Meet the Alaris Company Sale Team

Alaris prides itself on providing a high level of service to its clients. We therefore ensure that our senior team members are highly experienced and have a strong track record working in professional business environments.

Nicholas Stone
Senior Mergers and Acquisitions Consultant

Nicholas graduated from Durham University in 1988.

In 1992, he qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Coopers & Lybrand, where he spent four years in the financial services practice group and on secondment to the tax practice.

Later that year Nicholas joined the corporate finance department of Carnegie International Limited, part of the Nordbanken group, as an executive. His work included advising public and private companies, both within the UK and elsewhere in Europe, on acquisition and disposal transactions and IPOs. Whilst with Carnegie, Nicholas passed the SFA’s Securities Representative examinations.

Nicholas joined Cavendish in 1995, where he was subsequently appointed Director, M&A. During his time with Cavendish, Nicholas completed transactions across a broad range of sectors including business services, consumer, distribution, healthcare products and services, manufacturing and retail. These included advising on the sale of City Plumbing Supplies to Travis Perkins plc in a £38 million transaction, the sale of Shermond Products to Bunzl plc and the sale of Lason UK (formerly MR Group plc) to TPG Post Group NV. Nicholas is a member of the ICAEW's Faculty of Corporate Finance.

Sandra Graham
Head of Research

Sandra graduated with a BA (Hons) in English from the University of Leeds, and she completed her Post-Graduate Diploma in Information Management in 1994. Sandra went on to become a Member of the Chartered Institute of Library & Information Professionals.

Sandra’s early career was spent in a variety of roles in the Public Sector and periods working abroad in Libya and at the British Consulate in New York.

In 1995 Sandra joined Barcroft Partnership, a corporate finance boutique specialising in company acquisitions and disposals focusing on the IT and business services sectors, where she provided business information research services.

Sandra went on to become an Information Researcher at Exemplas Holdings, an organisation providing business services and advice to growing companies. This role involved conducting in-depth business information research projects for internal and external clients, including assisting with mergers and acquisitions projects for clients in the corporate finance sector.

Jane Willis
Company Secretary

Jane worked in the City of London for six years as a European equity salesperson, working with Merrill Lynch, Amro International Securities, Credit Lyonnais and Carnegie. Jane subsequently spent three years in New York establishing the equity sales operations of Carnegie Inc in the USA.

Jane is an Exeter University Graduate, BA (Hons) in German, and also completed a post-graduate course in Business Administration with German.

Mergers and Acquisitions Consultants

Vivienne graduated from the University of Lancaster with a BSc (Hons) in Economics.

Following graduation, Vivienne joined Storehouse plc where she worked across all sectors culminating in the acquisition and subsequent roll-out in the UK of the French childrenswear company Jacadi.

Vivienne joined Bristol and West in 1991 and was subsequently appointed Head of Retail Operations. During her time there she developed strategic and business plans, carried out operational effectiveness reviews including performance and change management, as well as business process re-engineering and behavioural efficiency. Vivienne implemented improved performance measures and ensured they were aligned to strategic goals. Vivienne analysed all areas of the business, identified key performance drivers and devised appropriate financial and non-financial measures.

Janet completed a full time MBA course at London Business School having started her career as a consultant, firstly in Hydrology with Binnie & Partners and then in Management Sciences with Peat Marwick (now KPMG). She subsequently set up and ran an independent publishing house for six years, specialising in family guide books in the UK market.

She also worked in the fundraising and events department of the UK charity, WaterAid and as a company secretary/office manager for a small outlet centre retail operation.

Janet has a first class honours degree in Geography from the University of Sheffield and an MSc in Engineering Hydrology from the University of Newcastle.

Elizabeth qualified as a solicitor in 1997 having trained with Pinsent Masons in both London and Birmingham.

Elizabeth practised company/commercial law for 7 years in the City of London with Landwell (associated law firm of PwC) and Baker Botts, a US law firm. Elizabeth advised on numerous transactions many of which involved multi jurisdictions. In particular, Elizabeth's experience includes managing the company sale process (both business and shares) from negotiating and drafting confidentiality undertakings and heads of terms, preparing data rooms, carrying out due diligence and preparing reports, to negotiating sale and purchase agreements and finally preparing corporate closing documents and seeing deals through to completion. Notable deals include setting up a €250m European development fund for a major US property developer, a global joint venture involving the sale and purchase of an air conditioning business and a US $84m property acquisition in Budapest, Hungary.

In addition to transactional experience, Elizabeth also brings a broad range of commercial contract and company law experience to Alaris Capital.

Elizabeth has a BA (Hons) degree in psychology from Central Connecticut State University, USA and emigrated to the UK in 1992 to study law.

Debbie Hawkes
Marketing Consultant

Debbie Hawkes, an experienced marketing professional, joined Alaris to develop a marketing function for both Alaris and its clients.

Debbie has strong strategic and practical experience in all aspects of marketing across a wide range of business sectors, having consulted for many blue chip brands including British Airways, Associated Newspapers, Virgin Airways, Hertz, PepsiCo, Somerfield, Pizza Hut and Madame Tussauds.

Prior to joining Alaris, Debbie worked at Saatchi and Saatchi before establishing an independent marketing consultancy, Cake Communications, specialising in external marketing consultancy for agencies serving larger corporate clients, such as Orange, Virgin, The Disney Channel, Sony, Exxon Mobil and Parceline.

James graduated from the University of Natal with a BComm Honours degree. He has recently completed the Corporate Finance Programme at the London Business School.

He joined Mercantile Asset Managers after university where he assumed various roles across Sales and Marketing, Portfolio Management and Research and Strategy.

After moving to the UK in 1997, James worked at Regent Associates a small Technology focussed M&A firm. As an executive of Regent, James worked on technology M&A mandates and research projects for clients. He joined Cavendish in 1999 as part of the Technology team, where he completed deals in the Document Management, Media and Adult Entertainment sectors.

James joined Bloomberg in 2000 where he was in charge of Sales and Marketing to Africa and then the Middle East. He contributed to building the business in the Middle East, establishing a key presence in Oman, Qatar and Bahrain.