Kester strengthens team with two senior appointments

Kester is delighted to announce the appointments of Simon Hollingsworth and John-Paul Preston as Partner and COO, further strengthening the firm’s investment and value creation capabilities.

Simon joins Kester with significant private equity experience, having spent over seven years at Livingbridge. He was a Partner in their Value Strategy team, and co-founded their software practice.  Simon worked on a range of B2B technology businesses, supporting them through periods of growth, investment and strategic development.

John-Paul brings extensive experience across private equity, M&A, operations and corporate development. He was a founding team member of Gresham House plc, where he served as Chief Operating Officer and helped scale the business from £17 million to over £2 billion of assets under management. Prior to Gresham House, John-Paul spent more than six years at LDC as Investment Director and General Counsel, advising on and negotiating UK mid-market MBO and growth capital transactions.

The appointments mark a further step in Kester’s continued investment in its team and platform, as the firm builds on its sector-focused approach and deepens the support it can provide to ambitious management teams.

They follow the close of Kester Capital Fund IV at its hard cap of £425 million and Kester’s recent investment in Nutritics, a market-leading food data management software platform for the foodservice and hospitality sectors.

Together, Simon and John-Paul bring significant private equity, operational and value creation experience, further enhancing Kester’s ability to partner with highly attractive businesses across Technology and Life Sciences.