The Global Institutional Distribution team and key employees

Benjamin is CEO of Fund Management at Octopus Investments, with responsibility for Octopus Real Estate, Sustainable Infrastructure, the Quoted Smaller Companies team, Octopus Australia and Corporate Development. He joined Octopus in 2010 and has broad experience in institutional and retail fund management, working across multiple institutional and retail investment funds, including leading the Octopus Apollo VCT. He led our Octopus Healthcare, and then Octopus Real Estate teams for 6 years, chairing its Investment Committee.
 
Prior to Octopus, Benjamin invested across a range of sectors at YFM Equity Partners and Interregnum, and previously worked in technology and consulting.  He has an MBA from the University of Cambridge and a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) from the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

Lieven has a long-established career in asset management, including 20 years at Schroders Investment Management. His career at Schroders spanned roles in Hong Kong, including Chief Executive of the Asia Pacific region, and London, as Global Head of Distribution and member of the Group Management Committee. In the latter roles, he was responsible for leading on the strategy and growth of the institutional, retail and wealth management businesses. Lieven also served on the Board of Greencoat Capital, the investment manager to Greencoat UK Wind, the leading listed renewable infrastructure trust. 
 
Most recently Lieven has worked as a Senior Advisor with the Boston Consulting Group, providing consulting expertise in the firm’s financial institution practice, focusing on private markets, asset and wealth management.

Jonathan oversees the investment strategy of the fund management businesses which form the Octopus fund management group which manages more than £10 billion of retail and institutional money. Octopus Investments is a multi-strategy alternatives manager, helping investors to generate long-term income and capital growth by investing in sustainable infrastructure and real estate, to back some of Europe’s fastest-growing, most disruptive businesses and to solve some of society’s greatest challenges.
He joined Octopus in February 2015 as Product Head for Octopus Inheritance Tax Service. Before joining Octopus, Jonathan ran a team at Lloyds that looked after the bank’s non-core equity portfolio. He also undertook stints at BNP Paribas, Robert Fleming and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Jonathan is a qualified Chartered Accountant and has an MA in Geography from the University of Oxford.

Chris co-founded Octopus in 2000 from the front room of his London flat. Today, Chris is an award-winning entrepreneur whose role is to develop Octopus relationships with institutional investors around the world. He is responsible for the Group’s expansion into new areas and he also sits on the investment committee of several Octopus funds.

Chris spends his time championing British entrepreneurialism and promoting policy ideas to drive business growth, by meeting UK business leaders and stakeholders such as MPs and government ministers.

Before founding Octopus, Chris led one of the global equity research teams at Mercury Asset Management. He has a first class MA in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Simon has overall responsibility for the day-to-day decisions and strategic direction of Octopus Group.

Much of his time is spent looking for new opportunities for Octopus, such as moving into the commercial energy sector with Octopus Energy.

Before founding Octopus in 2000, Simon spent two years working at Mercury Asset Management. He holds a first-class MA in Modern Languages from St. Andrews University and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Caroline leads the global institutional sales function; supporting its strategy and strengthening the relationship between the institutional funds distribution team and investment functions, as well as focusing on partnerships with investment consultants.

Caroline joined Octopus following a 15-year career at Willis Towers Watson (WTW) and has brought a wealth of diverse experience that spans investment consulting and strategic sales; including designing investment strategy and solutions for institutional investors. She also focused on helping clients establish their ESG values and creating impact through their investments. Most recently, Caroline was in a global people leadership role, in charge of setting the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) strategy and shaping the culture of the business. 

Caroline graduated from the University of Exeter where she studied Mathematics and she also holds the Investment Management Certificate.

Harry leads the Marketing function; developing strategy to take the Octopus Investments brand and funds to institutional investors across global markets.

Harry joined Octopus following a seven-year stint as Group Head of Marketing at Triple Point Investments. He raised retail, institutional and public capital over five different investment strategies. He also led the communications function for the consortium running the government HNIP and GHNF (Heat Networks) projects.

