Alain Gavin

Current

• Managing Partner at Psion Partners

Past

• Investment Director - Private Equity at Pall Mall Partners
• Managing Director at International Consulting
• Sloan Programme, Class of 2004 at London Business School

• Vice President at Schott AG
• CEO & Founder at Geneee
• Senior Vice President at DaimlerChrysler
• Director, Strategic Consulting at Siemens AG
• Director, International Sales and Marketing at Siemens AG
• Project Manager at Siemens AG
• Management Consulting at Siemens AG
• Bid Manager, New Business development / Engineer at Siemens AG
• Project Engineer at Siemens AG

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Education

• London Business School
• The Nottingham Trent University

Recommended

14 people have recommended Alain

Connections

382 connections

Industry

Venture Capital & Private Equity

Alain Gavin’s Experience

• Managing Partner

  Psion Partners

  (Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)

  July 2008 — Present (1 year 5 months)

  Small to mid-cap private equity advisory focusing on technology investments.
  Responsible for sourcing proprietary deal flow for High Net Worth individuals and VC/PE companies, evaluating strategic due diligence and executing value strategies on PE portfolio companies (RCapital).Technology specialism and growth/distressed business models in need of turnaround/transformation

• Investment Director - Private Equity

  Pall Mall Partners

  (Privately Held; Financial Services industry)

  October 2007 — June 2008 (9 months)

  Responsible for fund raising – raised £1.5m for one portfolio company in difficult market conditions, deal origination & analysis, processing & improvement and transacting for deals VC / Private Equity type deals in the following Technology areas - using unique protectable technology:
  - Telecoms: Wireless, Mobile (i.e. social networking sites), Broadband Technology Applications
  - Data Security and Storage
  - Bio Informatics (Health diagnostics, identity software etc.)
  - Laser, Optics, Optoelectronics
  - Specialist Automotive (e.g. Car marketing programmes)
  - Composite materials for defence, aerospace, cars, yacht industries
  - Environmental (solar, wind)

• Managing Director

  International Consulting

  (Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Management Consulting industry)

  2004 — 2007 (3 years )

  Bespoke strategic management consultancy for blue-chip companies
  • Advised & expedited the M&A process and growth capital for deals between €5 million and €6 billion in a diverse array of industries
  • Evaluated $multi-million new venture start-up in next-generation electronics for Silicon Valley based VC company
  • Developed strategic modelling for Atlantique Telecom following $75m+ acquisition of new mobile telecoms operators in Francophone Africa

• Sloan Programme, Class of 2004

  London Business School

  (Educational Institution; 501-1000 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)

  2003 — 2004 (1 year )

  Electives - Corporate Strategy, Corporate Finance, Technology & Competition, Leading Strategic Transformation, Corporate Turnarounds, World Economy

• Vice President

  Schott AG

  (Privately Held; 10,001 or more employees; Chemicals industry)

  2001 — 2003 (2 years )

  Corporate Value Based Management Board level Advisor (Multinational technology based group with more than 19,000 employees in 38 countries, turnover €2 billion)
  • Recommended the largest single acquisition in the company’s history (€200m) of RWE Solar GmbH- synergistic company t/o increased 25% within 3 years and delivered 15% ROCE
  • Reduced asset base by 18% whilst delivering >€220m new investments
  • Streamlined SBU reporting to accelerate Board decision making
  • Instigated strategic planning processes and systems to facilitate culture change and re-align company to focus upon customers, not internal processes
  • Ran the process for transforming the company from a private company to a plc equivalent

• CEO & Founder

  Geneee

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Internet industry)

  2000 — 2001 (1 year )

  Internet start-up offering in depth Search Engine “Yellow Pages” type service /Arthur D. Little
  • Enthused 17 person team through careful selection and leadership clarity
  • Achieved funding of € 500,000 from Business Angel and secured significant conditional grant from Bank backed by the European Union worth € 430,000
  • Accomplished experience in complex business modeling & analysis
  • Implemented the financial and accounting structures in conformity with USGAAP acting as CFO

• Senior Vice President

  DaimlerChrysler

  (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; Transportation/Trucking/Railroad industry)

  1999 — 2000 (1 year )

  Multinational industrial transportation technology group, 24,000 employees, €3.7Bn t/o
  
  Invited to lead, with P&L responsibility, a first-phase worldwide business support unit - Infrastructure Services - which contributed 8% of sales until the division was sold to Bombardier for $750m.
  • Spearheaded market research and identified priorities for profitable growth, then developed a strategic plan and gained buy-in from colleagues and Board
  • Developed tender support package for large-scale turnkey projects
  • Recruited a diverse team of specialists to drive the business further

• Director, Strategic Consulting

  Siemens AG

  (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; Management Consulting industry)

  1998 — 1999 (1 year )

  • Co-managed 20 strong benchmarking team. Identified recommendations that allow savings increase of up to 35% and productivity improv. of up to 30% across €400m business
  • Led “Sales Optimisation Prog” for Siemens Transportation Systems (turnover €3bn) re-structuring in the NAFTA market (13% of world market) to deliver profitable growth, achieving approval from Group President

