Joanna Chen

Analyst

Joanna first joined Opus in 2017 for a year-long internship as part of her university degree course. She re-joined in 2019 after graduating with a BSc degree in Accounting and Finance from the University of Bath.

Colin Christie

Partner

Colin joined Opus in 2018, having previously been at Canaccord Genuity/ Hawkpoint and UBS Investment Bank, based in London and New York. 

Colin has broad and international experience in M&A, disposals, and capital raisings, including in a number of IPOs and follow-on offerings.  His experience has been very international, often specialising in complex cross-border projects, integrating M&A and funding strategies.

Colin embarked on his career in investment banking with SG Warburg in 1993, following qualifying as ACA with Price Waterhouse in London.  He worked in New York from 2002-2007, with UBS Investment Bank, where he was responsible for some key client relationships and involved in numerous high-profile transactions.

At predecessor firms, Colin has variously been Head of Industrials, Co-Head of European M&A, Head of Capital Goods and Head of European Software.

Over the years, Colin has acted for many clients, in recent years notably INEOS, Cape, Hamworthy, GE, 3M, Siemens, Colfax.  In recent years, Colin has also played a key role in a number of LSE IPOs, namely Polypipe, Volution and Eurocell.

He has a LLB (Hons) degree from Edinburgh University and is a member of the ICAEW.

Megan Genever

Intern

Megan joined Opus in July 2019 for a year-long internship, which forms part of her university degree course. She is an undergraduate student at Durham University studying Business and Management

Adrian Haxby

Partner

Adrian is a highly experienced investment banker with a career spanning over 30 years including 27 years at UBS (formerly S.G. Warburg & Co. Ltd.), Canaccord and Peel Hunt. At UBS he worked in London, Paris and Frankfurt in M&A, Equity Capital Markets and Corporate Broking. Latterly he ran the London based UK Mid-market team with responsibility for approximately 40 FTSE 250 listed clients. Adrian has worked across a broad range of sectors advising Boards on a wide variety of  strategic (hostile and agreed), financing, regulatory and market matters.

He has a BA in Classics & Modern Languages from Oxford and is a Chartered Accountant.

Thalia Ilsen Nunn

Analyst

Thalia joined Opus at the beginning of 2019.

Since joining Opus, Thalia has been working on a number of projects in a diverse range of fields including healthcare, energy storage and business services.

Prior to joining Opus, Thalia spent 3 years at PwC in the London Region Assurance practice, where she qualified as a Chartered Accountant, focusing on mid-market private and public listed companies across a wide range of sectors.

Thalia holds a BA in French from the University of Oxford and is a member of the ICAEW.

Malcolm Le May

Partner

Malcolm has over 35 years' experience in the financial services industry. He was previously Co-Head of Barclays' banking business in North America, Head of UBS' investment banking business in Europe and Global Head of ING's corporate and investment banking business. Subsequently he was Deputy CEO of Morley Fund Managers (now Aviva Investors) and European President of JER, a pan-European property asset manager.

Malcolm was previously a Non-Executive Director of RSA plc and Senior Independent Director of Pendragon plc. He currently holds Non-Executive roles at Provident Financial plc, Hastings plc, IG Group plc and Juno Capital LLP, a specialist angel investor. He is also a senior advisor to EY, the global professional services group.

Malcolm has a degree in Accounting and Business Psychology from Bangor University and is a member of the ICAEW.

Sylvester Lewis

Associate

Sylvester joined Opus as an Associate in 2019. He has advised on a number of transactions across a range of industries including: Technology, Media and Infrastructure.

Sylvester has over 4 years of corporate finance experience. Prior to joining Opus Sylvester worked at Evercore. Sylvester holds a Master of Engineering Science degree from Oxford University.

John McElroy

Partner

John co-leads Opus’s sustainability practice with a particular focus on renewable energy, renewable chemicals, sustainable transport and resource efficiency.  He is also involved with Opus’s public company business and private special situations practice. Recent experience includes the balance sheet restructurings of a biomass and a renewable chemicals business, capital raisings to construct three biomass-CHP power stations, fund raisings for two wood conversion technology businesses, and acquisitions of two anaerobic digestion plants.

