About us

Lord Stanley Fink is a non-executive director, board chairman and investor in British Pearl. He is a senior, well-known and accomplished financial services professional, with a long and diverse track record in, among others, the managed futures, brokerage and hedge fund industries. He was born in 1957 and educated at Manchester Grammar School and Trinity Hall, Cambridge graduating with a degree in Law. He then qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1982 and worked at Mars and Citibank NA before joining Man Group plc in 1987, stepping down as Deputy Chairman of the Group in July 2008 after an illustrious career spanning 21 years including a successful period as Group CEO. Currently he is Chairman of ISAM Europe LLP, a hedge fund with offices in London, Florida and Cayman. He also is a non-executive director of Marex Spectron and Chairman of Zenith Hygiene Group plc. Lord Fink is a committed philanthropist whose focus is health, education and the environment. His roles include being a Trustee of ARK (Absolute Return for Kids), a Trustee of the Mayor’s Fund for London and Co-Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies. He was Chairman of the highly successful campaign by the Evelina London Hospital's Appeal to raise £10 million to assist in equipping the new hospital in 2005. He is also Chair Emeritus of the Board of Governors of Burlington Danes Academy which he sponsored through ARK. He was raised to the Peerage in 2011.

Peter Wakeham is a non-executive director and investor in British Pearl. Peter co-founded PrecisionIR Inc. (aka WILink Plc), a leading investor targeting and communications business, which listed on AIM in July 2000 and was acquired by a US Private Equity Fund in June 2006. Peter has over 50 years’ experience working for blue chip multi-nationals and in entrepreneurial ventures. Following initial training with Unilever, he worked in the 1970s and 1980s for Mars and PepsiCo, where he held senior international marketing and general management positions in the UK, Sweden, Japan and the United States. Also, during this period, he undertook a variety of consultancy assignments in Scandinavia, Australia and the UK as an engagement manager with McKinsey & Co. In 1988, Peter was a founder member of the buy-out team that acquired Bricom, a business services conglomerate, from British and Commonwealth Holdings Plc. He then became Divisional Director, Business Services Europe for BET Plc until its acquisition by Rentokil-Initial Plc in 1996. Peter undertakes voluntary work and is also an angel investor. He is a Trustee of the George Adamson Wildlife Preservation Trust and Chairman of the Old Millhillians Club. His angel investments are primarily in technology companies (Intamac, Q-Matic, Shockoe Commerce and Revionics) and property (Property Bridge Capital). His family also has an investment in Sweet Frog, a US based frozen yoghurt franchise.

Tim Theakston is a non-executive director and investor in British Pearl. He advises on property policy, acquisitions and management and is responsible for developing the executive property team in order to meet the company’s growth plans. He joined Allsop in 1981 and was appointed an Equity Partner in 1989 with overall responsibility for the Residential Investment and Development department. During his career with Allsop he has been instrumental in the firm’s development into one of the country’s leading residential investment and development advisers. His team are market leaders in residential portfolio sales and acquisitions and in Central London development sites. Tim is also a Director of Allsop Letting and Management, a subsidiary which asset manages corporate client portfolios, a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors and a non-executive Director of T & R Theakston Ltd, the Yorkshire based family brewers

Dipankar Shewaram is a director and Chief Strategy Officer of British Pearl. He has been a portfolio manager for several global blue chip fund managers and banks over his two decades in financial services, including Deutsche Asset Management, BNP Paribas, ING Barings, Blue Bay Asset Management and Western Asset Management. Having started his own asset management company, Goldbridge Capital Partners, he has significant expertise in and understanding of corporate governance, business strategy and implementing procedures that ensure a financial business operates in a smooth and compliant manner. He is currently a consultant to several private wealth managers and advises the investment committees on asset allocation and global themes. He graduated from University College London with a 1st class degree in Economics and received an MSc in Finance and Economics from the London School of Economics. He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Anthony Bourne is a non-executive director and investor in British Pearl. He has over 19 years’ IT project management and consultancy experience in financial services companies including ICAP, London Metal Exchange, Thomson Reuters and Société Générale Securities. Tony has also consulted for Accenture on major change programme for BP, Vodafone and BarCap. As a Programme Director Tony has established numerous technology partnerships and led IT consultancy assignments with huge financial institutions including Morgan Stanley. He is qualified in ITIL and Prince II project management and is certified by both Microsoft and Cisco and has a BSc (Hons) in Computer Science. Having such broad experience across a range of IT technologies, supporting everything from global trading systems to exchange platforms, Tony is well equipped to drive British Pearl’s IT strategy and development.

Ali Celiker is the founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of British Pearl. He is an experienced financial professional and entrepreneur and has spent the last 18 years in financial services. He thrives on building innovative businesses with inspirational people and is principally interested in the alternative finance market, with a focus on equity and debt based collective investment platforms. Prior to establishing British Pearl Ali worked within the global capital markets as a trader and sales person. This included Vice President, Head European Financing Trader at Paloma Securities London Limited and Associate Director, Interest rates sales trader at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities International plc. He has also worked for BNP Paribas, J.P.Morgan and Martins Brokers (UK) PLC. He holds a BA (Hons) in Economics and Econometrics from Kent University and other banking related professional qualifications.