Alastair Dean

Alastair Dean is a UK private-equity investor who currently serves as an Investment Manager at Foresight Group, based in the firm's Cambridge office. He studied Economics at the University of Edinburgh before joining Deloitte as a graduate, where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant and worked across advisory services including Valuations, Transaction/Transition Services and Audit.

Around October 2016 he moved into direct investing, joining Rcapital's London investment team. Rcapital, founded in 2001 and based at 24 Old Bond Street in Mayfair, describes itself as a leading turnaround and special-situations investor to the UK and European mid-market, specialising in non-core subsidiary carve-outs, management buyouts/buy-ins and complex situations. At the time of his hire, Rcapital's COO Phil Emmerson described him as representing "the next, younger generation — operating in the London market, looking to build relationships that will provide opportunities long into the future." He spent roughly five years there sourcing and evaluating opportunities, structuring transactions with stakeholders and advisers, and supporting portfolio businesses, and also worked in a variety of private-equity-backed companies.

In May 2023, Foresight Group — a listed (LON: FSG) regional private equity and infrastructure investment manager — appointed him as an Investment Manager. He predominantly supports deployment of the £100 million Foresight East of England Fund, using local knowledge of the region to identify new opportunities. On joining he said: "Having grown up in Lincoln, I'm very proud to be joining the Foresight team that has had such a huge impact on the wider region in the past four years."

Note: the stub classification of Alastair as an "angel investor" writing "seed round" cheques is not supported by the public record. Across both Rcapital and Foresight his work has been institutional private equity into established, cash-generative companies rather than early-stage/seed angel investing.

• Established businesses, not startups. His career has centred on companies with real revenue and operations — Rcapital targets £10m–£350m-turnover businesses and Foresight backs growing regional SMEs.
• Complex and special situations (Rcapital era). Carve-outs of non-core subsidiaries, management buyouts/buy-ins, difficult shareholder dynamics and turnarounds — emphasising speed, flexibility and creative deal structuring, with equity cheques up to ~£50m.
• Regional SME growth & buyout (Foresight era). Deploying the £100m Foresight East of England Fund into growing companies headquartered in the East of England, providing growth and buyout capital plus operational support.
• Sector-agnostic / generalist. Portfolios he has been associated with span manufacturing, industrials, business and professional services, insurance/claims, and healthcare/med-tech.
• Local-knowledge sourcing. In his current role he explicitly leverages being a regional native to originate deals in the East of England.