The Aristata Team
Aristata was founded with the goal of becoming the first impact litigation fund. We are delighted that we have a team that the has experience and knowledge to help us achieve that.
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Motivation
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The Aristata team have come together to create a product that blends positive, measurable impact and attractive, commercial return. The CEO’s career has been dedicated to advancing social and, most recently, environmental causes in NGOs and charitable foundations, and the process of building a team with both deep commercial experience and clear interest in and commitment to impact has been one of the most important elements in the team’s development.
Commercial actors contribute, knowingly or unknowingly, to many of the social challenges we face today. In our view, the current application of litigation in the public interest means that few, if any, of these actors will ever be checked by the power of the law, highlighting what is often a fundamental imbalance in the legal system between those that have the financial resources to fight lengthy and expensive legal battles and those that do not. The Aristata team has seen these challenges first hand during their professional careers and have launched Aristata to help to fill that gap and level the playing field.
The Aristata team is fully committed to creating the first impact focused product in the litigation funding space and to raising future funds around the Aristata strategy to ensure that the impact of this unique opportunity is fully realised.
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Who We Are
To achieve its goal, Aristata has built a management team combining expertise and experience across three key disciplines:
1) the use of philanthropic and impact capital to fund litigation in the public interest
2) core commercial litigation and dispute resolution
3) litigation funding
Additionally, Aristata has established an Advisory Committee of independent experts with whom Aristata and the Investment Committee may consult and whose purpose will be to provide challenge and expert advice to the investment process on the social and environmental impact of a prospective investment.
Rob Ryan
Founder, CEO and Head of Impact
Former Director of Development for ClientEarth, Europe’s leading public interest law firm, with 15 years of experience developing social impact solutions for high net worth individuals, foundations, and family offices in the US and Europe. Previously Executive Director at CCS in New York, advising family offices and NGOs on impact strategy and fundraising. Robert holds an MBA from London Business School.
Jack Naylor
Chief Investment Officer and Head of Origination & Litigation Strategy
Former Freshfields lawyer and Head of Litigation for PricewaterhouseCoopers with more than 30 years experience in legal and professional services firms and deep expertise in strategic problem solving, litigation, regulatory disputes and crisis management, described by a leading QC as "the best in-house litigator in the UK". Extensive market/international knowledge across sectors, jurisdictions (UK, US, Europe, Middle East and Africa). Jack is an avid sportsman, enjoys spending time with his sporting family, often wearing lycra and riding a bike!
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Michael Hartridge
Head of Portfolio Management and General Counsel
Former Senior Director of Litigation Funding at Harbour Litigation Funding, the UK’s pioneer in commercial litigation funding, and General Counsel, Litigation Regulatory and Competition for Lloyds Banking Group. Michael handles Dispute Resolution matters and advises on the full range of contentious work for both individuals and organisations. Michael has worked for many years in the financial services sector and has extensive experience of complex multi-jurisdictional disputes and high profile regulatory investigations, including in relation to mis-selling, market conduct and regulatory disclosure issues.
Sinéad O'Regan
Finance and Operations
Sinéad has over 25 years of experience spanning tax practice, investment bank and hedge funds most recently as the COO of a Systemic Equity Market Neutral Hedge Fund. Prior to that she was a Vice President in Operations & Compliance at Credit Suisse.
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Sinéad is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland (FCA), an Associate of the Institute of Taxation in Ireland (AITI) and a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investment (CMCISI).
Rupert Naylor
Chief of Staff and Head of Investor Relations
Former Associate at Helios Capital Ventures, a US based impact focused venture capital firm. Prior to Helios, Rupert was a Consulting Analyst at Stanhope Capital advising high net worths, university endowments and charities about their portfolio of investments. Rupert has a broad experience in the financial services industry, a keen interest in the impact space and holds an MSc in International Management from the University of Exeter. Outside of work Rupert is an avid sportsman, usually found on a hockey pitch, golf course or discussing US sports trivia.