Private Equity and Venture Capital

Garry Sharp

in the industry since 1990. He joined independent venture capital company Baronsmead in 1985, becoming a director and shareholder following Baronsmead’s own Management Buy Out in 1989. During the early 1990’s the company grew to become one of the UK’s largest independent private equity firms and was acquired by fund manager Ivory & Sime in 1996. Shortly thereafter Garry left to cofound Independent Direction, a specialist consultancy to the private equity industry. He sold Independent Direction in 2005 to concentrate on training and writing, although he continues to work in an advisory capacity in private equity.

He is an independent director of a bank owned PE fund in Mauritius, Executive Editor of the UK Institute of Chartered Accountants’ Corporate Finance manual, non-executive director of a privately owned recruitment company in the UK and adviser to a PE fund manager in Cairo. Garry has delivered private equity and related courses in Western and Eastern Europe, Dubai, Bahrain, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Nigeria, Zambia and Tanzania. He has also had 7 books published on the topics of private equity, management buy outs and mergers and acquisitions.