Wilfried Schmidt

European Chairman
United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany

Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7856 0902
wilfried.schmidt@dcadvisorypartners.com

Wilfried Schmidt was appointed Chairman of Daiwa Corporate Advisory Partners, the holding company of DC Advisory Partners, in 2010. He has been Vice Chairman of Daiwa Capital Markets Europe since 2006.

Wilfried joined Daiwa Securities Co Ltd in Tokyo in 1991. His career with the group has included various assignments in the international underwriting division and the corporate finance and investment banking divisions in Tokyo, London and Frankfurt. He was previously President of Daiwa Germany GmbH. He serves as a member of the EUREX Exchange Council.

Wilfried began his career as a diplomat, including three assignments in Tokyo. He studied at Moscow State University for International Relations and at Harvard Business School. His hobbies include classical music, literature, fine arts and boating.

Paul Mullins

European Chief Executive
United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany

Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7856 9435
paul.mullins@dcadvisorypartners.com

Paul joined DC Advisory Partners in January 2011 as European Chief Executive.

Prior to joining DC Advisory, Paul spent six years at Bank of America where he initially established and built the European M&A team. He then took over the pan-European Global Industries & Natural Resources sector team.

Paul’s career in banking has spanned 30 years at Schroders, Citigroup and BofA both in Europe and the US. He has extensive experience in the Industrials, Automotive and Utilities sectors, advising both regulated and public companies. He has advised on both UK and cross-border M&A.

Paul is currently a Commissioner for The Commission on Ownership as well as a member of the Industrial Development Advisory Board. He graduated from Oxford University with a degree in Jurisprudence.

León Benelbas

Chairman
Spain

Telephone: +34 91 524 11 24
leon.benelbas@dcadvisorypartners.com

León Benelbas is one of the founding partners of Atlas Capital Investment Bankers, the predecessor in Spain of DC Advisory Partners, where he is now President and Chairman.

He is a Doctor in Economics at the Universidad of Barcelona and a Lecturer at the University of California-Berkeley.

Throughout his professional career, León Benelbas has held numerous senior positions in the Spanish government, including Director General for Insurance and Deputy Director General for Economic Planning at the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Finance, as well as at various private companies such as Tabacalera, La Lactaria Española, Seguros Amaya or Ron Investments.

In his stage previous to DC Advisory Partners, he was appointed Managing Partner in the Corporate Finance division of PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Richard Madden

Chief Executive
United Kingdom

Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7856 0901
richard.madden@dcadvisorypartners.com

Richard was appointed Chief Executive of DC Advisory Partners (formerly Close Brothers Corporate Finance) in the UK in November 2009.

Richard continues to be responsible for the DC Advisory Partners media and technology practices across Europe. He has more than twenty years experience advising companies in both sectors. His experience covers debt and equity fundraising and M&A across Europe and in the United States.

Richard’s clients have ranged from major corporations such as News Corporation, Daily Mail and General Trust and Dun and Bradstreet to smaller entrepreneurial companies such as Clarion, Boosey & Hawkes, Superscape and Kobalt.

Prior to DC Advisory Partners, Richard was a Senior Managing Director at Bear Stearns and a Managing Director at ING Barings. He joined ING Barings from Arthur Andersen.

Richard is a Chartered Accountant and a Classics graduate from Jesus College, Cambridge.

Ernst von Freyberg

Chief Executive
Germany

Telephone: +49 (0)69 97 20 04 0
Ernst.Freyberg@dcadvisorypartners.com

Ernst von Freyberg worked for Three Cities Research, Inc., an investment company forming part of the Bemberg Group, in New York and London from 1988 to 1991, before co-founding DC Advisory Partners. He is a member of various supervisory boards including Deutsche Malteser gGmbH, Flossbach von Storch AG,
Manpower GmbH and Magirus AG. Mr von Freyberg has qualified as a lawyer.

Raúl J. Julián

Chief Executive
Spain

Telephone: +34 91 524 11 24
raulj.julian@dcadvisorypartners.com

Raúl J. Julián is one of the founding partners of Atlas Capital Investment Bankers, the predecessor in Spain of DC Advisory Partners and since 2009 he is Managing Director for Spain and member of the Board of Directors. He is also responsible of the Financial Services sector in Spain.

He has developed his career in Corporate Finance in Spain and the U.K., firstly at PricewaterhouseCoopers and then at Atlas Capital Close Brothers, having advised on numerous M&A and Debt Advisory (restructuring and project finance) transactions. Raúl has advised insurance groups (Mapfre), banks and savings banks (Banco Pastor, Caja Madrid, Caixa Galicia or Cajasol), private equity groups (3i, Vista Capital or Permira) as well as Public Organisms (he advised the Regional Government of Madrid in the first shadow toll roads program in Spain).

PhD in Business Administration from Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Business Administration graduate form Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, he is also Qualified Accountant in Spain (member of the Registro Oficial de Auditores de Cuentas) and teaches finance programs at Instituto de Empresa business school.

Gwénaël de Sagazan

Chief Executive
France

Telephone: +33 (0) 1 42 12 49 67
gwenael.desagazan@dcadvisorypartners.com

Prior to joining DC Advisory Partners (formerly Close Brothers SAS) Gwénaël de Sagazan worked for 14 years in the Corporate Banking division of HSBC France, first as a Director then as a Managing Director. In that role, he advised numerous transactions for financial sponsors, and in the sectors of transports and specialised retail.

Gwénaël de Sagazan started his career with Groupe Total, and subsequently with Morgan Grenfell. Gwénaël has worked on Private Equity as a Director of Investment in the financial subsidiaries of the Elf Aquitaine’s Group (1992 – 1993).

Gwénaël de Sagazan is a graduate of HEC.

Jonathan Trower

Managing Director
United Kingdom

Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7856 0912
jonathan.trower@dcadvisorypartners.com

Jonathan joined DC Advisory Partners (formerly Close Brothers Corporate Finance) in 1998 to set up the European Restructuring and Debt Advisory Group.

He was previously a Director of Hill Samuel and subsequently of Hambros.

Jonathan has had extensive experience of the debt markets over his banking career, having worked in corporate banking, loan syndication, acquisition finance and property finance. He ran a large team of workout bankers in the 1990-92 recession.

Since joining DC Advisory Partners Jonathan has advised on a large number of both restructuring and debt advisory transactions.

Clients that he has advised include Enterprise Inns plc, LogicaCMG, Virgin Money, Luxfer, Gala and TM Group Holdings. Private equity houses that he has worked for include Legal & General Ventures, Electra Partners Europe Ltd, Montagu Private Equity, Sun European Partners, Cinven and Candover.

After graduating from Cambridge University and three years as an army officer, Jonathan began his banking career in 1983.