Simon Webster, Advisory Board Member - London

Simon is an investor and entrepreneur who raised the first search fund outside of the USA. Through the search fund model, he acquired RSL in 1995 and became its CEO. Over a 10-year period Simon expanded the organization organically as well as through acquisition, resulting in a quasi-tenfold sales growth. He led the sale of the business in 2005 and remained CEO until 2007. He achieved top quartile returns for his investors.

Simon is a passionate believer in the search fund model. He has helped to expand knowledge of the model through activities at London Business School, INSEAD and IESE. He teaches the Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition and Search Fund courses at both LBS and Cambridge-Judge. Simon is now a mentor to search funders as well as being an investor with over 20 search fund investments.

Simon is also Co-founder and Partner of Ivy Partners - a privately held investment firm that seeks to acquire and actively manage established private companies in the United Kingdom. He is the Chairman of R Link Ltd (trading as R Healthcare) and Director of ESMS Global Limited (a Contract Research Organisation servicing the pharmaceutical sector).