Apax Foundation

The Apax Foundation and Apax US Foundation are the channels for Apax Partners' corporate giving globally.  The charities are funded by the firm, receiving a percentage of its profits and carried interest, as well as donations from individual partners.

 

What do we support?

Our giving focuses on three areas: social entrepreneurship, Apax's staff 'matching' scheme, and the European private equity community's collective charity, the Private Equity Foundation.

The Foundations together give at a rate of around £1m annually to charities in Europe, the US, Africa and Asia .

 

Who is involved?

The Apax Foundation is chaired by Apax Partners' founder, Sir Ronald Cohen, and its Trustees are drawn from the senior ranks of the firm:

Sir Ronald Cohen  London 

Sir Ronald Cohen is Chairman of The Portland Trust and Bridges Ventures and a Director of Social Finance.  He was the founding partner and former chairman of Apax Partners.

Sir Ronald is a member of the Harvard Board of Overseers, on the Board of Dean's Advisers at Harvard Business School, a Vice-Chairman of Ben Gurion University and a member of the University of Oxford Investment Committee.  He is also a Trustee of the British Museum.

He was a founder director and past chairman of the British Venture Capital Association and a founder director of the European Venture Capital Association. He was also a founder and former Vice-Chairman of EASDAQ and former director of NASDAQ Europe.  He was Chairman of the Social Investment Taskforce and the Commission on Unclaimed Assets.

He has recently published "The Second Bounce of the Ball - Turning Risk into Opportunity" about entrepreneurship.

He is a graduate of Oxford University, where he was president of the Oxford Union, an Honorary Fellow of Exeter College, and has an MBA from Harvard Business School, to which he was awarded a Henry Fellowship.  Sir Ronald was a recipient of the HBS Alumni Achievement Award.

   

Sir Ronald Cohen

Peter Englander  London 

Peter Englander, a former Partner with 30 years' service, retired from Apax in November 2011.

He joined the firm in 1981 when the first UK fund was raised and represented Apax Partners on the boards of over 20 portfolio companies including Asquith Court, Dr Solomon's, Eyretel, QXL and Waterstone. Overall, he has been associated with nine IPOs and 19 trade sales for Apax portfolio companies.

Prior to joining Apax Partners, Peter worked for Air Products and then for the Boston Consulting Group.

Peter holds a First Class Honours Degree in Chemical Engineering from Manchester University and won a Kennedy Scholarship to the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He subsequently obtained a PhD from London University in the area of the Economics of Technological Innovation.

Peter is currently a Trustee and Chair of the Finance Committee of the Kennedy Memorial Trust. He is also a member of the Bridges Ventures Board.

   

Peter Englander

Martin Halusa  London 

Martin Halusa was elected Chief Executive Officer of Apax Partners in October 2003. In 1990, he co-founded Apax Partners in Germany as Managing Director. His investment experience has been primarily in telecommunications and service industries.

He began his career at The Boston Consulting Group ('BCG') in Germany and left as a Partner and Vice President of BCG worldwide in 1986. He joined Daniel Swarovski Corporation, Austria's largest private industrial company, first as President of Swarovski Inc (US) and later as the Director of International Holding in Zurich.

A graduate of Georgetown University, Martin received his MBA from the Harvard Business School and his PhD in Economics from the Leopold-Franzens University in Innsbruck.

   

Martin Halusa

Irina Hemmers  London 

Irina Hemmers is a Partner in the Media team based in London. Irina originally joined Apax Partners in 2001 in Munich, and relocated to Hong Kong to support Apax's investment activities in Greater China through 2008. Irina has both led and participated in a number of key deals including Trader Corporation, Soufun, Trader Media Group, Emap, Sulo, ALM/Incisive Media, PCM and Truvo. She is a director on the boards of Trader Corporation, Trader Media Group, Emap and HIT Entertainment, and previously served on the boards of Sulo and ISC/World Rally Championship.

Prior to joining Apax Partners, Irina was a consultant with McKinsey & Company where she advised clients in the media and financial services industries.

