Jenna Mairs

Jenna Mairs is a chartered accountant turned fund manager based in Belfast. She holds an honours degree from Queen's University Belfast and a postgraduate diploma in Accounting from the University of Ulster, and qualified as a Chartered Accountant in September 2010. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Ireland and describes having over 15 years' experience across fund management and accountancy.

She began her career at KPMG, where she spent around five years and rose to Assistant Manager, managing audits of a varied range of SMEs and large international companies across Northern Ireland, Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland. She joined Whiterock (WhiteRock Capital Partners LLP / Whiterock Finance) from that KPMG role, initially working on financial due diligence and analysis of investment transactions — including due diligence within the Growth Loan Fund I portfolio — and the preparation of investment papers across a wide range of sectors.

At Whiterock she was promoted to Senior Investment Manager, responsible for sourcing and executing investment transactions in the Northern Ireland market. In that role she was shortlisted for Emerging Dealmaker of the Year at the Insider Northern Ireland Dealmakers Awards 2020. Whiterock's current team page now lists her as Finance Director, overseeing the firm's financial strategy, operations, reporting, fund finance and regulatory compliance — indicating a move from front-line deal execution toward fund governance and finance leadership.

Whiterock itself is an FCA-authorised, Belfast-based fund manager (the LLP is registered in Scotland) that has managed in excess of £150m across four funds and deployed over £120m to NI businesses. It is the appointed manager of the Growth Loan Fund, Growth Loan Fund II and Growth Finance Fund, and in 2024 launched a £75m Growth Capital equity fund. Whiterock CEO is Paul Millar.

• Backs established, revenue-generating Northern Ireland SMEs rather than pre-seed/seed startups — the firm looks for "clear sales growth and routes to market."
• Offers a debt-to-equity spectrum: commercial loans from £25k up to £2m (2–7 year terms) via the loan/growth-finance funds, and £1m–£5m minority equity stakes via the £75m Growth Capital Fund, with capacity for follow-on funding.
• Growth Capital Fund is explicitly sector-targeted: Digital, ICT & Creative; Fintech & Financial Services; Life & Health Sciences; Agri-Tech; and Advanced Manufacturing & Engineering — though the debt funds are broadly sector-agnostic across NI.
• Positioned to fill a documented NI equity gap in the £1m–£5m range, taking minority (not controlling) positions so founders retain control.
• Jenna's own contribution centres on rigorous financial due diligence and modelling — a CA/KPMG-trained lens on the numbers, investment papers and deal execution — so financially credible, well-evidenced cases resonate with her.