Mike has over 20 years’ experience in corporate finance and investment, Mike is one of Northern Ireland’s most experienced deal-makers. Having trained with PwC in London, he joined KPMG in Belfast where he ultimately became Director responsible for its Northern Ireland M&A team. In 2007 Mike set up the Northern Ireland operations of Davy Stockbrokers, successfully establishing the business and brand in Northern Ireland and growing the client base from the ground up.

Mike founded Cordovan Capital Management in 2011, initially focusing on raising equity for early-stage and high growth companies as well as advising shareholders on business acquisitions and disposals. He began an active investment strategy with the formation of the Cordovan Syndicate in early 2016 for which Cordovan Capital Management acts as lead investor and manager. That active mandate naturally evolved into Cordovan Capital Partners II LP which launched in January 2021.

Mike has a busy family life, plays as much golf as he can, loves to travel and runs regularly to get fit and stay sane.

Daniel is a Northern Irish private equity professional with extensive local and international investment experience. Following degrees at the University of Cambridge and the University of Pennsylvania (the latter of which he attended as a Thouron Fellow) Daniel spent much of his career in the United States where he launched a technology-enabled investment derivatives firm which specialised in advising a diverse range of institutional clients including KPMG and the CSSF (Luxembourg financial regulator).

He returned to the UK to establish an EIS investment fund with Iron Box Capital in London before serving as Private Equity Director for Wirefox Management, a Northern Irish private investment firm with capital deployed across asset classes including property, private equity and credit. Daniel’s diverse experience includes extensive deal-making as well as all aspects of fund operations, portfolio management, strategic communications and the construction of his own venture portfolio.

When not in the office or meetings, Daniel can often be found enjoying outdoor pursuits, playing sports, or playing his violin.

Stephen is a successfully-exited corporate operator who brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to Cordovan’s portfolio companies. Stephen spent 30 years in the electronics industry, mainly as CEO of Schrader Electronics which he joined as its first employee in 1988. He became CEO in 1997 and led the business to become a global automotive supplier with £300m revenue and over 2,000 employees, including an R&D team of 300 engineers and two world class manufacturing plants based in Northern Ireland.

In 2014 Stephen helped its private equity owners exit their investment in Schrader with the successful sale of the business for $1 billion to Sensata Technologies. Stephen left Sensata after the integration process was complete in December 2015. Stephen is also an experienced venture investor and is currently a Non-Executive Director of a number of Northern Ireland-based technology start-ups. Stephen was awarded MBE in 2016 for services to the Northern Ireland economy.

Stephen spends his spare time trying to keep fit and is also a big Manchester United fan.

Gillian trained and qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Ernst and Young in Glasgow, before moving to the Scottish Investment Bank where she was individually responsible for direct investments into SMEs through a combination of equity and loans. Gillian’s remit covered diverse industry sectors and ranging in size from start-ups and university spin-outs to larger more established organisations.

In 2006, as Head of Finance, Gillian was part of the founding team who established the Translational Medicine Research Collaboration, a £50m pharma-academia partnership set up to support and co-commercialise translational scientific research at the leading Scottish Medical Schools, NHS Trusts and Pfizer Pharmaceuticals.

Outside of work, Gillian has a busy family life with two young, active sons and likes to keep fit with various outdoor pursuits including running.

Liam is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and holds a BBs Degree in Business and Management.  He has over 20 years’ experience in the administration and operation of private equity funds across the UK, Ireland and Australia.

Liam began his career in Citco Fund Services where he progressed to Senior Account Manager with responsibility for accounting and managing Client Relationships with major UK-based hedge fund managers. In 2014 he moved to Belfast-based private equity depositary IQEQ, where he remained for six years.  Initially he assumed the role of Director of Cash Monitoring, and latterly Director of Compliance and Cash Monitoring, with overall responsibility for all regulatory reporting and client relationship management.

Prior to joining Cordovan Capital Management Liam spent time with Irish based Depositary Sumi Trust, assisting with the strategic development of the Dundalk operation of the business.

Outside of work Liam has a busy family life with three young daughters, is an avid sports fan and a coach at St Malachy’s OB Youth Football Club.

Geoff is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland and a Chartered Director. He worked with KPMG for 8 years, leaving in 1992 to assume the role of Finance Director with a company supplying beverage dispense equipment to global drinks brands in international markets. Geoff left this business as Managing Director in 2004 and joined Totalmobile, a VC-backed company providing software and IT services to UK and US Local Government and Healthcare markets.

Geoff acted as CFO of this business until 2018, having been a key part of the management team that sold a majority stake in this business in 2015 to a UK private equity firm.

Any spare time is spent on the golf course (unsuccessfully) and following Chelsea FC (a little more successfully).

Max is a qualified Chartered Accountant who holds a BSc (Hons) in Mathematics, Statistics and Finance from the University of Strathclyde. Previously, Max worked in the corporate tax team at PwC in Belfast where he specialised in Corporation Tax Advisory and Corporate Compliance, primarily acting for larger groups in the Large Corporate / Private Business markets.

Following this, Max worked for the PwC London Deals Tax team where he was involved in the specialist Tax Restructuring team. He focused on the tax analysis of refinancing steps, future acquisitions, debt repayment and return to shareholders with a view of exiting, including working on a number of carve-outs and IPO transactions.

Outside of work, Max enjoys staying active through training, running or cycling and is also an avid Ulster and Ireland rugby fan.

Mark is a recent graduate of the highly-ranked MSc Finance programme at Trinity College Dublin where he particularly enjoyed the private equity course module. Prior to this, Mark graduated from Dublin City University with a Bachelor in Business Studies, where he specialised in Finance. During his undergraduate degree, Mark also undertook a year-long internship in HedgeServ, a global fund administration company, working in the Investor Services Department, specialising in FATCA and CRS requirements for new and existing investors.

Mark is a keen sportsman who particularly enjoys football and going to the gym. He also loves food and travel, and is currently learning Spanish in his spare time with ambitions of becoming fluent.

Dr M. Satish Kumar has been an Associate Professor at the School of Natural and Built Environment at Queen’s University Belfast for the last 24 years. As an interdisciplinary global scholar, he has contributed critically across disciplines, focusing on Sustainable Development Goals as a “shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future”. In recognition of this work, he was nominated this year as Distinguished Honorary Chair of Global Sustainable Development Goals (Techno-India University, India, 2023).

With over 32 years of experience in higher education, Satish’s knowledge and expertise are widely sought by governments, charities, and other global organisations. A Fellow of the Senator George J Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice, Satish also serves on the Board of Directors of Trócaire, Northern Ireland, Counselling for All Nations Services (CANS) and ArtsEkta. He was a member of three Trade Missions to India with the UK, Ireland, and Northern Ireland (2006-2007, 2010 and 2014), led by Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern (January 2006), Sir Peter Hain, NI Secretary of State (April 2006) and Deputy Prime Minister Sir Nick Clegg (2014).

Satish supports and advises on Cordovan’s commitment to building long-term, sustainable businesses, which will grow, provide employment and generate economic benefit in an environmentally and socially responsible manner. During downtime, Satish loves gardening, photography, and films.