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James has worked on 20 Advent investments, including Circet, Cobham, Concardis, Evri (formerly Hermes UK), Nets, Planet, Williams Lea Tag, and Worldpay.
At Advent, we’ve stayed true to our founding principles.
When Peter Brooke founded the firm in 1984, his vision was an enlightened one. In the nearly 25 years I’ve been at the firm, we’ve continued to uphold his values, aiming to be transparent, collaborative, inclusive and responsible. Advent fosters a truth-seeking culture, because intellectual humility is the most important quality you can have as an investor. The minute you think you know everything, you’re going to make horrible mistakes. We’re a single global partnership and our people are our greatest asset. That culture is our secret sauce.
Many great business leaders share three attributes.
The first is the ability to set priorities, and to prioritize. You need to parse out what’s important, stick to it and deliver on it. Secondly, leaders have to be decisive. You have to be able to pull the trigger, even when your decisions are about people – something many leaders are reluctant to do. The final one is the ability to engage and inspire. A great leader can set a vision for a company and articulate it clearly. That’s not about being an egomaniac; it’s about setting a tone, walking the walk and doing yourself what you expect others to do.
Management talent is crucial.
We look for an outstanding team with whom we can partner to drive growth at scale. The difference between a dud and a good outcome is very much down to the CEO. If you have the right person in place, they’ll have good people around them, they’ll take the right decisions, and they’ll get through the tough times. If you ever find you’re second-guessing your CEO, you’re dead in the water.
At Advent Tech, we aim to do things differently.
One thing that sets us apart is the degree of collaboration between Advent Tech and our other deep sector teams, such as Healthcare or Business and Financial Services, and between our different offices and regions worldwide. Few others can offer the insights and opportunities that this brings. Flexible capital means we can partner with companies at many different stages in their growth trajectory, and another key differentiator is that we’re digitally enabled. We use a wide range of data sources, including alt data, to power diligence insights and inform our value creation plans.