Meet The Team

Founded by three senior corporate finance professionals who love being at the heart of a deal, providing direct and clear advice, leveraging over 60 years of combined experience

  • Richard O'Donnell

    Founding Partner

    richard.odonnell@pura-advisory.com

    More than 20 years’ corporate finance experience advising entrepreneurs, shareholders and management teams on transactions worth £10 million to £2 billion

    Rich was formerly European Head of Consumer & Leisure M&A at both Clearwater International and Canaccord Genuity and started his career at UBS

    His transactions have often involved international clients and buyers, giving him an extensive global network

    Outside of advising clients, Rich has three young children and often escapes to play regular tennis and padel. He’s also spent many years involved in motorsport but is most definitely an amateur!

  • Gbolahan Ladipo

    Founding Partner

    gb.ladipo@pura-advisory.com

    A highly experienced senior banker, most recently at Deutsche Numis, delivering primary capital raises to power growth in private companies

    Prior roles include Executive Director EMEA M&A at Nomura (where he ran the EMEA sell-side practice), and investment banking at both Hawkpoint and UBS

    Gb has an extensive track record of successful transactions across a wide range of sectors with private and publicly listed companies, both in the UK and internationally

    Beyond Pura Advisory, Gb is a Church Warden at HTB St. Luke’s and can often be found trying to perfect his backhand on the tennis court

  • Dane Phillips

    Founding Partner

    dane.phillips@pura-advisory.com

    Successfully advised on 30+ capital raise, buyside and sell-side transactions in the media, technology and entertainment space over the last 15+ years  

    Having started his mid-market advisory journey at Grant Thornton, Dane has spent the majority of his career successfully operating within the boutique M&A advisory space, initially with ACF Investment Bank (now part of The Forest Road Company) before becoming a partner at NOR Capital (now part of Brian, Garnier & Co)  

    In 2020, he founded his own boutique advisory firm, Gotham Street, growing a particularly strong media franchise within the video content eco-system