BrazilTania Howarth and Jason Spencer join A&M's private equity arm
Alvarez & Marsal has bolstered its European Private Equity practice with two senior professionals: Tania Howarth, formerly CIO for Europe and Africa at Coca Cola, and Jason Spencer, most recently a partner at Deloitte. Both operate from A&M’s London office.
The new hires come on the back of strong growth for Alvarez & Marsal’s European arm for the private equity sector – the unit has nearly tripled in size over the past three years. The practice helps investors – strategic and financials – with deal offerings including transaction advisory, due diligence and divestiture support, as well as a range of performance improvement services for portfolio companies.
Newly joined Tania Howarth brings over 30 years of experience to the firm, mostly gained across the FMCG and technology sectors. Most recently, Howarth advised a number of global private equity funds, on complex carve-outs, including the Unilever Spreads business.
Between 2007 and 2017 she worked for Nomad Foods in Europe, where she served as Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Business Transformation Director, Group HR Director and Chief Information Officer (CIO). During this time, she led major carve-outs and post-acquisition integration projects, she also led a cultural transformation programme to drive performance improvement across the business. Prior to this, the University of Manchester graduate served as CIO for Europe and Africa at Coca Cola, and before that as CIO for PepsiCo's UK wing.
Commenting on her motivation to join Alvarez & Marsal, Howarth said, “I was drawn to A&M’s emphasis on delivering results and not just advising clients on strategy. This operational heritage chimes with my own background and is something that sets the firm apart in the consulting market. I’m looking forward to helping our private equity clients make long-term value creation the number one priority in their investee companies.”
Joining her as a Managing Director in A&M’s London team is Jason Spencer, who brings over 25 years of M&A experience in both industry management and advisory roles. He joined from rival Deloitte, where he was a Partner in the firm’s Transaction Services arm. Some of his notable assignments at the Big Four firm included performing due diligence services for a private equity fund on the acquisition of a credit payments business, and leading the sell-side due diligence and global integration for an international pharmaceuticals company.
Previously, Spencer worked for Gartner, EY, Capgemini and BT Global Services, among others. During his career, he has worked on 200+ transactions with clients across the globe in a range of industries, including financial services, retail, life sciences and TMT with experience in technology due diligence, separations / integrations, Day 1 execution, assessing synergies and technology-enabled performance improvement.
Notable engagements he contributed to included the buy-side due diligence and resulting technology integration of a global Fortune 100 information technology company in the US and UK and the acquisitions of Peroni and Grupo Bavaria in both Europe and South America by SABMiller.
“Tania and Jason join our private equity practice at an exciting time,” commented Mike Trenouth, a Managing Director in A&M’s Private Equity practice in Europe.
The appointments come at a time when Europe’s private equity market is running hot. According to an analysis by PwC, deal value has reached its highest level in decade, with the sector playing a key role in the growing share of financials within the global M&A market.
