Putting power in investors' hands
bfinance bfinance

MEET OUR CLIENT CONSULTANTS

Putting investors first

UNITED KINGDOM

Sam Gervaise-Jones

Sam Gervaise-Jones, CFA

Managing Director, Client Consulting

Sam Gervaise-Jones leads client consulting with strategic clients in the UK. Sam has over 20 years of experience in financial markets. He joined bfinance in 2004 where, as a Senior Associate in the research team, Sam advised clients on manager selection in a wide range of asset classes.

Read more
Jill Compton

Jill Compton

Senior Director

Jill is a Senior Director at bfinance, serving a diverse range of asset owners including pension, endowments, wealth and insurance companies with portfolio ranging from USD 100m to well over USD 100 billion. She has over 15 years of experience in financial markets and joined bfinance in 2018, advising clients in the UK & Ireland on investment implementation across public and private markets.

Read more

USA

David Ness

David Ness

Senior Director, Client Consulting

David is a Senior Director and client consultant for bfinance US. With over 20 years of investment management and financial services history, he brings a wealth of experience to the client consulting position at bfinance.

Read more
Brooke Bowen

Brooke Bowen

Director, Client Consulting

Brooke Bowen is a Director and Client Consultant for bfinance US. Brooke has over 8 years of financial services industry experience working primarily with high-net-worth advisors and Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs).

Read more
Alexander McHenry

Alexander McHenry

Director, Client Consulting

Alexander McHenry is a Director and Client Consultant for bfinance, focused on business development across the wealth management and institutional client segments. He brings over a decade of financial markets experience spanning investment management, intermediary distribution, and high net worth client advisory, with particular depth in manager selection and portfolio construction.

Read more

CANADA

Les Marton

Les Marton

Managing Director

Les oversees the business development and relationship management of bfinance in Canada. Les has worked in financial services for over 30 years, with more than two decades of experience in asset management. Prior to joining bfinance in 2017 he held a number of senior roles at Scotiabank (Managing Director, Head of Cap Intro and Hedge Fund Consulting, Head of Global Alternative Asset Group) and Scotia Capital (Managing Director).

Read more
James Harkness

James Harkness, P.eng

Senior Director, Client Consulting

James is a Senior Director at bfinance Canada, focusing on business development and client relationships with institutional investors. He has more than 25 years of experience across financial technology, data analytics and investment management.

Read more
Philip Coté

Philip Coté

Director

Philip Coté is a Director at bfinance Canada. Philip has more than 16 years of financial services industry experience across institutional investment consulting, manager research and product development roles. Prior to joining bfinance Philip was a Director at Pavilion Alternatives Group where he led manager research and due diligence assignments in the area of private markets investment, with a focus on real estate, infrastructure and private debt.

Read more

EUROPE

Frans Verhaar

Frans Verhaar, CFA, CAIA, FRM, FDP

Managing Director, Head of Continental Europe

Frans leads bfinance’s Continental European team overseeing client relationships and business development across the continent supported by the offices in Munich, Paris and Rome. With over 17 years of experience at bfinance, Frans has been instrumental in helping institutional investors navigate complex investment challenges, providing tailored solutions that deliver measurable results.

Read more

FRANCE

Sarah Ablin

Sarah Ablin

Director, Client Consulting

Sarah is a Director of Client Consulting. Sarah has extensive experience in investment consulting and a deep commitment to delivering exceptional client outcomes. She works closely with French institutional investors, supporting them with tailored manager selection, portfolio design and strategic advisory services.

Read more

GERMANY

Matthias Grimm

Matthias Grimm

Senior Director, Client Consulting

Matthias Grimm is a Senior Director of Client Consulting for the DACH region. He has more than 15 years of specialised experience advising institutional investors on complex investment challenges.

Read More
Armin Dolzer

Armin Dolzer

Director, Client Consulting

Armin Dolzer is a Director of Client Consulting for the DACH region, with a focus on insurance sector clients. He brings nearly two decades of experience advising institutional investors on complex investment challenges, with particular depth in the insurance industry. His expertise spans asset-liability management, portfolio strategy, investment risk, and the unique regulatory and operational requirements facing German and broader DACH insurers navigating increasingly complex markets.

Read More

ITALY

Ottavia Sebastiani

Ottavia Sebastiani

Senior Director

Ottavia is responsible for advisory services for Italian institutional clients and has been part of the advisory team of bfinance since 2007 based first in London and then in Rome.

Read more

NORDICS

Markus Steinby

Markus Steinby

Director, Client Consulting

Markus is a Director and client consultant for bfinance in the Nordics, where he supports a range of investors in making better informed investment decisions across asset classes.

