The Amicus Capital Team
A quick introduction to the partners in the firm
John Beddows
John is retired from Kurt Salmon Associates (KSA), one of the world’s
largest and most respected consulting firms, where he was Vice President – Worldwide
KSA, as well as UK Managing Director. KSA specialises in consumer products
suppliers and retailers, and John’s background in the firm was with its
textiles manufacturing and the retail supply chain clients.
Peter J David, MA, MEng,
MBA
Peter is currently engaged as Divisional Managing Director of British Vita, which was taken private from the London Stock Exchange by Texas Pacific Group in June 2005. Previously, Peter worked in a turn-around role for Danaher Inc., running its European Petroleum Dispenser platform. Over an 18 month period heavy losses were staunched and the business returned to profitable growth. He was European Managing Director of Technicolor Ltd. from 2000 to 2003 during which time the business (manufacturing services and distribution) was transformed from a commodity manufacturing business to a full supply chain partner to the major film studios. Turnover in 2003 was €450m. Profitability during the period trebled. Prior to Technicolor Peter was Divisional Operations Director of the €1bn Home Improvements Division of Williams PLC and Director of Post Acquisition integration at Senior PLC.
Peter is a Member of the Institution of Chemical Engineers and a Chartered Engineer. He holds an MA and MEng from Cambridge University and an MBA from Henley/Brunel.
Peter has a working knowledge of German, French and somewhat rusty Italian.
Bob Dutnall, FCCA, ACMA
Bob spent the last three years as Deputy CEO of the CompAir group, an Alchemy
funded buy out from Invensys plc with sales in excess of £200m. He
was a key member of the buy out team and led the groups non European businesses
(Americas, China, Asia, Australasia and Africa) back into profit as well
as acting as group CFO. He remains an investor in CompAir.
Previously, Bob held senior financial and general management roles with UK plcs SIEBE/Invensys, GEI and Unigate, mostly involving companies needing restructuring and/or rationalisation. Of particular note was the successful restructuring and sale of Sheffield’s oldest specialty steel maker Sanderson Kayser.
Bob is a Fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants and an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.
Carl spent 3 years as CEO acquiring and running Adria Ltd, Ireland’s largest textile business. He was previously Group Managing Director of Europe’s biggest privately owned mobile telecommunications support business with sales of £1.5bn. Prior to that he was Chief Executive of Flexonics, the principal division of global precision engineering group Senior plc, and Divisional President at SIEBE plc where for 3 years he ran the group’s worldwide recovery division. He was also formerly Divisional Chairman and CFO of textile group Charnos plc, and CFO of the International division of Robertson-Ceco Inc, a then-Fortune 500 building products and construction business.
Today, Carl specialises in managing hands-on turnaround projects on behalf of large groups, lenders, and venture capitalists across a wide range of industries.
A US Certified Public Accountant, Carl is a member of Mensa and has a BSc from the University of Cincinnati.
Dr Terry McCartney, OBE
Having spent 15 years as MD and then Chairman of Adria Ltd, a business subsequently acquired by Amicus Partners, Terry led the company through the successful growth and investment period of the 1990’s. Before the acquisition, he spent a number of years as Chief Executive of textile group Charnos plc. His early career focussed on the textiles and food processing industries.
Terry received an honorary degree from the University of Ulster in 1995 in recognition of his services to the Northern Ireland economy, and in 1997 he received an OBE for services to the textile industry. Terry is an engineering graduate of the University of Manchester and holds an MBA.
Terry is an experienced non executive director, and pensions trustee. He has served on a number of Boards including, Leckey Design Ltd. Fin Engineering Ltd. Alpha Group plc. and Charnos plc.
Terry recently released his first novel, ‘The Danieli Conspiracy’, a geo-political, historically-based thriller
Lawson McDonald
Lawson McDonald retired from the Northern Ireland civil service in July 2003. He had spent the last 20 years of his career working for the Industrial Development Board for Northern Ireland, latterly as Deputy Chief Executive responsible for relations with established industry. His remit was to encourage the development and growth of manufacturing and tradeable services businesses with existing operations in the region. This included investing in companies and making available a range of financial support. IDB’s Export and Trade Division also came within his area of responsibility. Previously he had worked closely with the Textiles & Clothing sector which then provided some 20% of manufacturing jobs in Northern Ireland.
Prior to joining IDB Lawson held a number of public sector posts including periods with the Comptroller & Auditor-General’s Department and the Local Government Auditors. He is an Associate of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators.
Tony Smith
Tony Smith has spent the past 15 years in consulting with Kurt Salmon Associates (KSA) where he was a member of the Global Board of Directors, Vice President and Managing Director of the firm’s UK practice. During his tenure KSA’s UK practice revenues grew 15 fold. During his time in consulting, Tony has been retained as a senior advisor to many of the world’s leading consumer products and retail businesses.
Previously Tony has held various senior manufacturing, supply chain and business systems positions within the 3M Corporation based in the US and the TI Group in the UK.
Tony is a Member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers and a Chartered Engineer. He holds a First Class Honours degree from the University of Birmingham and is a Fellow of the Institute of Logistics and Transport.
