About us
Fox Point Partners focuses on principal investments, corporate equity and private equity funds placement, corporate finance advisory and alternative investment consulting. Our primary client base is comprised of select institutional investors focused on direct investments, e.g. Ultra High Net Worth Family Offices, Sovereign Wealth Funds, Private Equity GP’s/LP’s (Endowments, Pension Funds, Wealth/Asset Managers)
Through our extensive global network we offer exclusive access to a broad spectrum of transactions including direct investments, co-investments and strategic alliances. Our mandates encompass pure private equity, technology acquisition and transfer, distressed/special situations, restructuring and joint venture formation.
Our clients come to us by referral only with the ethos of our firm underpinned by discreet, conflict free advice of the highest quality.
Our principals combine substantial experience in engineering, management, capital markets, finance and M&A advisory. This includes deep sector experience in Technology & Media, Cybersecurity, Oil & Gas, Energy, Aerospace & Defence and Financial Services.
Our Services
Principal Investments
Fund Placement
Corporate Finance Advisory
Alternative Investment Consulting
Team Members
MICHAEL WHEALON
michael.whealon@foxpointllp.com
Michael has over 25 years of senior level investment banking experience, most of which has been focused on global private equity, leveraged finance/high yield bonds, mergers and acquisitions and debt/equity capital markets.
Since inception in 2009, Fox Point has had two long term contracts that include Sharebridge Private Equity Consolidated (now Vanbridge LLC), formerly a Stone Point Capital portfolio company, and Global Family Partners Limited (GFP), a multi-family office merchant bank focused on direct private equity investments. Michael is also a Senior Advisor to Keel Harbour Capital, a New York/London based private equity and specialty debt funds placement firm.
Michael spent the last few years at Panmure Gordon where we ran Global Private Capital Solutions as part of the transformational senior management team put in place concurrent with the acquisition by Atlas Merchant Capital and Qinvest.
Formerly, Michael held senior level positions at several major financial institutions, these included; Managing Director at Marsh & McClennan Companies Inc. (MMC) in New York and London, where he was Head of the Global Telecoms, Media & Technology Industry Practice and an executive member of their Private Equity/M&A Practice (PEMA); ING Barings Limited in London as Managing Director and Head of Global Telecoms, Media & Technology Investment Banking and member of the European Management Committee and Investment Committee for their Client Investment Fund; and over ten years as a Managing Director in Investment Banking at Bear Stearns in both New York and London. At Bear, his positions included Managing Director-Structured Debt Capital Markets Group, Head of Canadian Investment Banking and Head of European Telecoms, Technology and New Media Group. Michael started his career at Chemical Bank (now JP Morgan) in the North American Corporate Banking Division.
Michael received a BA from Boston College and is an American National from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Michael is registered with the UK Financial Conduct Authority in the United Kingdom.
James Hickson
james.hickson@foxpointllp.com
James has over 18 years of international banking experience, most of which has focused on building new challenger-based businesses through the judicious application of financial technology.
James’ career includes 15 years at Morgan Stanley where he held numerous senior management positions. Following his time in London, he spent two years in Saudi Arabia where he led the establishment of Morgan Stanley Saudi Arabia, three years as Country Head in Hungary, where he grew the organization from 60 to 2000 and latterly New York, where the led the Firms FinTech strategy.
James is currently the Founder and CEO of Bloom, a FinTech company headquartered in London. Prior to founding Bloom, he was the Group CEO for a leading European payments and lending business.
In 2018, James was awarded FinTech CEO of the year in Europe recognizing his contributions to the industry. In addition to his professional focus, he also sits on a number of boards and remains an active mentor for The Founders Institute, a global business accelerator headquartered in Silicon Valley.
With significant hands-on experience of capital raising, operations, product management, sales, marketing and growth hacking, James is uniquely positioned to help high-quality management teams identify new sources of alpha that drive outsized performance. He has extensive practical experience of buiding FinTech based business models that deliver superior shareholder returns.
James has landed coverage in print and broadcast outlets around the world, including Forbes, The Financial Times, Reuters, Entrepreneur and The European Business Magazine. His own articles have been featured extensively in print and online, including The Next Web and The Fintech Times. He has extensive public speaking experience and has been a keynote speaker at Money2020 and Lendit.
James received a first-class honours degree in Computer Sicen and MBA from IE Business School in Madrid. While at University, he was one of only a handful of people to initiate their doctoral studies while an undergraduate where his pioneering work on simulating patient evacuation in hospitals is still referenced by researchers today.
PIERCE KIRBY
Pierce has 26 years of experience in banking, mergers & acquisitions, and developing strategy for EMEA and CIS based Energy Companies. He has managed complicated cross-border transactions amounting to over 1BN USD in value.
Principally, these transactions focused on institutional capital investing and syndicating western banks in extending credit to CIS based energy companies at the holding company and asset levels. Additionally, Pierce has engineered reverse cross-border acquisitions of non-CIS based oil and gas/energy assets, globally, for NOCs and IOCs.
His experience has focused on transactions that have leaned toward higher risk profiles according to western capital market valuations. Focusing on the niche, Pierce possesses above-average value toward delivering creative funding solutions dealing with geopolitical and asset valuation risk. Pierce’s experience and skillset also centers on advisory at the senior management and board level to provide dynamic deliverable solutions and quantitative marketable products to solve both corporate and asset financing needs.
Some examples of his innovative financing solutions are funding Russia’s first LNG project. Purchasing the Lukoil gas stations and midstream assets in Ukraine post-conflict. Solving large stranded gas assets valuation problems in the Timor Sea. Advised Russian state energy companies on acquisitions in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Designed complicated off-take trader finance for Canadian and US public companies operating in Eastern Europe and the CIS, Finance E&P assets for drilling programs in the CIS/EMEA using Western private equity. Created partnerships and SPVs to address mid-stream financing structures. Funded unconventional start-up development programs in US Shale plays.
Pierce’s most valuable skill is developing and managing a funding strategy with complicated geopolitical and multi-jurisdictional capital funding sources.
Pierce has held senior executive positions both in large global financial institutions such as BNP Paribas, UniCredit, Raiffeisen Bank, and senior finance positions in companies such as Novatek, Tambeyneftegaz, and Texaco inc. Additionally, he has held senior advisory roles in multi-jurisdictional energy projects.
Pierce is a graduate of Glasgow University where he received a Masters Degree in International Politics.