Jonathan (Jon) Little

Managing Partner

Jon Little is our Managing Partner having founded the firm in 2020.

Jon was previously the Managing Partner of Northill Capital, a firm which he founded in 2010, backed by one of Europe’s wealthiest families. Northill is a long-term investor in specialist boutique asset management firms providing succession and growth capital to boutique asset management firms.

From its inception to Jon’s departure in 2019, the assets under management by Northill’s majority-owned affiliate firms grew to over $91bn.

Prior to founding Northill, Jon was the Vice-Chairman of BNY Mellon Asset Management and Chief Executive of its international businesses with assets under management of over $400bn encompassing businesses such as Newton, Alcentra, Pareto, ARX, West LB Mellon, Walter Scott and Insight, many of which were acquired under Jon’s leadership.

Joining Mellon (later BNY Mellon) in 2000, Jon previously built the global distribution business to over $70bn of net sales at its peak. Jon was also concurrently from 2006 -2008 Chairman of Dreyfus, the New York-based US mutual fund company. Jon also served as a member of the Bank’s 17-person global executive committee from its creation in 2007 until his departure in 2010 to set up Northill.

Prior to joining BNY Mellon, Jon was at J P Morgan Investment Management where he was head of international funds and institutional sub-advisory sales and at Fidelity Investments where he eventually became UK business development director.

Jon also served as non-executive Chairman of Quilter Investors from 2018 to 2020 where he oversaw the sale of the Old Mutual Global Investors business (renamed Merian) and as a non-executive director of Quilter plc. From 2011 -2016 he was also a non-executive director of FTSE listed Jupiter Asset Management.

Jon is also Chairman of the Investment Committee of the Oxford Brookes University Endowment. He was educated at Oxford Brookes University and has the IMC from CFA UK and an FPC from the Chartered Insurance Institute.

Outside the office, Jon is a keen but increasingly fragile runner and enjoys skiing, shooting, sailing and drumming.

Rick Potter

Partner, Senior Adviser

Prior to joining Alderwood Rick was a Founding Partner of Northill Capital from April 2011 to December 2020 where he led the firm’s investment team.

Prior to this Rick was at BNY Mellon Asset Management – the asset management arm of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation with $1.2 trillion of assets under management – as Global Head of Strategy and Development and was a Member of the Global Executive Committee.

Responsible for teams based in the US and UK he successfully implemented strategic development projects in the US, UK, Germany, Japan, China, Brazil, India, Australia and Chile which included successful acquisitions, joint ventures, disposals and lift-outs.

Rick joined Newton Investment Management (part of Mellon Financial, later BNY Mellon) in 1999.

Prior to 1999, Rick worked at Gartmore and NatWest Investment Management in the Business Strategy Group for four years, before which he was a fund manager in the Structured Fixed Income team. Until 1991 he was employed at GEC-Marconi Communications where he held various technical and managerial positions.

Rick holds an MBA from Cranfield School of Management and a BSc in Engineering from Brunel University. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and is a Fellow of the Securities Institute. Rick is also a Chartered Engineer, MIET.

Rick is an experienced jet and piston-engined “warbird” pilot and has recently qualified to fly Spitfires. He also races sports cars and has a growing collection of classic British cars.

Cathy Jones

Partner

Cathy joined Alderwood Capital as a Partner and member of the Investment Committee in September 2021.

She is a senior human capital executive who focuses on all aspects of high value performance management in the asset management sector with a particular emphasis on succession planning, understanding how investment teams interact and make successful decisions, and sustain thriving cultures.

Over her 27 years of experience, she has worked with large, medium and boutique teams within in the financial services and technology industries on a global level.

At Alderwood Capital, the investment process places a heavy reliance on understanding the ‘DNA’ of our target businesses and their people, which Cathy will lead.

Cathy was a Partner at Northill Capital from February 2012 to August 2021, her focus was on investee manager due diligence, acquisitions, succession planning, leadership management, talent development, performance management and governance.  Cathy has also held a number of non-executive board roles.

Prior to this, Cathy was at BNY Mellon for almost a decade where she served as Human Resources Director for the Asset Servicing division in EMEA managing a 60 strong team looking after over 5,000 employees.  Cathy transferred from Mellon Australia’s Pension Consulting & Asset Management businesses to London in 2004.

