About us

Jonathan Smith

Jonathan was one of the founding members of Wyvern. He has broad corporate finance experience but has focused increasingly on the Trust and Fund Administration sector in recent years where he has completed over 60 deals.

Jonathan graduated with a Masters in Chemical Engineering from Cambridge University and began his career as an engineer with BOC. His transition to the City started with qualifying as a chartered accountant 1988 and moving the following year to the corporate finance department of Charterhouse. He subsequently worked at Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette and at CSFB as a director specialising in financial services transactions.

Originally from the valleys of South Wales Jonathan remains an avid Welsh rugby fan as well as a season ticket holder at Chelsea FC.

Contact

Mobile: +44 (0) 7720 838 745
Email: jpsmith@wyvernpartners.com
LinkedIn Profile: Jonathan Smith

Anthony Gahan

Anthony is one of Wyvern’s founding partners. He has over 35 years of international investment banking and business experience which he applies when he is advising on M&A, equity and debt transactions and on the boards of companies where he has held Chairman or non-executive director roles. He is an Executive Fellow at King’s Business School (King’s College London) and is its Private Equity Module lead.

Anthony has extensive experience of both private and public transactions across a range of sectors including business and financial services, media and technology. Prior to Wyvern, he held senior executive and board roles at Lehman Brothers and Robert Fleming & Co. Limited. He also worked in the Corporate Finance department at Charterhouse Bank.

At Wyvern he is involved in Management Advisory and M&A/Financing transactions.

Anthony is an alumnus of King’s College London (Modern Languages) and the London Business School. He is fluent in French, Spanish and Portuguese.

Contact

Mobile: +44 (0) 7788 414 788
Email: ajgahan@wyvernpartners.com
LinkedIn Profile: Anthony Gahan

Andrew Goodchild

Andrew has been with Wyvern since 2016 and specialises in advising management teams and owner managers, private equity investors and corporates across a number of sectors but with a particular focus on the trust and fund administration sector.

He has worked with our Trust and Fund Administration, General M&A and Management Advisory teams on a broad range of deals across a spectrum of sectors.

Andrew graduated with a BA Hons in Geography from the University of Birmingham, where he also played cricket for the university 1st team.

Andrew is also an avid NFL fan, supporting the New England Patriots.

Contact

Mobile: +44 (0) 7738 248 676
Email: angoodchild@wyvernpartners.com
LinkedIn Profile: Andrew Goodchild

Francis Moore

Francis joined Wyvern Partners in 2009.

For around fifteen years he has focused exclusively on growing Wyvern’s market leading management advisory practice, during which time he has advised on over 90 completed transactions, with a combined value of over £65bn and covering the full range of transaction sizes from under £50m to over £5bn. His management advisory experience is complemented by extensive experience of private market fundraisings and M&A work, alongside IPOs, restructurings and other public market transactions.

Francis has a meticulous attention to detail and has built our management advisory business by being passionate about putting our clients first and delivering exceptional service.

Francis joined Wyvern from ING and previously worked at Arbuthnot Securities where he gained extensive experience of working with quoted companies. Francis holds an MA in Financial Economics from the University of St Andrews.

Francis is married to Clare and has one daughter. He is a keen sailor and organist and also sits on the boards of various trusts and real estate and farming companies.

“Trust and putting your client first are paramount to successful ongoing management advisory relationships and these are best demonstrated by our clients coming back time and time again.”

Contact

Mobile: +44 (0) 7850 703 967
Email: fomoore@wyvernpartners.com
LinkedIn Profile: Francis Moore

Andrew Robinson

Andrew joined Wyvern in 2014 and focuses on the Consumer and Luxury Goods sectors. His experience covers a wide range of transaction types, including management buy outs and buy ins, trade and private equity sales, mergers and acquisitions and capital markets fund raisings (both debt and equity). He has focused on SME clients for most of his career and has particular experience in cross-border transactions, including all types of buyers and sellers from the UK, Continental Europe and the US. More recently Andrew has been building Wyvern’s Growth Capital Advisory business, working with clients across multiple sectors looking to raise institutional funding to support their growth plans.

Prior to joining Wyvern, Andrew was Head of European Investment Banking at Oppenheimer (and a member of the Bank’s board) and European Head of Consumer Products at CIBC World Markets. Before this, Andrew was part of the pan-European Food and Beverage team at Rabobank and the M&A team at PwC. Andrew cut his teeth in the heady world of private equity with 3i Group. Andrew is an Honours Graduate in Engineering from Durham University.

