Michael Osheowitz, Founder of SEO and Chairman Emeritus
Shortly after graduating from Middlebury College, Michael Osheowitz started a career in investment banking. At the age of 26 he founded SEO where he was Chairman until 1996 and is currently Chairman Emeritus. He spent his entire career in the financial services field and became president of Arthur Schmidt & Associates Inc., a financial consulting firm, in 1980. He has served on many boards including Edwin Gould Foundation for Children, where he is currently chairman.
Randolph Sesson, Chairman of the Board of SEO London, Managing Director, Morgan Stanley
Randolph is Head of European Transportation and Infrastructure in London and joined Morgan Stanley as a Managing Director in 2006. Prior to that he spent 17 years in a variety of positions at Goldman Sachs - starting as a summer associate in 1988, joining the firm permanently in Corporate Finance in 1989, followed by promotion to Vice President in 1993 and became a Managing Director in 1999. He has worked in New York, Hong Kong & London. Randolph worked at Morgan Stanley and Company from 1984 to 1987.
He is a member of the Yale Development board, the Stanford Business School Association and chairs the SEO Operating Board. Randolph received an MBA from Stanford University in 1989 and a BA from Yale in 1985. He is married and has two children. He resides in London and is an SEO NY alumnus, Class of 1983.
Mutuma Marangu, Director SEO London, Investor in Natural Resources
With an MPhil in the Economics & Politics of Development from Cambridge University (1987), Mutuma also completed an MBA programme at Wharton Business School and graduated in 1989. Professionally Mutuma started out as a financial analyst at Morgan Stanley in NY, joining Phillip Bros Inc. as a commodity trader for a year before moving to Glencore UK Ltd. as a market analyst from 1991 to August 2003. Mutuma joined the Board of SEO London as an active member of the SEO NY Class of 1983.
Andrew Fairbairn, Founder and Director SEO London, Investor
Andrew is Managing Principal of Fairbairn Ventures, a US-based consulting and investments firm. Andrew partners with driven independent and corporate entrepreneurs to rapidly prove out value propositions and to deliver solid growth prospects around that value.
Andrew was most recently a member of the senior management team of JVKellyGroup, Inc. ("JVKG"), a New York-based consulting firm providing expense management solutions to Fortune 1000 companies.
Andrew was also previously Vice President with Deutsche Bank eVentures, capping a series of venture capital, strategic investing and corporate development roles with Deutsche Bank in both New York and London. It was during Andrew's 3-year assignment to London that he launched SEO London in 1999.
Andrew started his career as a financial analyst with UBS Securities' Telecommunications Investment Banking team. He is an alumnus of SEO NY, Class of 1995.
Andrew received his BA in Economics and MA in International Development Policy from Stanford University.
Alex Withey, Director SEO London
On leaving school, Alex joined the British Army and was commissioned into the Light Division as an Infantry officer. After the Army, Alex graduated from King’s College London (BA Hons. War Studies) and then undertook a variety of consulting and audit roles within PriceWaterHouse Coopers. In 1996, he joined Deutsche Bank London, trading US Dollar credit before joining their proprietary strategy group.
In 2000 Alex joined UBS Investment Bank to develop a fixed income solutions and portfolio advisory team. This team pioneered the wholesale restructuring of UK life insurance and pension portfolios to make full use of derivative and structured product asset classes, particularly in the area of asset/liability management. He moved to Royal Bank of Scotland in 2006 to run their UK structured solutions business, continuing his association with major UK clients and their growing use of derivative and structured products.
His involvement with SEO London began at Deutsche Bank in 1999 and he joined the board of SEO in 2002.
Zoe Ashcroft, Director SEO London, Founding Partner, Winston & Strawn LLP
Zoe Ashcroft is an English qualified corporate lawyer and has more than 15 years of experience handling complex cross-border transactions for a broad range of corporate clients. Zoe graduated from Bristol University (LLB Hons) and following completion of her law society Finals examinations at the College of Law in Guildford, trained as a solicitor with a City law firm, in their London and Hong Kong offices.
When the Law Society changed their rules to allow English Solicitors to practice with lawyers from other jurisdictions in 1994, she was one of the first English qualified solicitors to move to a US law firm in London, when she joined Morgan, Lewis and Bockius, becoming a partner of that firm in 1998. Zoe's involvement with SEO began in 2001 acting as a special counsel and she joined the board in 2003.
Ausaf Abbas, Director SEO London, Managing Director, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management
Ausaf Abbas is Head of Sales and Marketing at Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management and joined the firm in August 2007 after a 21 year career at Merrill Lynch. Ausaf joined Merrill Lynch in 1985 in London in the investment banking department. From 1990 to 2002 Ausaf was based in the Asia-Pacific region, heading the firm’s investment banking business in India, Pakistan and Singapore and was named Managing Director in 1996. In October 1998 he was appointed Chief Administrative Officer of the Asia Pacific Region and was named Chief Operating Officer, Asia Pacific/Australasia in July 2000. In October 2002 he was appointed Head of the EMEA Global Private Client group, based in London. He was educated at the London School of Economics, where he graduated with a BSc in Economics in 1981 and the University of York, where he was awarded an MSc in Economics in 1983. He is married with five children and lives in Surrey.