Helen Steers
Having graduated from Newnham with a degree in Engineering, I spent two years working for Esso Petroleum in London on their graduate engineering scheme before realising that the commercial aspects of technology interested me more than research and development. Esso granted me a sabbatical to study for a business degree, and having won a Commonwealth Scholarship I went to the University of Western Ontario in Canada and earned an M.B.A. from the Richard Ivey School of Business. After leaving Ivey, I worked for a telecommunications and media company based in Montreal, and then was recruited by the venture capital division of a Canadian bank. I have remained in the private equity and venture capital industry ever since.
After five years with the bank, I moved to the Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec in Montreal, leading their European private equity investments for five years, before being head-hunted to lead the European private equity division of a major U.S. asset manager, Russell Investments. The job was based in Paris, so my husband and two small children (aged two and four) moved with me and we spent five happy years in France, where child no.3 was born, before I joined Pantheon Ventures and was transferred back to London.
I have been at Pantheon for 15 years now, and head our European Investment Team, sitting on our International Investment Committee and our Coinvestment Committee. In addition to my responsibilities at Pantheon, I am involved with the U.K. private equity trade body, the BVCA, where I was the second female Chair in the association’s history, and the first institutional investor to take the role. I have also co-founded a non-profit organisation called Level 20 (www.level20.org) which aims to encourage more women to choose private equity as a career, and to support and retain women in the industry.
Outside work, I enjoy spending time with my husband and three children, skiing (the legacy of my years in Canada and France), cycling and travelling. I earned a half-Blue in sailing at Cambridge, and captained the University ladies team, but sadly have little time these days to get back onto the water!
I would be happy to be contacted by Newnhamites considering a career in private equity or contemplating moving from Engineering or Natural Sciences into Finance. I can also discuss the opportunities provided by gaining an M.B.A. or M.Fin. degree, and the attractions of studying and working abroad.
