Our Team
“A diverse, stable and deeply experienced investment team”
- Founders
- Deal Execution & Portfolio Management
- Legal, Finance & Operations
- Investor Relations
Saad Aouad
Co-founder, Chairman & Chief Investment Officer
Saad started his career in 2004 in JP Morgan’s London M&A Middle East team, moving to the TMT team in 2005 where he helped execute several transactions including : (i) Advising leading regional telecom operators in their international expansion – namely Orascom, Qtel and Etisalat (incl. its $2.9 billion acquisition of Egypt’s third mobile license). (ii) Advising French media group Lagardere on its acquisition of a 20% stake in Canal+ Group (€1.5 billion+), and KKR on its acquisition of Pages Jaunes (€6 billion+). In 2008, Saad joined Kingdom Zephyr Africa Management (KZAM) the leading pan-African private equity fund at the time. At KZAM, Saad sourced, executed, managed and exited multiple transactions including the full exit from CNIA Saada in Morocco (insurance company), where he led the successful IPO. He also worked on a number of transactions that became a success in the Africa PE space, namely OSEAD Mining, IHS Towers, Banque Atlantique and GTA (insurance).
In 2011 he moved to London based asset manager Duet Group where he co-founded and managed its Africa private equity platform. At Duet, he led the origination and execution of the second largest private equity transaction in Ethiopia to date ($90 million in Dashen Brewery; the second largest brewery in the country) as well as investments into QCIL in Uganda.
Saad graduated from EM Lyon with an MSc in Finance. He is a native Arabic and French speaker, and is fluent in English.
Emmanuel Couteau
Co-founder & Chief Operating Officer
Emmanuel started his career at Arthur Andersen Luxembourg in 2000 in the Business Risk Consulting & Assurance practice. In 2001, he joined a start-up company as Sales Executive Europe, and signed major deals for a business segment he initiated. Following his consulting and entrepreneurial experience, Emmanuel moved to investment banking in London in 2004. He joined Societe Generale as VP Hedge Fund Credit Sales and soon became one of the top producers in Europe. In 2007, he moved to Royal Bank of Scotland as a Director in the Hedge Fund Credit Sales team and ranked again among the top performers. In 2009, Emmanuel joined the Credit Derivatives Sales team at ICAP, the inter-dealer broker, and helped multiply the desk revenues fivefold.
Emmanuel holds an MSc in Business Risk Management and in Finance from SKEMA Business School. He is a French native speaker and is fluent in English.
Pierre Heidebroek
MD Agriculture
Pierre started his agribusiness career in commercial operations in Africa at JVL and Booker Tate in Jamaica before moving to the Black Sea Region in the early nineties. In 1995, he joined Agriland as Director for an agriculture fund in Hungary and then moved in 1996 to Agri Cooperative Raiffeisen Banking Group to head the agriculture investment banking operations in South Eastern Europe. Subsequently in 2001, he joined, as Board Member, Vienna-based Meinl Capital Advisors, a Food & Agri investment bank, before founding in 2005 Marlagne Capital Advisors, a boutique agribusiness M&A advisory serving investors in the Black Sea region. In 2011, he joined, as Senior Advisor, the Group DF, a Ukrainian fertilizer and agribusiness conglomerate to spearhead their agribusiness investments in Ukraine and internationally. From 2016 till 2018, he was Director Agriculture at Quantum Global for a PE fund investing in agriculture in Angola. During 2018-2019, he was General Manager Food & Agri at MOBH, a leading family holding in Dubai developing operations in Africa and the Black Sea region.
Pierre holds an MSc in Agricultural Engineering from Agribiotech – University of Liege (Belgium), an MSc in Animal Sciences from University of Maryland (USA), post graduate degrees in Accounting and Finance from Herriot Watt Business School (UK) and in Tropical Animal Health from the Tropical Medicine Institute in Antwerp (Belgium).
Nathalie Bennett
VP Portfolio Management
Nathalie joined 54 Capital at inception. She started her career at TLG Capital in 2009, a private equity fund focused on frontier markets, where she worked on various transactions in the healthcare and FMCG sectors. She joined the Duet Group’s Africa Private Equity team (founded and led by Saad) in 2011, where she worked on the Dashen transaction. She has been involved in closing UPM and the FMCG deals in Ethiopia within 54 Capital.
Nathalie holds a BA in History from the School of African and Oriental Studies, and an MSc in History of Empires from the London School of Economics. She is an English native speaker.
