Olivia Gautier

Senior Principal and EU Sports Lead at Verlinvest

Panellist

Olivia leads Verlinvest’s Sports & Leisure and FMCG verticals in Europe, working closely with portfolio brands such as The Climbing Hangar, Boulders, Tony’s Chocolonely, and Mutti.

She is a French-British national who grew up in London where she obtained a BSc and MSc from the London School of Economics. She joined Verlinvest from Diageo where she spent four years in the Business Development team, covering M&A and overseeing Diageo’s venture activities in Europe across Spirits & Non-Alc, as well as Digital and Sustainability – most recently completing Diageo’s acquisition of Don Papa.

She started her career in Investment Banking at Rothschild in London, after which she spent several years in China working for a venture building business, to help support the launch, financing and growth of e-commerce, experiential marketing and hospitality businesses in Asia and Europe, including more recently at The Independents, a global group of experiential marketing agencies, where she headed up Corporate Strategy/M&A in London.