Michael Dance

Michael Dance completed a BA, LLB at the University of Natal and a B. Compt. (Hons) with UNISA. He qualified as a chartered accountant with Deloittes in South Africa in 1984 following which he spent two years in the legal profession specializing in large leverage based project financings for BMW (3 Series), Ford and GM. In 1985 he moved to London and joined Lazard Brothers as a corporate finance executive where he was involved a wide range of public company transactions. Subsequently he joined Hoare Govett as an assistant director where he acted as both advisor and broker to smaller listed companies, as well as being involved in several syndicated Euro-Equity Initial Public Offerings. In 1991 he joined ABN Amro’s cross border mergers and acquisitions team prior to being transferred to MeesPierson Corporate Finance with responsibility for Western and Eastern Europe. He was a member of the EU-PHARE programme and advised the Estonian government on their privatisation programme. Today he specializes in providing training and consultancy services on private equity, acquisition finance and related topics to a wide range of clients in the UK, Europe, Africa, North America and Australasia. He is on the transaction panel for Royal Bank of Scotland via a joint-venture with SJ Berwin and is the Programme Director at the CASS Business School for Infrastructure Finance for the M Sc. programme in Business Administration and Finance.

Roger Baden-Powell

Roger Baden-Powell qualified as a barrister in 1973. From 1974-79, he was with Joseph Sebag & Co., stockbrokers (subsequently Carr, Sebag & Co.), initially as a property and insurance analyst and then as head of equity research, a Member of the London Stock Exchange and a partner. In 1979, he was seconded for two years as the London Stock Exchange Representative to the Executive of the City Panel on Take-overs and Mergers. From 1981-1988, he was a partner of Baden-Powell, Chilcott & Co., a City based corporate finance, new issues and investment management firm. From 1988-95, he was with Bank Mees & Hope NV, a Dutch merchant bank (a subsidiary of ABN-Amro) and, in 1991, was appointed managing director of the bank’s UK corporate finance, stockbroking and investment management subsidiaries. From 1995-2004, he was a director of BDC Corporate Finance Limited (an M&A boutique) based in the City of London. 

David Whitelaw

After qualifying as a chartered accountant with Price Waterhouse in 1981, David spent four years working at S. G. Warburg advising on a wide range of corporate finance transactions before joining Paribas in London, where he spent the next fourteen years (until 2000), rising to become a director and head of cross border corporate finance. He then spent two years as head of corporate finance at Mazars, where he was the international equity partner responsible for cross border activity. As a result of such a career, David has an immense amount of corporate finance expertise. His 20 years of financial advisory experience has involved clients from many sectors, including many in financial services, technology, building materials, food and drink and manufacturing. The majority of his transactions have been Anglo-European, with many French companies and also German, Scandinavian, Italian, Spanish, and Dutch. He has initiated, evaluated, structured and negotiated a wide range of complex transactions, both medium-sized and large, including public takeovers, privatisations, private acquisitions and sales, UK listings and equity and equity linked issues. He has considerable experience of UK market regulation and work with the Stock Exchange and the Purple Book, the Takeover Panel and the Blue Book and the competition authorities. He also has a good knowledge of UK accounting and of taxation and legal matters affecting corporate transactions.