Our coaches and consultants

The senior delivery team at Ratio Financial are former solicitors turned financiers.

These dual careers give them a unique and enviable combination of skills. And gives them a rare insight into what clients expect from their legal team.

The senior delivery team includes:

Andrew Wood, MSc, Solicitor (non-practising)

Andrew Wood has worked in mergers and acquisitions and associated finance since 1998, on transactions totalling many billions of pounds, most recently as an Associate Director, Structured and Acquisition Finance at Barclays Capital.

Prior to his career in investment banking, he spent five years at Wilde Sapte and more recently Denton Wilde Sapte acting on M&A and joint venture transactions for the firm's financial institution clients.

His legal career also included eight months on the American Bar Association's International Legal Exchange, at White & Case in New York.

He holds a Masters Degree in Finance from London Business School.

David Hesketh MA, Solicitor (non-practising)

David Hesketh has worked in financial derivatives and related areas since 1998; most recently as a trader on Merrill Lynch's London based Structured Credit Team. While at Merrill Lynch he was responsible for building both their iTraxx trading business and their secondary bespoke tranche trading business.

Prior to Merrill Lynch, David was an Associate in Allen & Overy's derivatives group working for all the major banks on bespoke interest rate, equity and credit derivatives as well as ISDA documented transactions.

He holds a Masters Degree in Jurisprudence from Exeter College, Oxford and qualified as a solicitor in 2000.

 

The remaining consultants are all former financiers, with many years' experience as clients of City law firms, who offer a penetrating insight into specific product areas.

Henry Cooke BSc

Henry has worked in investment banking for over 20 years in London and New York. Most recently he was Managing Director heading the Corporate Securitisation and Acquisition Finance team at Barclays Capital.

Previously, Henry was co-head of the Securitisation team in the Principal Finance Group at Nomura and an Executive Director in Mortgage Trading at Goldman Sachs. He started his career in the Mortgage Research team at Salomon Brothers in New York.

His product knowledge and expertise encompass research, sales, trading, structuring, origination and syndication of US and European mortgage backed, asset backed, whole-business and real estate financings. During the latter part of his banking career Henry focussed on large acquisitions and restructurings with private equity clients, in the process originating a number of landmark transactions including the €7 billion Deutsche Annington acquisition, Mitchells & Butlers, GHG, Somerfield and BUPA hospitals. Henry has instructed tens of law firms in multiple jurisdictions.

Prior to his career in Investment Banking Henry studied engineering.

Eleanor Prescott, MA (Econ)

Eleanor has over 10 years' experience in Investment Banking. Most recently she oversaw the high grade debt capital markets relationships for all major European Energy and Power, Aerospace and Defence and General Industrial clients at Bank of America. In addition, she was Head of Iberian Capital Markets, covering clients in both the corporate and bank sectors.

Prior to Bank of America, Eleanor worked at Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs covering a diverse range of clients from mid-cap UK and non-European corporates to supranational agencies and sovereign borrowers.

Eleanor ran the execution process for over £50 billion worth of capital markets transactions from E.ON's inaugural US$3bn 144A transaction, to repeat borrowing by National Grid plc in both the Euro and Sterling markets, to innovative transactions, including the inaugural Extendible note for a Spanish borrower and many others. She has instructed many law firms in multiple jurisdictions and has significant direct experience of the new issue process.

Eleanor holds an MA in Economics from the University of Edinburgh.

Tony Main BA, ACA

Tony has 15 years' experience in Investment Banking. Latterly he was a Managing Director and Head of Structured Credit Solutions at Dresdner Bank. Prior to this he spent 13 years in structured credit at Merrill Lynch in London and New York with a particular focus on credit derivatives and emerging markets.

Tony worked with banks, insurance companies, asset managers, pension funds and hedge funds for whom his experience of the relevant regulatory, tax and accounting environments added particular value.

Tony has extensive experience of bilateral loans and their repackaging through associated structured notes and derivative transactions. More recently he concentrated on regulatory capital trades and other structures for optimising compliance with Basel II and the imposition of IFRS.

Tony's lending and derivative experience led him to instruct tens of lawyers in numerous mature and developing jurisdictions giving him a particular insight into the expectations of their clients. He has also managed tendering processes for panel firm selection.

Tony qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1994 with Ernst & Young, London