Irina holds a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and an MA in economics from Leopold Franzens University in Innsbruck, Austria.

   

Irina Hemmers

Khawar Mann  London 

Khawar Mann is a Partner and Co-Head of the Healthcare group and is based in London.  Khawar has specialised in Healthcare since 2003, when he joined Apax Partners.  He has both led and participated in a number of key deals, including General Healthcare Group Ltd, Capio, Unilabs, Apollo Hospitals and Marken.  He serves as a board member or observer on all of these companies.  

Prior to joining Apax Partners, Khawar was the Chief Business officer of Weston Medical Group PLC, an innovative medical devices business.  Prior to that, Khawar was a lawyer at Linklaters in London and Hong Kong, specialising in healthcare and corporate finance.

Khawar holds a Masters degree in Medical Sciences and Law from Cambridge University and also an LLM Master of Law.  He has an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, where he was a Thouron and Fulbright scholar.

   

Khawar Mann

David Marks  London 

David Marks is a Partner and Director of Tax based in the London office. He also serves as a trustee of the Apax Foundation.

Before joining Apax, David was a senior tax partner with Deloitte LLP and prior to that, with Arthur Andersen and had advised Apax on taxation matters since 1980.

David holds a BSc in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and a member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation.

   

David Marks

John F. Megrue, Jr.  New York 

John Megrue is the CEO of Apax Partners US and Head of the Retail & Consumer Group. He is a member of the Executive and Investment Committees as well as the Approval, Exit and Portfolio Review Committees.

John had originally joined Apax in 1988 and rejoined in 2005 from Saunders, Karp & Megrue which he co-founded in 1990. Prior to SKM, John served as Vice President and Principal at Patricof & Co. (an Apax predecessor), where he specialised in buyouts and late stage growth financings.

John is a graduate of Cornell University, where he received a BS in Mechanical Engineering, and received his MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Board memberships include Advantage Sales & Marketing, Bob's Discount Furniture, HUB International and rue 21.

John is also a Director on the Board of Millennium Promise, the United States' only international non-profit organisation solely committed to supporting the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals set by the UN to halve extreme poverty by 2015.

   

John F. Megrue, Jr.

Michael Phillips  Munich 

Michael Phillips is a Partner and member of the Executive, International Investment, Approval, Portfolio Review and Exit Committees. He is based in Munich, is Head of the Munich office and co-heads the Financial & Business Services team.

Michael originally joined Apax Partners in 1992. He has both led and participated in a number of key deals including Sulo, IFCO Systems and Tommy Hilfiger. He has served as an advisor and board member to a number of Apax portfolio companies including Xerium, IFCO Systems, Tommy Hilfiger, Travelex and Capio.

Prior to joining Apax Partners Michael spent three years at OTTO Holding Ltd in Cologne, one of Germany's largest waste management companies, as the general manager of an operations subsidiary and four years at Ciba-Geigy Canada, as an engineer in their Plastics Additives Division.

Michael holds a BS in Engineering Chemistry from Queen's University in Kingston Canada and also an MBA from INSEAD.

   

Michael Phillips

Richard Wilson  London 

Richard Wilson is a Partner and chairs Apax's Tech & Telecom Advisory Board. He previously lead the Tech & Telecom team and sat on Apax's Investment, Exit and Portfolio Review Committees. He joined Apax in January 1995 and has led investments in companies such as Inmarsat, TDC, Weather Investments and Mobifon. Prior significant investments in which he was involved include Autonomy, Jazztel and Demon Internet, amongst others.

He has served on the boards of a number of portfolio companies, was Chairman of the European Private Equity and Venture Capital Association and Chairman of the Public Affairs Executive for 2009-2010, overseeing the industry response to the proposed AIFM Directive, and is a Council Member of the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association.

Prior to joining Apax, he was a consultant with Scientific Generics Ltd and a mechanical engineer with Marconi Space Systems Ltd.

Richard has an MA in Engineering from the University of Cambridge, an MBA from INSEAD, and is a Chartered Engineer.

   

Richard Wilson