Mark Florman

Mark Florman "is the CEO of the British Venture Capital Association. He has held senior management positions in private equity and investment banking firms for over 18 years. Between 2001 and 2008, Mark was a senior principal and then a managing director of Doughty Hanson, the European private equity firm. Prior to this, he founded and became chief executive of Maizels, Westerberg & Co. (MW), which became the leading independent firm in corporate restructurings, and mergers and acquisitions (M&A), in the Nordic countries, in 1998 and 1999.

"Mark is on the board of the 'Build-a-School' initiative, which he founded, in Uganda and Kenya, which has pioneered rural primary school building alongside micro-credit programmes, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and agribusiness development. The charity has now built 88 primary schools and serves 85,000 children and 400,000 people across East Africa."

He is an investment banker and private equity professional, who has been involved with ICR and Build Africa for many years. He Chairs the Build-a-School programme and has visited and opened many of its schools. He is also the co-founder of the Centre for Social Justice and an Ambassador for the Royal Albert Hall.

"He served as Vice Chairman and later Chairman of LM Glasfiber, today the world's leading manufacturer of blades and components for wind turbines. Away from his business activities, Mark has been active in politics, advising the UK Conservative Party on strategy and financing, and was Senior Deputy Treasurer of the Conservative Party.

"Last year he became Chairman of the Centre for Social Justice, a think-tank which pioneers new approaches to combat poverty at home and abroad and an organisation which he co-founded in 2004. In addition, he remains non-executive vice chairman of 8 Miles, a new $500m private equity fund for Africa which he co-founded with Sir Bob Geldof. Mark graduated from the London School of Economics."

"From the mid-1980s as a Director of County Bank and then as a Partner of Enskilda Securities, he advised on corporate restructurings, M&A and equity capital markets." 


 * Trustee, Build Africa
 * Member of the Advisory Board, Centre for Social Justice
 * Council Member, Swedish Chamber of Commerce for the UK
 * Senior advisor, 8 Miles
 * One Million Jobs

Resources and articles

 * Acquisitions Monthly August 1996
 * The Sunday Business 04/07/1999
 * The Financial News 07/02/2000