Our Team

Robin Choudhury qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Arthur Andersen in 1987 and subsequently pursued a career in Corporate Finance. He worked for the investment banking business of Barclays - BZW (now part of Credit Suisse) in international M&A and then at Deloitte & Touche and Arthur Andersen Corporate Finance where he headed the European Deal Origination Teams. 

Robin has over 30 years’ experience of originating and advising on private equity transactions and investments. In addition, Robin has extensive experience of advising and originating major M&A transactions including the buyout of Tetley Tea and Principal Hotels Group. 

During his work at Cornucopia Capital, he has had significant experience of advising on and originating real estate transactions. 

During 2012, Robin worked in partnership with Colliers International and led the Cornucopia Capital team in respect of the €120 million financing of TVHG Group. This is set out in more detail in Transaction Experience. 

In 2015, he was involved in both an origination and advisory capacity on the buyout of a €750 million German real estate portfolio.

Robin Choudhury was an Investor and Director of David Lloyd Resorts, a vehicle focused on the acquisition of leisure- and lifestyle-related real estate globally. Through his work with David Lloyd over a 20-year time period, Robin has built an extensive network of contacts with investors, financiers and advisory firms in the leisure sector.  

During his work at BZW and Deloitte he gained significant experience of advising on flotations and Equity Capital Market transactions. In particular, he led the successful listing of Clubhaus PLC during 1995. This transaction was particularly complex as it involved the simultaneous de-merger and re-listing of Ex Lands plc, the property related holding company.

Mariam is MBA-qualified and has worked with Cornucopia Capital for more than 15 years. She has substantial experience of financial modelling, capital raising, structuring of Private Equity transactions, equity research and analysis, and analysing and preparing business plans and investment presentations.  

Mariam has played an integral role in all the key Cornucopia Capital transactions since she joined the firm and has experience of real estate, leisure, retail, technology and asset-backed transactions involving Private Equity. 

In particular, she has worked on various projects and investments in the leisure and real estate sectors and has extensive experience of Hotel, Golf and Resort transactions.

Vincent joined Cornucopia Capital in 2015 and since joining has been involved in real estate, private equity and growth capital transactions across a number of sectors.

During 2018, he was seconded to London Strategic Land, a real estate private equity vehicle spun out from GI Partners set up to acquire land in and around Greater London with the aim of creating value through obtaining or changing existing planning permissions, primarily with the aim of building residential housing. In addition, he also worked at real estate investment house Aprirose, where he focused on hotel investments.

Vincent graduated with first class honours from the London School of Economics and prior to joining Cornucopia Capital worked in the investment management team at Charles Stanley.

Keshawa joined Cornucopia Capital in 2019 and since joining has been involved in a number of leisure, consumer, healthcare and growth capital transactions. 

He graduated with first class honours in Medical Engineering from Cardiff University and is currently studying for the ACCA and CFA qualifications

Sava was European Analyst at Cornucopia Capital from December 2014 to July 2016, during which time he was involved in a number of hotels, real estate and private equity transactions as well as equity research. 

He is an Investment Adviser to Luss Investment Ltd, his family-owned private investment firm, which focuses on high growth companies, textile production and real estate-backed investments in South East Europe and the Middle East. 

In addition, he is a member of a founding family of Victoria Group AD, the leading agribusiness holding company in South Eastern Europe. 

Through his involvement in these business interests, Sava has built a considerable network of contacts in Central and South East Europe and Turkey. 

Sava is MSc-qualified and obtained a first-class honours degree in Corporate Finance at Cass Business School.

Julia has over 25 years of commercial, finance and investment experience in the UK and internationally.  

The first 16 years of her experience was gained at BZW, Barclays Global Investors and AXA, in London as well as overseas.  

At AXA she held several senior management positions both in Paris and London. Julia was Managing Director of AXA Investment Managers UK which had £60 billion under management, and prior to that Head of Retail and Head of Marketing. She was also Deputy Head of the AXA Group’s Corporate Strategy Group in Paris.  

Julia has worked with Cornucopia Capital since 2005 and has been involved in all of the key transactions since. In particular, she advises on strategic and investment matters. 

Since 2008, Julia has been a Director of Franchise Brands, the largest Franchise Group of its kind in Europe, and an investor in that company, which is now a publicly listed. 

During 2014, she was appointed Corporate Development Director of Franchise Brands.

Ian Wallis is an Operating Partner of Cornucopia Capital. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Arthur Andersen in London in 1987 and his subsequent career has encompassed corporate, investment and advisory roles.