Andrew is married to Sarah with three children. He lives in Kent and enjoys the country life. A keen fisherman and shot, he keeps his hand in the engineering world by restoring old motorbikes and cars but is mostly found on the touchline supporting one of his children in their sporting endeavours and reliving his youth.

Contact

Mobile: +44 (0) 7802 494 871
Email: acrobinson@wyvernpartners.com
LinkedIn Profile: Andrew Robinson

Brian Rutherford

Following a successful career as a senior partner at City law firm Osborne Clarke, where latterly he was head of the firm’s banking and finance department, Brian joined Wyvern in 2010.

As a lawyer Brian advised on a wide range of corporate finance matters with particular emphasis on acquisition finance and management advisory. His clients included a broad spectrum of banks, private equity firms and corporates the latter in sectors as diverse as biotech, media & telecom, and recruitment services.

Prior to his time as a lawyer, Brian worked as a transactional banker in the US and the UK with Continental Bank (Bank of America) including a number of years covering the Nordic Region and then as a Director at Charterhouse Bank. At Wyvern, Brian’s focus is on renewables, technology, and wealth management.

Brian was an NED at Corven Group (now Oliver Wyman Energy Group) until the business was acquired by Oliver Wyman Group.

From its formation in 2018 he has been a consultant to SNRG a next generation infrastructure business which designs and operates microgrids delivering a decentralised and digitalised energy future.

Contact

Mobile: +44 (0) 7775 950 511
Email: bwrutherford@wyvernpartners.com
LinkedIn Profile: Brian Rutherford

Ben Smith

Ben joined Wyvern in 2023. He provides guidance to management teams, owner-managers, private equity investors and corporate clients. His experience spans Trust and Fund Administration as well as General M&A.

Before joining Wyvern, Ben gained experience at Accenture, BCS Consulting and Alba Partners, working on a variety of projects across banking and other financial services clients, gaining his CISI Investment Operations Certificate qualification along the way. He holds a BSc in Business Administration from the University of Bath and, during his time there, he played for the University’s 2nd XI football team. In his leisure time, Ben is an avid sports enthusiast, enjoying tennis, tag rugby, running, swimming and even chess.

Contact

Mobile: +44 (0) 7590 370 761
Email: bcsmith@wyvernpartners.com
LinkedIn Profile: Ben Smith

Roger Clarke

Prior to joining Wyvern, Roger has spent more than 30 years working in European capital markets including investment banking roles at NM Rothschild, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, JPMorgan Cazenove and Stifel, as well as undertaking a secondment to the UK Takeover Panel. He has advised corporate clients on equity placings, IPOs, public and private M&A transactions, private placements, demergers and debt restructurings with a cumulative value in excess of £48 billion.

He was UK Head of Capital Markets for ING Real Estate, the Co-Founder and Chief Executive of Tunstall Real Estate, a real estate investment management platform, and was Chief Executive of IPSX, the regulated stock market for real assets. Roger served as a Non-Executive Director and Chairman of the Audit Committee for Pinnacle Group.

He qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Arthur Andersen and graduated in Politics and Sociology from the University of Exeter.

Contact

Mobile: +44 (0) 7760 172 076
Email: rdclarke@wyvernpartners.com
LinkedIn Profile: Roger Clarke

Faye Thompson

Faye first joined Wyvern as an intern in 2023 and rejoined the team as an Analyst in 2025.

Before joining Wyvern, she completed a six-month internship at EY, working in the Supply Chain Services team in London. Faye Graduated from the University of Bath in 2024 with a BSc in Business and in her free time is a keen artist who specialises in illustration, painting, and graphic design.

Contact

Mobile: +44 (0) 7514 454 072
Email: fthompson@wyvernpartners.com
LinkedIn Profile: Faye Thompson

Isabel Kershner

Isabel joined Wyvern’s Management Advisory and Corporate Advisory Teams in 2025.

Prior to joining Wyvern, she worked at Deloitte Consulting where she was involved in multiple international, multi-stakeholder engagements across various industries. She holds a business degree from King’s College London and is a certified Amazon Web Services Cloud Practitioner.

Originally Isabel is from Austria, where she lived in Vienna until moving to London. She is fluent in German but a passion for travel and languages has also led her to be advanced in French and intermediate in Italian and Russian. In her spare time, she enjoys various sporting activities and in winter you will always find her skiing on the slopes.

Contact

Mobile: +44 (0) 7543 678 902
Email: ikershner@wyvernpartners.com
LinkedIn Profile: Isabel Kershner