Nicolas Chavanne joined Advent in 2020 and is a Managing Director in London. He is responsible for coordinating the firm’s European efforts in the consumer sector. Nicolas is a member of Advent’s Global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee. He has advised on 11 investments during his career, three while at Advent.
Prior to joining Advent, Nicolas worked at TowerBrook Capital Partners, where he was a Managing Director and focused on investments in the business services, distribution, and retail/consumer sectors. Previously, he worked at Greenhill, a leading independent investment bank, and began his career at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette.
Nicolas holds an MA in Management, Financial, and Legal Engineering from Ecole Supérieure De Commerce De Paris.
What sub-sectors are you currently most enthusiastic about?
As part of the Consumer team, I would mention three sub-sectors. Beauty is an important one. We think it’s a fast-growing category that has longevity. The second sub-sector is experiential travel, which is about selling tailor-made experiences where customers can travel with a partner or family. The final one is functional food and beverages, as consumers are interested in nutritional benefits and differentiation. Advent has been keen on that for a long time.
How do Advent’s operating partners help you to make better investments?
When Advent buys businesses, we’ll usually be in competition with others, even if we have some history with the management team or the company. Our competitors may well be using the same consultants that we do to inform their decisions. Now, if Advent wants to build conviction on an asset and develop some good angles, we need to do things differently from them. We can achieve that by tapping into the knowledge of our Operating Partners. They can underwrite assumptions that will allow us to see things differently – potentially driving a better business plan and giving us the conviction to lean forward a little more into the investment.
How do you challenge yourself and others to keep improving?
It doesn’t take much to move something on from good to great. I take a lot of pride in running the extra mile and I put a lot of value in relentless curiosity. I also strongly believe that thought diversity within the team can drive better outcomes.
Can you recall any pivotal experiences that have shaped your career?
It’s the tough situations that shape you and what you can learn from other team members. I was fortunate enough to work with great investors who were keen to share their experience and enthusiasm.
What gets you out of bed in the morning?
That’s simple. I have a bias for action and I really enjoy the entrepreneurship of working at Advent with the ability to influence and have an impact. It’s really about the values I care about: accountability, leadership, and curiosity. People have said that I’m annoyingly curious about things. Even if I’m going out to buy coffee, I need to know about the origin, the source, the blend… I’ll be using benchmarking all the time. When my friends have a decision to make – even something small, like buying a new doorbell – they’ll say, oh, we should call Nico because he’s probably done a case study on this. That’s the way I am!
