Downing Private Equity

Parik Chandra is a Partner and Head of Private Credit at Downing LLP, where he leads specialist lending activities focused on real estate finance and wholesale lending facilities. With over 20 years of experience in corporate and investment banking, he has worked across leveraged finance, corporate lending, restructuring, and private equity placement. Chandra holds an MBA from Durham University and is an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Securities & Investments.

Mark Gross is Partner and Head of Private Equity at Downing, with more than 20 years of private equity experience spanning origination, transactions and portfolio management, having overseen over £1.5 billion of equity and debt capital. Since joining Downing in June 2014, he has led the growth of the firm's healthcare investment activities and its Private Equity team, and he has worked across sectors including healthcare, hospitality and leisure, retail, business services, specialty manufacturing and financial services. He previously worked at UK mid-market private equity firm Caird Capital LLP and held principal investment and leveraged finance roles at Bank of Scotland.

Chris Allner joined the Board of Pembroke VCT plc in June 2024, bringing roughly 40 years of experience in venture capital and private equity. He has been a partner at Downing LLP since 2012, where he chairs the investment committee, and also serves on Nesta's Impact investment committee. Earlier in his career he held senior investment roles at Octopus Capital, Beringea, and Bridgepoint.

Felix Danczak joined Pembroke as Head of AI & Growth in June 2025, working with portfolio companies on AI adoption and go-to-market strategy and supporting the investment team in assessing new deals. He previously served as VP, Global Head of Marketing at Zuora, COO at Zephr, and Head of Strategy at Signal AI, and is the author of a book on market-led growth. He holds degrees from the University of Cambridge and the University of Warwick.

Investment Director at Downing who worked on the Lighthouse Funerals deal team, focused on backing community-focused funeral businesses.

Torsten Mack joined Downing in January 2019 as an Investment Director, where he handles deal origination, execution, and portfolio management with an emphasis on healthcare and education opportunities. He previously co-founded and served as Commercial Director of a UK specialist education business, and held roles as Principal at BC Partners, Director of Corporate Development at the Priory Group, and Associate in real estate principal investment at Goldman Sachs International. He holds a BA in economics from Brown University.

Bill Manahan is Director of Institutional Solutions at Downing LLP, where he works with institutional investors to identify investment opportunities aligned with their impact objectives. His role centers on relationship management and delivering against client goals to establish trust.

Chief Executive Officer of DVC, leading the firm's strategy of supporting high-growth companies in innovative sectors.

Chief Executive Officer of DVC, leading the firm's strategy of supporting high-growth companies in innovative sectors.

Managing Director and Head of Technology Services at Redwood Trust since 2014, leading application development and software delivery, previously in leadership roles at Promontory Financial Group and CGI.