Yorkshire-headquartered private equity house, YFM Equity Partners (YFM), which has offices in Reading, London, Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester, has made a double promotion with Helen Villiers rising to investment director and Ben Pitt taking on the role of investment manager.
Having joined YFM as an investment manager in June 2019 after five years with Grant Thornton, Helen Villiers has become a central figure in originating, evaluating and executing new investment opportunities, including the primary buyout of fire and electrical compliance specialist RGE in April last year. Helen also represents YFM on the board of global aviation services provider ACC.
Ben Pitt joined YFM as investment associate last year after four years with EY. Since joining, he has been working to support the origination and execution of new investments including the £3.5m growth capital investment in developmental governance platform Quality Clouds and the complex acquisition of Explorer UK by DSP, an existing YFM investment, to become one of the largest Oracle partners in the UK.
Jamie Roberts, partner and head of new investments in the South for YFM, said: “These promotions reflect our commitment to building out the team after a year of significant activity having made five new investments and 10 further investments into the portfolio, investing a total of £37m.
“These two promotions are especially pleasing given that YFM was both Helen and Ben’s first role in private equity, and reflect our continued desire to bring new people in to the industry and support them as they build their careers and help us continue to grow the YFM business.”
