Aura Financial is made up of a small team of big thinkers with very different backgrounds and complementary consultancy skills. For all our clients this means access to an expert team, working together.
Learn more about the members of our team:
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Michael founded Aura in May 2004 with a range of long-standing former clients. Michael previously established Prospero Financial within Bridgepoint Capital's hatch-group, specialising in financial communications and investor relations. Prospero reached the UK M&A top ten league table within 18 months. Following the acquisition of Prospero by Huntsworth PLC, Michael left to establish Aura.
Over many years Michael has advised on transactions for clients including Active Value, Xstrata, BHP Billiton, L'Oréal, Pinault Printemps Redoute, Interbrew, and English China Clays. He led the teams which successfully completed major global equity issues for Xstrata and Billiton, a global roadshow for Gold Fields/Gencor and a number of IPOs, including London Clubs International, Stagecoach Holdings, Pace Micro Technology and Linx Printing Technologies.
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Mike began his career at public affairs consultancy The Westminster Consortium working for a range of clients, including the Iraqi National Congress (INC) – then official opposition in exile to Saddam Hussein, and Johnson Matthey, the catalytic converters specialist. He then joined the Confederation of Passenger Transport UK, the national trade association representing bus, coach and light rail operators, as head of media relations, representing public transport as the voice of the industry.
Before joining Aura Financial, Mike was head of corporate media relations for BT for a number of years, during a period of major corporate activity at the Group. Projects Mike worked on included a £6bn rights issue, the demerger of mobile unit O2, and the Telecoms Strategic Review Settlement with Ofcom, leading to the subsequent creation of local network division Openreach.
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Andy is a specialist in competition affairs, and also has significant financial communications experience, having worked on a number of substantial transactions and equity issues for clients such as Xstrata and Titanium Resources Group. During several years in consultancy, he has undertaken analyses for major hedge funds and applied his substantial knowledge of regulators' interpretation of markets to advise on the likely outcome of competition investigations in the UK and Europe. Inquiries he has worked on include: the Competition Commission inquiry into SME banking and the OFT inquiry into consumer IT.
Whilst a Senior Consultant at GJW, City and Finance unit, Andy worked on a number of high profile acquisitions, including NatWest by Royal Bank of Scotland , Hyder by Nomura PFG , the creation of the Transbus joint venture by Mayflower Corporation and Henlys Group and the acquisition of Southern Water by Vivendi . He has a great deal of research experience in Finance and Regulation areas and knowledge of the process, methodology and timing of regulatory investigations. Andy has a Masters Degree in Economic Regulation and Competition from City University.
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Rachel joined Aura in November 2005 to focus on investor relations and listing obligations and works on a wide range of corporate communications and reporting best practice projects for clients including Xstrata, Titanium Resources Group and Jersey Finance. She also continues to provide training to a variety of corporate clients and has been assisting the Investor Relations Society to maintain best practice standards into their body of knowledge.
Before joining Aura, Rachel spent nearly a decade working in investor relations consultancy and capital markets intelligence. In 1997 she joined Thomson Financial, first undertaking research into financial institutions in Europe, before moving into the investor relations team. Here she headed up the European shareholder identification team, and then worked on the IR advisory side, providing strategic advice on international investor relations programmes to clients including UBS, Aegon, Checkpoint Software, Volkswagen and Bavarian Nordic. In 2002, Rachel became part of an integrated financial communications consultancy, where she worked with clients including Bank Hapoalim, Easynet and Northern Foods, helping them to communicate effectively with a broader range of stakeholders. Rachel has an MBA from the Open University.
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Nina’s role at Aura includes media and equity research monitoring, media relations and account handling for a variety of clients including the Model Health Inquiry and Origo Sino-India.
Before joining Aura, Nina worked as a brand manager for David Wilson Homes where she assisted in the creation of residential property campaigns and corporate brand development projects until Wilson Bowden was taken over by Barratt Homes. As a result, Nina has significant in-house experience of agency liaison, PR, advertising and consumer research. As well as a job in promotional PR, Nina has worked as a reporter on the Business section at The Independent newspaper and for the insurer Norwich Union.
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Harry’s role at Aura includes media and equity research monitoring, media relations and general account handling for a variety of clients. Prior to joining Aura, Harry worked for Deloitte in their Private Clients Services practice. The responsibilities of his role included managing the tax and more general financial affairs of a large number of ultra-high and high net worth individuals, providing both tax compliance and planning advice to suit their individual needs.
Aura represents a new career direction for Harry away from financial services and building on a keen interest in the world of the media which began at university where he was part of the editorial team of the award winning student newspaper York Vision.
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Harry’s role at Aura includes working on media relations, research and account handling for a range of clients.
Harry gained previous experience in media whilst working as a press officer for the political think tank Politeia, where he was involved in frontline media relations, party conferences and events. Harry previously worked for Winkreative, a global agency with over 20 clients in 11 countries which was founded by Tyler Brûlé over a decade ago. Their aim is to provide industry leaders with advice on market positioning using editorial, advertising and branding techniques. Harry’s work at Winkreative included the establishment of a new International Financial Centre.