Matthew Peacock

Chairman and founder

Matthew Peacock founded Hanover Investors in 2002. Since then Matthew has led the firm and its investment decision-making and continues to also focus on portfolio company delivery. He currently sits on the Boards of Kalibrate, Brady and ZetaDisplay and Investment Committees across Hanover strategies.

Matthew set up each of Hanover’s investment search & analysis, execution and operational capabilities before handing them on to be run by other partners. He has led material operating change and acquisition strategies across both turnaround and growth, as well as public and private company businesses. He has led multiple public and private Boards as Chairman across industrial, media, technology, financial and outsourcing businesses in the UK and US with operations across the globe.

In his early career Matthew ran International M&A in London for Barclays BZW, having worked in NY and London for CSFB. Over the 1990s he led a series of successful private transactions as a lead shareholder and CEO.

Matthew has a Masters Degree in Law from Cambridge University.

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Jason Carley

Senior Partner, Credit & Private Equity

Jason leads Hanover's Credit strategy and supports the Private Equity funds serving on the boards of eCOGRA, Brady and Fairline.

Jason joined Hanover in 2021 having spent the past 16 years investing over €600mn in complex debt and equity special situations assets across the UK, Germany, Nordics, Benelux, Australia and developing markets as a partner at BlueMountain Capital Management and Watling Street Advisors LLP. In these portfolios, Jason has owned, lent to, restructured and exited companies in the TMT, services, manufacturing and automotive sectors in traditional, stressed and distressed scenarios. He was previously a Managing Director at Merrill Lynch working in Sydney, Hong Kong and London.

Jason holds a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of New South Wales, Australia.

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Michael Comish

Senior Partner, Portfolio Excellence

Michael focusses on Portfolio performance and value creation at Hanover having spent the last 20 years starting, scaling and selling businesses in Europe and the US.

Prior to joining Hanover in September 2020, Michael worked at TPG focussing primarily on technology businesses. Michael co-founded AirTV in Germany (acquired by Freenet) and blinkbox in the UK (acquired by Tesco) where he also served as Tesco’s Chief Digital officer, and was part of the founding team at AtomFilms in the US (acquired by Viacom). The early part of his career was spent in consulting where he was a Partner at Mercer Management Consulting.

Michael graduated from the University of Western Ontario and holds an MBA from INSEAD.

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David Cowan

Partner, Private Equity

David leads private market deal sourcing for Hanover's Private Equity strategy. He currently serves on the board of eCOGRA.

David joined Hanover in 2023 following over 15 years in the private equity industry, the last 6 of which were at Levine Leichtman Capital Partners where he played a key role in building out their European business. David has executed investments and served on multiple boards across the UK, Benelux and Nordic markets. Prior to working in private equity, David was an investment banker with Rothschild & Co.

David holds a degree in Finance from Newcastle University and is a qualified Chartered Accountant.

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Fred Lundqvist

Partner, Private & Public Equity

Fred sits on the Investment Committee for Hanover's Private Equity strategy and advises the investment team on target assessment, financial analysis and deal execution. He currently serves on the Board of ZetaDisplay and Lumi Gruppen.

Fred joined Hanover in 2006 as an investment analyst and became a partner in 2011, leading deal execution until 2021 and completing public and private transactions across a wide range of sectors and geographies including the UK, Europe, Africa, Latin America and India.

In his early career as an analyst Fred worked on the identification and analysis of both public and private investment opportunities across a wide range of sectors including consumer finance, media, logistics and diversified industrials.

Fred holds a First-Class degree in Economics and Management from the University of Oxford.

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Tom Russell

Partner, Private & Public Equity

Tom Russell sits on the Investment Committee for Hanover's Public and Private Equity strategies having previously led Hanover's investment analysis and Target Selection process. He is Chair of the internal investment analysis committee as well as leading the strategy agenda in Hanover’s investee companies. He currently sits on the Boards of Escher, Fairline and Kalibrate.

Before joining Hanover in 2007, Tom’s early career was spent at Mercer Management Consulting (now part of Oliver Wyman) where he was a Partner in the Communications, Information and Entertainment practice. Tom has held directorships at multiple Hanover investments including Chapelthorpe Plc, Fairpoint Plc, and Regenersis Plc, and executive management positions at Regenersis Plc including Strategy Director and Managing Director, Recommerce.