He has brought a wealth of experience that spans both listed and unlisted funds, with a clear focus on impact investment. Harry’s teams have won multiple awards for marketing and communications, both locally and internationally.

Prior to his time in the UK, Harry was a founder of Fintech insurer BrightRock (Acquired by Sanlam) and was Executive Creative Director of Vitality’s global brand agency.

Harry graduated from the University of Johannesburg, where he studied Graphic Design and from Vega where he obtained a post grad BA hons in Brand Communication.

Sian leads the UK institutional sales function. Sian joined Octopus Investments from BlackRock, where she spent more than six years fundraising for the group’s Alternatives platform, most recently as a Director in the Multi-Alternatives Product Strategy Team. Her responsibilities included designing innovative solutions for investors, client engagement and fundraising. Prior to this Sian spent time in the Investment Solutions Team at Partners Group, as an Investment Manager at Railpen, and in the multi-asset team at Schroders. She began her career at JPMorgan.

Anne-Sophie joined Octopus in September 2022 and is responsible for capital raising and investor relations for Octopus Investments in Europe.

Anne-Sophie previously spent ten years at Hedgebay – a secondary advisory firm – where she was heading up the European office. From 2007-2011 Anne-Sophie worked as an Institutional Business Director at Castlestone Management – a global macro hedge fund – and prior to that she was in Institutional Sales at Lombard Odier IM in Paris.

Anne-Sophie holds a MS in Economics and International Finance from the Université Louis Lumiere Lyon 2, and a post-graduate degree in International Trade from Université Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne.

Semi is responsible for Korea and Japan Coverage for Octopus Investment on institutional fund distribution and investor relationship management.

In her previous role as an Inward Investment Manager at the UK Department for International Trade, Semi provided strategic advice to large UK infrastructure fund managers on distribution to large Korean institutional investors such as pension funds, asset managers and insurance companies.

Semi has a degree in English Linguistics and Literature from Sahmyook University in Korea and an MA in International Relations from University of Warwick.

Charlotte is part of the team responsible for capital raising in the UK. Charlotte joined the team in January 2024 having been at Octopus since September 2017. She was previously part of Octopus’ wholesale distribution team. Charlotte started her career at Octopus as part of their retail sales team where she was responsible for distributing Octopus’ tax efficient solutions.

Charlotte has a Masters degree in Globalisation and Corporate Development from the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London).

Tom is responsible for investor relations and supports the team with capital raising at Octopus. Tom Joined Octopus in September 2018 as part of their retail sales team where he was responsible for distributing Octopus’ tax efficient solutions before moving across to the Global Institutional Distribution team in January 2022.

Tom is a graduate of the University of Reading where he studied Politics and International Relations.

Emma is responsible for building and maintaining relationships with family offices across Europe.

Prior to joining Octopus, Emma spent 10 years at Institutional Investor in London and New York. As Director of Investor Relations and Content she established and built relationships with single family offices, launching Institutional Investor’s private network of family offices in 2013.

Emma has a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) (Hons) from Liverpool John Moore’s University.

In his role heading up the Sustainable Infrastructure team, Rob oversees investments in new sectors such as fibre broadband and the management of both the OITS product and the OSIF fund. He also sits on the Octopus Investment and Valuation Committees.

Rob joined Octopus in 2013 as Head of Valuations, and then became Head of the Sustainable Infrastructure team in 2019.

Prior to this, he was a director in the M&A team at RBS working across various sectors specialising in infrastructure and utilities.

Rob graduated from Warwick University where he read Mathematics.

Sean has 20+ years investing, asset management, and financing experience across a breadth of infrastructure assets classes.

Prior to joining Octopus he was Senior Director and Fund Manager at Aviva Investors, responsible for infrastructure equity mandates across multiple sustainable infrastructure sectors, as well as investment strategy and origination activities.

