05 — Team
Decades of cross-border deal-making.
Our team consists of award-winning professionals in investment banking, investment management, capital markets, data science, and mathematical finance, with senior leadership tenures across Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan, Dresdner, Deutsche Bank, Tokyo Mitsubishi, and other private equity firms and merchant banks alongside high-tech companies.
We have a track record of closing significant cross-border transactions and restructuring businesses to deliver rapid increases in value. We have closed and advised on transactions across Europe, the USA, the Middle East, and Africa in sectors including fin-tech, nano-tech, healthcare, eCommerce, telecom, financial institutions, oil & gas, aluminium, and real estate. The partners leverage strong relationships with institutional, corporate, and sovereign investors.
Institutional pedigree
Founder Profile
Dr. Buddy Soubra
CEO & Founder
Previously Head of Special Opportunities at MerchantBridge, where he led projects including the $2 billion Asia Cell transaction, the £500 million Battersea Power Station acquisition, and a $1 billion aluminium smelter.
Head of Product Development at Masraf Al Rayan (Qatar), with projects including the $300 million Lusail Development and £1 billion Chelsea Barracks London.
Global Head of Commodity Finance at the Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi, with projects ranging from oil-linked funding for GCC national oil companies to financing solutions for international oil and commodity companies.
Co-Head of Special Finance at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein.
Head of Capital Markets Middle East at Merrill Lynch, leading Dubal's $1 billion synthetic aluminium put embedded in a $250 million loan (Deal of the Year) and the inaugural $400 million Eurobond for the Republic of Lebanon (Deal of the Year).
Currently a Professor of Finance at the Eccles Business School, University of Utah. Previously held the same post at Washington University in St. Louis, the Leonard N. Stern School of Business — NYU, and the Smith School of Business, University of Maryland.
Holds a PhD in Finance from the Leonard N. Stern School of Business, NYU — awarded the Hermann E. Krooss Award for the Most Outstanding Dissertation.
Leadership
A bench built for cross-border deployment.
Connor Whitworth
Head of Operations
Connor Whitworth serves as Head of Operations at Tigbourne Capital, where he oversees the strategic execution, workflow integration, and performance management of the firm's eight specialized teams. Combining deep corporate finance expertise with operational oversight, he ensures seamless cross-functional execution to support the firm's global energy investment mandates. Connor holds dual Bachelor of Science degrees in Finance and Economics from the University of Utah, with academic focus spanning advanced asset valuation, corporate finance, and econometric data modeling. He brings a proven track record of institutional control from prior corporate experience — managing multi-million-dollar accounting balances, engineering automated data-integration systems, and delivering critical data insights to executive leadership to optimize operational efficiency.
Madeline Paul
Co-Head of North America
Madeline Paul is Co-Head of North America, overseeing Tigbourne's outreach and business development efforts across the region. She works with a team of analysts sourcing energy opportunities across North America — identifying upstream oil and gas targets and engaging executives and operators across the sector. She supports outreach to industry stakeholders, conducts market research, and contributes to the evaluation of potential investment opportunities in the energy space. Madeline is pursuing a B.S. in Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University, building a foundation in financial analysis, Excel modeling, and corporate strategy.
Atharva Singh
Head of LATAM
Atharva Singh is a sophomore at UNC Charlotte's Belk College of Business studying Finance. He leads the LATAM team at Tigbourne Capital and has prior experience across private equity and equity trading internships at Okapiq, Summit Street Capital, and Ally Financial. He took first place in the 2026 Yahoo Finance Stock Pitch Competition and is a recipient of the Carolina Brokers Scholarship, selected from over 150 applicants. Atharva is focused on energy and aerospace & defense M&A, with the goal of pivoting into private equity.
Pierre Larocque
Head of Trading
Pierre Larocque serves as Head of Trading at Tigbourne Capital, overseeing the firm's trading operations, leading direct outreach to oil traders and refineries, and identifying potential business partners for the firm's CEOR initiative. A student at Bowdoin College pursuing Economics with a minor in Government and Legal Studies, Pierre is active on campus through finance, investing, and real estate clubs as well as NCAA ice hockey. His experience includes managing an investment portfolio through options trading and long-term equity positions, analyzing earnings calls, and evaluating early-stage companies through venture capital experience.
