator of the £3.5 billion UK government guaranteed funding scheme for PRS loans. Peter’s career encompasses over 40 years in commercial banking and social finance, with a particular focus on risk management, risk assessment and credit approval. He has been responsible for the development and operation of risk management and analysis techniques across a wide range of commercial and social sectors. Since 1995, he has focused on the development and implementation financial structures for the delivery of social programmes. More recently, he provided commercial advice and support for the design and implementation of the Housing Guarantees Schemes to, firstly, HM Treasury and, thereafter, to the Department for Communities and Local Government. He serves on the Board of Affordable Housing Finance PLC as a DCLG nominee and in August 2015 he was also appointed as an independent director of PRS Operations Ltd, the delivery vehicle for the Private Rented Sector Guarantees Scheme.

Peter is co-director of the Dutch residential mortgage business, with primary responsibility for business development, distribution and product management. Peter has more than 25 years of experience in restructuring business architectures, developing and distributing new products in retail banking and life insurance in the Netherlands, Belgium and France. Peter was director of a life insurer and was also responsible for a €15bn residential mortgage portfolio in the Netherlands. He has a proven track record in creating new innovative mortgage and savings products and won several public awards. Prior to this he worked for more than 12 years as a management consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte. Peter holds a Master degree in Business Economics.

Managing Partner and responsible for our Commercial Real Estate business. Before joining Venn in 2013, Paul spent over 20 years with Citigroup, heading Citi’s European Real Estate business. Paul has a wealth of experience in loan origination, transaction structuring, advisory and loan distribution. Paul benefits from an extensive list of key relationships with sponsors and market participants, and has led a number of landmark transactions including the largest hotel deal in Europe. Paul started his career with Citi in 1993 in Canada, before moving to Citi New York, and then to Citi in London in 2000. Paul is a member of the CFA Institute and holds an MBA from Schulich School of Business in Toronto, Canada.

Marine is a credit analyst supporting the Commercial Real Estate team in the modelling, underwriting, structuring and management of deals across our lending sectors. Prior to joining Venn in 2016, Marine was an investment analyst in the European credit portfolio management team at Schroder Investment Management with a primary focus on the sterling portfolios and before that she did a summer internship at Citi in DCM and securitisation. Marine has a Master in Finance and Bachelor in Economics from Pantheon Assas University in Paris.

Marc heads Venn’s Dutch residential mortgage business. Prior to Venn, Marc was an executive director at Argenta Banking and Insurance Group, Belgium’s fifth largest financial services group, and CEO of its Dutch operation where he has built a strong client franchise in a €15 billion residential mortgage portfolio. Marc has 30 years working experience, having spent 15 years in the retail banking and insurance business in Benelux, Germany and Scandinavia, and prior to that 15 years in treasury and funding programs for Belgian social housing corporations. Marc studied Law and Philosophy at the Catholic University of Brussels (KUB) and the State University in Antwerp (UIA), Belgium.

Chief Operating Officer. Luke has over 22 years of experience in operational and infrastructure roles, with a particular focus on credit products. Before joining Venn in 2015, Luke was Head of Operations at CQS, a $14bn global multi-asset hedge fund. Prior to that, he managed Product Control at Cairn Capital, a credit asset manager, and was an Executive Director at Goldman Sachs leading the structured credit middle office. Luke has a degree in Mathematics from the University of East Anglia.

Working within the Commercial Real Estate team, Lee predominantly focuses on the underwriting and execution of transactions, but also assists in due diligence and portfolio reporting. He covers a wide range of sectors including office, retail, hotels and development financing in the UK and Europe. Prior to joining Venn in 2013, Lee worked as an Analyst in Citi’s M&A Real Estate and Lodging team and a summer intern in the UK Investment Banking team at UBS. During this time, he worked on various IPO and M&A transactions within the EMEA region. Lee graduated from the University of Bristol with a BSc in Economics and Management.

Kees Engel is a non-executive director on the supervisory board of Venn’s Dutch mortgage business. Kees is a senior executive with over 35 years of industry experience in the Dutch financial services and information technology market, including his role as CEO of Quion Group, a leading Dutch mortgage servicer. Kees has worked for several other companies at senior and executive positions, and is currently the Chief Commercial Officer of NINtec Groep B.V.. He has a degree in electric engineering and Information Technology.

Kawai is a senior member of the credit structuring team within Venn, and brings extensive credit analysis and structuring expertise to the firm’s mortgage funding activities. Prior to joining Venn in 2014, Kawai was an ABS and Mortgage Strategist at the Royal Bank of Scotland where he also gained over 8 years of experience in the asset backed finance business covering a wide range of asset classes including commercial real estate, residential mortgages, consumer finance, trade finance and auto receivables. Kawai holds a postgraduate degree from the London School of Economics and an undergraduate degree from University College London.

Justin works within the Operations team, as Head of Operations. He has over 7 years of experience working with private equity funds. He qualified as an ACA with Deloitte LLP and subsequently worked for Europa Capital within their fund finance team and established their Investment Finance team. Justin has a degree in Economics from the University of Leeds.

