Team

Ilkka Santti is a joint Managing Partner at Armada. Prior to founding Armada in 2010, Ilkka worked for seven years at Armada’s predecessor Eqvitec Partners, most recently as an Investment Director focusing on mezzanine investments. In addition, Ilkka has experience in investment banking and equity research. He holds a M.Sc (Econ) degree in Finance from the Helsinki School of Economics and has an MBA degree from the United States.

Erik Thornell is a Partner at Armada. Prior to joining Armada, Erik worked as a Partner and Head of Debt Financing at Segulah, a Nordic mid-market Private Equity fund, where he spent 10 years. As Head of Debt Financing, Erik was responsible for co-ordinating all the debt financing and structuring activities of Segulah at fund and portfolio company level. His earlier positions include 8 years working for SEB Acquisition Finance, where he arranged both senior and subordinated buy-out financing for private equity sponsors and 7 years with ABN AMRO Structured Finance in Stockholm. Erik is a Swedish national and holds a M.Sc. in Finance and International Business from the Stockholm School of Economics.

Simon was global head of acquisition finance and mezzanine investing at SEB from 1997 until June 2017. While based in the London office Simon travelled regularly in the Nordic countries and Germany. From 1973 to 1996 Simon had many roles at Kleinwort Benson Ltd. He specialised in servicing Japanese customers in the 1970s. Between 1982 and 1988, he was based in New York, building the LBO portfolio including mezzanine investments. Between 1988 and 1996 Simon was based in London building the Nordic mezzanine portfolio and raising European mezzanine funds. Simon holds a Bachelor’s degree from Bristol University.