Lillian Qin
Investment & Finance
Lillian Qin has experience across private equity, FP&A, and audit, supporting investment research, financial analysis, budgeting, forecasting, and business performance analysis across healthcare, technology, and industrial sectors. She is an MBA Candidate at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business and works with private equity and venture capital firms on market research, due diligence, and investment evaluation. Prior to Duke, she held FP&A roles at Ontario Health and NielsenIQ, and worked in audit at PwC Canada. Lillian earned her Bachelor of Accounting and Financial Management from the University of Waterloo and is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) in Canada.
Besnik Hysenaj
Head of Europe
Besnik Hysenaj serves as Head of Europe at Tigbourne Capital, where he leads the European Union Origination Group, building and maintaining target lists of upstream oil and gas producers across the EU and driving the firm's deal origination efforts in the region. Besnik is a Finance student at the Cox School of Business, Southern Methodist University, where he maintains a 4.0 GPA and holds a merit-based Transfer Honors Scholarship. He previously studied at the Rawls School of Business at Texas Tech University, also with a 4.0 GPA and earning a place on the 2024 President's Honor List. At SMU, Besnik is active in the Private Equity & Venture Capital Club, Data Analytics Club, and Sales Club. He brings additional experience from Project Destined's competitive real estate private equity training program, where he has underwritten multifamily assets, and from a prior internship shadowing the Director of Sales at Savoya. Of Albanian heritage, Besnik is fluent in English with intermediate proficiency in Albanian, and brings a strong analytical foundation in financial modeling and statistical data analysis to his work at Tigbourne Capital.
Fazzu
Head of Asia
Fazzu is the Head of Asia at Tigbourne Capital, where he supports the sourcing and evaluation of energy-focused investment opportunities across Asian markets. In this role, he contributes to developing investment theses through market analysis and supports the firm's global private equity strategy within the energy sector. Fazzu brings an entrepreneurial background, having managed operations and driven strategic decisions in a fast-paced environment. He is completing his degree in Finance at the University of Utah and is focused on building the experience and perspective needed to contribute to high-impact opportunities in global markets.
Rebecca Xu
Research Team
Rebecca (Jiayi) Xu is a finance professional with experience in investment banking, financial analysis, and capital markets across London, New York, and Beijing. Her background spans company valuation, financial modelling, due diligence, market research, and investment analysis across energy, healthcare technology, and financial services. She has supported investment and financing decisions through rigorous fundamental research — including discounted cash flow valuation, comparable company analysis, debt capital markets transactions, and portfolio construction. Rebecca has a particular interest in the energy sector and enjoys combining quantitative analysis with industry research to identify trends, assess opportunities, and support strategic decision-making. She is currently pursuing an MSc in Finance & Accounting at Imperial College London and holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours Finance) from McMaster University, where she graduated with distinction.
Magdalena Gatzinska
Senior Global Advisor
Magdalena Gatzinska, Vice Chairman, Europe, Middle East and Africa, UBS. Previously Magdalena was with commodities-focused hedge fund KLI Asset Management, where she worked in business development. Magdalena is a principal investment professional and entrepreneur with over 27 years of capital markets, VC & PE experience with global investment institutions — JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank in New York & London, and with the private investment firms LMD Capital & Catalyst Capital (C2A), which she co-founded and managed. On the investment management side, Magdalena managed LMD Capital — a multi-asset class private investment firm with offices in London & Dubai and assets under management and advisory of over $1B — sourcing, structuring and managing new direct investments, revitalising underperforming early-stage US technology investments, and advising corporates on refinancing and raising mission-critical debt & equity. As a technology entrepreneur, Magdalena is the co-founder of Bookanyservice, an AI-driven marketplace in the Middle East. Earlier in her career she ran an institutional Equity & Fund derivatives desk at JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank in New York and London. She holds an MBA in Analytical Finance and Econometrics and a BA in Economics & Mathematics from the University of Chicago, speaks five languages, and currently lives in London.
