Bruno Scherrer is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of PhiSquare Holdings SA, a proprietary investment group involved in early stageventure capital, opportunistic investments in various illiquid asset classes,as well as systematic trading in global markets.
Mr. Scherrer started his career at Lehman Brothers(Investment Banking Division - London and Paris) in 1993 and subsequentlyjoined Lehman’s Principal Business Group in London, one of the few significantplayers in the then nascent European distressed asset market.
He joined Lone Star Funds in 1997 where he helped create theFund’s European operations. He retired from his position as Head of EuropeanInvestments of Lone Star Funds in 2013 after 16 years of intensive investmentactivity in the European distressed debt and asset markets, including theacquisition and extensive restructuring of several banks. Mr. Scherrer wasChairman of IKB Deutsche Industrie Bank from 2008 to 2016.
He is now a non-executive director of several of hisportfolio companies and a director of Theleme Partners (hedge fund with AUMabove $2.5bn). He holds a Master’s degree in finance and businessadministration from the ESSEC business school in Paris.
General NickHoughton is a former United Kingdom Chief of Defence Staff - the professionalHead of the UK’s Armed Forces. He stood down in July 2016 and is now theConstable of The Tower of London and a Cross-Bench Peer in the House of Lords.
Nick Houghtonjoined the Army in 1973 straight from school aged 18. He was commissioned fromSandhurst into the Green Howards, a Yorkshire Infantry Regiment. In his earlytwenties he undertook an in-Service degree in Modern History at St Peter’sCollege, Oxford.
In a 43 yearmilitary career he served seven times in Northern Ireland earning operationalawards as both a Commanding Officer and a Brigade Commander in Belfast. He wasthe Deputy Commander of the Multi-National Force Iraq in 2005-6 for which hewas awarded the US Legion of Merit. He was the Chief of Joint Operations fromApril 2006 to May 2009, in charge of all overseas operations of UK Forces,including the final extraction from Iraq. He was both Vice Chief then Chief ofDefence Staff over the period 2009-2016 during the time of two StrategicDefence Reviews and the end of combat operations in Afghanistan.
He was the ColonelCommandant of the Intelligence Corps and the founding Colonel of the YorkshireRegiment. On leaving the Army Nick Houghton established his own consultancycompany which specialises in giving strategic advice to multinationalcorporates. He also advises a number of technical start-ups. More widely he isa Trustee of the Royal United Services Institute, Historic Royal Palaces, RoyalArmouries and The HM Tower of London Chapels Royal Foundation. He is anHonorary Fellow of St Peter’s College, Oxford.
Business angel,board director, honorary president, French Chamber of Great Britain;co-founder, Le Cercle d’outre-Manche.
Pascal BorisCBE is a private investor focusing on early stage companies in the technologysector. He also sits on a number of corporate boards as an independentnon-executive director.
Pascal had adistinguished international banking career with The Chase Manhattan Bank andParibas (later BNP Paribas) in Paris, New York, Geneva and London. He was CEOof BNP Paribas in the UK from 1999 to 2007. Pascal was President of the FrenchChamber in Great Britain from 2001 to 2007 and is now honorary President. He isone of the two founders of Le Cercle d'outre-Manche, the influential Londonthink tank.
Pascal is agraduate of HEC Paris, the NYU Stern Institute and the London Business School.Pascal was awarded a CBE for service to British-French commercial relations in2007 and was promoted to officier de la Légion d'Honneur in 2011.