Home ListingMay 13, 2014

OMERS Strengthens Private Equity Team

The Ontario pension fund has brought aboard an 18-year industry veteran to its London team.

Reported by Featured Author

(May 13, 2014) – The private equity branch of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) has reinforced its London-based team with a new managing director.

Jonathan Mussellwhite has been appointed to the role, according to OMERS, bringing 18-plus years of experience.

He spent more than a decade, between 2001 and 2012, as a founding partner of Cognetas, a European mid-market buyout partnership. Mussellwhite served as co-head of the firm’s London office from 2010.

Also, since 2008, he has been involved with a major UK utilities firm, Morrison Utility Services, as a non-executive director.

Mussellwhite joins a bourgeoning London operation for OMERS private equity. The UK-based division has closed five deals since establishing the office in 2009, according to the fund, investing $1.3 billion thus far.

One recent deal, completed in 2013, was a co-investment with a fellow Canadian institutional fund. OMERS and the Alberta Investment Management Corporation bought cinema chain Vue Entertainment for £935 million (US$1.58 billion).

OMERS’ new managing director, who started his career in mergers and acquisitions with one-time accounting giant Arthur Andersen, is no stranger to such deals.

“Jonathan has an outstanding track record of achievement, with proven experience in leading successful transactions and adds further senior capacity to OMERS private equity in Europe, increasing the team to 13, including 10 investment professionals,” said Mark Redman, senior managing director & head of Europe for the division. “Jonathan is a great fit with our team both in terms of experience and culture, and will help us further develop our granular and grounded investment approach.”