Lee Lazarus
Senior Advisor, North America
Lee has handled more than $1 billion of merger & acquisition transactions throughout his career in M&A consulting, private equity, and as a corporate attorney. Currently a Managing Director of Perkin Industries, a private equity firm focusing on growth-stage investments in healthcare, real estate, gaming and digital & new media. Previously he was Chief Operating Officer of Grandparents.com, Inc., a publicly traded company providing insurance and financial services to 76 million seniors in the US. Lee was also a corporate attorney at Proskauer Rose LLP, managing complex M&A transactions for Charterhouse, Veronis Suhler, The Related Companies, Hyperion and Integrated Resources across sports, hospitality, media, healthcare, technology and real estate. He earned a B.S. from Emory University and a J.D. from Boston University School of Law, and is a Member of the Board of Directors of Retirees For Justice.
Kjetil Cleveland
Chief Technology Advisor — Production
Kjetil has over 30 years of international experience across onshore and offshore petroleum engineering disciplines, technology development, business development, well planning and construction, contracts, commercial evaluations, and asset management. He has held key cross-functional assignments with ConocoPhillips, BP, Cepsa, Wintershall Dea, OKEA, Equinor, and Aker BP, covering the full lifecycle of wells from target conception to plug and abandonment — including subsurface, production, completion, intervention, and drilling. His career also spans exploration and infrastructure-led exploration strategies, process and facilities, major projects, R&D, IT, and technology innovation, while building an extensive global industry network. Passionate about well stimulation, pressure transient analysis, and EOR technologies, he is recognised for meticulous attention to detail, creative problem-solving, and the ability to deliver innovation. Kjetil holds an M.Sc. in Reservoir Engineering from the University of Stavanger.
Ricardo Aboud
Chief Technology Advisor — Well Completion
Ricardo Aboud is a Petroleum Engineer and International Technical Consultant with over 41 years of technical and operational experience, specialising in well cementing, stimulation, and interventions. His global career spans operations in Brazil, Venezuela, Trinidad & Tobago, Peru, Argentina, Colombia, India, Bangladesh, Angola, Gabon, Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Mozambique, Vietnam, Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE, Sakhalin Island, Japan, and South Korea. He holds a Bachelor's in Civil Engineering with a Geotechnical emphasis from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil. Ricardo has served as a Well Engineering Technical Consultant since 2021, focusing on cement-sheath integrity evaluations, well abandonment supervision, and the application of advanced engineering technologies. His career was built during a 34-year tenure with Baker Hughes, Schlumberger, BJ Services, and GE Oil & Gas, progressing from Engineer to Technical Coordinator and Operations Director — engineering and executing cementing and stimulation services globally and pioneering projects in acid tunneling in carbonate reservoirs, water-shutoff fracturing, horizontal gravel packing, and offshore nitrogen applications. He served as technical coordinator for strategic projects including the Coral Sul FLNG in Mozambique and geothermal operations in Japan, working with clients such as Petrobras, ENI, ExxonMobil, Total, Chevron, ONGC, Sonangol, ConocoPhillips, Adnoc, and Petronas. A former SPE Distinguished Lecturer (2011–2012) and advisory board member at Abespetro, Ricardo has published over 20 technical papers.
Nabil Tohala
Senior Adviser — Middle East & Africa
An expert in the Oil and Gas sector with over 50 years of experience across various disciplines in the industry. Nabil's experience includes serving in the Iraqi Ministry of Oil for over 15 years, delivering strategic infrastructure projects in the oil sector and managing large-scale projects for Multinational Oil Companies. Nabil is now an entrepreneur in the Oil and Gas sector where he is Managing Director and Founder of NDT International (NDTI), affiliated with TIC, Inc. NDTI provides Asset Integrity Corrosion Control and Advanced Non-destructive Testing in Iraq. In addition, Nabil is an advisor to several major International Oil and Gas Companies in Iraq. Nabil holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Manchester University.
Saida Niyazova
Senior Adviser — Eurasia
Saida has over 20 years of experience with international and Kazakh institutions related to the oil and gas sector. Between 2018 and 2022 Saida was the Managing Director and Editor of Kazakhstan Journal for Oil & Gas Industry, where she gained significant local knowledge of the oil and gas business in Kazakhstan. From 2012–2018 Saida was Sales and Business Development Manager — Asia for Golden Eagle Services of Kazakhstan and De Meeuw of the Netherlands, both leading manufacturers of prefabricated accommodations for remote onshore oilfields and offshore oil platforms. As Co-founder she headed the Central Asia Services Group, a major Kazakh oil and gas service provider, from 2001 to 2012. From 1997 to 2000 Saida worked at the European Union Technical Assistance Project as Project Coordinator in the Oil and Gas sector in Kazakhstan. Since 2022 Saida is Head of Diamonds Inventory at Green Rocks Diamonds, New York. Saida has a BA degree from Kazakh State Women University, Almaty.
