OLS Winter 2026 Agenda: Pre-Summit

Welcome reception, ice-breaker and networking

HSBC Innovation Banking, in collaboration with The Drawdown, will be hosting a padel tournament on Wednesday 11 November, from 14:00 to 16:00. Players of all levels are welcome, and post-match refreshments will be provided.

Shuttles will run from the hotel to the padel courts. Spaces are limited so if you’d like to take part, please register your interest by emailing katherine.walker@realdealsmedia.com by Friday 9 October.

Drinks reception and welcome networking

Outdoor networking and OLS dinner

OLS Winter 2026 Agenda: Day 1

Morning coffee and registration

Drawdown members only: Private breakfast and COO/CFO thinktank

Welcome address

Jon Whiteaker, Editor, The Drawdown

Keynote: Is geopolitics now your biggest operational risk?

Geopolitical volatility, tariffs and inflation: What does this mean for private markets and operating heads and where should you focus your attention?
Rising tension and shrinking cross-border capital flows: Where does that leave you if your next raise depends on international LPs?
Exit windows are being propped open by refinancing and extensions, not by conditions improving – how long can that really hold?
Could the geopolitical picture get worse before it gets better? How to maintain the course in a world that is constantly shifting around you

Headline panel: How do you grow a GP in a market that isn't growing?

What's the realistic playbook for a fund trying to break out of the size it's known for?
Which third-party technology and partners genuinely help you scale, rather than just adding cost?
When do you resource with people versus resource with technology?
Hitting liquidity gaps between fund cycles – how is fund financing and structuring being used deliberately as a growth lever, rather than just a stopgap to bridge the wait?
What strategies can CFOs and COOs undertake to institutionalise and ensure a GP is more attractive to LPs?

Speakers:

Moderator: Vince Cao, COO and COO, Stafford Capital

Craig Stanley, Chief Operating Officer, Enko Capital

Jonathan Hewitson, CFO, Atomico SEI Investments, TBC

SEI Investments, TBC

Regulation and the next 24 months: Separating what's real from what's noise

AIFMD II reporting duties land in 2027 – how to ensure your disclosure and delegation paperwork is ready
SFDR is being rebuilt from the ground up – what does moving away from Articles 8 and 9 mean for how you classify your fund?
The Bank of England is stress-testing the entire private markets system this year – why does that make your sector a systemic risk rather than a side issue?
A cyber incident or vendor outage is now a formal regulatory reporting event under new UK and EU rules – what you need to know about what you're obligated to report, and when?

Morning networking break and refreshments

Panel: Data, AI and the operating model – which processes are worth rebuilding first?

Finance functions' AI adoption has jumped from roughly a third to the vast majority of firms in 12 months – what's different about the operating model now, versus simply "using AI"?
Every process from reporting to modelling can technically be touched by AI – which ones are genuinely worth rebuilding and which are a waste of your time?
Workflow first, tools second, or the other way round? How are the most advanced operators sequencing this?
Where does the human stay the gatekeeper and where should they get out of the way completely?
A year on from "Should we use AI?", what does a fund's operating model look like once it's been rebuilt around it?

Speakers:

Moderator: Shuli Levy, former CFO/COO, Expedition Growth

Thom Millward, Senior Fund Controller, Beechbrook Capital

Kirsty Joly, CFO, PX3 Partners

Carta, TBC

Lantern, TBC

AI Dragons' Den: Inside real AI builds – what three funds actually did, resourced and got back

Three funds get 10 minutes each to make the case for their AI build – a real implementation with the receipts. You pick the winner...

What does AI implementation actually look like at a £200m fund versus a £1bn fund, and what does each get for its money?
Which process did they switch to AI first, and how did they decide?
What broke, what needed rebuilding and what would they do differently with hindsight?
The audience votes for the winner, judged on real return – hours saved, cost avoided, reporting quality, not the best slide deck.

Participants:

Duncan Tennant, COO & CFO, Althera42

Paul-Louis Andres, Principal, Value Creation, Seven2

GP roundtables: AI for private equity

RT1: AI and the next generation: Are you training juniors or replacing them?

Hosted by Nick Latner, Finance Director, Hg

Junior staff are already leaning on AI to get answers. Is that eroding real technical depth, or just how the job works now?
If AI absorbs the process work, what trains the next generation of CFOs and COOs?
Should firms hire fewer juniors and more senior operators, or does that break the pipeline entirely?
What does the analyst- to-partner career path look like in five years?

RT2: The cost of AI: How are funds tracking token usage and the ROI?

Hosted by Evgenia Clark, Global Data Lead, BC Partners

Token costs stay flat while usage keeps climbing; is your blended AI spend rising faster than headcount ever did?
Are your service providers passing on their own AI efficiency gains, or just quietly protecting margin?
What's the honest budget-per-seat for AI right now, and who's measuring it?
At what point does "unlimited" usage become a cost problem rather than a productivity win?

