Magenta Partners

Tom Matthews co-founded Magenta Partners in 2008 and has been involved in several of the firm's investments. In 2012 he co-founded Viva Gym and ran the group's Spanish business, growing it to 17 sites by 2016 before a majority stake was sold to Bridges Fund Management. He has roughly two decades of SME investment experience across leisure, media, consumer, finance and business services, and previously worked at Deutsche Bank eVentures, Bridges Fund Management and MidOcean Partners. He holds an MA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford and an MBA from INSEAD.

Max Hallam joined Magenta Partners in 2018 to work on its Fund II investments. He previously covered European Telecoms at equity research firm New Street Research and worked as a senior commercial analyst in the TMT and Beverages sectors at Sky and Pernod Ricard. He began his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers, earning his ACA qualification and a Business Accounting & Finance degree from Newcastle University.

Adrian Hewlett is a digital media entrepreneur who founded the Habari Group and later MACHINE, which was acquired by Publicis Groupe in September 2014, after which he became CEO of Publicis MACHINE. He now serves as a non-executive on several private company boards and provides non-executive advisory support to Publicis for its Africa business. He grew up in Mozambique and speaks French and Portuguese.

Gary Burke began his insurance career at a Lloyd's of London broker specialising in Fine Art & Jewellery, placing risks including high net worth home and contents, museums, art galleries, and marine cargo. He founded Home & Legacy in 1994 (sold to Allianz in 2006), started SME insurance portal iprism in 2006 (majority stake acquired by Bowmark Capital in 2014), and in 2016 founded EGV, a managing general underwriter focused on UK mid-market commercial insurance.

Neil Rodford is a CEO with prior roles at Fulham Football Club and YMU, a UK talent management agency. He led a management buy-out from AIM and has completed around 40 acquisitions and disposals of small to medium sized businesses.

Peter Roberts is a leisure entrepreneur who has co-founded, scaled and exited several companies, including Lagdale Group Plc (sold to S&N), Luminar Leisure (floated), Countryside Inns (sold to Graphite Capital), Tulip Inn and Golden Tulip (sold to Whitbread), and Pure Gym (sold to Leonard Green & Partners). He was named EY Entrepreneur of the Year in 2015 for Pure Gym. He serves on several boards and entrepreneur panels and is an active angel investor.

Simon Morse is an entrepreneur and investing chairman with experience in the marine and payments sectors. He led Inchcape Shipping Services through a management buyout and later sale, and founded and sold Optimi Global, a payment solutions provider to the marine and media sectors. He has chaired several private equity-backed manufacturing and services companies, including Griffin Global, TGE Marine and Cathelco, and is a past president of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers.

Steve Parish founded Tag Worldwide (TAG), which he grew from a small print services business into a diversified design and production agency with around £130m turnover and roughly 1,000 staff, headquartered in London with global offices. TAG worked with brand owners and marketing agencies including Unilever and WPP, and was acquired by Williams Lea / Deutsche Post in 2011. He is also part owner and Chairman of Crystal Palace Football Club.