Paul-Noël Guély

Managing Partner

Founder and Managing Partner of the firm. Previously trained as an M&A banker with Morgan Grenfell & Co. (now Deutsche Bank) and then rose to Co-Head of Software & Services and Head of European Technology Investment Banking for Lehman Brothers and, prior to founding Arma Partners, Goldman Sachs. Paul has for over 20 years executed M&A and capital-raising transactions for established Technology companies such as SAP, Software AG and STMicroelectronics, as well as emerging leaders, many of which he has also taken public (LSE listing of Autonomy, NASDAQ listing of Baltimore Technologies, Frankfurt IPO of Software AG, etc.).

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Tel: +44 (0) 20 7290 8103

John Meehan

Partner

Founding member of Arma Partners. Previous experience includes seven years working in the investment banking divisions of Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and BZW in London, New York and Paris with a particular focus on the technology sector. With Arma John focuses in particular on the Financial Technology sector, and heads the firm’s activities in this area.

John is a graduate of University College Dublin (Ireland) where he received a BComm International. He also holds the Diplôme d’HEC (France). John speaks French.

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Tel: +44 (0) 20 7290 8108

James Schroder

Partner

Joined Arma Partners in 2008. Previously was a senior Technology banker with Lehman Brothers and Montgomery with over 15 years of investment banking and professional experience in Silicon Valley, New York and London. Successfully led $30 billion in M&A and $3 billion in IPO and capital raising transactions for large cap and growth technology companies in the US, Europe and Asia. Earlier in his career he was a Strategy Consultant and served as a Nuclear Submarine Officer on board a fast attack nuclear submarine.

Jim holds an MBA from Yale University, a BS in Systems Engineering from the US Naval Academy (Annapolis) and an advanced program in Nuclear Engineering. He speaks fluent German.

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Tel: +1 650 798 1198

Tom Wells

Partner

Joined Arma Partners in 2009. Previously with Merrill Lynch, where he was a Managing Director and Head of Telecom Investment Banking for Europe, the Middle East & Africa, based in London. Prior to that Tom was a Managing Director in the European Telecom Investment Banking team at Citigroup. Before Merrill Lynch and Citigroup, Tom was Head of Corporate Finance for British Telecom. During his 15 years working within the telecom sector Tom has advised many of the leading operators on over $150 billion worth of transactions, including BT, O2, Cable & Wireless, BSkyB, Deutsche Telekom, TDC, TeliaSonera, Belgacom, KPN, Telekom Austria, Portugal Telecom, MTN, Bharti Airtel, China Mobile and MegaFon.

Tom began his career with Coopers & Lybrand, in Toronto and in London, where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant and a Chartered Financial Analyst after graduating with a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) from Queens University in Kingston, Canada.

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Tel: +44 (0) 20 7290 8114

Eric Lawson-Smith

Partner

Joined Arma Partners in 2009. Prior to Arma, he was Managing Director and Head of European Digital Media at Jefferies. Previously one of the founding partners and a Managing Director of LongAcre Partners for 7 years where he was responsible for a number of high-profile digital media transactions including the sales of Friends Reunited, uSwitch and Datamonitor and the acquisitions of Emap by Guardian Media Group / Apax and VNU Business Media Europe by 3i. Eric has also led financings for a large number of Europes most successful digital media companies, including Seatwave, Moneybookers, DailyMotion and The Mill. Prior to LongAcre, Eric was a Principal at Broadview and Vice President at JP Morgan. Eric began his career with Prudential Investment Corporation in New York, completing investments for that group in a number of media properties.

Eric holds an MA Hons in Economics and Fitzpatrick Scholarship from Queens College, Cambridge University.

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Tel: +44 (0) 20 7290 8100

Andrés Pieczanski

Partner

Joined Arma Partners in 2011. Previously was a Managing Director at Jefferies, heading up the European Communications & Semiconductors practice, a senior Technology banker at Broadview and an M&A banker at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette. Andrés has worked extensively in Europe and North America and completed numerous M&A and capital raising transactions with leading technology companies such as Navteq, SonyEricsson, Comcast, Nokia, Thales, Ametek, Aeroflex, AVG and Ceragon. Andrés began his career at Becton Dickinson and later Kulicke & Soffa , working in medical technologies and semiconductor capital equipment design.

