HEC MBA Private Equity & Venture Capital Club HEC Paris MBA PE & VC Club

Tune in to hear from fundraising and investor relations expert, Ciaran Rooney, VP of Corporate Development at Rockley Photonics and Advisor at Roixon to high growth tech companies and venture capital investors.

In this podcast, Zahid talks about his career journey across South Africa, Ghana and Kenya, with experiences across Finance, Renewable Energy, and Private Equity. He also gives in-depth insights on PE deal cycle, current investment opportunities and challenges in Africa, and the growth Africa has seen over the last two decades.

This episode gives an in-depth view of how one entrepreneur founded and scaled a leading digital marketing startup, successfully overseeing its acquisition by a strategic investor. Prantik Mazumdar shares his 10-year journey of growing a company, and how the skills he acquired as an entrepreneur have helped him as an active investor in Singapore and South-East Asia.

Candid and personal, Prantik also shares the importance of being open to opportunities, why failure is important, what makes a good co-founder, and how students can prepare themselves to thrive as entrepreneurs or investors.

Pedja Predin brings 10+ years of experience in VC investing, corporate strategy, business development and global expansion. Prior to joining SC Ventures, he served in various management roles at Norwegian growth stage company Gelato (www.gelato.com), including Head of Global Expansion, China Country Manager and Head of Logistics, and as Business Manager at Microsoft CEE (based out of Germany). Pedja also plays an active role in the startup community in Serbia through mentoring and coaching. He obtained his MBA from INSEAD (France), and BS in Finance from St. Francis College (New York, US).

Dr. Scherer is CEO of CoFeS France and its sister company CoFeS China (previously known as TVM Capital China). Previously he consulted for MPM Capital focusing on deal sourcing for MPM in Europe. Mirko was also a co-founder and partner at KI Kapital which specialized in consulting in the life science industries. ​

Prior to working in the venture capital industry, Mirko co-founded GPC Biotech (Munich, Princeton and NJ) and served as its CFO for a decade. Prior to GPC Mirko worked as a consultant at the BCG. He has served on the Board of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, Quantapore Inc., the Stichting Preferente Aandelen QIAGEN, and is currently a board member of Aptorum Inc.​

Mirko holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. He also earned a Doctorate in Finance from the European Business School in Oestrich-Winkel/Germany.