The Social Venturer.
Trust-led value creation · Tech delivered mindfully · Causes worth backing
I am an experienced private equity investor and non-executive director, working with management teams and investors to provide the governance, capital and operational support that ambitious businesses need to perform. My approach is built on twenty-five years in and around private equity, including sixteen years as Managing Partner at a leading deal-by-deal mid-cap private equity house.
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My philosophy
My approach is founded on the belief that businesses perform best when there is trust between owners, management and staff. In practice, that means combining private equity discipline with real operating experience: understanding the commercial numbers and the operating KPIs a business has to hit, while building the culture that gets a team to hit them. This is not a philosophy that trades values for returns. In my experience, it is the reason returns are achieved.
The difference comes from curiosity: a genuine interest in people and in how businesses actually work. It also comes from respect — for the individuals who put in the work to build a company, whatever their role.
How I work with businesses
Non-Executive Director & Chair
I take on Chair and Non-Executive Director appointments for management teams going through an ownership change, a growth phase or a turnaround. I am a Non-Executive Director at The Barton Partnership and have held more than fifty prior NED and Chair appointments across sectors.
Investment
I arrange investment on a deal-by-deal basis, bringing professional private investors into individual transactions that I have assessed and diligenced personally, typically in established businesses of £2m to £10m EBITDA. This is not a discretionary fund; capital is matched to specific businesses and specific situations.
Advisory
I advise businesses where the objective includes societal benefit as well as commercial performance, applying the same operating discipline to a wider definition of return.
What I look for
There is a gap in the market for a high-integrity, operations-focused approach to small and mid-cap deals. That is the gap I work in.
£2m to £10m, in established businesses with the capability to become a platform.
Management or founder ownership transition, an under-invested back office, an imperfect last three years, or a carve-out — situations with a challenge we can work through together.
Deal-by-deal by design, with simple structures including earn-outs, built to fit the specific opportunity. Joint deals with other deal-by-deal partners are also considered.
Quick, direct decisions on the right opportunities.
AI-enabled tools support the diligence, backed by a post-deal network of associates and suppliers built over twenty-five years — the same people who help management teams build trust and create value.
Agile in structure · Quick to deploy capital · Tight on diligence · Resilient to operational challenges · Straight in approach
Management teams and investors
Management teams
Businesses going through an ownership change benefit from a Chair or Non-Executive Director who has run transformation, incentivisation and talent programmes personally, not only reviewed them at board level. My focus throughout an engagement is to protect the culture and the trust between management and staff, alongside the commercial outcome the owners require.
Investors
Investors benefit from a deal-by-deal partner with pattern recognition drawn from more than thirty exits, and from operational stewardship that continues after completion, not governance alone. Over sixteen years as Managing Partner of a deal-by-deal mid-cap private equity house, I delivered several exits at over five times money on money without compromising on values.
Selected experience
Sixteen years as Managing Partner at a deal-by-deal mid-cap private equity house, with several exits at over 5x money on money — always with the ethical aspect of investing kept in view.
Managing Partner, Mid-Cap Private Equity · 2010–2026Chaired a national consolidation platform in marine infrastructure, professionalising founder businesses and backing a new group management team.
Chair, Ancora Group · 2025–2026Get in touch
Send a message and I will come back to you directly.
Richard Sanders
Founder, Aligned Empowered Ltd
London, UK