• Director, International Sales and Marketing

  Siemens AG

  (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; SI; Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing industry)

  1997 — 1998 (1 year )

  Invited to lead, with P&L responsibility, this new division providing after sales service.
  • Led team capturing 4% worldwide market share
  • Negotiated SLA’s with customers in USA, Europe, Australasia & South America
  • Built division from scratch to a turnover of € 40m in 18 months
  • Pioneered new definitions of the scope of global all-in-one services
  • Identified and negotiated service requirements for potential clients in the USA, S. America, Europe and Australasia

• Project Manager

  Siemens AG

  (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; SI; Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing industry)

  1993 — 1997 (4 years )

  Promoted to pioneer, with P&L responsibility, entry into the protected Japanese market
  • Initiated, negotiated and delivered the first €20m contract to supply commuter trains and after sales service
  • Started and managed strategic alliances with Toshiba & Mitsui, worth c.€ 100m
  • Brought in multiple high value projects, with values of over €30m
  • Developed strategy for long-term business expansion whilst running a cross-divisional and multi-country team of 40

• Management Consulting

  Siemens AG

  (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; SI; Management Consulting industry)

  1994 — 1996 (2 years )

  Time Based Management (with Boston Consulting Group)
  • Introduced innovative systematic approach to project management that led to considerable reductions in time and cost

• Bid Manager, New Business development / Engineer

  Siemens AG

  (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; SI; Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing industry)

  1991 — 1993 (2 years )

  One of 4 department members that increased sales volumes five fold in Europe, N. America and Japan.
  • Prepared tenders and price calculations on projects valued up to and exceeding €150M for major clients including, British Rail-UK, SNCB-Belgium, JR East-Japan and Deux Montagnes-Canada
  • Negotiated with customers, clarifying technical matters and the content of tender proposals

• Project Engineer

  Siemens AG

  (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing industry)

  1988 — 1989 (1 year )

  Industrial and Building Systems (ANL) Group, Siemens Training Laboratories Division, Erlangen
  Development of power electronic training units for industrial placement year
  Siemens International “Studentenkreis” (Siemens Elite University Recruitment Programme) until 1991

Alain Gavin’s Education

• London Business School

  MSc/MBA , Sloan Fellow, Management , 2003 — 2004

  The Sloan Fellowship is unique to LBS, Stanford and MIT. It is an intensive learning experience designed to stretch the capabilities of high-achieving professionals who wish to develop a broader strategic perspective and a board-level package of management and leadership skills.
  
  * Major research work: “Meeting the Challenge of the new BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) frontier”. Interviewed industry titans, appraised impact of major emergent economies on transnational management & suggested strategies
  * International Consultancy Assignment, Telecoms, Togo: comprehensive strategy analysis for a mobile phone operator with recommendations
  * The Double Turnaround: Marconi
  Transformation and turnaround into the 21st Century
  Key learnings:
  - difficulties involved in appraising the results of radical turnarounds
  - importance of timing in turnarounds
  - problems involved in turning around complex conglomerate organisations
  - Evaluate shrinkage

  Activities and Societies:

  Emerging markets club, Public speaking club, Sailing club, Private Equity club

• The Nottingham Trent University

  B.Eng. Honours , Electrical & Electronic Engineering , 1986 — 1990

  Awarded Rank Taylor Hobson Prize “Best honours degree project student”
  Final year project - First Class Distinction:
  Design, Development, construction and testing of a new training unit in the field of power electronics illustrating control of 3-phase converter. This unit was to be the basis for a new and less cost intensive SITRAIN (Siemens Training) -Generation with integrated SIMOREG K industrial unit.

Additional Information

Alain Gavin’s Interests:

Grew up in an international campus environment in Nigeria, Educated in Europe Multi-lingual: fluent in English, French and German; basic Russian and Japanese Competed at semi-pro level in French windsurfing; highly competitive in sailing, taking part in recent English channel competitions. Pursue long distance running with vigour.

Alain Gavin’s Groups:

Chartered Engineer / Eur Ing: FEANI; Member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers – MIEE

•    London Business School Active Startup Club
•    Sloan Fellows
•    On Startups - The Community For Entrepreneurs
•    EUR ING - European Professional Engineers
•    European Young Professionals
•    SIEMENS-World-Wide Network [17,000+ Members]
•    Private Equity Investment Group
•    Private Equity Networking
•    Business in Japan
•    Alumni of London Business School
•    Angel Investors
•    GoBigNetwork Startup Community
•    World Executives Sailing Club
•    Software as a Service (SaaS) Group
•    Cleantech Investor
•    Mobile start-ups - 7,000+ members and growing!
•    The Institution of Engineering and Technology - IET
•    Cloud Slam '09
•    Capital Creation 2009
•    Deal Flow Source
•    London Business School Healthcare Group

Alain Gavin’s Honors:

1990 Awarded Rank Taylor Hobson Prize as “Best Honours Degree Project Student”
1986 Awarded Lions Club Cup Prize for best final year OND project, Northwest College of Technology