Between 1988 and 1990, Ian was a senior member of the corporate finance team at Blenheim Exhibitions Group plc, where his responsibilities included M&A. During this time, the company made some 40 cross-border acquisitions, transforming it into the largest quoted company in the sector and from a UK-only group into a multinational operating in 9 countries.

Following this, Ian was Managing Director of Paul Stewart Racing, Sir Jackie Stewart and son's eponymous motor racing and engineering consultancy business. He also established the pan-European sunglass business for the Revo brand at Bausch & Lomb Inc.

Between 1997 and 2000, Ian was VP Corporate Finance & Strategy for "The World", the pioneering residential cruise ship launched in 2002 and Europe's second largest leisure start-up after EuroDisney. As well as writing the business plan, he was a key member of the small team that sourced and negotiated the complex $350m structured project financing package from international institutional investors in 1999.

In 2001, as the Investment Director and a Main Board Director of Greenchip Investments plc, an AIM quoted technology investment company, Ian negotiated and led the £10m reverse takeover acquisition of a US-based bio-and photo degradable plastics technology business.

From 2002 to 2016, Ian was an independent adviser to clients including Gleneagles on mixed-use projects and the State of Qatar on their National Master Plan.

Since 2016, Ian has been a Founder Director alongside serial financial markets entrepreneur Malcolm Burne of Star Tech NG Plc, a privately held investment firm and alternative investment manager investing in pre-IPO and scale-up private technology disruptors via secondary share transactions. Former portfolio companies include Spotify, Lyft, Uber, Pinterest, and Dropbox and current portfolio companies include Revolut, wish, Airbnb, Brüush and Shuttl.

David Lloyd, the prominent property and leisure entrepreneur, is a Special Adviser to Cornucopia Capital in the Leisure and Real Estate Sectors. 

Following his retirement from a distinguished tennis tournament career, which included being part of the team that took Great Britain to the first 1978 Davis Cup World Final in 35 years, David opened his first indoor court club in Heston, West London in 1982, setting a new standard for indoor sports in the UK. His second centre opened in 1987 in Raynes Park, just outside Wimbledon. 

David Lloyd Leisure remains a well-known and globally respected brand name and has sustained the largest private membership of any racquet and fitness club in Europe. During 2007, the business was bought for £925 million by a consortium of London and Regional Holdings and Bank of Scotland. The business acquired in 2013 by TDR Capital for approximately £750 million. 

David remains an influential figure in British leisure. In partnership with his son Scott (Managing Director), David’s next venture – Next Generation Clubs (“NGC”), founded in 1999 – created a network of 14 high specification racquet health and fitness clubs throughout the UK and Australia before being sold to London and Regional Property Company in August 2006 for £181 million. 

Following the completion of several successful property developments including the highly successful Sugar Hill development in Barbados, David founded David Lloyd Resorts to create and develop a number of branded resorts worldwide.

Following on from his success with MegaJump, the trampoline park business he launched in 2015 with leisure entrepreneur Mitchell Tillman, David is now focusing on establishing an all-inclusive indoor and outdoor activity centre offering, Adrenalin World, to address consumers’ increasingly sophisticated leisure preferences.

Tony Jansen has been an Operating Partner of Cornucopia Capital for over 14 years.

After a successful career in the Insurance industry, Tony successfully led the listing of an AIM company and became the CEO before disposing of the business to a trade buyer. 

Since 2007, Tony has been involved in a number of Private Equity investments in the leisure sector with Cornucopia Capital. He has an excellent network of well-connected individuals both in the UK and across Europe.

Helene worked at Cornucopia Capital between 2009 and 2014, during which time she was involved in a range of asset-backed and private equity transactions, both in Europe and Russia.

Since then, she has been a Consultant to Cornucopia Capital, assisting on real estate transactions in Europe, particularly in Germany, where she is based.

Helene is currently a full-time member of the Finance team at Abbott Laboratories in Germany. 

Helene received a Bachelor of Science in International Finance from the University of Buckingham with First Class Honours and is a fluent German and Russian speaker. 

Bruce Westbrook advises Cornucopia Capital on legal and commercial matters. 

He was formerly a Senior Partner at one of the world’s largest law firms, DLA Piper, and has over 30 years of experience of advising private equity institutions and management teams on buy-outs, buy-ins and development capital transactions. 

Robin Choudhury has worked with extensively with him during his corporate finance career and Bruce is highly regarded in the City of London for his professionalism.