Who We Are

Graham Thomas is the non-executive chairman of the investment committee. Before founding Menhaden Capital Management LLP with Ben Goldsmith, Graham chaired RIT Capital Partners plc’s Executive Committee, was a member of its investment committee and had direct responsibility for its private investments. Prior to his roles with RIT Capital Partners plc, Graham was the head of the Standard Bank Group’s US$3 billion Principal Investment Management division, which was established in 2008 under his leadership. He joined Standard Bank from MidOcean Partners in London, where he was a founding partner.

Before joining DB Capital Partners (MidOcean Partners’ predecessor) in 2001, he was an Executive Director in the Investment Banking Division of Goldman Sachs & Co, having joined Goldman Sachs in 1993. Graham is currently the Managing Partner of Stage Capital, a private equity firm backed by Goldman Sachs and Glendower Capital, and is on the investment committee of Apis Partners.

Graham is a Rhodes Scholar, and received a Bachelor of Commerce degree, with distinction, from the University of Cape Town, a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) Degree and Post Graduate Diploma in Accounting from the University of Cape Town, and an MA from Brasenose College, Oxford University.

Ben is the Chief Executive Officer of Menhaden Capital Management LLP. Before founding Menhaden with Graham Thomas, Ben co-founded the WHEB group, one of Europe’s leading energy and resource-focused fund investment businesses.

Ben is a director of Cavamont Holdings, the Goldsmith family’s investment holding vehicle, and also chairs its Family Committee.

Ben also chairs the UK Conservative Environment Network, a group which has a preference for decentralised, market-orientated solutions to environmental and resource issues.

Luciano is the Chief Investment Officer at Menhaden Capital Management LLP. Before joining Menhaden Capital Management LLP, Luciano was a Director for Barclays Capital in the Capital Markets division where he ran the credit trading operations for Brazil out of São Paulo. Before Barclays, Luciano was a Director at Dresdner Kleinwort in London. There he focused mainly on Infrastructure, Utilities and Real Estate assets as head of the Illiquids Credit group.

Luciano holds a Licenciatura in business administration from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and was granted the Premio Extraordinario de Fin de Carrera for outstanding academic performance.

Edward Pybus is a Research Analyst at Menhaden. Before joining Menhaden, Edward was an Analyst at Exane BNP Paribas in the Research division, where he was a member of the Oil & Gas team and covered European integrated oil companies. Edward is a CFA Charterholder and qualified as a Chartered Accountant at Deloitte.

Howard has over 30 years experience in the financial investment sector in both non-executive and executive roles. He became Chair of Menhaden Resource Efficiency PLC (16 May 2023) after being Audit Committee Chair since 2015. In April 2023 he was appointed non-executive Director and Audit Commitee Chair of Ashoka White Oak Emerging Markets Trust PLC. Previous non-executive roles include Chair of the Pension Boards (statutory advisory and scrutiny roles) of the Avon, Berkshire and Wiltshire Pension Funds; non-executive Director and Audit Committee Chair of a UK Port Authority; non-executive Director, Investment Committee member, and Audit Committee Chair of a UK health charity; and non-executive advisor to the Board of Response Global Media.  In 2014 Howard founded HowESG limited, a specialist asset stewardship, corporate governance and ESG consultancy business; after being head of the award winning Environment Agency Pension Fund (and member of its Investment Committee) between 2003-2013. Under his leadership the fund won over 30 awards in the UK, Europe and globally for its financialland environmentally responsible investment strategy, best practice fund governance, public reporting and e-communications.  

Sir Ian Cheshire is the chairman of Spire Healthcare Group plc, Land Securities Group PLC and Channel 4. He additionally chairs the King Charles III Charitable Fund and the We Mean Business Coalition.

Sir Ian was the chairman of Barclays UK, the ring-fenced retail bank, until December 2020. He was the group chief executive of Kingfisher plc from January 2008 until February 2015 and prior to that he was chief executive of B&Q Plc from June 2005.

Sir Ian was knighted in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to Business, Sustainability and the Environment.

Barbara Donoghue (also known as Barbara Donoghue Vavalidis) joined the Board as a non-executive Director on 1 February 2022. She was a non-executive director of Byredo AB, a Stockholm based luxury fragrance company, until June 2022, having been its chair for the six years to 2020. Until 2020 she was also a partner in London based Manzanita Capital, a private equity partnership specialising in the beauty and personal care industry. Other past appointments include chair of Susanne Kaufmann Ltd, an Austrian based beauty company, director and audit committee chair of Eniro AB, a Stockholm listed media company, member of the Competition Commission and Competition and Markets Authority and member of the board of the Independent Television Commission. She had a previous career in finance in Toronto, New York and London advising companies on raising debt and equity financing and on executing mergers and acquisitions, during which she worked at Bank of Nova Scotia, Bankers Trust and NatWest Markets.

Soraya Chabarek joined the Board as a non-executive Director on 1 March 2023.

She is CEO at CQS (UK) LLP, a London-based, credit-focused multi-strategy asset management firm. She joined CQS in 2013, is a Senior Partner and serves as a director on the CQS board.

During her career, Soraya has had exposure to a broad range of fund strategies including global macro, equities, emerging markets, credit and convertibles.

She was previously at Moore Europe Capital Management, from 2008 to 2013, where she was head of marketing for emerging macro strategies. From 2004 to 2008 she was a principal at GLG Partners and from 2000 to 2004 she was with HSBC Private Bank.