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.

Johan Svaxén is a Partner at Armada. Prior to joining Armada, Johan worked for three years at KPMG Corporate Finance in the Debt Advisory team. Prior to KPMG Johan worked for three years in the Leveraged Finance team of Lloyds Banking Group focusing on Nordic LBOs. Johan started his career at PWC Corporate Finance. Johan’s experience includes financing of LBOs, Debt Advisory, M&A, restructurings and valuations. Johan holds a M.Sc. degree in Finance from Jönköping International Business School.

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.

Lauri is a senior executive with extensive industrial and international experience in various fields. Currently he is a Board member in Meyer Turku Shipyard and Inspecta Group. Previously he was the Chairman of Paroc Group, Sponda, Nordic Morning (previously Edita), VR Group (Finnish Railways), Medisize and Tecnomen and a Board member of YIT, LSR Group (St. Petersburg) Russia, Olvi and Vice Chairman of Kemira Grow How.

Earlier Lauri was the Managing Director of Lohja Rudus Group. Lauri holds a M.Sc. (Eng) Machine Construction degree from University of Technology of Helsinki and AMP degree from Harvard Business School. Lauri has Honorary Title 2011, Counsellor of Industries.