Sean was also previously responsible for investment strategy and origination as Senior Director at Balfour Beatty Investments and he also advised on corporate and project finance transactions across the renewables, energy and utilities sectors at RBC Capital Markets.

He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Finance from the Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary and is also a CFA charter holder.

Ed is head of the Octopus Inheritance Tax Service, which includes Fern Trading and the Octopus Trading Partnership, and is responsible for the investment performance of these products. He is also a member of the Octopus investment committee and is a director of several Octopus portfolio companies.

Before joining Octopus in 2010, Ed was a finance lawyer at SJ Berwin for five years before relocating to Los Angeles as head of business affairs for CineFinance LLC, a subsidiary of Houston Casualty Company.

He also holds the Investment Management Certificate.

Alice focuses on sustainable infrastructure investment, including sectors such as digital fibre infrastructure, circular economy, energy transition, and future mobility. Her role involves deal origination, execution, and portfolio management.

Alice joined Octopus in 2022, having spent four years in Santander’s (SCIB) Structured Finance team. Here, she focused on Debt Advisory for and lending to large-scale energy transition and infrastructure projects.

Alice graduated from St. Andrews where she read and achieved a first in International Relations.

Alex joined Octopus in 2015 to help develop our energy strategy, originate and structure investments in new areas and to widen our investor relationships. Alex manages Octopus Energy Generation’s private institutional funds which serve a number of large pension and insurance company investors.

Prior to joining Octopus, Alex was Director in the Energy and Environmental Infrastructure team at EY LLP where he provided a wide range of corporate and project finance services to leading players in the Renewable Energy industry. Alex is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, qualifying in 2003.

Matt is Co-head of Octopus Energy Generation, a team that he started nine years ago and has built to 70 people with over £3 billion of energy assets under management. During this time, Matt led Octopus investment into Lightsource Renewable Energy (now Lightsource BP) and oversaw the growth of that business from start up to exit. He also led the team’s expansion strategy from an initial focus on UK solar PV into on-shore wind and other renewable energy assets across Europe and Australia. Matt is Chairman of the investment committee and member of Octopus Investments’ Executive Committee. 
 
Prior to Octopus, Matt was an investment manager at Shore Capital and a manager at PwC. He has an MBA from Cambridge University and an Economics degree from Bristol University.

Alliott joined Octopus Ventures in 2008 and became CEO in 2017. Over this time the team has backed more than 120 entrepreneurs and has grown to become one of Europe’s largest and most active venture investors. Under his leadership, the Octopus Ventures investment team has evolved to specialise in health, fintech, deep tech, B2B software and consumer and created a market leading portfolio talent function across Europe and the US.

Alliott worked closely with the food e-commerce business Graze (acquired by Unilever), the ecommerce platform Rangespan (acquired by Google), the machine learning tech startup Magic Pony (acquired by Twitter), the pet food company Tails.com (acquired by Nestle) and the property portal website Zoopla (that listed on LSE and was later acquired by SilverLake).

Richard joined Octopus Ventures in 2017 and focuses on investments in B2B Software companies. He is fund manager for the Octopus Apollo VCT and he also sits on a number of portfolio company boards.

Richard has been an investor in UK and international SMEs since 2006. He previously worked in TPG’s direct lending fund, at RJD Partners, a UK-focused Private Equity fund, and at Dresdner Kleinwort in the Principal Finance group. He qualified as a chartered accountant with PwC and holds a first class degree in Banking and Finance from the University of Birmingham.

Ed is responsible for leading Octopus Real Estate and sits on the Investment Committee. Ed joined Octopus in 2017 and previously led our Care Homes and Corporate Development teams. For the latter role, Ed led Octopus Real Estate’s growth into new sectors and developed our existing businesses. Prior to joining Octopus, Ed was a lawyer with international law firm Allen & Overy. He has a BA in Economics from Durham University and an MBA from the University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School.