He holds undergraduate and graduate engineering degrees from M.I.T. and an MBA from The Wharton School of Business. He speaks native Spanish.

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Tel: +44 (0) 20 7290 8107

Mark Barber

Partner

Joined Arma Partners in 2013. Previously spent 18 years with Citigroup, Salomon Smith Barney and Salomon Brothers covering the technology industry. Most recently Mark headed up Citigroup's Technology Investment Banking Group in North America and prior to that had global responsibility for coverage of the Communications Technology and Internet Infrastructure sectors. Mark has been involved in over a hundred transactions, raising over $50 billion of capital and advising on over $100 billion of mergers and acquisitions across the technology landscape for industry leaders including Nokia, Juniper, Equinix, NSN, Ericsson, Interxion, F5, Nuance, Riverbed and many others.

Mark holds an MBA from The Richard Ivey School of Business and a BSc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Western Ontario.

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Stephen Smith

Senior Managing Director

Joined Arma Partners in 2006. Previously, spent 14 years at Broadview, the technology and media focused M&A advisory firm, where he was Vice Chairman, served on the management committee and led the Silicon Valley M&A advisory team as well as the global practice group in the infrastructure sectors of the IT market. During that time, he was involved in deals such as EMC’s $250 million acquisition of McData, the $7 billion sale of Burr-Brown to TI, the $2.6 billion acquisition of PairGain by ADC and the $120 million recapitalization of E-Tek Dynamics by Summit Partners. Earlier in his career, he held senior roles at McKinsey, Fairchild and Amdahl and was CEO of Reference Technology. Since Broadview, he has been a Managing Director with The Interim CEO Network and has recruited numerous CEOs to technology companies. He retains an affiliation with the Interim CEO Network.

Steve holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar.

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Tel: +1 650 798 1193

Rex Golding

Senior Managing Director

Joined Arma Partners in 2009. Previously, spent over 7 years as Managing Director of Mobius Venture Capital, investing in software, security and Web-based companies and achieving a number of successful M&A exits. Prior to Mobius, Rex was Co-Head of the Technology Banking Group at Morgan Stanley, where he oversaw over $20 billion of IPOs and other public financings, advised on over $150 billion of M&A transactions and personally led a number of high-profile transactions for Amazon.com, Microsoft, Netscape, Oracle, Verisign, and many other premier technology companies globally. Before Morgan Stanley, Rex was a technology entrepreneur at the 3DO Company and OnLive! Technologies. Earlier in his career Rex was an investment banker at Volpe, Welty & Co., E.F. Hutton & Co., and Salomon Brothers Inc.

Rex holds an MBA with honors from the Harvard Business School and an A.B. cum laude in Applied Mathematics from Harvard College. He also attended the California Institute of Technology and George Washington University.

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Tel: +1 650 798 1196

Buddy Blaha

Senior Managing Director

Joined Arma Partners in 2012. Previously he was the President of Corporate Development and M&A at Newell Rubbermaid Inc., a global marketer of consumer and commercial products with over $5 billion in revenues and a presence across 100 countries. During his 8 years at Newell Rubbermaid, Buddy was responsible for portfolio and capital allocation strategy, venture investing, M&A execution and negotiation, transaction integration and licensing. At Newell, Buddy led a major restructuring of the company's portfolio that involved the acquisitions of a number of technology businesses including Dymo Solutions, Endicia and Mimio. Prior to that Buddy was a Managing Director in the Technology M&A Group at Lehman Brothers and a founding member of the Software investment banking group where he led significant transactions for companies such as Alcatel SA, Baltimore Technologies, The Carlyle Group, IBM and LG Group. With over 25 years of transaction experience, Buddy has successfully led numerous large and small deals both as advisor and principal.

Buddy holds a B.S. degree from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia.

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Tel: +1 917 833 5008

Richard Hooke

Senior Managing Director

Joined Arma Partners in 2012, having previously been Global Head of Aerospace & Defence at RBS. Formerly a Partner at Oliver Wyman and Global Aerospace & Defence leader at PwC, he has spent 18 years advising on corporate finance and strategy in EMEA, the Americas and Asia. Clients include EADS, BAE, Boeing, Philips, ABB, Korea Aerospace, Safran, Elbit, Denel, Finmeccanica, Saab, Rheinmetall and Bombardier as well as financial sponsors such as 3i, Bridgepoint and Carlyle. Previously spent 14 years at BAE. He managed three Military Aircraft sites before running the Group CEO’s office, leading a Corporate Venturing programme and, as Airlines Division Strategy Director, restructuring its Regional and Corporate aircraft businesses.

