Focus on Private Equity

Nicolas Mackel is CEO of Luxembourg for Finance, the Agency for the Development of the Financial Centre, since July 2013.

Nicolas is a career diplomat. He has graduated with a law degree from the University of Aix-en-Provence, and holds two post-graduate diplomas in European law from the Sorbonne University, respectively the College of Europe in Bruges where he then also served as a teaching assistant in the Law Department. He worked as a legal clerk at the European Court of Justice before joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1999. His assignments focused on the successive EU Treaty negotiations (Amsterdam, Nice, Constitution, Lisbon).

Nicolas was consecutively posted at Luxembourg’s Permanent Representation to the EU (2002-07), as Deputy Chief of Mission at Luxembourg’s Embassy in Washington DC (2007-11) and as Consul General in Shanghai (2011-13) where he was in charge of promoting Luxembourg’s economic interests throughout China as the Executive Director of the Luxembourg Trade and Investment Office.

Edmund “Edi” Truell has been running third party funds since the age of 16; he qualified as a Chartered Financial Analyst while studying Economics at Durham University. He was credit trained at Bankers Trust LBO group where he structured and advised major LBOs and infrastructure projects.

Edi created and ran a series of innovative entities, including Hambros European Ventures, Duke Street Capital private equity and Duchess debt funds, as well as Pension Insurance Corporation; Disruptive Capital Finance and the London Lancashire Pension Partnership / London Pensions Fund Authority (“LPFA”).

In 2014 he was voted PwC’s “Entrepreneur of the Year” and is a former Special Economic Advisor to the Mayor of London (Boris Johnson). While Chairman of the LPFA, Edi was the architect of the merger for £260bn of public sector funds into 7 “superpools” and is the Founder of the Pension SuperFund, the UK’s first Defined Benefits pension consolidator.

Edi is Trustee and Founder of the Truell Conservation Foundation; and formerly Director of Galapagos Conservation, Charles Darwin Foundation – the first debt for nature swap. He is also the former Chair of the UK Strategic Investment Advisory B.

David is heading the Tech VC Team of the EIF, where he has been working for almost ten years. Previously, he has been in charge of EIF investments in VC funds in France, Israel, and of the Luxembourg Future Fund. David was also overviewing EIF activities with Accelerators.

David has been investing in all the sectors covered by EIF investment programs, such as ICT, Life Sciences, and Cleantech. To date, David has made 60+ commitments in VC funds (approx. EUR 3bn of commitments) from micro-seed strategies to growth financing. David is a regular speaker in industry conferences and tech events.

Prior to joining the EIF, David spent two years at PwC Corporate Finance, where he was in charge of fundraising activities for start-ups and businesses valuations.

David started his career in the Private Equity department of Société Générale Asset Management in Paris for five years, where he was part of the VC fund-of-funds team.

David holds a Master Degree in Financial & Tax Engineering from ESCP-EAP Paris, a Master Degree in Portfolio Management from University Paris XII, and a Master Degree in Finance & Management from University Paris I La Sorbonne.

Vanessa has 14 years of relevant experience in private markets, having joined Partners Group in 2006.

She currently heads the Luxembourg office, which holds Partners Group’s AIFM license.  Within Partners Group she has held various roles, including negotiating M&A transactions and heading the depositary business.

Hedda is a private investor, independent board director, adjunct professor and advisor on issues relating to sustainable development, responsible finance and diversity management. She is a founder and CEO of TIIME.org – advocacy, advisory and education (#ImpactImperative).

She is an active board member on funds and organizations working with and towards triple bottom line – and moving towards impact investing. Her focus is on social inclusion, gender-lens investing and environment  Apart from managing TIIME and a privately-held forestry company in Sweden, Hedda sits on the advisory board to the Luxembourg government for Sustainable Development (CSDD.lu), focused on social finance. For the past 16 years, Hedda has been Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship, Social Innovation & Impact Economy for Sacred Heart University’s MBA program and teaches at the University of Luxembourg and the School of Finance on the same topics.

Katia Panichi is a partner of Elvinger Hoss Prussen in Luxembourg. Her principal fields of activity are corporate law, mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, finance, structured finance and securitisation, investment funds and investment companies.

From July 2012 to December 2015 Katia headed the Asian operations in the Hong Kong office of Elvinger Hoss Prussen.

She graduated from the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and holds an LLM in international business, trade and tax law from King’s college, London. She is member of the Executive Committee and Board of Directors of the LPEA (Luxembourg Private Equity and Venture Capital Association) and was Legal Committee co-Leader of the LPEA. She was also a member of the Conseil de l’Ordre from September 2009 to September 2011. Finally, she is member of the Luxembourg Bar since 1999.

Stephane Pesch is the CEO of the Luxembourg Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (LPEA).

Stephane Pesch studied Finance and Business administration in Nancy, France and finished his studies with an exchange program in the US specialising in international business. After some experiences in the media sector, Stephane joined the financial services, investment funds industry. He started at BNP Paribas Securities Services and moved to KBL and Sal. Oppenheim Jr. & Cie as Senior Sales Manager and respectively Head of Sales. He switched afterwards to Ipes, a specialised PSF providing PE & VC services, for which he led the business development activities in Europe. He was able to participate over the last years in the tremendous growth of the PE/VC asset classes in Luxembourg and of the LPEA via different active roles in technical committees.

After many years as a member, he professionally joined the association in October 2019 as Director of Strategy and started working on key missions including public advocacy, thought leadership and the attraction of talents. With the team he launched the LPEA Training Academy in 2020 and took over in September the role of CEO, continuing with recognised events and launching new projects.

Camille Thommes is the Director General of ALFI, the Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry. He joined the association back in 2007.

Before joining ALFI, Camille Thommes was in in charge of the Investment Fund Department at the State and Savings Bank, Luxembourg (BCEE) from 2001-2006, after holding various senior positions in the Securities & Custody department since 1993. He started his professional career in 1986 at BGL (now BGL-BNP Paribas) where he held positions in the Securities and Custody Divisions.

He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Luxembourg Supervisory Authority (CSSF) and a member of the Consultative Committee for Prudential Regulation. Camille is also a member of the High-Level Committee of the Financial Centre set up by the Ministry of Finance and a Board member of the Luxembourg Financial Industry Federation (PROFIL S.A.). Furthermore, he represents ALFI at the Board of Directors of the European Fund and Asset Management association (EFAMA) and is a Board member of IIFA (International Investment Funds Association). In addition, he is a member of the Advisory Board of the Department of Finance of the Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance (University of Luxembourg).

Camille holds a Master’s Degree in Economics from the University Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg (France), completed the Accelerated Development Program at the London Business School and accomplished traineeships in London and New York.

A Luxembourg native, Camille is fluent in English, French, German and Luxembourgish.