Andy joined Octopus in 2021.  His team provides bespoke funding solutions to property developers to enable them to deliver ‘living’ assets, from residential through to student accommodation schemes and care homes. In a career spanning just under 20 years, Andy has gained significant experience including working for Lloyds Banking Group, Santander and most recently Secure Trust Bank.

Hollie joined Octopus Real Estate in August 2023 to lead the central operations and corporate development team. Prior to this, she spent 16 years at Lloyds Banking Group working across various roles, most recently in the Corporate & Institutional division where she was responsible for debt structuring across the real estate and housing sectors. Hollie’s experience spans all parts of real estate lending, from listed to private clients, investment and development facilities and both performing and distressed loans. She has a BSc in Maths from the University of Leeds and holds a CISI charter.

Jack joined Octopus in 2022, having spent over 15 years in real estate, specialising in affordable housing. Jack was previously Executive Director for Growth and Investment at one of the country’s fastest-growing affordable housing providers, and previously led partnerships divisions for several large housebuilders. He is a member of the CISI and is an RICS Registered Valuer.

Kevin joined Octopus in 2018 and he is a member of the Octopus Real Estate Investment Committee and is responsible for both deploying and raising funds. Kevin leads the Schroders/Octopus Retirement Living Fund team and also works with senior debt providers in sourcing senior development debt.

Since receiving a Masters from Oxford Brookes School of the Built Environment, Kevin has clocked up over 25 years in the real estate development and healthcare sector. He was one of the founders of ARCO and has served as an advisory board member for the Homes and Communities Agency (Homes England) and spent five years on the National Housing Federations development committee.

Since joining Octopus in 2013, Ludo is now the manager of our commercial real estate debt funds I, II and III, and has built our commercial lending team. Under his tenure, Octopus Real Estate has become one of the UK’s most active non-bank specialist property investors, lending across residential bridging and buy-to-let, commercial bridging, term and the development sectors. Ludo also sits on our Management and Investment Committees.

Prior to joining Octopus, Ludo was a Partner at Melford Capital Partners LLP, UK Property Director at Janus Henderson Investors, and an Associate Director at JLL. He has an Estate Management degree at Oxford Brookes University.

Michael joined Octopus in 2021 and he leads the day-to-day activities of our Care Homes team and is fund manager of the Octopus Healthcare Fund. He has 20 years’ experience in real estate including managing institutional funds. Michael is a member of The Association of Real Estate Funds’ (AREF) ESG and Impact Investing Committee.

Prior to joining Octopus, Michael was at Lothbury Investment Management, where he spent over a decade as an Executive Director and Senior Fund Manager, managing institutional real estate funds, implementing a growth strategy and expanding the flagship fund by more than threefold. He has also worked at KBC Asset Management and Fuller Peiser, and has a degree in Land Economy from the University of Aberdeen.

Steve is Head of Residential Lending at Octopus Real Estate. Steve has been with Octopus for four years, managing the product line and fund relationships, including overseeing four business development managers across London and the South. Steve joined Octopus in 2018 as Head of Buy to Let.

Alex joined Octopus in April 2024 as a seasoned professional in the field of natural capital, regenerative agriculture, and climate finance, with over 15 years of experience in investment banking and environmental consulting.

Prior to joining Octopus, he was Head of Natural Capital at Savills.

He holds an MSc in Global Energy and Climate Policy from SOAS University and a Harvard Negotiation Training certification.

Gabi joined Octopus in 2022 and has been the Natural Capital Investment lead, driving Octopus’ Natural Capital Strategy through product formation.

Previously, she had 10 years’ corporate finance transactional experience in her roles on the sell-side and buy-side, including M&A advisory at PJT Partners, and as an Investment Professional focused predominately on private equity and private debt at Elliott Management, a US$65 billion investment firm.

Gabi is a Chartered Financial Analyst and holds a Certificate of ESG Investing.