Richard holds a Business Studies degree (Hawker Shield winner) and an MBA with Distinction from Kingston University. He is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, a visiting lecturer at the UK Defence Academy and a member of the Civil Aviation Authority Future Airspace Strategy team.

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Tel: +44 (0) 20 7290 8126

David Smith

Senior Managing Director

Joined Arma Partners in 2012, having previously been a Managing Director within the M&A divisions of Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, Citigroup and, most recently, RBS. He has extensive expertise in public and private M&A transactions, including recently advising Charter on its defence against Melrose's hostile approach and subsequent acquisition by Colfax, Melrose on its approach to FKI and subsequent recommended offer for the business, and RBS on its disposal of USP Hospitales to Doughty Hanson.

David has 20 years' advisory experience working on total transactions in excess of $120 billion by value. He has led many cross border assignments across various industries, notably in the general industrials and aerospace and defence sectors. Multinational clients that David has acted for include Cobham, Spirent, Schaeffler, Thomson MultiMedia, Allianz Capital Partners, Cadbury Schweppes, Schlumberger, Emerson Electric, AT&T, Unilever and Compass Group.

David qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Coopers & Lybrand Deloitte in London and was seconded to Hong Kong with KPMG prior to starting his banking career at Morgan Grenfell & Co.

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Tel: +44 (0) 20 7290 8128

Simon Dunn

Senior Managing Director

Joined Arma Partners in 2013. Previously with RBS, where he was head of the Retail and Consumer Sector Advisory team. Simon has over 20 years of experience within the retail and consumer sector, working for Charterhouse, Kleinwort Benson, UBS and Liberum Capital, and has been involved in many significant transactions, such as the acquisition of ASDA by Walmart and the purchase of a 25% stake in Sainsbury by the Qatar Investment Authority. Recent transactions at RBS included the sale of bol.com to Royal Ahold (€350m), the acquisition of Cora hypermarkets by Auchan and Dufry’s ($957m) acquisition of duty free assets in Latin America. At Arma he focuses on online and multi-channel retail within the firm’s internet and digital media practice.

Simon holds an MA in Economics, Finance and Investment (with Distinction) from the University of Exeter and a BSc (Hons) in Geology from Edinburgh University.

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Tel: +44 (0) 20 7290 8122

Babett Carrier

General Counsel

Babett has over 15 years of experience practising law in the areas of mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance, having previously worked at Shearman & Sterling in both their London and New York offices. While working at Shearman & Sterling, Babett regularly represented clients in public and private mergers and acquisitions, with a particular focus on cross-border M&A transactions, and investment banking clients in connection with financial advisory mandates.

Babett graduated from Cologne University in Germany (Dr. jur) and holds an LL.M from Columbia Law School in New York. Babett is qualified to practice law in England and Wales, New York and Germany (Rechtsassessor) and speaks native German and fluent French.

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Tel: +44 (0) 20 7290 1318

Varun Sunderraman

Managing Director

Joined Arma Partners in 2006. Previous experience includes strategy and business development at JPMorgan in London and scenario planning with Microsoft’s Business Division. Varun has over seven years of technology banking experience and focuses on a wide range of technology sub-segments including enterprise software, cloud computing, security software, semiconductors, mobile and digital consumer technologies.

Varun received a BA, MA and Masters in Electrical Engineering and Information Sciences from Trinity College, University of Cambridge and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Varun speaks Hindi, Marathi and Tamil.

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Tel: +44 (0) 20 7290 8106

Jan Helle

Managing Director

Joined Arma Partners in 2012. Previously spent 8 years at Morgan Stanley where he was responsible for M&A execution and coverage of communications and media companies in the Nordic region, the UK and Ireland. Prior to that, Jan spent 5 years in the investment banking division at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein. Jan is an experienced M&A practitioner and has advised on over $60bn worth of M&A transactions for leading companies including eircom, Millicom, BSkyB, Tele2, Telenor, VimpelCom, Versatel, Wind and Pearson as well as a numerous leading private equity investors and governmental clients.