RT3: Who owns your AI risk? Model dependency and data sovereignty

Hosted by Valeriya Leshukova, Director- Finance and Risk, Earlybird Health VC

Do you have a real AI policy and committee, or just a Slack channel and good intentions?
Almost every major model comes from a small handful of US providers
What happens to your firm if one of them pulls a product overnight?
Data sovereignty and export risk: how seriously is your firm really taking this?
Whose job is it to own AI risk - finance, IT, compliance, or nobody yet?

RT4: AI build vs buy: Now you can build almost anything, so what should you actually build?

Hosted by Richie Barter, Commercial Director, Rational Partners

AI has made in-house builds cheap enough to compete with off-the- shelf software - When does that make sense?
What's the real maintenance cost of something you built yourself, twelve months from now?
Which fund functions are safe to build in- house, and which still need a specialist vendor?
Has anyone replaced a paid platform with something built internally, and did it work?

RT5: AI governance at scale: What worked as a pilot won't work as policy

Hosted by Shirin Veeran, Data Lead, Hg

If everyone in the firm is using AI, who's monitoring how, and catching the uses that create real risk?
How do you encourage genuinely valuable use of AI without opening the door to shadow tools nobody's tracking?
How do you keep AI governance genuinely current, not just filed away?
Where does human sign-off need to sit, and where are you being too cautious, or not cautious enough?

Lunch and networking break

Interview: LP x GP alignment: What do LPs actually want, are you giving it to them, and are their expectations realistic?

The median fund now takes 20+ months to close: Is that GPs losing leverage or LPs simply able to make them wait longer than they used to?
Side-letters and reporting demands are getting more bespoke and more demanding – genuine LP leverage or GPs just not pushing back?
When a fund is oversubscribed, does the balance of power actually reverse and what does that look like in the room, not just on paper?
If distributions stay slow and LP terms keep tightening, is the industry's alignment model actually holding, or being quietly renegotiated?

Panel: Fund financing in 2026 – which tools are now essential and which are overhyped?

NAV financing, GP stakes, continuation vehicles – which of these are now core infrastructure and which are still a solution looking for a problem?
Provider concentration is quietly becoming a real risk – how many financing relationships should a fund have?
With the median time to close a fund now stretching past 20 months, how are GPs using financing tools to bridge the gap?
What separates a fund using these tools strategically from one using them to paper over a weak fundraise?

Speakers:

Moderator: Mirza Mulic, Head of Origination, Fund Finance, HSBC

Keith Bratton, Finance Director, Keyhaven Capital Partners

Ankit Verma, Finance Director, Exponent Private Equity

Alexandru Rozmiret, Head of Fund Finance, Clipway

GP roundtables: Liquidity and fund structuring

RT1: Continuation vehicles: Real alignment, or just a way to keep the trophy assets?

Do continuation vehicles deliver alignment between LPs and GPs, or do they just let GPs hold on to the assets they don't want to let go of?
Are CVs still effectively reserved for trophy assets, or is that starting to change?
How are these deals being financed now, and who's providing that capital?
When alignment breaks down in a CV process, where does it go wrong?

RT2: NAV financing: What it really costs and how lenders actually value your portfolio

Hosted by Arthur Woodward, Partner, Blixt Group

Where does NAV financing genuinely solve a problem, rather than just buy you time?
What's the true all-in cost once fees, covenants and reduced flexibility are priced in, not just the headline rate?
What do lenders actually look for when they value your portfolio, and where does that diverge from your own marks?
How exposed is your fund to a single lending relationship, and does that concern you?

RT3: End-of-life funds: What do you do when your fund has nothing left to sell?

Hosted by Paul Bramley, Director and former CFO, Claret Capital

How do you release final liquidity from a fund that's mostly liquidated, without dragging the audit out for another two years?
What's the realistic, cost-efficient way to manage a rump of low- value assets nobody wants to buy?
At what point do you tell LPs it's time to stop waiting for a better outcome?
What would you build into a fund's documentation at launch to make this easier a decade later?

RT4: GP stakes, GP commit and retail money: Where is your next pound coming from?

Hosted by: Paul Cunningham, CFO, Helios Investment Partners

Is GP-level financing (GP commit, GP stakes) now a genuine capital strategy, or a sign the traditional route has stalled?
Retailisation is opening private funds to a much wider investor base - is that a realistic source of capital for a fund like yours?
What's the cost- effective way to access retail distribution without building the infrastructure yourself?
If your anchor LP walked away tomorrow, where would your next cheque come from?

RT5: Beyond DPI: Which performance metrics actually matter now?

DPI has become the metric everyone obsesses over, Is that fair, or is it crowding out other numbers that matter.
Is any DPI now being treated as good DPI, even when it comes from NAV financing or a continuation vehicle rather than a genuine exit?
Which other metrics are LPs actually asking harder questions about, beyond the headline IRR and TVPI?
If you could only report one number to prove your fund's real performance, which would it be, and why isn't it DPI?

Afternoon social

Take a break from the boardroom. Choose your own pace for the afternoon before drinks and dinner.

- OLS Tennis: Friendly doubles on the Hilton Conrad courts, all levels welcome, rackets provided.

