Helsinki, 29 May 2013 – Today members of the European Venture Fund Investors Network (EVFIN) have appointed a new steering committee. Jouni Hakala has been named as the new Chairman, succeeding Rory Earley after his one-year tenure. Rory Earley will continue to serve the Network as Deputy Chairman for a further year alongside Pascal Lagarde, first Deputy Chairman.
Jouni Hakala said: “It is a great honour to be chosen as the next Chairman of the Network. At a time when the venture capital industry has been facing a continuing funding crisis across Europe, national operators have a crucial role to play to contribute to the EU public debate and promote cross-border venture activities. The EU VC market remains too fragmented and national investors can help implement EU policies and promote a bottom up development of the market. So my efforts will be focused on fostering cooperation between long term investors, enlarging the network to new participants and exploring ways of joint operational projects. I am proud to be accompanied in this task by Rory and Pascal who have done a fantastic job to boost VC activity in their respective market and in Europe”.
Jouni Hakala today acts as Director of New Investment Opportunities and Public Affairs at Finnish Industry Investment, the government-owned investment company in Finland. Prior to that, he acted as State Secretary at the Ministry of Employment and the Economy. Jouni has almost a 20 year-experience in private equity and finance and used to serve among others as Fund Investment Director at Finnish Industry Investment but also as Head of Equity Investments at European Investment Fund.
Rory Earley is CEO and Chief Investment Officer of Capital for Enterprise, UK Government’s principal centre of knowledge and expertise on the design and management of finance measures to support SMEs. Previous to that he was investment manager at Westport Private Equity Ltd and has chaired several expert groups on VC advising EU decision makers and the UK Government.
Pascal Lagarde is CEO of CDC Enterprises (future bpifrance entity) a private equity management company 100% owned by Caisse des Dépôts, the French public financial institution serving economic development. He has been recently appointed Director of the Strategy and prospects Department of bpifrance (the French public investment bank) under creation. He has been active in the VC sector since 1999 and headed several public investment companies just after having served the Ministry of Industry on IT and telecommunications issues in particular.
For further information, please contact:
Mrs Lola Merveille, EVFIN Secretary General
Tel: +33 (0)1 58 50 86 29, Email: lola.merveille@cdcentreprises.fr
Mr Jouni Hakala, Director, New Investment Opportunities and Public Affairs
Tel: +358 50 400 1767, Email: jouni.hakala@industryinvestment.com
ABOUT EVFIN
EVFIN is a platform for dialogue launched in 2011 by major national investors in venture capital (VC). It gathers 11 national and regional venture capital operators, mostly public funds of funds, whose mission is to foster equity financing for SMEs. EVFIN objective is to enable sharing of best practices between its members, to contribute to the EU public debate on improving access to finance for SMEs, and explore joint operational partnerships. Altogether, its members have more than € 27 billion of assets under management. Those are: Caixa Capital (Portugal); Capital Dynamics (UK); Capital for Enterprise (UK); CDC Entreprises – Public Investment bank (France); Enterprise Ireland (Ireland); Finnish Industry Investment (Finland); Krajowy Fundusz Kapitałowy (KFK – Poland); MFB Invest (Hungary); New Economy Development Fund – TANEO (Greece); PMV (Belgium) ; Société Régionale d’Investissement de Wallonie (SRIW – Belgium).