VARUN VERMA

Partner

Varun has over 16 years of investment banking and capital markets experience with a strong focus on cross-border TMT transactions. Prior to joining GCR Partners, Varun worked at Nomura International, Piper Jaffray, Magister Advisors and Woodside Capital Partners.

Varun received a BA in Economics from Durham University.

Phil Masterson

Partner - North America

Phil has over 25 years of experience in financial services and has owned P&L and operations for several global businesses both in the US and in Europe. Prior to joining GCR Partners, Phil was previously Chairman for SEI Global Fund Services Ltd, President of a $50B+ mutual fund platform and General Counsel for Citco Mutual Fund Services.

Phil has extensive experience in M&A from a corporate development perspective within FinTech and Enterprise Software verticals.

QASIM MIRZA

Partner

Qasim has over 10 years of technology investment banking experience. He started his career at Russell Investments as an Alternative Investment Analyst across private equity, real estate and infrastructure verticals. He then spent 4 years at Woodside Capital Partners as an Investment Banking Associate before joining GCR Partners.

Qasim received a BSc in Investment and Financial Risk Management from Cass Business School and MSc Management from Imperial College London.

Malcolm Flawith

Managing DirectoR - MENA

Malcolm has over 30 years experience in the IT and telecoms industries and has contributed to enterprise technology developments since the early days of UNIX and the dotcom boom through to the emergence of Quantum Computing, Big Data and AI. 

With senior director tenures at Sun Microsystems, Oracle and Hitachi Vantara over a 25 year period based in the Middle East, Mal now brings that broad and extensive technical, corporate and global experience to GCR Partners.

Ahmad Salam

Managing Director

Ahmad has over 30 years of experience in investment banking and private equity. He has held several key positions, including CEO of Dar Capital, Head of Islamic Banking at Credit Suisse and as a board member at Aston Martin.

Ahmad's advisory expertise has been instrumental in several landmark M&A transactions and the creation of the first-ever Islamic Bank in the western world. He also worked closely with the FCA to develop guidelines for regulating Shariah compliant financial institutions in the UK.

Ahmad holds a degree in Economics from University College London.

Jonathan Carrier

Director

Jonathan has over 20 years in the global automotive industry working for FIAT, McLaren, Jaguar Land Rover, in global product strategy developing some of the world’s most iconic cars.

Jonathan founded InMotion Ventures for JLR, building and investing in mobility start-ups and has since supported numerous mobility, energy and automotive businesses as advisor and non-executive director.

Jonathan has a degree in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA from Imperial College London.

NIK BLANARIK

Director

Nik started his career as a Banking Innovation Consultant at CAPCO before becoming the Innovation Lead at FinTech PaaS company, Aicura Solutions.

Nik has developed FinTech products for Tier 1 European Banks as well as consulted a variety of FinServ companies. He was previously a FinTech Mentor at StartupBootcamp.

Nik speaks English, German, Russian, Spanish, Italian and his native Ukrainian. He received an MSc in Management from Imperial College London.

Ricardo Tannus

Director - LATAM

Ricardo has been involved with start-ups and the entrepreneurial ecosystem for the past 8 years. He started his career at Revelo, a HR tech start-up operating in Latam.

Ricardo earned his Bachelors in Computer Engineering from the University of São Paulo and holds a Masters in Management from London Business School. Aside from his native Portuguese, Ricardo speaks English, Italian, French and Spanish.