Nicola Gray

Nicola Gray is an Investment Partner at Epiris, the London-based private equity firm focused on transforming mid-market businesses. Epiris announced in May 2021 that she had been promoted to Investment Partner and joined the firm’s Investment Committee. At that point, she had been with Epiris for seven years, having joined as an Investment Manager in 2014 and become Investment Director in 2017.

Before Epiris, Gray worked at Phoenix Equity Partners, a UK mid-market private equity firm, where she was involved in the Key Retirement Solutions and CloserStill transactions. Earlier in her career she worked in PwC’s Strategy Group, advising private equity and corporate clients on commercial due diligence and corporate strategy projects.

Gray studied at the University of Cambridge from 2004 to 2007 and lists a first-class degree on her LinkedIn profile. She has also been active in Level 20, the organisation focused on improving gender diversity in European private equity; her LinkedIn profile lists service on Level 20’s Future Leaders’ Events Committee from July 2017 to December 2019.

In a Level 20 interview after her promotion to Investment Partner, Gray described moving into private equity from strategy consulting and said she was initially involved in origination, “the very front end of a deal.” She highlighted the appeal of meeting management teams, learning new industries, and supporting corporate carve-outs where teams are “liberated” from corporate parents and given the chance to set a new direction.

• Epiris invests in mid-market companies where complexity is holding back value. The firm says its mission is “to build great businesses that deliver outstanding returns” by resolving complexity and unlocking potential with fresh capital and thinking.
• Epiris typically buys control positions in businesses with enterprise value of £75 million to £750 million, investing £50 million to £250 million of equity.
• The firm is sector-generalist but targets high-quality, cash-generative businesses with a transformation opportunity.
• Epiris has a specific appetite for complex situations: corporate carve-outs, conflicting stakeholder priorities, businesses needing strategic reinvigoration, and “bad balance sheet of a good company” situations.
• Gray has publicly emphasized the people and partnership side of private equity, saying that the UK mid-market is about “collaboration, building relationships, partnering with management teams, inspiring growth, and creating value.”
• Her deal experience shows a bias toward transformation, carve-outs, consolidation, and M&A-led growth, including TI Media, Davies, Treetops, Appello, and Stuart Turner.