Mohd Zaidan Khalid
Senior Adviser — Asia
Mohd Zaidan Khalid is a highly experienced Well Completion professional with over three decades of expertise in the oil and gas industry, holding a Diploma in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Technology Malaysia and a Master's in Safety, Health and Environment from University Selangor. His career is distinguished by leadership in setting technical direction, establishing best practices, and driving innovation in well completion and drilling operations. Prior to his current role, Zaidan served as Executive Vice President at MOGS, responsible for setting the overall company direction and leading business development and talent strategy. Before this he was the Custodian for Well Completion at PETRONAS HQ, where he set the technical direction for the discipline, established technical governance, standardised best practices, and led technology roadmaps and innovation. His earlier role as Principal Well Completion involved driving group-wide regulatory compliance, standardisation of technology systems, and the implementation of best practices. Zaidan's extensive field experience includes serving as Senior Completion Engineer for the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company in Sudan and for the Erb West Project Team, specialising in planning and executing complex multilateral well completions. His earlier engineering and supervisory roles with PETRONAS Carigali Sdn. Bhd. in Sarawak and Baram Delta Operations provided a deep operational foundation in completion design, gravel packing, and daily drilling supervision. He began his career in hands-on operational roles as a Mud Engineer and Wellsite Petroleum Engineer.
Eran Viner
Senior Global Advisor
CEO of Viner Burch Global. Eran is an entrepreneur with over 30 years' experience in business, having created and grown multiple companies to success. A pioneer in K-12 online eLearning systems and one of the first engineers to introduce server-based networks to the private business sector.
Talal Soubra
Director — Joint Head of GCC
Talal has over forty years of professional experience across management, organisational strategy and financial planning, regulatory compliance, credit and investment, risk management, and corporate governance. He started his career as an electrical engineering and construction consultant for a leading financial institution, which moved him into the banking industry. His experience includes funding most of the major corporates in KSA and the UAE. Talal has held leading positions in corporate finance at Saudi American Bank (SAMBA), Banque Saudi Fransi, and Morgan Stanley Saudi Arabia, in addition to senior positions at Arab Bank and Ajman Bank in the UAE.
Tyler Kiper
Deputy CEO / Head of Finance
Tyler serves as the Deputy CEO and Head of Finance at Tigbourne Capital, heading the global fundraising initiative for Organic Oil Recovery projects with IOCs and NOCs. He is a finance professional and entrepreneur with deep experience, including equity research at J.P. Morgan, investment management at AllianceBernstein, and consulting work at RSM International. As an entrepreneur, Tyler worked at a startup where he helped raise Series-A funding from venture capitalists and played a pivotal role in overseeing the company's operations and driving strategic growth initiatives. Tyler holds an MS in Finance and a BS in Economics from Washington University in St. Louis.
Anthony Nader
Deputy CEO / Head of Asia
Anthony serves as Deputy CEO and Head of Asia, where he leads and funds Organic Oil Recovery projects in the Middle East, Latin America, and Asia. He has been involved in multi-billion-dollar projects across the healthcare and energy sectors. His diverse experience includes developing hospital workflows and infection control modules, healthcare consulting at Epic Systems, re-building the youth service program during his AmeriCorps term in Gary, Indiana, and working in controller/treasury roles within ExxonMobil's Low Carbon Solutions group to build out Public Private Partnerships. He also has commodities trading experience with NextEra, building out hedges on the energy and utility markets. Anthony holds advanced degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Washington University in St. Louis, and the American University of Beirut.
Peter Maitland
Head of North America
Peter Maitland leads North American operations for Tigbourne Capital's Organic Oil Recovery (OOR) initiative, driving field-level strategy, technical evaluation, and outreach to U.S. and Canadian oil producers. A graduate of UC Santa Barbara with a degree in Economics and a certificate in Technology Management, Peter combines strategic thinking with hands-on execution across complex upstream opportunities. His background includes spearheading operator engagement, field screening, and technical diligence to identify high-value partnerships for OOR deployment. A former NCAA Division I athlete, Peter brings a competitive mindset, strong communication skills, and a deep understanding of operational dynamics to his work.
