Operating Management Update

RNS Number : 9516V

Burford Capital

03 November 2014

 

3 November 2014

BURFORD CAPITAL:  OPERATING MANAGEMENT UPDATE

Positioning the business for further growth

Burford Capital Limited ("Burford"), the world's largest provider of investment capital and risk solutions for litigation, today announces the following senior management appointments, designed to position the business for the continuing growth that the Company expects.

Burford has the largest and most experienced team in the litigation finance business, and believes strongly that the quality and scale of its team are a source of significant competitive advantage in the marketplace in which it operates.  These management appointments serve to augment its operating strengths.

Executive management

Mr. Jeremy Garber has joined Burford as its Chief Operating Officer and will assume responsibility for the internal administration and operation of the business, enabling Burford's leadership team to focus on investment and growth opportunities.  Mr. Garber has spent his career in the financial services industry, most recently as the Chief Operating Officer at both Trilogy Capital Management LLC and Longacre Fund Management LLC.  Mr. Garber will join the Boards of Burford Capital Holdings (UK) Limited ("BCHUKL"), a wholly owned subsidiary of Burford, and Burford Capital (UK) Limited ("BCUKL"), itself 100% owned by BCHUKL.

Global marketing

Branding and product education are increasingly important factors in the continuing development of Burford's leadership position in the global litigation finance market.  To this end Burford has appointed Ms. Liz Bigham as its first global Chief Marketing Officer.  Ms. Bigham was previously Executive Vice President and Director of Brand Marketing at Jack Morton Worldwide, a unit of Interpublic Group.

UK business

Mr. Nick Rowles-Davies, an experienced English solicitor and author of a leading UK treatise on litigation finance, joined Burford six months ago from a UK competitor and has now been appointed Managing Director and head of Burford's UK business, responsible to and a member of the board of BCUKL.  In his relatively short tenure at Burford, Mr. Rowles-Davies has increased materially the volume of potential business being considered for investment in the UK domestic litigation market.

Finance

Miriam Connole, Burford's CFO, has left Burford to pursue other opportunities.  Her current deputies, Mr. Jamie Knowles, Burford's UK-based Group Financial Controller, and Ms. Christina Yue, Burford's US-based Vice President Finance, have been given expanded role accountabilities and, together with the forthcoming hiring of a tax manager, will run Burford's finance function and report to Mr. Garber, who will assume responsibility for the overall function subject to the supervision of the relevant entity boards of directors.  Both Mr. Knowles and Ms. Yue are qualified accountants; Mr. Knowles, who also has a law degree, was most recently a financial controller at RSA Group, and Ms. Yue was most recently a manager at Ernst & Young.  Mr. Rowles-Davies will succeed Ms. Connole as a director of Burford Capital PLC, the issuer of Burford's retail bonds and a wholly owned subsidiary of BCHUKL.

Christopher Bogart, Chief Executive Officer, and Jonathan Molot, Chief Investment Officer, commented:

 "Burford has seen exceptional growth in the five years since we founded it, evolving from a fund into an operating company that provides a wide range of litigation-related corporate finance and risk transfer solutions.  These senior management changes reflect Burford's continuing development, as we respond to our growing market, and structure the business optimally to take advantage of the opportunities we see."

For further information, please contact:

Macquarie Capital (Europe) Limited - NOMAD and Joint Broker

Steve Baldwin                                                   [phone]

Nicholas Harland

Espirito Santo Investment Bank - Joint Broker

John Llewellyn-Lloyd                                     [phone]

Harry Stockdale

RBC Capital Markets - Joint Broker

Oliver Hearsey                                                  [phone]

Neustria Partners - Financial Communications for Burford Capital

Robert Bailhache                                             [phone]

[e-mail]

Biographies of Senior Managers

Jeremy Garber, Chief Operating Officer

Mr. Garber has worked in senior management positions at hedge funds and investment banks for more than two decades. Prior to joining Burford, Mr. Garber was Chief Operating Officer of Trilogy Capital Management LLC, a credit-focused hedge fund. Previously, he was the Chief Operating Officer of Longacre Fund Management LLC, a distressed debt and special situations equities hedge fund manager. Mr. Garber also held operational management and capital markets roles at Rockview Management LLC, Lehman Brothers, ACAP Inc., and the Family Management Corporation.  Mr. Garber earned a JD from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and a BA in Economics from Yeshiva University.

Liz Bigham, Chief Marketing Officer

Ms. Bigham is an award-winning business-to-business marketer who served most recently as Executive Vice President of Marketing for Jack Morton Worldwide, a top-ranked global marketing services agency that is part of the Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc. Prior to joining Jack Morton, Ms. Bigham worked at New York cultural institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum for African Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. She received an MPhil in Art History from Columbia University and a BA, magna cum laude, from Barnard College.

Nick Rowles-Davies, Managing Director

Admitted as a Solicitor in England and Wales, the British Virgin Islands, and an accredited mediator, Mr. Rowles-Davies has a wide range of experience in commercial and civil litigation issues. In private practice he specialized in complex, high value matters that involved him in a number of reported cases in the High Court, Court of Appeal, and House of Lords.  Mr. Rowles-Davies is regular speaker and frequent media commentator on all aspects of the current costs regime, litigation funding, and the impact of the Jackson Reforms. Oxford University Press published his book on Third Party Litigation Funding in 2014.

Jamie Knowles, Group Financial Controller

Most recently Mr. Knowles served as a Financial Controller within the Emerging Markets division of RSA Insurance Group.  As well as gaining broad international finance experience through working in RSA's overseas operations, he was also selected to complete an internal development program which has helped to provide him with sound technical insurance knowledge.  Mr. Knowles is a qualified accountant and also holds a law degree from the University of Edinburgh.

Christina Yue, Vice President Finance

Prior to joining Burford, Ms. Yue was most recently a manager at Ernst & Young. In her role at Ernst & Young, she audited large hedge funds, fund of funds, and mutual funds that collectively have more than $20 billion in assets under management.  She graduated magna cum laude from SUNY Binghamton with a BSc in Accounting.

About Burford Capital

Burford Capital is the world's largest provider of investment capital and risk solutions for litigation with the largest and most experienced dedicated team in the industry. Burford is publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange's AIM market under the ticker symbol BUR. Burford provides a broad range of corporate finance and insurance solutions to lawyers and clients engaged in significant litigation and arbitration around the world. For more information about Burford, visit www.burfordcapital.com

 

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