Linda is establishing herself as one of the most prolific dealmakers in Yorkshire and the North East. In the 15 months since joining BGF, she has been involved in three deal completions (Tribepad, Newett Homes, and IDR Law) and has taken on a hybrid role (Investment & Deal Origination) within the very successful team led by Barry Jackson.

She is also one of the most influential voices in promoting diversity and inclusion in the business leadership community, hosting the BGF Female Founders events and being shortlisted for ‘Changemaker of the Year’ in the Yorkshire Rainmakers Awards. She has previously also featured on the European Real Deals ‘Future 40: Diversity & Inclusion Leaders’.

Linda’s career before joining BGF includes:

• Three and a half years in the investment team at Endless.
• Over four years across different departments at PwC (Assurance, Deals, predominantly Debt & Capital Advisory)

It was our privilege to get some time with Linda to discuss her career, growth opportunities in the private sector and her views on driving positive change to improve diversity and inclusion in the industry.

Tell us the story of how you started your career in dealmaking.

I was born and raised in the Czech Republic and spent my childhood watching my Vietnamese parents work really hard to provide for my future – from working in a factory and not speaking a single word of Czech to becoming successful entrepreneurs. This is what inspired me to work hard my whole life and to choose studies and a career in Business/Finance.

I moved to England on my own when I was 16 on a scholarship as the future looked brighter for me over here. The first three months in England were one of the most challenging times of my life – moving from a Czech state school straight into A-levels doing Maths, Economics and Philosophy despite never having used the word ‘deduct’ in my life was no fun.

Nevertheless, I got the A’s and went to Warwick Business School, did my investment banking internships at J.P.Morgan and Commerzbank, to then decide I didn’t want to do investment banking or live in London. I then landed a graduate job at PwC which was split across Assurance and Deals rotations, and I eventually ended up in the Debt & Capital Advisory within Restructuring, a team led by Rich Siddall which was an excellent experience and introduction to dealmaking.

The transactional world however wasn’t for me as I wanted to follow what happens on the other side of the deal. A rare opportunity to join the investment team at Endless (a leading transformational private equity house) came up – this was steep learning curve, working alongside some of the brightest individuals in the industry and experiencing what hands-on investing felt like.

I had the privilege of joining my first board meeting at the age of 25 and worked across five different portfolio companies including Findel Education and Victoria Plum more locally. This experience was invaluable but after 3.5 years there, I got approached by BGF (UK’s most active minority-only growth investor) who offered me a new hybrid role with my responsibilities split across deal origination/broader BD role and investment execution with one board observer seat being with Arc Inspirations – a great business known to many in this professional community locally, where BGF is backing its exciting national roll-out plan.

My favourite part of working in private equity is that no day is the same, there are always new challenges keeping the job interesting. Having strong people skills is absolutely essential in winning deals and developing a strong longer-term relationship with management.

The M&A market has been buoyant for a few years, but we have been hearing some noises of this slowing over the past few months. This has certainly not been the case for you and for BGF. Please tell us more.

We have been fortunate at BGF - as a team, we have completed seven deals since I joined back end of May 2023 across Yorkshire & the North East.

Looking at our completed deals, there is a real mix of sources of introduction (off-market, in-bound, advisor processes as well as bilateral processes), different types of transactions across a spectrum of different sectors, with some bias towards the tech sector more recently (Hedgehog Labs, Recite Me and Tribepad).

BGF benefits from not having the artificial time-constraints that traditional funds do to deploy capital and exit their investments and hence BGF can back the right businesses with strong management teams through economic cycles e.g. we invested £10m of growth capital into Newett Homes, despite the headwinds in the sector. With the minority-only model, BGF presents an attractive opportunity for businesses who look for a supportive financial partner who acts as a sounding board on their growth journey, without having to give up control of their businesses.

More recently, we are finding that things are slowing down in the wider market and deals are taking longer. The owner-managed and family businesses we’ve been approaching however continue to respond positively and are certainly still open to exploring their near-term options.

How is the current pipeline looking and what are your predictions for the next year or so?

Whilst it has already been a very strong H1 for BGF Yorkshire & North East, encouragingly we still have a good pipeline of interesting opportunities going into H2. Despite the market challenges, the Y&NE have also delivered exits generating 2.5x since the start of 2023, and we anticipate a steady flow of exit activity to continue over the next 12 – 18 months.  

