Meet the team

Jonathan has over 20 years’ experience of private equity and has led over 100 transactions. These comprised growth investments, management buy-outs, acquisitions, company sales, re-financings and development finance. Both at 3i (1996-2007) and at Downing (2008 to date) Jonathan has focussed on small and medium enterprises, working alongside management teams with substantial equity stakes as they grow and evolve their businesses, and ultimately seek to realise their investments.

Parik joined Downing in August 2017 and heads the Specialist Finance Team, comprising both Property Finance and Wholesale Lending. On the property finance side he is primarily focused on residential development finance, non-speculative commercial development finance and bridging finance, whilst on the wholesale lending side he is focused on providing structured finance facilities to other lenders. Parik has 20 years' financial services experience, predominantly focused on debt and the real estate finance space where he has led over 150 transactions, but has broader experience including leveraged finance, restructuring and private equity placement. Parik spent nearly 10 years within the Corporate Bank at Barclays, including time as a Director in the Real Estate Finance Team, and has also held positions at Funding Circle, Citigroup, Puma Investment Management and Asante Capital Group.

Colin is Partner & Head of Investment Strategy at Downing LLP. He qualified as a solicitor with Linklaters in 1996 and spent six years as Senior Manager at 3i Group in corporate finance and venture capital. He then spent four years at The Royal Bank of Scotland where he was a Director, structuring debt and equity investments, before joining Downing in 2006. Colin has led a wide range of infrastructure-related investments, with many relating to hotels and renewable energy.

Mark is Partner and Head of Retail Sales at Downing.  He has over 30 years experience in financial services and has previously worked for Franklin Templeton, Carmignac Gestion, FundQuest, Lombard Odier and Save and Prosper.‍

He joined Downing in May 2022 and is responsible for the Sales Strategy and management of the business development teams working with IFAs, Wealth Managers and Discretionary Fund Managers.

Mark is a Partner and Head of Development Capital at Downing. With over 18 years of private equity experience across origination, transaction and portfolio management, he has managed over £1 billion of equity and debt capital. He has extensive company board experience and has worked across a range of industry sectors including Healthcare, Hospitality and Leisure, Retail, Business Services, Specialty Manufacturing & Financial Services.

He has experience of investing in private and quoted companies with knowledge of operating businesses and real estate investment. Since joining Downing in June 2014, Mark has been spearheading the expansion of Downing's healthcare activities and the wider development capital team. Consequently, Downing has been recognised as Private Equity Investor of the Year at the HealthInvestor Awards 2020 and in 2021, Mark was recognised in HealthInvestor’s Power Fifty as one of the industry’s 50 most effective, inspiring and influential leaders across the health and social care market.

Mark joined Downing from the UK mid-market private equity firm, Caird Capital LLP. Prior to that he performed principal investment and leveraged finance roles at Bank of Scotland.

Jane joined Downing LLP in October 2019. Her role is to manage our Customer Service and Operations team ensuring exceptional customer service is delivered to our investors and advisers throughout their journey with Downing. She has over 25 years’ experience working within the financial industry, which includes HSBC Bank and more recently Octopus Investments.

Danielle joined Downing LLP in June 2019 as Compliance Director.  She is responsible for ensuring that Downing’s compliance structures and processes are organised so that Downing’ objectives are achieved in a responsible, risk-aware and compliant manner. She has over 20 years' compliance experience, working most recently as Head of Management Services at Maitland Institutional Services Ltd having spent four years as Director in Legal, Risk and Compliance.  Prior to this Danielle has held Compliance roles at Capita, Merrill Lynch and Aberdeen Asset Management.

Roger provides expertise and problem solving around Environmental, Social and Governance across £1.7bn investor Downing LLP. Areas of focus are designing and implementing strategy & governance, integrating ESG to investment and engagement activity, driving advocacy through involvement with various industry associations, and defining solutions to meet the future liabilities that clients are saving for today.

Roger previously worked as Head of ESG at £45.7bn investment manager & consultant River and Mercantile. Responsibilities included aligning ESG strategy to investment and client teams, stewardship to achieve real-world outcomes and providing specialist climate and carbon expertise. This was across active equities, multi-asset and infrastructure investment functions, and in fiduciary solutions to clients.

Prior to this, Roger held an ESG role at the £47.3bn Aviva Investors Real Assets platform, which invests in property, infrastructure and private debt.