Tom holds a MA (Hons) degree in English Literature from the University of Oxford.

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Giles Smyth

Partner, Private & Public Equity

Giles leads public market deal sourcing for the Private Equity strategy and sits on the Investment Committee for the Hanover Catalyst Fund. He currently serves on the boards of eCOGRA, Escher and Kalibrate.

Giles joined Hanover in 2017 from McKinsey & Company where he was an Associate Partner in the Technology, Media & Telecom and Private Equity Practices. Giles started his career in the Strategy division of PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

Giles holds a degree in Politics & Philosophy from Durham University.

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John Woodard

Senior Partner, Private Equity

John leads Hanover's Private Equity strategy and sits on the Investment Committee. He currently serves on the board for Escher and Clearstar.

John has been a member of Hanover's Investment Committee since 2015 and joined full time in 2021. Prior to Hanover John spent over 25 years in the private equity industry at Credit Suisse First Boston, Wesray Capital Corporation, The Blackstone Group and Vestar Capital Partners, where he led the Industrial practice, served on the Investment Committee and spent three years in Japan running Asian operations.

John has served on various boards including Duff & Phelps, International AirParts, Hampshire Chemical, American Axle, Argo-Tech and Colorado Open Lands.

John earned his BA in Economics, with honours, from Williams College.

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Josh Kerry

Associate Director, Private Equity

Josh is part of the Private Equity investment team and is a Board observer for ZetaDisplay.

Josh joined Hanover in 2022 from Bain & Company where he was a Senior Associate Consultant. Previously he worked at HSBC as an Investment Banking Analyst in their Financial Institutions and Leveraged & Acquisition Finance Groups, and was a Lieutenant in the British Army.

He studied History, Politics and International Relations at the University of Durham.

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Ashkan Senobari

Director, Private Equity & Public Equity

Ashkan is a part of the Private Equity and Public Equity investment teams and leads deal origination and execution in the Nordic region. He also sits on the board of ZetaDisplay and Lumi Gruppen.

Ashkan joined Hanover in 2018, from private equity fund EQT Partners in Stockholm where he was involved in mid market private equity buyouts. Ashkan started his career in the M&A division of J.P. Morgan in London.

Ashkan holds a BSc in Business Administration, and a MSc in Finance, Hedge Funds & Private Equity from the International University of Monaco.

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Matthew Shortland

Associate Director, Private Equity

Matt is part of the Private Equity investment team and is a Board observer for Clearstar and eCOGRA.

Matt joined Hanover in 2020 as an Analyst and has worked across the Private and Public equities strategies. Prior to joining Hanover, he worked at JP Morgan Asset Management as a Global Equities Analyst.

Matt studied Economics and Management at St. Peter’s College, Oxford and is a CFA Charterholder.

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Marnie Shutter

Analyst, Private Equity

Marnie is part of the Private Equity investment team.

Marnie joined Hanover in 2022. Prior to Hanover, Marnie worked at Whitley Asset Management as an investment assistant and before that she was an intern at Orbis Investment Advisory.

Marnie studied English Language and Literature at Trinity College, Oxford.

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Markus Umschaden

Director, Credit & Private Equity

Markus is a Director in the Capital Solutions (Credit) and Private Equity teams. He is also a board observer for Brady and Fairline.

Markus joined Hanover in 2021 after spending 6 years as principle at Wtling Street Advisors where he executed investments in complex debt and equity special situations across UK, DACH and Scandinavia. He led traditional and stressed/distressed transactions in TMT, industrials, services and infrastructure sectors. Prior to this, Markus worked for five years in PwC's transaction advisory teams in Munich and London.

Markus holds an MBA from Cass Business School and BSc from the University of Technology, Munich.

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Lucas Wessling

Associate director, Private Equity

Lucas is part of the Private Equity investment team and is a Board observer for Escher and ZetaDisplay.

Lucas joined Hanover in 2018 and re-joined in 2022 following working in healthcare investing for Goodgrower. Lucas started his career as an Analyst in the UK Mergers & Acquisitions Group of J.P. Morgan in London.

Lucas holds a First class degree in English from the University of Oxford.

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