Read more

AUSTRALIA

Frithjof Vanzyp

Frithjof van Zyp

Senior Director

Frithjof has over 15 years of experience in the investment management industry. Frithjof started his career with eVestment, a global provider of institutional investment manager data and analytics. Frithjof held numerous roles at eVestment, which included opening and managing their offices in Australia and Hong Kong from 2009-2014.

Read more
Ian Lyu

Ian Lyu

Director, Client Consulting

Ian possesses more than eight years of experience in the investment management industry. He began his career at Perpetual, one of Australia’s largest asset management firms, and prior to joining bfinance, he worked at a placement agent, specialising in connecting alternative investment managers with institutional investors across Australia.

Read more

MIDDLE EAST & ASIA

Yohei Omichi

Yohei Omichi

Senior Director, Client Consulting

Yohei is the Head of Japan and a Senior Director at bfinance, where he leads the firm’s presence in the Japanese market and supports institutional investors in making well informed decisions across a broad range of asset classes. With more than two decades of experience in the investment industry, he has developed deep expertise in client engagement and portfolio solution.

Read more
Amir Saleem

Amir Saleem

Senior Director

Amir is a Senior Director at bfinance and leads work with our clients in the Middle East & South East Asia. He joined bfinance in 2015 initially working closely with both the CEO and Global Head of Client Consulting on a range of strategic initiatives.

Read more
Hugh McMahon

Hugh McMahon

Director, Client Consulting

Hugh is a Director at bfinance, focused on client relationships across Europe, the US and the Middle East. He brings over 12 years of experience across institutional capital markets and alternatives, with a track record of building and managing senior-level relationships with pension funds, family offices, sovereign investors and institutional allocators.

Read more
Les Marton

Les Marton

Managing Director

Les oversees the business development and relationship management of bfinance in Canada. Les has worked in financial services for over 30 years, with more than two decades of experience in asset management. Prior to joining bfinance in 2017 he held a number of senior roles at Scotiabank (Managing Director, Head of Cap Intro and Hedge Fund Consulting, Head of Global Alternative Asset Group) and Scotia Capital (Managing Director). He began his career at Royal Bank of Canada and RBC Capital Markets. Les holds an MBA from York University and a Bachelor of Arts from University of Toronto, Trinity College.

More insights from the team:

Increasingly, asset allocation models are treating Private Credit as a strategic asset class with its own clearly defined profile, rather than an implementation solution within a fixed income or...

M&A activity, such as the recent news of the combination of the Columbia Threadneedle and PATRIZIA UK property funds fits a neat narrative.

bfinance's quarterly report for August 2026: read the team's latest insights on institutional investor activity, risk appetite, market developments and asset manager performance across all major...

While many asset owners continue to debate the role of impact investing, Pensioenfonds PGB has already made its choice. The Dutch pension fund has decided that new private markets investments should...

Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (Diperbadankan) (KWAP) is Malaysia’s public sector pension fund and a key government-linked investment institution. Over the past decade it has built a quantitative...

Redemptions from US semi-liquid private credit funds continue to dominate the headlines. Often presented in absolute terms – 'billions redeemed' – without adequate context, much of the nuance around...

The latest instalment in the bfinance Fee and Cost Insight series highlights recent price pressures in both private and public markets as the turbulent twenties change the competitive landscape.

Emerging market debt offers yields that are hard to ignore. Yet across 47 MAC strategies reviewed by bfinance, a half allocated less than 10% to it and a third less than 1%. This piece sets out...

Philip Coté

Philip Coté

Director

Philip Coté is a Director at bfinance Canada. Philip has more than 16 years of financial services industry experience across institutional investment consulting, manager research and product development roles. Prior to joining bfinance Philip was a Director at Pavilion Alternatives Group where he led manager research and due diligence assignments in the area of private markets investment, with a focus on real estate, infrastructure and private debt. Earlier in his career Philip worked at CIBC Asset Management and National Bank. Philip is a CFA charter holder and holds the FRM designation. He completed a Bachelor of Commerce at Concordia University and a graduate certificate at McGill University.

More insights from the team:

Increasingly, asset allocation models are treating Private Credit as a strategic asset class with its own clearly defined profile, rather than an implementation solution within a fixed income or...

M&A activity, such as the recent news of the combination of the Columbia Threadneedle and PATRIZIA UK property funds fits a neat narrative.

bfinance's quarterly report for August 2026: read the team's latest insights on institutional investor activity, risk appetite, market developments and asset manager performance across all major...

While many asset owners continue to debate the role of impact investing, Pensioenfonds PGB has already made its choice. The Dutch pension fund has decided that new private markets investments should...

Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (Diperbadankan) (KWAP) is Malaysia’s public sector pension fund and a key government-linked investment institution. Over the past decade it has built a quantitative...

Redemptions from US semi-liquid private credit funds continue to dominate the headlines. Often presented in absolute terms – 'billions redeemed' – without adequate context, much of the nuance around...

