Duke Street’s new European structure

Duke Street Capital has restructured its private equity team, forming dedicated country teams for the UK, France, Germany and Spain. Peter Taylor now has overall responsibility for the group of 19 investment professionals in the newly created role, head of private equity.

Taylor was previously managing director of UK private equity for Duke Street. Tim Lebus now heads the UK team. He says the organisational changes are designed to make the firm more effective as it grows: “We’re becoming more European as a firm and are increasingly keen to do deals across the whole geography that we cover.”

The French team is led by Frederic Chauffier, the Spanish team by Roberto Warfield and the German team by Ervin Schellenberg, who was appointed in June 2002. Duke Street opened its Madrid office last year and moved into a new office in Paris, where it has had a presence for some time, earlier this year. With a three person team dedicated to the German market the firm anticipates opening an office there as well in due course.

Edmund Truell, group chief executive, continues to oversee both the private equity and debt management sides of the business. “Peter Taylor’s appointment as head of private equity and our expanded and redefined team structure reflect the continued rapid growth in our private equity business. With our local offices and teams, we are very well positioned to invest in and grow top quality businesses across Europe,” said Truell.