Sami Igout
Investing
Listening is key to all effective communication. QPE is not there to tell entrepreneurs how to manage their businesses; the track records of the businesses we engage with always speak for themselves. However, by actively listening and applying entrepreneurial empathy, we excel at unlocking value and at accelerating growth for the entrepreneurs we back.
Born and raised in Liege, Belgium, from an Italian mother and Moroccan father, my studies and professional career took me through Madrid, Copenhagen, Luxembourg, New York and London, where I finally landed. This journey taught me the importance of cultural understanding and shaped my mind in never making generalisations. I apply this mindset every day at QPE, as every Management Team I meet is unique and requires a different approach to strategy for growth and value creation.
After 6 years with Ernst & Young and qualifying as a CFA charterholder, I leveraged my time at the London Business School to experience the private equity lower mid-market in the UK. It didn’t take long for me to understand that this was where I wanted to spend the rest of my career. I truly enjoy meeting with ambitious entrepreneurs hungry for growth and identify how QPE’s differentiated approach can help them excel and achieve their ambitions.
Just as much as I love direct interactions with entrepreneurs, advisers and industry experts, you will also often find me “geeking” behind my laptop as I love to analyse data to unearth information and KPIs crucial to gain operational insights and deliver growth.
The sectors we cover are all subject to significant disruption, further highlighted by the current socio-economic conditions globally. I do my best to spare a couple of hours every day to stay on top of the latest technological developments that impact our portfolio businesses and key sectors of focus.
We all have very different backgrounds at QPE, and our various vantage points allow us to challenge each other daily and bring additional value to every discussions, both internally and with the businesses we back. The most common theme you will find across our team is the energy and genuine passion we put in our work.
When I am not on a call with an entrepreneur or crunching data behind my laptop, you will find me running in Regents Park in London, trying to keep our new puppy busy, playing football whenever I have a chance or trying to catch up on one of the many opened books in my Kindle!
