Gerald Hellmer is Founder and Managing Partner of Alphaskill. Prior to that, he worked as an Operating Partner/HR in a leading Private Equity Fund. Before that, Gerald was Managing Partner at Skillcapital and responsible for building the DACH Practice. Before Skillcapital he worked as a Strategy Consulting Partner at Roland Berger and Deloitte Consulting.

Gerald studied at the Vienna University of Economics, holds a degree in Business Administration and an MBA from INSEAD in Fontainebleau.

Vivek Batra is a Managing Partner at Alphaskill and has built our UK Practice. He looks back upon a long international career in the Consumer, Retail and eCommerce sector, where he held various CEO/COO and NED roles in Private Equity portfolio companies in Germany and Benelux. He started his career at MEXX and worked for Sara Lee Apparel across various Northern European countries and the U.K.

Vivek holds a B.Com with Honours from Delhi University, is a qualified Chartered Accountant and an MBA from INSEAD Fontainebleau.

Arielle Benavides is a Managing Partner at Alphaskill, overseeing the French Practice.

Before joining Alphaskill, she held senior roles as Head of Human Capital across Europe in leading financial organisations such as Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Lazard. She also served as a Board Director at Meeschaert. As an independent advisor, she has worked with Private Equity firms as a HR/Operating Partner as well as other M&A and Asset Management firms across governance and transformation.

Arielle graduated from the Paris Dauphine University, where she latterly taught the master’s degree in Strategic Management of Human Resources, for more than 15 years.

Nick Harlock is a Partner at Alphaskill. He leads our Business and Technology Services Practice. Prior to that, he spent a decade at another leading executive search firm focused within the UK & European Private Equity market.

Earlier in his career he worked with growth focussed technology companies in the UK and Australia.

Dirk Rocholl is a Partner at Alphaskill and leads our Industrials Practice.

Before joining Alphaskill, Dirk worked as a Management Consultant in Europe and the US advising companies on strategic matters, organizational change, operational improvement and value creation.

Dirk holds a diploma degree in Business Administration from the WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management and studied in Germany, the US and Japan.

Thomas Weinmann is on the Advisory Board of Alphaskill and brings many years of experience as a Private Equity Investment Manager to this role. Thomas was a Partner at BC Partners in Hamburg for almost thirteen years before setting up Astorius Capital at the end of 2012. His aim is to make Private Equity an asset class accessible to private individuals, family offices and institutional investors. Before that, he held a board role in the German Private Equity and Venture Capital Industry Association from 2011 to 2015.

Thomas studied Business Administration at the University of Passau.

Mark Bromwell is our expert PE CTO specialist, with 20+ years’ experience as CTO of leading technology organisations through significant product development, value creation and scale up. With a proven value creation track record in a PE environment, he advises multiple PE Funds in pre-deal situations and board roles.Under PE ownership he played a key role in transforming a logistics business with warehouses, depots etc. into a software / SaaS business. He combines deep technical experience across a range of emerging technologies with technical directorship in Tech-M&A and rapid scaling situations.

Mark is an award-winning Chartered Engineer with a 1st class Masters-Degree in Electronic Systems Engineering from Aston University.

Volker Gerlach is an advisor to Alphaskill and supports us with his many years of experience in technology, digitalistion and strategy consulting.

For more than 25 years Volker Gerlach was a member of the international leadership at Capgemini Consulting, the transformation and strategy consultancy of the Capgemini Group. Since 2008 he holds various positions in supervisory and advisory boards with focus on digitalisation, such as, Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Kraft Baustoffe GmbH, Chairman of the Advisory Board of Bragi GmbH edgeAI/Wearable Technology, and member of the Non-Executive Board at Lumenion GmbH Energy Storage Solutions.

Volker Gerlach studied at the EBS University of Economics and Law and holds an MBA degree of IMD Business School, Lausanne.

Dr. Markus Böttcher is an external Sector Advisor Industrials at Alphaskill and draws on a 20-year career in line management, consulting and portfolio company management. He has successfully executed numerous due diligence and value creation projects in private equity portfolio companies. As a partner of Ernst & Young, he currently advises private equity funds in operational due diligence and value creation.

Markus studied in Germany and Japan. After kicking off his career at former Mannesmann AG, he joined Bain & Company. There he built and led the Performance Improvement Practice Group in Europe and was a member of the European Leadership Team. After activities in portfolio company management and various advisory board mandates, he has again turned to advisory services.

Dr Michelle Tempest is on the Advisory Board of Alphaskill and brings many years of experience as a Private Equity advisor. Michelle is Partner at Candesic, healthcare consultancy, where she has led multiple projects reviewing market opportunities for investors. She practised as a front line hospital doctor for over 13 years and has experienced the vital importance of multidisciplinary team working across life sciences, hospital and community care.

She is passionate about helping investors understand the importance of people within the care sector, inclusive of digital healthcare, technology, AI, AR and VR, where human personalities remain a priority. Michelle studied medicine at the University of Cambridge. @DrMTempest

Andreas Bauer is an sector advisor for Consumer & Healthcare at Alphaskill. He currently holds a Chairman role in Vitafy, a portfolio company of Capiton Private Equity, and is a member of the advisory board of Fremman Capital and the Institute of Brand Logic. Prior to that, Andreas was leading the Consumer Business Practice at Deloitte Consulting and before, the global Consumer & Retail Practice at Roland Berger. During that time, he also held Non Executive Positions in MarcO’Polo and Tom Tailor, two renowned fashion brands.

