Rachel Sargent
Managing Partner

Rachel is a graduate in Electronic Engineering and a U.K. Chartered Accountant with 15 years experience in Eastern Europe and the CIS having lived and worked in Turkey, Belarus, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Russia. Rachel worked for Price Waterhouse (PW) London’s Financial Services Group for three years and Shell Petroleum for two years prior to working in CEE.

Rachel has been involved in major capitalization projects, the acquisition of Kaztelecom by Daewoo and financial and operational restructuring assignments.

Rachel was Head of Research at ABN Securities Romania before working at Bancorex, the former Romanian State Trade Bank, as project manager working with NM Rothschild on the Bank’s restructuring. Rachel has conducted various valuation and business strategy assignments in the region. Rachel has managed finance raising, acquisition and sale M&A transactions in a range of industries.

Geoff Upton
Partner

Geoff is a U.K. Chartered Accountant, a Chartered Taxation Advisor and read Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford University. He has over 30 years financial advisory experience, of which 18 years have been spent in Eastern Europe and the CIS, Geoff was a Partner in PW London before moving to Prague in 1990 to set up and open Price Waterhouse Czech Republic and, subsequently Bulgaria and Romania. Between 1996 and 1998 Geoff was head of PW Corporate Finance, Russia and CIS.

Geoff pioneered private equity transactions in the region in the early ‘90s and is one of the most experienced transaction advisors in the region. His work has embraced services to inward investors (including due diligence), much sell side for local owner managed companies and funds plus privatisation work.

Mihai A. Pop
Partner

Mihai is a Partner at Osprey Partners and has been with the team since 2004, starting as an Analyst. At Osprey he is focusing on client and process management and industry in-depth analysis, managing the team of analysts. He is a member of IMAP’s Construction, Property and Materials Group – Industrials, and has been involved in numerous projects within the sector, but also in industries including food, energy, distribution & logistics, publishing, services and IT&C.

Mihai studied Business Management at the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest and a Masters degree in managerial communication from David Ogilvy University. During his university studies he has been actively involved in a small company operating in telecommunications, where he has been in charge of marketing and completed various IT and training projects.

He is also an investor on the Bucharest Stock Exchange with a six year track record, also part of management of two investment clubs.

András Szabó
Director

Andras focuses on Value Based Management and interim management projects. Before joining Osprey, András worked for 4 years at Oriens Investment Management, a regional investment boutique, which has its own private equity fund with the name of Danube Fund. The fund invests in mid-cap service companies in CEE, with interests in ITC, healthcare, retail and media. Andras worked both in advisory and investment management roles, analyzing companies.

Before joining Oriens in Hungary, András worked for a strategic consultancy and EU funds project management company. In Romania he was one of the partners of Regioconsult Ltd. one of the early birds and market makers of EU funds project management in the country. In 2008 Regioconsult has been acquired by PNO, the largest EU funds management company in Europe.

András has graduated at Babes-Bolyai University’s Faculty of Economics and has been a successful member of several national and international award winning team in the management case-study competition. András is one of the promoters of entrepreneurship in the CEE region, having organized together with the European Entrepreneurship Foundation a very successful entrepreneurship workshop series in Cluj which is an ongoing project.

Ilyés Szabolcs
Director

Szabolcs specializes in inward investment advice for foreign investors into Romania. Szabolcs was founder and Executive Director of Regio Consult a  leading consulting company assisting foreign investors and in grant consultancy before it was sold to a regional player. He holds a  Masters in Political Science (2004) UBB Cluj), Master in European Business (2006) Universite de Marne la Vallee France ESSCA (France), Phd Student, UBB Cluj. He was vice president of the Hungarian Student Union of Cluj. Today Szabolcs teaches Project Management at the University of Cluj.

He has been an active organizer of the prestigious Summer University and Student Camp (Tusnad Spa, Romania ). Szabolcs has also worked as a truck driver in the US. Szabolcs has personally managed numerous investment projects from PHARE, SAPARD and EU structural funds and other financial programs.

Szabolcs is a native Hungarian speaker and speaks fluent French, English and Romanian.

Cristi Moga
Research Analyst

Since early 90’s Cristi’s interest in the stock exchange led him to obtain a License of Trader and Stock Broker on Bucharest Stock Exchange, in the first class after the fall of communism. His broking professional career started in 1997 as a trader and already by 1998 he was the Director of Trading Operations, where his responsibilities were supervising trading activities.

In the next period Cristi’s area of interest expanded towards research and he became a Financial Analyst with a local advisory group, where he was exposed to deals involving large Romanian players. Between 2002 and 2006 Cristi was an Associate Partner with Rochester Capital Advisors, where he was in charge of consulting responsibilities.

Since October 2006 Cristi joined Osprey Partners, where he has been in charge of research and business intelligence.

Georgiana Tudosoiu
Financial Analyst

Georgiana holds a University degree in Finance and Banking from the Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest. For one year, Georgiana attended Toulouse Social Science University, in France, where she completed her Finance and Banking studies in addition to courses of International Economics.

During her university studies she has been actively involved in extracurricular activities - participating in Scientific Research Sessions, and being a member of a reputable student association – Volunteers for Ideas and Projects.

Georgiana has a strong economic background and she is keen on adding to her studies a relevant work experience in the financial sector. Since the beginning of 2009, Georgiana is one of Osprey’s financial analysts.

Mercy Mugo
Office Manager

Mercy studied at Cambridge Secretarial College between 1993- 1996 in Nairobi, Kenya. After that she worked for Mwangi constructors up to 2000 in Mombassa, Kenya. She has worked in car sales for Petag Motors Ltd 2000 – 2002 in Nairobi doing office managerial duties. In 2002 she moved to Bucharest where she worked part time in Connecty’s as a telemarketing officer.

In 2008 she joined Osprey Partners where she has been in charge of the office management. .