John Swarbrick

John Swarbrick is Head of Portfolio at BGF (formerly the Business Growth Fund), the UK and Ireland's most active growth-capital investor, backed by an evergreen balance sheet of around £3bn. He joined BGF in November 2012 and is responsible for overseeing the firm's large and rapidly growing portfolio of high-growth entrepreneurial companies. He is a member of BGF's Executive Team, sits on the National Investment Committee, and has chaired the firm's valuations committee — roles that put him at the centre of monitoring investment quality and allocating resources across BGF's regional offices.

Swarbrick began his career as a corporate finance advisor at PwC and is an Economics graduate of the University of Leeds. Before moving into private equity he spent four years as finance director of a private-equity-backed textile group. In 1998 he joined LDC (Lloyds Development Capital), where he opened the East Midlands office before moving in 2000 to head LDC's Leeds office — a post he held for over a decade, building a strong track record investing in the UK mid-market.

When he moved to BGF in late 2012, he continued part-time with LDC through the end of 2013 to support the handover of his Yorkshire and North East investments to incoming Leeds director John Garner. Over his career he has sat on a wide variety of SME boards across software, printing, retail, pharmaceuticals and aerospace engineering. At the time of his hire, BGF CEO Stephen Welton described him as bringing "a wealth of experience from his 15 years with LDC, a firm with a great and long-standing track record of successfully investing in the UK."

• Invests through BGF's model: long-term, "patient" minority equity in exchange for a stake, deliberately not seeking control — aligned with founders who want to scale rather than sell out.
• Backs fast-growing, entrepreneur-led UK and Ireland SMEs across effectively every sector and region, rather than a narrow thematic focus.
• Typical initial cheques in the £1m–£30m range with substantial follow-on capacity from an evergreen balance sheet — meaning capital can be deployed over multiple rounds as a company grows.
• As Head of Portfolio, his lens is on portfolio quality, value creation and governance post-investment — supporting regional deal directors, ensuring resources reach the companies that need them, and overseeing valuations.
• In his own words on joining BGF: "Stephen and his team have created a superb business, which has achieved tremendous momentum in a short space of time."