Andreas holds a Masters Degree of Leopold-Franzens Universität in Innsbruck and an MBA Degree of INSEAD Fontainebleau

Agnes Babule is a Director at Alphaskill with a focus on our CFO and Consumer practice.  She is a +20 years executive search professional with a track record of more than 200 senior executive level hires across a wide range of sectors and a well-rounded understanding of the challenges companies face in attracting outstanding talent.

A French national, she has worked in Belgium, UK and France. She holds a finance degree from Universite Paris Dauphine.

Jon Stephansen is a Director at Alphaskill where he is responsible for the Nordic Practice. He has a background from executive search, management consulting and tech start-ups. For 20 years he has worked globally with numerous reputable companies and clients. He has lived and worked in Norway, Singapore, Germany, USA, Canada and the UK, and he is currently based in London.

Jon holds a Siviløkonom degree (equivalent to a MSc in Business degree) from the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH).

Eileen Lienau is Director at Alphaskill and leads our CFO Practice.

For almost a decade, Eileen gathered substantial experience in C-level recruiting for Private Equity companies in international Executive Search firms such as Heidrick & Struggles and Russell Reynolds in Germany and the UK. Prior to joining the Search profession, she was a Manager at Amazon.

Eileen holds a diploma degree in Business Administration from Vienna University of Economics, as well as London School of Economics and Université Paris Dauphine.

Barbara Pusca is a Director (part-time) at Alphaskill. She focuses on our Healthcare and CTO practice. She has more than 10 years in executive search working at Skillcapital and Nurole, where she placed senior management teams for private equity and hi-growth VC backed portfolio companies throughout Europe.

Barbara Pusca holds a BSc in Management and Economics from Royal Holloway, University of London.

Donia Sharma is a Principal at Alphaskill. Prior to that, she led global Research Teams and Deal Advisory Teams at the Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG) for many years.

Donia studied Business Administration at the Welingkar Business School in India, and holds the degree Master of Business Administration.

Ines Jung is a Principal at Alphaskill and leads our Health Care Practice.

Before joining Alphaskill, Ines was Senior Account Manager in a recruiting firm specializing on the Life Sciences Sector.

Ines holds a PhD in Cell Biology.  Until 2019, she was an academic researcher and teacher for a total of 12 years at the Institute Pasteur in Paris, Universities in Munich (LMU) and Würzburg (JMU).

Isabelle Rozes is a Senior Consultant at Alphaskill dedicated to the French practice.

Isabelle has worked for other leading search firms and brings significant experience in executive search for Private Equity firms and their portfolio companies’ cross sectors.

She has developed specific expertise in the French chemical, pharmaceutical,medical devices and agrobusiness sectors.

A French national, Isabelle graduated as an engineer from Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Montpellier and holds an Advanced Master in Management Marketing from ESSEC.

Priyanka Goyal is a Senior Consultant at Alphaskill. Prior to that she worked in the Expert Network Industry managing research projects at Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG) in India and at Innosquared in Germany.

Priyanka Goyal has studied Economics at the Delhi University in India and holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Economics from the London School of Economics.

Martina Caiazzo is a Consultant at Alphaskill. Previously she has worked at Dealogic as a product expert for IB clients and at Guidepoint, where she connected buy side institutions with key industry experts. She has 8+ years of experience developing and maintaining relationships with C level executives, private equity firms, hedge funds and asset management firms.

Martina holds a BA in French and Spanish Language & Literature from Royal Holloway, University of London.

Robert is a Consultant at Alphaskill with a focus on the Financial Services Sector. Before joining Alphaskill, he worked in the hedge funds space, both in investment management and consultancy.

Robert holds a BSc in Politics and Philosophy with courses in Economics from the London School of Economics and is an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Securities & Investment.

Tom Cox is a Consultant at Alphaskill with a focus on Business and Technology Services. He joined Alphaskill as part of our Analyst-Intern Program assisting consultants with sector mapping, talent pool research and monitoring of the Private Equity market in Europe.

Tom holds a BA in History from the University of Bristol.

George Gerard is a Consultant at Alphaskill working across sectors. He joined Alphaskill from another leading Executive Search firm where he assisted with delivering C-Suite mandates for Private Equity clients primarily in the UK and Europe.

George started his career early as a broker. He then studied at Durham University for his degree, and during his time there launched and eventually sold his campus-based businesses with one of his peers.

Ali leads the research efforts at Alphaskill. He joined Alphaskill as part of our Analyst-Intern Program assisting consultants with sector mapping, talent pool research and monitoring of the Private Equity market in Europe. Previously, he has also worked at Lockford Executive Search as a Researcher.

Ali holds a BA (Hons) in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from University of Essex.

Sophie is a Senior Associate at Alphaskill. She joined as part of our Analyst-Intern Program assisting consultants with sector mapping, talent pool research and monitoring the Private Equity market in Europe.

Sophie holds a BSc in Management with Finance from the Warwick Business School.

Osman is an Associate at Alphaskill. He joined as part of our Analyst-Intern Program assisting consultants with sector mapping, talent pool research and monitoring the Private Equity market in Europe. Prior to that he worked as Head of Accounting for a IT and Data services company.

Osman holds a BSc in Accounting and Finance from the University of Sussex

Aru Jolly is Business Manager at Alphaskill UK. Prior to that, she was an Account Officer at Bank of America and worked in Retail Management at Mexx. Aru has also been an independent artist for the last 15 years, having recently launched Art by Aru.

Aru holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) from Delhi University in India, and a Diploma in Business Management from BIRLA Institute of Technology.