The latest instalment in the bfinance Fee and Cost Insight series highlights recent price pressures in both private and public markets as the turbulent twenties change the competitive landscape.

Emerging market debt offers yields that are hard to ignore. Yet across 47 MAC strategies reviewed by bfinance, a half allocated less than 10% to it and a third less than 1%. This piece sets out...

Sam Gervaise-Jones

Sam Gervaise-Jones, CFA

Managing Director, Client Consulting

Sam Gervaise-Jones leads client consulting with strategic clients in the UK. Sam has over 20 years of experience in financial markets. He joined bfinance in 2004 where, as a Senior Associate in the research team, Sam advised clients on manager selection in a wide range of asset classes. Since 2007 Sam has been responsible for relationships with many of bfinance’s largest Corporate and Local Authority Pension clients in the UK. More recently, Sam led the expansion of bfinance into the US and bfinance’s activities with the LGPS Pooling organisations. Since 2020, Sam has also acted as an Independent Adviser to LGPS Funds, with Cambridgeshire, Essex, and London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham Pension Funds all benefiting from his expertise. Prior to bfinance, Sam spent 4 years with Standard & Poor’s in their fund rating business. Sam holds the CFA charter, IMC and Series 7, 24, 62 and 79 designations in addition to an MA (Oxon) in Mathematics from the University of Oxford.

More insights from the team:

Increasingly, asset allocation models are treating Private Credit as a strategic asset class with its own clearly defined profile, rather than an implementation solution within a fixed income or...

M&A activity, such as the recent news of the combination of the Columbia Threadneedle and PATRIZIA UK property funds fits a neat narrative.

bfinance's quarterly report for August 2026: read the team's latest insights on institutional investor activity, risk appetite, market developments and asset manager performance across all major...

While many asset owners continue to debate the role of impact investing, Pensioenfonds PGB has already made its choice. The Dutch pension fund has decided that new private markets investments should...

Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (Diperbadankan) (KWAP) is Malaysia’s public sector pension fund and a key government-linked investment institution. Over the past decade it has built a quantitative...

Redemptions from US semi-liquid private credit funds continue to dominate the headlines. Often presented in absolute terms – 'billions redeemed' – without adequate context, much of the nuance around...

The latest instalment in the bfinance Fee and Cost Insight series highlights recent price pressures in both private and public markets as the turbulent twenties change the competitive landscape.

Emerging market debt offers yields that are hard to ignore. Yet across 47 MAC strategies reviewed by bfinance, a half allocated less than 10% to it and a third less than 1%. This piece sets out...

Jill Compton

Jill Compton

Senior Director

Jill is a Senior Director at bfinance, serving a diverse range of asset owners including pension, endowments, wealth and insurance companies with portfolio ranging from USD 100m to well over USD 100 billion. She has over 15 years of experience in financial markets and joined bfinance in 2018, advising clients in the UK & Ireland on investment implementation across public and private markets. Prior to joining bfinance, Jill was an Executive Director at MSCI, leading the EMEA Client Coverage team across Europe, and previously worked at IPD from 2008, supporting asset owners with portfolio analytics and benchmarking as well as developing and launching number of real estate market indexes. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Oxford Brookes University and is also a member of bfinance’s Responsible Investment Committee.

More insights from the team:

Increasingly, asset allocation models are treating Private Credit as a strategic asset class with its own clearly defined profile, rather than an implementation solution within a fixed income or...

M&A activity, such as the recent news of the combination of the Columbia Threadneedle and PATRIZIA UK property funds fits a neat narrative.

bfinance's quarterly report for August 2026: read the team's latest insights on institutional investor activity, risk appetite, market developments and asset manager performance across all major...

While many asset owners continue to debate the role of impact investing, Pensioenfonds PGB has already made its choice. The Dutch pension fund has decided that new private markets investments should...

Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (Diperbadankan) (KWAP) is Malaysia’s public sector pension fund and a key government-linked investment institution. Over the past decade it has built a quantitative...

Redemptions from US semi-liquid private credit funds continue to dominate the headlines. Often presented in absolute terms – 'billions redeemed' – without adequate context, much of the nuance around...

The latest instalment in the bfinance Fee and Cost Insight series highlights recent price pressures in both private and public markets as the turbulent twenties change the competitive landscape.

Emerging market debt offers yields that are hard to ignore. Yet across 47 MAC strategies reviewed by bfinance, a half allocated less than 10% to it and a third less than 1%. This piece sets out...

More Articles …

  1. Ottavia Sebastiani
  2. Frans Verhaar
  3. Frithjof van Zyp
  4. Amir Saleem

Page 1 of 2

Contact Us

Locations

Legal

Address: 36 Queen Street, London, EC4R 1BN
Phone: 020 7747 8600
Contact Us: Enquiry Form

Copyright © 2026 bfinance. All Rights Reserved.