- OLS Walk: A guided walk in the Algarve. A chance for informal conversation away from the agenda.

Close and downtime

Drinks Reception

An informal start to the evening. A chance to catch up before dinner

OLS dinner

Join fellow CFOs, COOs and operational leaders for our private dinner.

Cocktail reception

Nightcap and continued conversation for those who want to keep the evening going.

Close of day one

OLS Winter 2026 Agenda: Day 2

Morning coffee and breakfast

Opening remarks

Jon Whiteaker, Editor, The Drawdown

Oxford-style debate: This house believes – if you can outsource It, you should

Inhouse or outsourced – what's the real cost benefit, not the sales pitch?
Proposition must prove that keeping anything inhouse beyond your genuine USP is just cost, ego or inertia and does not deliver as much cost benefit vs outsourcing key functions
Opposition must prove that control of data, responsiveness and institutional knowledge are worth paying for, even when a provider could technically do it cheaper

Speakers:

Moderator: Oliver Kirkbright, Editorial Director, OLS 26

Felix Gruninger, COO and Chief Sustanability Officer, Stinger Capital

Eleanor Hudson, Head of Compliance, NATO Innovation Fund (NIF)

SEI Investments, TBC

Interview: Cost centre or value driver: What is the CFO/COO actually worth to the business in the age of AI?

When AI can already do a growing share of the process work, does that make the CFO/COO worth more to the business or less?
If AI is commoditising the process side of the role, what's left that's genuinely irreplaceable, and are you building your value around it?
How do you get a genuine seat at the table on investment decisions, not just financial ones, when the "safe" version of the role is shrinking?
Will your own role look the same in five years, and if not, what does it need to become to stay a value driver rather than a cost line?

Speakers:

Moderator: Carta, TBC

Diana Meyel, Managing Partner & COO, Cipio Partners

Aveli Nurk, COO and Partner, Change Ventures

Alex Goodway, Chief Financial Officer, Dawn Capital

Private GP masterclasses

Masterclass 1: How do you really compare? The data on pay, movement and demand

Hosted by Khuram Bajwa, Director, One Ten Associates

First-time CFO and COO hires have been increasing YoY - What does that shift actually say about where the real talent gap is?
Compensation is rising, but not evenly. Where is pay actually moving fastest right now, and where has it gone flat?
PE backers are increasingly willing to swap out a CFO or COO mid-hold. What's driving that, and how exposed are you personally?
How do you really compare on pay, tenure and mobility against the room you're actually sitting in, not the market in general?

Masterclass 2: The Valuations Checklist Nobody Actually Gives You

The IPEV guidelines have just been updated for the first time since 2022, with new rules on complex instruments and the use of AI in valuations. What changes for you?
Where does interpretation genuinely differ firm to firm, and where are you exposed?
What would a genuine best-practice checklist look like, beyond "follow the guidelines"?
What are auditors and regulators pushing hardest on right now?

Masterclass 3: Handing over the keys – what really happens when a CFO or COO leaves and how should you succession plan?

Hosted by Raj Shah, CFO and Operating Partner, Claret Capital

Most CFOs and COOs stay a decade or more. What happens to a fund when that person finally leaves?
What did a real handover involve, what worked, and what would they do differently?
How do founders manage key-person risk when one individual has held the entire operational picture for years?
What should be built into succession planning now, long before anyone is thinking of leaving?

Morning networking break and refreshments

Survey panel: OLS benchmarking – addressing the biggest challenges outlined by you

In the weeks before the event, The Drawdown will collect anonymised survey answers from a short set of questions on the topics dominating this year's agenda – AI budgets, fundraising timelines, headcount plans, where confidence is highest and where it's lowest. Nothing is attributed to a firm or an individual. The results are revealed live on stage and a panel reacts to them in real time, rather than presenting rehearsed views. No shop-windowing or polished house lines, just an honest, live read on where the market actually stands, benchmarked directly against the room you're sitting in.

Speakers:

Moderator: Jon Whiteaker, Editor, The Drawdown

Ribhu Agrawal, Independent COO/CFO, Former Ardian, Fairview and AllSeas Capital

Vince Cao, COO and COO, Stafford Capital

Frederic Brodach, Managing Director, RSI Capital

Private GP boardrooms

Boardroom 1: The next-gen table – what retention really costs you

What does it cost in rehiring, retraining and lost institutional knowledge when a strong mid-level operator walks?
Does carried interest still mean anything to the people sitting at this table, or has base salary quietly taken over?
What's the alternative to moving sideways to a bigger fund, and is anyone offering it?

Boardroom 3: The valuations checklist nobody actually gives you

Hosted by Tom Nield, Head of Funds Finance, Anacap

The IPEV guidelines have just been updated for the first time since 2022, with new rules on complex instruments and the use of AI in valuations - What changes for you?
Where does interpretation genuinely differ firm to firm, and where are you exposed?
What would a genuine best-practice checklist look like, beyond "follow the guidelines"?
What are auditors and regulators pushing hardest on right now?

Networking lunch

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