Prior to this Cathy also worked in senior HR management roles for AMP, Computershare and IOOF Holdings Ltd.

Cathy holds a Bachelor of Business and a Post Graduate degree in Human Resources Management and Industrial Relations from Victoria University of Technology, Melbourne.

Cathy likes cooking, travelling and has re-discovered roller skating after a very long break.

Jeremy Bassil

Partner, Senior Adviser

Prior to joining Alderwood, Jeremy was one of the founding Partners of Northill Capital, joining in January 2011 as General Counsel & Chief Administrative Officer before leaving in December 2020.

Prior to this, Jeremy spent 11 years at Mellon Financial Corporation/The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (“BNY Mellon”) in London, latterly as International General Counsel reporting to the New York based General Counsel.

At BNY Mellon, Jeremy developed and led an experienced international legal team with lawyers based in EMEA, Asia Pacific and Latin America, coordinating the delivery of a wide range of legal support to BNY Mellon’s global businesses.

Prior to 1999, Jeremy worked in the Financial Services team at Dechert LLP advising on a broad range of asset management matters including hedge fund/manager establishment and structuring and UK/EU regulatory matters. He previously worked as an in-house legal advisor at Gottex Financial Products Limited, Clerical Medical Investment Group and Ernst & Young.

Jeremy is a Solicitor of the Senior Courts of England & Wales (1999), an English Barrister at Law (1987) and holds a LL.B. (Honours) Business Law degree from the University of Huddersfield (1986).

Jeremy enjoys golf, running and distance swimming, both in the pool and open water, and more recently has become a beekeeper.

Ryan Sinnott

Partner, Head of Investment

Ryan was Director of Strategy and Development at Northill Capital from September 2012 until March 2021. While at Northill, Ryan led or played a key role in the origination and execution of Northill’s investments in Longview Partners, Capital Four, Vantage Infrastructure and Strategic Investment Group, growing Northill’s AUM from $5 billion to $95 billion. Ryan was a member of the board of directors of Longview Partners (UK) Limited and Strategic Investment Group. He authored an opinion piece for the Financial Times on institutional asset management business models and has published research on the topic.

Prior to joining Northill in 2012, Ryan was the Director of Strategy and Development at BNY Mellon Asset Management, where he led mergers and acquisitions and execution of strategic projects for the global asset management business. Ryan was a supervisory board director of West LB Mellon KAG in Germany and a member of BNY Mellon Asset Management’s Global Operating Committee and Alcentra’s Executive Committee.

Ryan joined BNY Mellon in 2003 in Australia. Prior to this, Ryan was the general manager of a software developer for the superannuation administration industry, and previously held marketing and business administration roles in the financial services and legal industries. 

Ryan holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Western Australia and the Chartered Financial Analyst designation. 

Outside of work Ryan enjoys gardening and swimming, and is known to enjoy playing music for friends, revisiting his university years working as a mobile wedding DJ. 

Jonathan Crawford

Partner, General Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer

Jonathan joined Alderwood in March 2020 as our General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer.

A corporate and financial services lawyer by background, Jonathan has more than 20 years’ experience of managing departments, advising and guiding company boards and executive teams, and implementing strategic and change projects, both as a law firm partner and as a consultant to some of Europe’s largest regulated businesses.

Prior to joining Alderwood, Jonathan was the Interim Head of Executive Governance at Santander UK plc where he was responsible for the organisation and orderly running of the bank’s two most senior executive management committees.

Before that, he designed, established and headed up Santander’s Ringfencing Oversight Function, a UK bank-wide compliance oversight, advisory and reporting function created to ensure ongoing compliance with the UK’s post-Financial Crisis structural and regulatory reforms for banks.

Between 2015 and 2017, Jonathan was Head of Corporate/M&A at The Royal Bank of Scotland Group. Based in London and Edinburgh, the team advised on all of the bank’s M&A and strategic activity.  That was followed by a role as the coordinating corporate lawyer on the bank’s huge ringfencing restructuring programme in 2017 and 2018.

Before RBS, from 2013 to 2015 Jonathan enjoyed a number of consultancy roles with banks and asset management firms including Citibank, Natixis Global Asset Management and Invesco Perpetual where he led legal and regulatory workstreams on a variety of projects including back and middle office outsourcings, new product roll-outs and regulatory change programmes.

