The Global Institutional Distribution team and key employees

Benjamin was appointed CEO of Octopus Investments in February 2023. He joined Octopus in 2010 and has broad experience in retail and institutional fund management. Benjamin has worked across multiple retail and institutional investment products, including leading the Octopus Apollo VCT. He led our Octopus Healthcare, and then Octopus Real Estate teams for 6 years, chairing its Investment Committee.
 
Prior to Octopus, Benjamin invested across a range of sectors at YFM Equity Partners and Interregnum, and previously worked in technology and consulting.  He has an MBA from the University of Cambridge and a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) from the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

Jonathan oversees the investment strategy of the fund management businesses which form the Octopus fund management group which manages more than £10 billion of retail and institutional money. Octopus Investments is a multi-strategy alternatives manager, helping investors to generate long-term income and capital growth by investing in sustainable infrastructure and real estate, to back some of Europe’s fastest-growing, most disruptive businesses and to solve some of society’s greatest challenges.
He joined Octopus in February 2015 as Product Head for Octopus Inheritance Tax Service. Before joining Octopus, Jonathan ran a team at Lloyds that looked after the bank’s non-core equity portfolio. He also undertook stints at BNP Paribas, Robert Fleming and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Jonathan is a qualified Chartered Accountant and has an MA in Geography from the University of Oxford.

Chris co-founded Octopus in 2000 from the front room of his London flat. Today, Chris is an award-winning entrepreneur whose role is to develop Octopus relationships with institutional investors around the world. He is responsible for the Group’s expansion into new areas and he also sits on the investment committee of several Octopus funds.

Chris spends his time championing British entrepreneurialism and promoting policy ideas to drive business growth, by meeting UK business leaders and stakeholders such as MPs and government ministers.

Before founding Octopus, Chris led one of the global equity research teams at Mercury Asset Management. He has a first class MA in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Simon has overall responsibility for the day-to-day decisions and strategic direction of Octopus Group.

Much of his time is spent looking for new opportunities for Octopus, such as moving into the commercial energy sector with Octopus Energy.

Before founding Octopus in 2000, Simon spent two years working at Mercury Asset Management. He holds a first-class MA in Modern Languages from St. Andrews University and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Sian leads the the UK institutional sales function. Sian joined Octopus Investments from BlackRock, where she spent more than six years fundraising for the group’s Alternatives platform, most recently as a Director in the Multi-Alternatives Product Strategy Team. Her responsibilities included designing innovative solutions for investors, client engagement and fundraising. Prior to this Sian spent time in the Investment Solutions Team at Partners Group, as an Investment Manager at Railpen, and in the multi-asset team at Schroders. She began her career at JPMorgan.

In his role heading up the Sustainable Infrastructure team, Rob oversees investments in new sectors such as fibre broadband and the management of both the OITS product and the OSIF fund. He also sits on the Octopus Investment and Valuation Committees.

Rob joined Octopus in 2013 as Head of Valuations, and then became Head of the Sustainable Infrastructure team in 2019.

Prior to this, he was a director in the M&A team at RBS working across various sectors specialising in infrastructure and utilities.

Rob graduated from Warwick University where he read Mathematics.

Sean has 20+ years investing, asset management, and financing experience across a breadth of infrastructure assets classes.

Prior to joining Octopus he was Senior Director and Fund Manager at Aviva Investors, responsible for infrastructure equity mandates across multiple sustainable infrastructure sectors, as well as investment strategy and origination activities.

Sean was also previously responsible for investment strategy and origination as Senior Director at Balfour Beatty Investments and he also advised on corporate and project finance transactions across the renewables, energy and utilities sectors at RBC Capital Markets.

He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Finance from the Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary and is also a CFA charter holder.

Lukasz specialises in investing in emerging sustainable infrastructure companies. He leverages his experience as a sustainability engineer, entrepreneur and energy market advisor. He is also a board member of a number of portfolio companies.

Since joining Octopus in 2013, he has led multiple transactions in the energy transition, telecoms and financial sectors. He was a part of the Octopus Group’s Principal Investment Team. Lukasz also co-founded a lending business.

Before joining Octopus, Lukasz was a consultant at Arup, advising on infrastructure deals.

Lukasz holds two master’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering and practised engineering with a focus on sustainability.

Alex joined Octopus in 2015 to help develop our energy strategy, originate and structure investments in new areas and to widen our investor relationships. Alex manages Octopus Energy Generation’s private institutional funds which serve a number of large pension and insurance company investors.

Prior to joining Octopus, Alex was Director in the Energy and Environmental Infrastructure team at EY LLP where he provided a wide range of corporate and project finance services to leading players in the Renewable Energy industry. Alex is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, qualifying in 2003.

Malcolm joined Octopus Ventures in 2013 and splits his time between the assessment of new investment opportunities within the Fintech Team, primarily within the Fintech and Insurtech sectors, and ongoing portfolio management.

Malcolm is a Non-Executive Director of various portfolio companies including BoughtbyMany, By Miles, DeadHappy, Metrasens, Segura, Semafone and Sofar Sounds. Prior to joining Octopus, Malcolm spent a number of years in the investment banking industry, firstly within the TMT team of Bank America Merrill Lynch in London then at GP Bullhound, a leading boutique investment bank, focusing exclusively on technology businesses.

Michael joined Octopus in 2021 and he leads the day-to-day activities of our Care Homes team and is fund manager of the Octopus Healthcare Fund. He has 20 years’ experience in real estate including managing institutional funds. Michael is a member of The Association of Real Estate Funds’ (AREF) ESG and Impact Investing Committee.

Prior to joining Octopus, Michael was at Lothbury Investment Management, where he spent over a decade as an Executive Director and Senior Fund Manager, managing institutional real estate funds, implementing a growth strategy and expanding the flagship fund by more than threefold. He has also worked at KBC Asset Management and Fuller Peiser, and has a degree in Land Economy from the University of Aberdeen.

Since joining Octopus in 2013, Ludo is now the manager of our commercial real estate debt funds I, II and III, and has built our commercial lending team. Under his tenure, Octopus Real Estate has become one of the UK’s most active non-bank specialist property investors, lending across residential bridging and buy-to-let, commercial bridging, term and the development sectors. Ludo also sits on our Management and Investment Committees.

Prior to joining Octopus, Ludo was a Partner at Melford Capital Partners LLP, UK Property Director at Janus Henderson Investors, and an Associate Director at JLL. He has an Estate Management degree at Oxford Brookes University.

Kevin joined Octopus in 2018 and he is a member of the Octopus Real Estate Investment Committee and is responsible for both deploying and raising funds. Kevin leads the Schroders/Octopus Retirement Living Fund team and also works with senior debt providers in sourcing senior development debt.

Since receiving a Masters from Oxford Brookes School of the Built Environment, Kevin has clocked up over 25 years in the real estate development and healthcare sector. He was one of the founders of ARCO and has served as an advisory board member for the Homes and Communities Agency (Homes England) and spent five years on the National Housing Federations development committee.