Matheus Da Rocha Barbosa
Co-Head of LATAM
Matheus Da Rocha Barbosa is the Co-Head of LATAM, overseeing Tigbourne's operations in Latin America. At Tigbourne Capital, he leads a team of analysts sourcing energy deals across Latin America, identifying upstream oil targets such as Hocol S.A., Petrobras, and Ecopetrol. Previously at Majid Company, he supported deal execution efforts by performing financial analysis and market research across multiple industries. Matheus attended the University of South Florida majoring in Econometrics & Quantitative Economics, with hands-on experience in private equity and financial analysis. Matheus also brings leadership from a military background.
Yuval Gerzi
Head of Europe
Yuval is the Head of Global West at Tigbourne Capital, overseeing the firm's activities across Europe and North America. With nearly a decade of experience at the intersection of technology and finance, Yuval brings a unique combination of technological and financial expertise. He began his career as a military officer, then spent over eight years in the technology sector managing engineering and developer teams and large-scale projects before transitioning into finance. Yuval's financial background includes work in hedge funds, quantitative investment strategies, and global capital markets. He holds a BA in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from Reichman University (IDC Herzliya) in Israel, and completed an academic exchange semester at Washington University in St. Louis.
Tyler Peterson
Head of Middle East & Africa
Tyler Peterson leads Tigbourne Capital's Middle East and Africa operations, focusing on market research, investment analysis, and cross-border transactions in the oil and gas sector. He is responsible for evaluating upstream opportunities, conducting due diligence, and delivering financial insights that shape strategic investment decisions across the region. A Finance major at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business, Tyler has built a strong background in Excel modeling, stock and investment analysis, and in clearly communicating financial insights. He is actively involved in multiple student organizations and peer tutoring.
Carolina Zhu
Head of Research
Carolina Zhu serves as the Leader of the Research Team at Tigbourne Capital, where she directs initiatives in financial modeling and strategic research across multiple sectors. She integrates rigorous analytical methods with cross-disciplinary collaboration, ensuring that research outputs effectively inform and support the firm's global investment objectives. Her background includes developing forecasting models, streamlining data processes, and using analytical tools to turn information into practical insights, connecting technical analysis with strategic business decisions. Carolina is currently pursuing her M.S. in Financial Engineering at NYU Tandon School of Engineering and holds a B.S. in Mathematics and Statistics from the University of Michigan.
Nalin Mehta
Technology Co-Head
Nalin co-leads development of Tigbourne Capital's proprietary CEOR-suitability scoring platform – an analytics system that evaluates candidate fields for chemical enhanced oil recovery and structures the firm's screening process against established industry data vendors. Working alongside the firm's Technology team, he helps concentrate on the platform's data architecture and the analytical models that translate reservoir and production inputs into standardized suitability scores. His work spans full-stack development in Python and React, with backend services built on FastAPI and PostgreSQL and infrastructure for ingesting and normalizing large financial and operational datasets. This technical work is grounded in financial-statement analysis, with particular depth in SEC and XBRL filing data, valuation, and accounting-quality assessment. Nalin holds the Financial Modeling & Valuation Analyst (FMVA) and Business Intelligence & Data Analyst (BIDA) certifications from the Corporate Finance Institute. Independently, he has built EmpiricInvesting, a deployed equity-screening platform that draws on SEC EDGAR data to compute shareholder-yield metrics and flag accounting red flags, and he conducts empirical research on the predictive power of accounting-quality signals in equity returns.
Career highlights
1990s
Head of Capital Markets, Middle East
Merrill Lynch
Dubal $1B synthetic aluminium · $400M Lebanon Eurobond — both Deal of the Year
Late 1990s
Co-Head of Special Finance
Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein
Cross-border structured finance
2000s
Global Head of Commodity Finance
Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi
GCC NOC oil-linked funding
2000s
Head of Product Development
Masraf Al Rayan, Qatar
$300M Lusail · £1B Chelsea Barracks
2010s
Head of Special Opportunities
MerchantBridge
$2B Asia Cell · £500M Battersea · $1B aluminium smelter
Present
CEO & Founder
Tigbourne Capital
Professor of Finance, Eccles Business School, University of Utah