John commenced his corporate finance career at S.G. Warburg (later UBS Investment Bank) in London after qualifying as a chartered accountant at KPMG.  John has advised on a wide range public and private M&A and capital markets transactions in Europe and the US and spent eight years in New York with UBS Investment Bank.  He returned to the UK in 2003 and set up the corporate finance advisory business of UBS Wealth Management in London before moving to Opus in 2008.

He has a BSc (Econ) degree from University College London and is a member of the ICAEW.

Nigel McNelly

Partner

Nigel has been a partner at Opus since its inception in 2006. Nigel has clients across a broad range of sectors and specialises in advice to family and trust owned businesses. Areas of particular sector focus include events and event services, specialist property (including affordable housing and related services) and B2B consulting and business services.

Recent assignments have included advice to a large family owned brewer on succession issues and the trustees of a multi-generational  family trust in the property sector in relation to trust diversification requirements.

In addition, Nigel led the Opus team advising on the sale of the events services business Peppermint Bars to Conviviality. Other recent transactions include the investment by Related Companies in Pocket Living and Hearst Publishing in Mediablaze.

Nigel joined SG Warburg in 1983 and in 1997 was recruited as Head of Corporate Finance at Enskilda Securities in London. Nigel has a degree in Economics from Cambridge University and is a member of ICAEW.

Michael Mizon

Associate Director

Michael joined Opus as an Associate in 2017. Since joining Opus, Michael has advised clients on transactions across a range of sectors including Renewable Energy, Sustainability, and Technology, Media and Communications.

Michael has over seven years of corporate finance experience: prior to joining Opus Michael worked for Ironstone Capital in Australia advising clients on infrastructure M&A, energy and renewables project financing, and government privatisations. Michael holds a Bachelor of Economics with First Class Honours from the University of Sydney.

Richard Morse

Partner

Richard has been a partner at Opus since 2011. Richard is primarily focused on the energy and infrastructure sectors, and has a particular expertise in M&A, project finance and fund-raising for energy technology companies.  Recent assignments have included advice to a renewable energy project developer, raising funds for a new power station, and also advice to an electricity storage technology development company on successive fund-raisings.

As well as his work with Opus, Richard is on the Boards of John Laing Environmental Assets Group Limited (JLEN), Bazalgette Tunnel Limited, Woodard Corporation and The Grange Festival.

Richard joined Kleinwort Benson in 1981 whence he was seconded to be Deputy Director General of OFGEM from 1999-2001.  Following a brief stint as head of Utilities and Infrastructure for Europe at Goldman Sachs, he led the energy and infrastructure team at Greenhill & Co.  He was educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford (classics).  He is an honorary fellow of Ripon College, Cuddesdon.

Joseph Roberts

Associate

Joe joined Opus in 2016.  He has advisory and transactional experience across a range of sectors including Financial Services, Renewables, Pharmaceuticals, Media and Construction Materials.

Prior to Opus, Joe spent four years at KPMG, where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant, and worked in the Deal Advisory and Forensic Accounting teams. Joe has a degree in Classics from the University of Bristol and is a member of the ICAEW.

Stuart Schofield

Partner

Stuart joined Opus in 2008 and has clients across a broad range of sectors. Areas of particular sector focus include renewable energy and sustainability, industrials and business services.

Recent transaction experience includes advising Estover Energy to fund its three biomass CHP power stations; advising Kebony on raising equity growth capital to construct its second wood conversion plant; and advising electricity storage technology company Highview on successive fund-raisings. Other recent transactions include the investments by Related in Pocket Living and Hearst Publishing in Mediablaze.

Stuart started his investment banking career at UBS in 2004, working in the UK Investment Banking team and then an M&A team within the Wealth Management business. He has a degree in Chinese from Durham University.

Malcolm Strang

Partner

Malcolm joined Hill Samuel Corporate Finance in 1985 having previously qualified (ICAEW) at Price Waterhouse. After spending nine years advising on a wide range of transactions he joined Credit Suisse, where he was a Senior Director focused on cross-border and UK M&A and public company transactions.

In 2000, he became CFO of a venture development company seeking a London listing. Following the collapse of the stock market and the cancellation of the IPO, he joined KPMG Corporate Finance as a Partner where he focused on public company transactions, UK M&A and private equity transactions, before joining Oriel Securities in 2005.

Malcolm joined Matrix Investment Banking in 2010 as joint Head of Corporate Finance, with a particular focus on the business services, consumer and TMT sectors.

Malcolm joined Opus in 2011.