Stephen Peel

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Stephen Peel
Personal information
Birth nameStephen Mark Peel
NationalityBritish
Born (1965-12-29) 29 December 1965 (age 57)
Blackburn, Lancashire, England
EducationKing's School, Chester
Alma materDowning College, Cambridge
OccupationPrivate equity investor
Spouse(s)
​
(m. 1999)​
Medal record
Rowing
Representing  England
Commonwealth Games
Silver medal – second place 1986 Edinburgh eight

Stephen Mark Peel (born 29 December 1965) is a British businessman, private equity investor, and Olympic athlete who, until 2014, was a senior partner at the global private equity firm TPG Capital.[1] In 2017, Peel, together with Stefan Kowski and Bastian Lueken co-founded a new private equity firm, Novalpina Capital, which focused on control-orientated equity investments in European middle market businesses.[2] Peel was dismissed from the fund by investors in 2021.[3] He is the founder of SMP Policy Innovation Ltd, a not-for-profit policy organisation aiming to promote, design and assist government policy.

Early life

Peel was born in Blackburn, Lancashire, on 29 December 1965.[4][5] He was educated at King's School, Chester.[6][7] He has a degree in land economy from Downing College, Cambridge in 1987, and is now a Wilkins Fellow.[8][9] In 2015, he completed a Master of Applied Statistics degree at the Jackson Institute of Global Affairs at Yale University.[10]

Rowing career

Peel represented Great Britain in coxless fours rowing at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.[4] He represented England and won a silver medal in the eight, at the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, Scotland.[11][12]

Career

Peel worked at Goldman Sachs from 1989, founded TPG's European operations in 1997, ran their Russian and Eastern European operations from 2006 and co-headed the Asia operations from 2009 to 2013.[13] In 2014, Peel left TPG Capital.[1]

From 2016 to 2017, Peel served as a visiting fellow of practice at the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University.[14] He is on the advisory council of the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs at Yale University.[15]

In 2016, Peel established Novalpina Capital from which he was sacked in 2021. Prior to its fall from grace it was most notable for its majority stake (70 %) in Israeli surveillance technology firm NSO Group, acquired in February 2019.[16] NSO has come under scrutiny, and has been the target of lawsuits, for developing remote-exploit software that can take over targeted mobile phones for covert surveillance and tracking purposes.[17][18] Peel has communicated regularly with Amnesty International and other human-rights organisations to respond to their concerns about the use of NSO's software, saying that "every business in which we invest – including NSO – can and should be operated in accordance with all aspects of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights,"[19] and that "highly targeted interception technologies play a critical role in protecting the public."[20] This was contradicted publicly by Dana Ingleton, deputy head of tech at Amnesty, who said “Novalpina Capital’s promises of openness and transparency ring hollow when the return on their investment entirely depends on the spyware giant staying in the shadows.”, and Peel was forced to quit his post at human rights organisation Global Witness. [21]

Personal life

He is married to Yana Peel, businesswoman, philanthropist and arts patron, most recently CEO of London's Serpentine Galleries, and they have two children.[22][23][24] They married in 1999, and live in Bayswater, London.[25]

References

  1. ^ a b "Top TPG Dealmaker Stephen Peel to Leave Firm". The Wall Street Journal.
  2. ^ "Novalpina Capital | An independent private equity firm based in London". Novalpina Capital. Retrieved 19 July 2019.
  3. ^ "From spyware to landmine clearance - how Novalpina fell apart". Financial Times. Retrieved 30 June 2022.
  4. ^ a b "Stephen Peel Bio, Stats, and Results". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
  5. ^ "Stephen Mark PEEL – Personal Appointments (free information from Companies House)". Companies House, Government of the United Kingdom. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
  6. ^ "Notable Alumni – The King's School Chester". kingschester.co.uk. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
  7. ^ Chronicle, Chester (2 January 2014). "Proof of the pudding is in the rowing". chesterchronicle.co.uk. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
  8. ^ rp441 (7 November 2016). "Stephen Peel". University of Cambridge. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
  9. ^ rp441 (7 November 2016). "Stephen Peel admitted as a Wilkins Fellow".
  10. ^ "Graduate Students Awarded $20K Prize for Health Care Technology Project".
  11. ^ "1986 Athletes". Team England.
  12. ^ "Athletes and results". Commonwealth Games Federation.
  13. ^ "TPG's Dattels Named Co-Head of Asia as Stephen Peel Steps Down". Bloomberg Business.
  14. ^ "Former TPG executive Peel preps debut fund at 1 bln euros". PE Hub. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  15. ^ Pangburn, D. J. (9 March 2019). "Israeli cyberattack firm woos investors amid a human rights firestorm". Fast Company. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  16. ^ "Novalpina Capital and founders buy NSO at $1b co value". Globes. Retrieved 6 June 2019.
  17. ^ Sabbagh, Dan (18 May 2019). "Israeli firm linked to WhatsApp spyware attack faces lawsuit". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 6 June 2019.
  18. ^ "Subscribe to read". Financial Times. Retrieved 19 July 2019. {{cite web}}: Cite uses generic title (help)
  19. ^ Peel, Stephen (1 March 2019). "Response to Open Letter to Novalpina Capital on 18 February 2019" (PDF). Letter to Amnesty International et al. Retrieved 6 June 2019.
  20. ^ Peel, Stephen (15 May 2019). "Response to Open Letter to Novalpina Capital on 15 April 2019" (PDF). Letter to Amnesty International et al. Retrieved 6 June 2019.
  21. ^ "Private Equity Power Couple behind NSO Spyware Scandal". The Times. 25 July 2021. Retrieved 30 June 2022.
  22. ^ "A conversation with Yana Peel". Ocula.com. 14 May 2014. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
  23. ^ Clark, Simon (20 June 2014). "Top TPG Dealmaker Stephen Peel to Leave Firm". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
  24. ^ Swaine, Jon; Kirchgaessner, Stephanie; Greenfield, Patrick (18 June 2019). "Serpentine Galleries chief resigns in spyware firm row". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  25. ^ "Yana Peel: 'Like Zaha Hadid, I believe in experimentation'". London Evening Standard. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
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