Vera Doljenkova
Finance & Operations Manager
Prior to joining 54 Capital, Vera worked at Samena Capital principal investment group focusing on Asia, Middle East and North Africa, where she was in charge of operations for the Special Situations Funds, financial reporting, co-investments and SPVs as well as regulatory reporting. Vera spent 7 years at VR Capital Group, a multibillion alternative asset manager focused primarily on distressed securities and event-driven/special situations investments, where she was responsible for accuracy of NAV reporting for their flagship fund and corporate reporting for VR subsidiaries and SPVs.
Vera is a Fellow Member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and CFA Level III candidate. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting and Audit from Tashkent State University of Economics. She is a native Russian speaker and is fluent in English.
Jamila Dahib
General Counsel
Jamila started her career in 2002 at Agma Lahlou-Tazi, a leading Insurance & Reinsurance Broker. In June 2005, she moved to Shell Maroc and became Head of Legal & Compliance. She was a member of the Executive Committee, involved in the firm’s strategic operations and investments, as well as of the Credit & Risk Committee. She also set up and chaired the Ethics Committee. In 2010, Jamila joined Centrale Laitière (Centrale Danone) as its Legal Director, including sister’s companies BIMO (biscuits), Sotherma (water and beverage) and Fromageries de Doukkala (cheese). At Centrale Danone, she helped execute several large transactions, including (i) Danone taking control of Centrale Laitière (raising its stake from 29.2% to 67%) and (ii) Kraft Foods acquiring the remaining 50% in BIMO.
Jamila was previously Board Member and Legal Counsel at Label’Vie, one of Morocco’s largest distribution groups. Over the last 7 years, she led the expansion of Label’Vie parent company in Morocco and into Sub-Saharan African markets (acquisition of CDCI, largest supermarket chain in Ivory Coast).
Jamila has 20 years of extensive experience in mergers & acquisitions, real estate, structured finance, project finance and more generally in investments. She holds a degree in Private Business Law and an MBA in Maritime Affairs (hosted by ISEM jointly with University of Quebec). She obtained her Professional Lawyer’s Certificate in 2009. She is a native Arabic and French speaker and is fluent in English.
Vania Baloomoody
Legal & Compliance Executive
Vania started her career as barrister in litigation appearing before various courts in Mauritius in civil, criminal, family, labour and commercial law matters and chaired disciplinary committees in relation to the industrial law. She then joined the banking sector in the compliance and operation risk and control department for First Capital Bank Group. She was part of the team setting up this department at the Mauritius office and has been involved in the drafting of policies and procedures to ensure that the Group complies with all legal regulations and ethical standards.
Vania was called to the Bar of England and Wales as a Member of The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple in 2015 and the Bar of Mauritius in 2017. Vania holds a Bar Professional Training Postgraduate Course (BPTC) from City University of London, UK and a Bachelor of Laws, (LLB Hons) in Law and Business Finance from the University of Buckingham, UK. Vania is a native English and Creole speaker and fluent in French.
Simon Jamieson
Senior Advisor
Simon started his career at a California based Venture Capital Manager before joining the Investment team of Flemings in New York. Simon spent the majority of his career at Robert Fleming Holdings and subsequently at Fleming Family & Partners where he focused mainly on Private Equity.
In 2000, he joined Fleming Family & Partners Asset Management and was responsible for $500 million of Private Equity investments. Since leaving FF&P in 2013, Simon devotes the majority of his time to 54 Capital and a US family office, where he serves as Chairman of the Investment Committee. He is also a Director of Foresight Venture Capital Trust 4.
Maximilian Schott
VP Investor Relations
Prior to joining 54 Capital, Maximilian was a Senior Associate at Global Investment Bank in Dubai, where he worked on deal origination, modelling & analysis. He also built and developed a significant client base in the GCC and CIS regions building strong relationships with institutional and private investors.
Maximilian holds a BSc in Physics from University College in London. He is a native English speaker.
Abdelwali Ali El Himma
VP Investor Relations
Abdelwali started his career at Attijari Finance Corp, the Investment Banking division of Attijariwafa Bank where he supported the execution of M&A transactions. Previous to his banking experience, Abdelwali did a brief stint at Upline Group Securities in Casablanca, where he monitored public equities and conducted research.
Abdelwali holds a BA in Business Administration from IE Business School in Spain. He is a native Arabic and French speaker, fluent in English and conversational in Spanish.