Roger has completed the UN Principles of Responsible Investment programme, holds the CFA UK Diploma in Investment Management (ESG) and has passed Level 1 of the Chartered Financial Analyst programme. Roger is also a passionate advocate for achieving 1.5 degrees of climate change above pre-industrial levels.

Kostas joined Downing as a Partner in 2015. He is a member of the Downing Executive Committee and the Investment Committee and oversees the development of the private market businesses at Downing. He has more than 20 years’ experience in private markets, across a variety of sectors and investment structures. Prior to Downing, Kostas worked as a corporate finance advisor at PwC, where he advised institutions and management teams on private equity transactions, and subsequently joined the Bank of Scotland private equity team in 2006. He was then a member of the Caird Capital team that led a successful spin out of a £500 million private equity portfolio from Lloyds Banking Group in 2010. Kostas holds a degree in Biochemistry and a PhD in Molecular Genetics and is a Chartered Accountant with ICAEW.

Sonnie joined Downing in October 2018 as a customer service executive. Since joining, Sonnie has focused on improving the Bond customer service and operations function which he now manages.

Sonnie previously worked at Firstsource, in their VIP customer service team.

Tony joined Downing in 1992 and has driven the company's growth from 3 to over 200 staff members. He has carried out various roles throughout his time at Downing, with a particular focus on the development and marketing of new products, as well as sitting on the Investment Committee. He previously worked at Kingston Smith Chartered Accountants, joining in 1986 after graduating from Kings College London with a degree in maths and management. While at Kingston Smith he focussed on auditing small and medium sized businesses and qualified as a Chartered Accountant.

Tom joined Downing in May 2019 to establish our full-service asset management team, which now provides Downing’s investors with an efficient and class leading asset management service. Tom is now responsible for fund and portfolio reporting and investment operations across our private market investments.

Prior to joining Downing, Tom was a Director at Foresight Group, where he had oversight of a significant portfolio of renewable energy investments. Tom is a chartered accountant and holds a BSc in Economics from the University of York.

Peter joined Downing in 2014 and became a Partner in 2016. He has almost 20 years’ experience of the execution and management of quoted and unquoted investments. Peter supports Downing’s Development Capital, Energy and Infrastructure and Specialist Lending Teams on all transactional matters.  

Matthew joined Downing in 2018. He is responsible for overseeing all Bond operations, executing Bond raises and driving Bond initiatives.

Prior to joining Downing, he worked at a crowdfunding startup, where he was responsible for business and IT operations, compliance and customer service, among other things. 

Matthew holds a First Class degree in Business Management with Marketing, from Cardiff Metropolitan University.

Anne joined Downing as a Partner and Chief Financial Officer in 2020. Prior to this, she was at Octopus Group for seven years as Group Finance Director, after previously being at Channel 5 Television for 10 years. Anne originally qualified as a Chartered Accountant at Horwath Clark Whitehill in 1999, before also practicing at KPMG. Anne also holds an MA (Hons) in Economics from Edinburgh University.

Rebecca heads up our Product team and drives the development, management and marketing of new and existing investment products. She joined Downing in July 2020 and has significant expertise across public and private equity and tax-efficient investments. Rebecca began her career at Octopus Investments and was previously a Senior Business Development Manager at TIME Investments. She holds a Certificate in Corporate Finance and studied Biomedical Science at the University of Edinburgh, earning an honours degree in Reproductive Biology.

James joined Downing as a Partner and Chief Operating Officer in October 2018. Responsible for the organisational infrastructure of Downing, he was previously the General Counsel and Partner of a London based hedge fund and the Chief Operating Officer of a national specialist lender. He originally trained as a solicitor with Pinsent Masons, practicing litigation in construction, engineering and energy disputes. James holds an LLB law degree and a Masters degree.

Tom joined Downing as Partner in the Energy & Infrastructure team in July 2018. He heads up the team and has 24 years' of experience as Principal and Adviser across the private equity and private debt infrastructure sectors. He trained as a Solicitor before moving into private equity, where he carried out successful transactions totalling in excess of £14 billion in the energy, utilities, transportation, accommodation and defence sectors. Tom holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Practice from the Royal College of Law and both a master’s and bachelor’s degree in law from Cambridge University.