Jonathan’s law firm career included serving as a partner at both Mayer Brown and Speechly Bircham in the City of London where his financial services clients included Northill Capital, BNY Mellon and a number of significant asset managers. Over the course of his years in private practice, he advised clients in the insurance, technologies, media, telecoms and industrials and chemicals sectors.

Jonathan has an LL.B (Hons) Law Degree from Manchester Metropolitan University, a Legal Practice Course Diploma from the University of Sheffield and has practiced continuously as a Solicitor in England and Wales since qualifying in 1997.

Jonathan is a keen runner and cyclist and is Chair of Governors at St. Andrew’s Primary School, Totteridge.

Christopher (Chris) Berryman

Partner

Chris is a Partner and Consultant to the firm and joined in 2020 when the firm was founded.

Chris was previously Group Chief Operating Officer of Just Retirement Plc having been a founding director of its predecessor business Just Retirement Ltd from 2004 until he stood down in 2016.

During his time with Just Retirement, Chris was a key member of the management team which took the firm through two IPO’s (AIM and FTSE) and a public-to-private transaction. Chris has extensive board-level experience of a complex regulated business and has overseen functions such as IT, Customer Services, Product Development, Infrastructure, Group Legal and Company Secretariat and Corporate Strategy.

In addition, Chris has had extensive experience of both leading acquisitions and the post-acquisition integration process. During his time at Just Retirement, Chris also led a number of industry initiatives to improve customer outcomes and under his leadership, the firm won an unprecedented number of service awards from intermediaries.

Before his departure from Just Retirement Chris managed the post-merger integration programme of Just Retirement and Partnership Group to form Just Group Plc. He delivered over £52m of savings against a target of £40m and delivered this a year earlier than planned.

Chris has also worked in a number of private and private equity-owned start-up businesses including Evergreen (latterly acquired by Britannic) and NPIRS (later acquired by 3i). He also manages his family property business.

Chris is an INSEAD IEP Alumni, holds a Certificate of Actuarial Techniques and a degree in Mathematics, Operational Research, Statistics and Economics from The University of Warwick.

Outside the office, Chris is an accomplished pianist and an improving guitarist. He enjoys snowboarding, keeping fit and water sports.

Rebecca Noyes

Chief Financial Officer

Rebecca joined Alderwood Capital in January 2021.

Prior to this Rebecca worked with Jon Little at Northill Capital in her role as Senior Financial Controller for the Northill Group from 2014 to her departure in 2020. During her time at Northill Capital, Rebecca was primarily responsible for all the ongoing managerial and statutory financial control of the Northill Group both on and offshore. In addition to this primary responsibility, and along with providing transaction support to the investment team and CFO, Rebecca worked closely with the finance teams in Northill’s majority-owned affiliates to ensure a smooth transition in ownership and strong ongoing relationship. To this end, she also often took responsibility, on an interim basis, for any key finance roles that were required in any of the affiliates until these teams were fully established.

Prior to joining Northill, Rebecca worked at Waypoint Capital and previously Kedge Capital as a junior financial controller, having joined Kedge Capital in 2011.

Rebecca holds a BSc (Hons) in Physics and Philosophy from King’s College University, London. She qualified as an accountant in 2014 and is an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.

Outside of work she generally has her hands full with a young son and two dogs. Keeping them all occupied means she is often found on very long muddy walks out in the countryside doing her best to tire them all out!

Altaf (Al) Kassim

Senior Investment Analyst

Al is our Senior Investment Analyst and joined the firm in July 2020.

Al joined us from Aviva Investors where he worked as a Business Analyst since 2017. At Aviva Al was involved in shaping the strategic direction of ESG reporting, client contact and data strategy, as well as focusing on the development of a portal which explains complex financial products to clients. He also participated in investment team workshops and client feedback sessions and is an acknowledged subject matter expert in relation to a range of different asset classes, including Multi-Strategy, Credit, Equities, Liquidity and Alternative Income.

Prior to this, Al was a Vice President in Financial Analytics and Efficiency at J.P. Morgan Asset Management between 2012 and 2017 where he worked with the business’ Chief Financial Officers. His responsibilities included reengineering financial reporting processes and implementing systemic improvements.

Between 2011 and 2012, Al was a Management Information Business Partner at Kleinwort Benson.

