Meet the team below and get to know the people behind the work, with a short bio introducing each member.
Rafael Poole
Rafael previously assisted the Finance Director of IOV Labs with finance and controller managerial roles. Before he worked at Capital Partners, an investment banking boutique in London, and at Seymour Pierce Private Equity (now Cantor Fitzgerald), managing two Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs). He also led several LBO transactions at AIG Private Equity Soutrhern Cone Fund in the retail and food sectors, and was responsible for Ellington’s Capital Management Latin American operations, the second largest hedge fund issuing mortgage backed securities in the US. At Citigroup he worked in the Corporate & Investment Bank in the Oil & Gas and Transportation units and was a systems and strategy consultant at Accenture.
Rafael has a degree in Industrial Engineering and MSc in Systems Engineering, and holds an MBA from Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.
Joe Ponsonby
Joe previously worked at Deutsche Bank, where he helped build the European team for its private capital advisory practice, advising small and mid-cap growth companies across Europe in sectors including enterprise software, semiconductors, telecom, renewable energy and life sciences. Prior to Deutsche Bank, he worked at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and KPMG Corporate Finance, advising primarily publicly listed companies on mergers and acquisitions. Joe began his career at LEK Partnership, providing strategy consulting to UK-based FTSE 250 clients.
Joe founded and runs Levare Corporate Finance, providing corporate advisory services to small-cap technology and renewable energy companies across Europe. He is also a member of Enterprise Ireland’s Mentor Panel, advising technology and software growth companies on investment, financing and growth strategy.
Joe holds a B.A. in Mathematics and a B.A.I. in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering from Trinity College Dublin, an MBA with dual majors in Finance and Accounting from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and an M.A. in International Studies from the Lauder Institute, University of Pennsylvania.