There has been some noise in the market about it getting busier over the coming year given the continuing challenges in macro-economic and political environments. It is hard to predict what next year brings but we aim to continue the momentum BGF has built in the region this year. Where businesses are on a growth journey, BGF’s proposition of being a sounding board with an extensive network of experts who can help create bandwidth and accelerate their growth plans and/or de-risk ahead of a full exit, should hopefully remain attractive to founders.

Onto the subject of equality, Diversity & inclusion. Many people are talking about this, but you are doing things to influence this. Our CFO Annual Report highlights where we currently sit on female representation in CFO / FD roles at 16% with 26% of the hires in the past year.

Why is this such an important subject? What needs to be done to create even more positive progress?

ED&I is so much more than gender or race – in business, it’s about diversity of thought which contributes to better decision-making having considered different perspectives, and also how we make sure that diverse talent isn’t just ‘invited to the party’ but ‘asked to dance’ by creating an environment where everyone feels included and can thrive in order for us to retain the best talent.

With my Investor hat on, diversity on our boards is very important to ensure effective decision-making and there have been many studies confirming that this correlates to better financial outcomes for the business. It’s hence crucial that we invest in diverse teams where possible. An area of my personal focus has been on female-founded businesses for the obvious reasons of being a female myself and understanding how lonely being a female entrepreneur can be having watched my Mum be one of them over the years.

As a result, as part of BGF’s national focus on helping female entrepreneurs access funding, I’ve organised two Female Founders networking events in Leeds since I joined, with the aim of educating female founders about their funding options and help them build a local community. As a firm, c.15% of our investments over the years went into female-led businesses which we’re hoping to increase over time.

I believe that positive change can only be made once the benefits of ED&I is fully understood, initiatives have senior leadership buy-in, and organisations build their culture around it rather than treat it as a ‘tick-box’ exercise. In private equity in particular, recruitment of diverse talent has improved over the years, but retention and progression opportunities should see more focus.

At BGF, I have an informal female mentor - Gemma Hamilton - who’s been my rock since I first joined, and we are in the process of creating a Female Investor Forum where all female investors nationally get together to connect and discuss how we can work the challenges we’re seeing. Out of all BGF investors, over 25% of us are female.

You are already an influential voice in the Yorkshire business community, and we will not be surprised to see your voice becoming even louder in the future. How have you developed on this journey?

I’ve never been known to be the loudest voice in any room and was actually pretty shy when I first started my career. I’ve always suffered from imposter syndrome (and it felt a lot worse before it became a well-recognised term!). Throughout my career, I noticed my confidence built with getting consistently positive and regular feedback from my colleagues, but this took time.

My informal and formal mentors/buddies played a huge part in my career progression, namely Nic McQuaid (NorthEdge) when I first joined the world of Private Equity, being one of the most influential women in driving D&I change in this industry locally over the years.

At Endless, amongst many others who helped me, Jon Duffy was my buddy/mentor who got me involved in a lot of networking and helped me build my presence locally. I also had the privilege of working for Garry Wilson and Darren Forshaw (founding partners of Endless) who were a huge inspiration to me with what they’ve achieved over the years and how they operated/presented themselves.

I think overall, it is all about communication with your teams and being able to trust your leadership team to back your ideas and hear your views. At BGF, with Barry Jackson’s (Head of Y&NE) help, we created this hybrid role for me to accommodate for my outside of work commitments, he identified Gemma as my mentor internally and he has been an advocate for my local networking events including the Female Founders events as well as events I’ve organised for the wider professional network.

It's been quite a journey for me in a male-dominated industry, but it has mainly been the male allies that have made my career progression possible, and my strong female network locally who always remind me to be myself.

As I gained my confidence with the right support network, I try and drive positive change in the industry where I can and more recently I stepped out of my comfort zone to speak in front a crowd of 450 people at the Propel Panel in London which felt very rewarding.

What keeps you busy when you are not at work?

When not at work, I spend my spare time training with my horse – Coolio - as we recently stepped up to compete with British Showjumping, chasing my childhood dreams. And when I’m not with the horse, I do yoga or you’d also find me out eating and drinking negronis with my husband and friends, or in Prague visiting my family who still live there.