Prior to this, Al spent over 11 years at BNY Mellon Asset Management – working in a number of Finance and Finance management roles and working for the Global CFO of the business as a Special Projects Business Analyst analysing and developing financial models, recommending enhancements to the existing technology of the business and managing financial reporting outputs.

Al has extensive experience in using various systems and programmes including investment management tools, analysis tools and financial systems. He was awarded his CFA Charter in 2017 and in 2019 was awarded a Certificate in ESG Investing by the CFA Society of the UK. He obtained an MSc with Distinction in Finance and Investments from Cass Business School in 2011, following his BSc 2:1 with Honours in Financial Economics in 2009 from Birkbeck College, UCL.

Al is keen motorcyclist, still plays rugby competitively, is a qualified RYA Yacht Master and serves part-time as volunteer crewman with the Royal National Lifeboat Institute based on the River Thames. In September Al was appointed as a member of the RNLI’s advisory council.

David Townsend

Head of Investor Relations

David joined Alderwood Capital as a Consultant to the firm in June 2021.

David was most recently Head of the EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) and Australian institutional business at First Eagle Investment Management. Prior to joining First Eagle in August 2017, David spent almost nine years at Martin Currie Investment Management, where he was a Managing Director responsible for the EMEA institutional business, global consultant relations and the UK wholesale business.

Previously, he was Head of International and Institutional Sales at Framlington and Head of UK Institutional Sales at AXA IM, and before that he was Director of Sales at Scottish Life International Investment Group. David began his career at Fidelity Investments International, working in UK and European retail marketing and product development, as well as in international business development across the Middle East and Africa.

David holds a BA (Hons) in Modern European Studies from Trent Polytechnic and an MA in Near and Middle East Area Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies at University of London.

Outside the office David is a novice shepherd, enjoys skiing and shooting and has a passion for safaris and travel.

Suzette Price

Executive Assistant & Office Manager

Suzette joined Alderwood in December 2020 after working at Northill Capital for 7 years where she supported Jon Little in his previous role as Managing Partner. Before this, she had gained a wealth of experience over 20 years in supporting CEOs of venture capital and private equity firms, including Almeida Capital, Frontiers Capital and LICA Development Capital.

Suzette likes nothing better at weekends than to cook up a storm in the kitchen and thinks herself a master chef! To offset this she is also a keen yogi and sometimes runs – having completed the London Marathon in 2017.

Esh Kanagalingam

Project Manager

Eshaan (Esh) joined Alderwood Capital in September 2020.

Prior to this Esh was a Transformation Project Manager at Virgin Atlantic, specialising in technical delivery. At Virgin Atlantic, he was responsible for the delivery of large-scale commercial programmes across a variety of business areas – holding project management qualifications in Axelos and APM.

Previously Esh had roles in technical support and global incident management at both Bravura Solutions and Deutsche Bank.

Eshaan holds a BSc in Mobile Computing from Brunel University

Digital innovation is a passion of Esh’s and outside of work, he spends a lot of time listening to key influencers in the industry across blogs and podcasts.

Kenny Mansley

Communications Manager

Kenny joined the firm in January 2021.

Prior to this Kenny worked with Jon Little at Northill Capital in the role of Marketing and Publications Manager from September 2011 until the end of 2020. Previously Kenny was employed at RAB Capital from November 2007 and was responsible for developing the RAB brand, and producing a range of fund presentations and marketing materials for the firm. He was also responsible for photography and the production of the firm’s interim and annual reports.

Prior to this Kenny worked for Wellington Management International in their London office as Regional Project Coordinator within their global design and print team. Prior to joining Wellington in 2000, he worked for Serco Defence as Media Resources Manager at a Royal Air Force training base in Buckinghamshire.

Kenny has a BA (Hons) in Illustration and Animation from Edinburgh College of Art.

Outside of work Kenny is interested in art, design and photography, cycling and growing chillies. He also enjoys skiing but is particularly bad at it.

Sophie Dehnel

Compliance and Governance Assistant

Sophie joined Alderwood in November 2021, having completed her LLB (Hons) Law Degree at the University of Warwick in 2021. At Alderwood, Sophie is our Compliance & Governance Assistant, working closely with our Group General Counsel, Jonathan Crawford.

Sophie grew up in Paris, is an accomplished Modern Jazz and Ballet dancer, a keen traveller and enjoys impressing audiences with her near-legendary karaoke skills.