Team

Jan Wiklund
Managing Partner

Jan Wiklund is a joint Managing Partner at Armada. Prior to founding Armada in 2010 and joining its predecessor in 2008, Jan was a Director in the London leveraged finance team at The Royal Bank of Scotland where he arranged both senior and mezzanine buy-out financing. His earlier positions include HSBC, GE Capital and Merrill Lynch. Jan holds a business degree from Uppsala University.

+46 70 5514 054
jan.wiklund(at)armadacredit.com

Ilkka Santti
Managing Partner

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.

+358 40 700 2876
ilkka.santti(at)armadacredit.com

Erik Thornell
Partner

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.

+46 708 49 38 42
erik.thornell(at)armadacredit.com

Johan Svaxén
Partner

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.

+46 70 3606 553
johan.svaxen(at)armadacredit.com

Seppo Toivio
Investment Director

Seppo Toivio is an Investment Director at Armada. Prior to joining Armada, Seppo worked for 12 years in the Investment Banking Credit team at J.P. Morgan in London, where he led the evaluation, preparation and execution of leveraged finance deals across various structures and situations. Seppo holds a BSc from the London School of Economics and an MPhil from the University of Cambridge.

+358 40 486 2790
seppo.toivio(at)armadacredit.com

Jan-Christoph Wöber
Investment Director

Jan-Christoph Wöber is an Investment Director at Armada. Prior to joining Armada, Jan-Christoph was an Analyst in the Nordic Corporate & Financial Sponsor Coverage team at the Royal Bank of Scotland in Stockholm. His earlier employments included Barclays Investment Bank and Mediobanca. Jan-Christoph is a German national and holds a M.Sc. in Finance from the Stockholm School of Economics and a B.Sc. in Economics from Maastricht University.

+46 70 019 7400
jan.woeber(at)armadacredit.com

Fredrik Hagbarth
Investment Associate

Fredrik Hagbarth is an Investment Associate at Armada. Prior to joining Armada, Fredrik was a Senior Associate at PwC Transaction Services in Stockholm. Additionally, Fredrik has worked at S-Network Global Indexes in New York City where he worked as an Index Analyst.

Fredrik holds a BSc in Finance and a BSc in Global Business from William Paterson University of New Jersey.

+46 729 21 86 48
fredrik.hagbarth(at)armadacredit.com

Pavel Thorn
Investment Analyst

Pavel Thorn is an Investment Analyst at Armada. Prior to joining Armada, Pavel was an Analyst in the Leveraged Finance & HY Fixed Income Origination team at DNB Markets in Stockholm. Additionally, Pavel have further experience from internships at PAI Partners, DNB Markets and Handelsbanken Capital Markets. Pavel holds a B.Sc. in Business & Economics from the Stockholm School of Economics.

+46 732 43 55 61
pavel.thorn(at)armadacredit.com

Ville Kantola
Financial Director

Ville Kantola is a Financial Director at Armada. Prior to joining Armada, Ville worked for six years at FIM Asset Management in Helsinki focusing on Finnish equities and etf investments. Before that he worked at SEB Corporate Finance in Helsinki and at Royal Bank of Scotland in the Nordic Corporate Finance team in Stockholm. Ville holds a M.Sc. degree in Finance from Helsinki School of Economics and a M.Sc. degree from Helsinki University, faculty of agriculture and forestry.

+358 40 808 0651
ville.kantola(at)armadacredit.com

Kenneth Grönholm
Director, Risk Management

Kenneth Grönholm is a Director of Risk Management at Armada. Prior to joining Armada, Kenneth worked at Nordic Investment Bank’s Lending Department for twenty years, among others as Head of Business Control, VP Head of Credit, Mezzanine Investment executive, and Manager, Loan administration and Analysis. Kenneth has also 10 years’ experience from shipping as Group Controller/ Ass. VP in Effoa/Effjohn International, Chief Internal Auditor in Silja Line and Board Member in Effjohn Finance. Kenneth holds a Master of Science (Econ.) degree from Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki and is an Approved Accountant at Central Chamber of Commerce.

+358 40 686 9930
kenneth.gronholm(at)armadacredit.com

Saija Lehtonen
Administration Assistant

Saija Lehtonen is an Administration Assistant at Armada. Prior to joining Armada, Saija worked at Nordea as a Banking Advisor and prior to that almost 10 years at Exidio as an Administrative and Marketing Assistant. She holds a degree in Business and Administration (QBA) from Vocational Institute Omnia.

+358 40 703 1694
saija.lehtonen(at)armadacredit.com

Advisors

Anders Bierke
Chairman of the Board, Senior Advisor

Anders Bierke is Chairman of the Board at Armada. Between 2008 and 2017, Anders was a Partner and Head of Financing at Altor Equity Partners in Stockholm, being responsible for all debt financings of portfolio companies through LBO loans, private debt and public bonds in the Nordic and International markets. Prior to Altor, Anders co-founded the Leverage Finance department in SEB in 1996, where he arranged both Nordic and International senior and mezzanine transactions for 12 years. His earlier positions include working with corporate finance for eight years for Handelsbanken in Stockholm and new York, and two years with Carnegie in Stockholm. Anders is a Swedish national and holds an MBA from University of Massachusetts and is graduated from Stockholm School of Economics.

Simon Wakefield
Industrial Advisory Board Member

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 Ratia
Industrial Advisory Board Member

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.

Team

Advisors

Helsinki

Stockholm

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