william skinner

Phoenix is a leading UK mid-market private equity investor. Phoenix invests £20m - £60m in private UK companies across a wide range of sectors. Our aim is to partner with great entrepreneurs and management teams to support them in growing their businesses. I am responsible for our deal origination activities in the consumer & leisure sector and serve on a number of boards as an Investor Director on behalf of Phoenix.

Bridge Leisure is an owner and operator of holiday parks in the UK, with nine parks across Cornwall, Yorkshire and Scotland.

Travel Chapter is a leading online marketing platform for holiday lettings in the UK. Through its sophisticated marketing capabilities and highly rated customer service model, Travel Chapter provides a compelling holiday lettings proposition to property owners and customers alike. Travel Chapter’s flagship brand is Holidaycottages.co.uk.

* During my time as an Investment Director at Phoenix I was responsible for, and closely involved with, a number of Phoenix's recent investments: * Forest Holidays * Travel Chapter * Bridge Leisure * Riviera Travel * Also during this time I was closely involved with The Gym Group’s merger discussions (and agreement) with Pure Gym and subsequent (sadly unsuccessful) Phase I CMA process, before having a key role in the floatation of The Gym Group on London's main market in November 2015.

The Gym is a leading operator of low-cost gyms, which grew to over 400,000 members and more than 70 sites in the UK by the time we exited our investment. It is centred on providing a highly quality, yet affordably priced gym-only offering, which is changing the health and fitness market in the UK. The business has grown rapidly since the first gym opened in 2008.

* As an Investment Manager in our Consumer, Healthcare, Education and Media sector group I assisted with a number of our investments across these sectors during this time, including: * The Gym Group * CloserStill * Porthaven * I also assisted with our successful exit of NFT to EmergeVest which completed in April 2014.

* Intern, Analyst and latterly Associate in J.P. Morgan's European Acquisition and Leveraged Finance team. I also spent 3 months in TMT coverage at J.P. Morgan Cazenove as part of a rotation programme. * Whilst at J.P. Morgan I was involved in numerous debt advisory and financing transactions, including: * The $3.0bn financing package to support Nordic Capital's buyout of ConvaTec from Bristol Myers Squib, and subsequent acquisition of Unomedical (IFR’s EMEA Leveraged Loan of the Year 2008) * Sappi Limited's refinancing, which included raising a €210m RCF and $800m equivalent senior secured notes offering * Colonial's €5.0bn debt restructuring * Manchester United's £510m equivalent high yield bond refinancing * Cable and Wireless Communication plc's $1.1bn demerger financing package * The £240m senior secured notes offering to support Advent International's acquisition of DFS