Jonathan Clayton is a non-executive director of Venn Partners, and has close to 20 years of experience in the financial markets. He was part of the founding team at Venn and remains involved with the business in a non-executive and advisory capacity. Prior to Venn, Jonathan was Head of Financial Institution Solutions and European Bank coverage at Credit Suisse. He has a degree in Physics from Oxford University.

Joanna provides support to all areas of the business and in particular the origination and operations teams. She has a background working within investor relations and marketing, most recently at Brevan Howard.

James is in-house legal counsel for Venn, primarily supporting the execution and structuring teams. Prior to joining Venn in 2016, James was with Eversheds for 6 years where he was an Associate in the Banking and Finance team, undertaking secondments to Venn and to Barclays during that time. James has experience of a wide range of finance transactions and a particular focus on real estate finance. James holds degrees in law, and in politics and international relations.

Ilse Verweij is Head of Marketing, Sales and Customer Relations at Venn Hypotheken, Venn’s Dutch residential mortgage business. She’s responsible for building and improving brand awareness, engagement and reputation by leveraging the B2B multichannel marketing initiatives effectively. Prior to joining Venn Ilse has worked for over 10 years as a marketing manager, of which 7 years at Univé, a large Dutch insurance company. Ilse has a bachelor degree in Communication.

George is a senior member of the Commercial Real Estate team and leads the origination, negotiation and execution of investments across Venn’s commercial real estate strategies. George started his career as a lawyer at Macfarlanes LLP and has over 11 years of transactional experience. George holds a Masters in Finance from London Business School and a first degree from the University of Edinburgh.

Managing Partner and co-founder, with primary responsibility for managing the business. Gary also head’s the firm’s mortgage finance business and has over 20 years of experience in structured finance and private credit. He has led the structuring and execution on several mandates for Venn including the acquisition and refinancing of Venn’s first Dutch residential mortgage portfolio. He was formerly co-head of alternative assets and structured credit solutions for Europe at Nomura, and a senior structurer in the European bank solutions team at Goldman Sachs. He started his career as a tax and structured finance lawyer at Linklaters, and has a degree in law from Oxford University.

Eystein Eriksrud is a non-executive director of Venn Partners. He is the Deputy CEO of the Siem Industries Group, Chairman of Siem Offshore Inc., Flensburger Schiffbaugesellschaft mbH &KG and Electromagnetic Geoservices ASA and a non-executive director of Subsea 7 SA. Prior to joining Siem Industries in October 2011, Eystein was partner of the Norwegian law firm Wiersholm Mellbye & Bech since 2005 working with an internationally oriented practice in mergers and acquisitions, company law and securities law. He has served on the boards of Veripos Inc., Privatbanken ASA and Tinfos AS, and a number of other boards. He is a Norwegian citizen.

Eugène Remijn is a Legal and Compliance Associate in Venn’s Dutch residential mortgage business. Prior to joining Venn Eugène worked for 8 years as a lawyer with several Dutch law firms, where he focused on general contract law, insolvency law and corporate collection and recovery cases. Eugène holds a Master degree in Commercial Law from the Erasmus University Rotterdam.

David joined Venn having worked for ten years in investment banking as a quantitative analyst. His role at Venn is to design and implement cutting-edge financial models and industry-standard risk reporting tools. These are bundled together into the firm’s VeRA package, which is used internally and licensed to third party asset managers. He holds both an undergraduate degree and an advanced diploma in applied mathematics from Cambridge University.

Chris works within the Operations team as Finance Manager. He qualified with Deloitte LLP as an ACA, where he worked within their financial services team. He subsequently worked within a large Corporate Treasury. He holds a BSc from the University of Bath.

Chris leads the development of Venn’s proprietary trade booking and valuation system (VeRA), supporting its integration with the firm’s risk analytics framework and wider business activities. He additionally has technical oversight of the organisation’s resilient computerised infrastructure. Prior to joining Venn, Chris was a Research Assistant at the University of Oxford, where he also obtained a master’s degree and doctorate in computer science.

Catharine is a member of the credit structuring team within Venn, helping to model, underwrite and structure senior funding across a variety of asset classes. Prior to joining Venn in 2015, she was an analyst in Deutsche Bank’s Structured Liquidity and Money Markets team, where she worked on providing short term investments. Catharine has a Master’s degree in International Studies from the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna and an undergraduate degree in English from Oxford University.

Beatrice is a senior member of our Commercial Real Estate business, having joined the firm in 2013 to set up the real estate franchise alongside Paul House. She has an extensive background in real estate and corporate lending gained over her previous roles at Citi, HSBC and the Bank of New York. At Citi, Beatrice was a lead on over €2.5 billion of successful loan restructurings and worked on the distribution of over €3 billion of CRE debt to a wide range of investors globally. Her corporate experience was gained from credit roles in Telecoms and Media team at HSBC and the Bank of New York. Beatrice holds a Master’s degree in Economics and Finance from Bristol University, and a first degree from the Sorbonne in Paris.

Angeline is Head of Operations at Venn Hypotheken, Venn’s Dutch residential mortgage platform. In her role Angeline takes care of all new mortgage underwriting and close monitoring of outsourced business processes. Angeline has more than 20 years experience in the Dutch mortgage industry, working most of her career as senior underwriter and operational manager at Quion, one of the leading third party mortgage servicers in the Netherlands. Angeline studied Business Economics at the Academy in The Hague.