Jan holds an MSc and BSc degree from the London School of Economics and a CEMS Masters degree in International Management. He speaks native Norwegian and fluent French.

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Tel: +44 (0) 20 7290 8100

Stewart Hindley

Vice President

Joined Arma Partners in 2010. Previously, was a Vice President at Montgomery & Co., where he focused on M&A advisory services for technology companies. He has over a decade of investment banking experience and has led numerous successful transactions to both strategic and financial buyers across the technology and Internet sectors.

Stewart holds a BS in Management Science from UC San Diego (summa cum laude).

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Tel: +1 650 798 1195

James Scott

Vice President

Joined Arma Partners in 2009. Previously, worked across both sector and leveraged finance teams at UBS. He has eight years of investment banking experience and has led numerous successful transactions including buyside and sellside M&A, leveraged finance and equity raising across Eastern and Western Europe as well as transatlantic transactions. James has worked across the TMT space, and is focused in particular on Financial Technology

James holds a BEng in Computing from Imperial College.

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Tel: +44 (0) 20 7290 8116

Ralph Choufani

Vice President

Joined Arma Partners in 2010. Previously worked for 5 years as a Principal at EIT, the telecom PE vertical of Dubai Holding, with assets including Interoute (UK), Forthnet/Nova (Greece), GO (Malta), Tunisie Telecom (Tunisia) and du (UAE) amongst others. During his tenure at EIT, Ralph held an executive committee seat at GO Plc. (the leading quad-play operator in Malta) and a board seat at BMIT Ltd. (the dominant colocation provider for Europe's online gaming companies). Prior to EIT, Ralph co-founded and ran an entrepreneurial venture in the digital dynamic signage space which he successfully exited in 2005. Earlier in his career he was a management consultant with Accenture in the Communications & High Tech team where he advised a variety of telecom operators across the Middle East.

Ralph holds an MBA from INSEAD, and both a bachelor of Electrical Engineering and a Masters in Computer Engineering from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. He speaks fluent Arabic and French.

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Tel: +44 (0) 20 7290 8111

Seth Kundrot

Vice President

Joined Arma Partners in 2011. Previous experience includes over eight years of investment banking experience at Deutsche Bank, LongAcre Partners (a media-focused boutique that was acquired by Jefferies), Jefferies International and most recently at Investec, where Seth led the firm’s Internet practice. Seth has advised on completed transactions, including M&A advisory and public and private capital raising deals, representing more than $8bn in aggregate value. At Arma, Seth focuses primarily on the Media and Internet sectors. Current focus areas include gaming, e-Commerce, marketing services and social media.

Seth holds a BSFS in International Economics from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service (magna cum laude) and has also studied at the London School of Economics.

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Tel: +44 (0) 20 7290 8115

Ramon De Paz

Vice President

Joined Arma Partners in 2012. Previously spent 7 years at Morgan Stanley where he was a Vice President in the European Technology and M&A teams. Prior to that, Ramon spent 8 years in the Communications Equipment industry, mostly with Alcatel-Lucent. Ramon has worked extensively in Europe, North America and LatAm, and has advised on over $20bn worth of M&A and capital markets transactions, notably in the areas of Communications Technology, Software, Online and Clean Tech. Clients that Ramon has advised include Amadeus, Abertis, Iberia, Iberdrola Renewables, EDP Renewables, and Indra, as well as a number of leading private equity funds.

Ramon holds a graduate degree in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering from the Barcelona Polytechnic School, and an MBA from INSEAD. He speaks native Spanish and fluent French.

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Tel: +44 (0) 20 7290 1303

Davide Russo

Vice President

Joined Arma Partners in 2013. Previous experience includes over ten years working on financing, capital raising and M&A advisory assignments in the CMT sector in Australasia, Europe and the US. Previously with Morgan Stanley in their Technology Investment Banking team, Davide has been involved with over 25 transactions representing over $15bn in aggregate value. Davide also co-founded and ran an eCommerce company, Dalani Home & Living, part of the Westwing Group (a finalist for UK online homewares retail website of the year in 2012); and Early Stage Digital Ventures, a Digital Media consultancy where he was an early stage investor and advisor.

Davide holds an MBA from IESE and London Business School and a Bachelor of Applied Finance from Macquarie University in Sydney. He speaks fluent Italian.

To email Davide please click here
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7290 8125