Ollie Hare, Director, and Founding Partner
Ollie has worked for more than 25 years in the financial services industry, starting his career with S.G. Warburg where he eventually became a Managing Director in UBS Warburg’s equities business. In 2003, Ollie founded Helvetica Wealth Management Partners in Geneva and, during the following 9 years, built Helvetica into a company with over USD 5 billion of assets under management.
In 2013, Ollie returned to his native Mauritius, initially becoming CEO of CIM Global Business, a leading fund, and corporate services company, on the island before becoming one of the founding partners of AXYS Corporate Advisory in 2015. Whilst at AXYS, Ollie led the team acting as the lead advisor on the UK IPO of Grit Real Estate Income Group in 2018, representing the first Mauritian company and first Africa-focused real estate group to be listed on the LSE.
In 2019, Ollie left AXYS to help form Platform3, where he continues to drive business development activities and leads the charge in sourcing both equity and debt finance for companies operating in Africa from a wide source of foreign investors. Ollie holds a B.A. Econ (Hons) from Manchester University.
Stephen Price, Director, and Founding Partner
Stephen was a founding partner of AXYS Corporate Advisory and previously Managing Partner of FSI Capital (2003 to 2015) before establishing Platform3 in 2019. He has extensive experience of providing M&A services in the UK and internationally, having focused for the last 20 years on emerging markets.
Stephen has a strong track record leading projects in transitional economies. He has worked on transactions in more than 40 countries across Asia, the Far East, Middle East, Africa, the Former Soviet Union and Central & Eastern Europe. His clients have included foreign investors, central and commercial banks, national governments, financial sector restructuring agencies and DFIs.
Prior to setting up FSI Capital, Stephen was a partner at the UK firm of Ernst & Young. From 1991 to 2003, he led the Financial Services International group, a team he founded in the early 90s to program-manage large and complex emerging market assignments in the financial services sector. Stephen holds a B.Sc. Chemical Engineering (Hons) from Leeds University and is an independent non-executive director on the board of Letshego Holdings Ltd.
Jeremy Steane, Director and Founding Partner
Jeremy is a corporate finance professional with over 20 years’ experience advising on transactions from origination to execution, primarily in emerging and developing markets. His expertise also includes a broad range of additional advisory skills including financial and operational restructuring, strategic planning and business reengineering. After qualifying as a Chartered Accountant in 1995, Jeremy spent 8 years with Ernst & Young’s Emerging Markets Group in London, before moving to the UAE to help establish FSI Capital, a corporate finance boutique focused on emerging markets. He holds a Bachelors degree in Business Economics & Accounting from the University of Southampton.
Over the last few years, Jeremy has led a number of Africa-focused M&A and capital-raising deals for clients ranging from Grit Real Estate Income Group (UK IPO), Equity Bank Group, TPG Capital, Mauritius Telecom and AgDevCo.