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Meet the team
François Becque
Vice President, Mid-Market Fund
François joined PAI in 2023 as a member of the Mid-Market Fund Team. He has been involved in the VITREA investment.
He has extensive experience of the mid-market segment having worked in the space since 2017 at Argos Wityu, where he focused on a variety of transactions in the consumer and industrials sectors. Prior to that, he worked at Estin & Co as a strategy consultant for two years.
François graduated from HEC in 2014. He also holds a Master’s degree in corporate and tax law from Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne.
Lucas Blanc
Investment Officer, Mid-Market Fund
Lucas joined PAI in 2024 as a member of the Mid-Market Fund Team.
He joined from Oaktree Capital Management, where he spent three years focusing on mid-market transactions in the business services and industrials sectors in their Paris and London offices.
Prior to this, Lucas completed several internships at Hivest Capital Partners and Peugeot Invest.
Lucas graduated from ESCP Business School. He holds a Master’s Degree in Management from the Programme Grande Ecole.
Yasmine Bourenane
Executive Director, Mid-Market Fund
Yasmine joined PAI in 2022 as a member of the Mid-Market Fund Team. She has been involved in the Amplitude Surgical, Beautynova, La Compagnie des Desserts and Nutripure investments.
She joined from Argos Wityu, where she spent over two years working in multiple sectors. Prior to this, Yasmine worked two years in Investment Banking and Transaction Services at PwC and Rothschild.
Yasmine graduated from ESCP. She holds a Master’s Degree in Management from the Programme Grande Ecole.
Jessica Cascelli
Investment Officer, Mid-Market Fund
Jessica joined PAI in 2021 as a member of the Mid-Market Fund Team. She has been involved in the Beautynova, Orion and Scrigno investments.
Prior to joining the MMF Team, she interned at PAI for one year, participating in the acquisition process of Pasubio, and previously completed an internship at Ardian.
Jessica holds a Bachelor’s Degree and a MSc in Business Administration and Management from Bocconi University in Milan.
Claudia Cuellar
Investment Officer, Mid-Market Fund
Claudia joined PAI in 2021 as a member of the Mid-Market Fund Team. She has been involved in the Nuzoa and Uvesco investments.
She joined from Credit Suisse in London, where she worked for three years in M&A across multiple sectors.
Claudia holds a BSc in International Management and French from the University of Bath.
Stefano Drago
Founding Partner, Mid-Market Fund
Stefano joined PAI in 2005. In early 2020, he became one of the Founding Partners of the Mid-Market Fund Team. For PAI MMF, he has led the Amplitude Surgical, La Compagnie des Desserts, MyFlower, Nutripure and VITREA investments.
Previously, he was the Partner responsible for investments in the Healthcare sector for the flagship fund and as such has been involved in several investments, most recently Zahneins, ELITechGroup, Ethypharm, Atos Medical, DomusVi and Cerba Healthcare. Outside of healthcare, he has been involved in the Kiloutou and Provimi investments.
He started his career within the R&D department of France Telecom (now Orange) for three years, and then spent four years with McKinsey & Company in their Italian and Singaporean offices, before joining PAI in 2005.
Stefano holds an MSc in Engineering from both Politecnico di Torino (Italy) and Telecom Paritech (France), as well as an MBA from INSEAD.
José María García-Pont
Executive Director, Mid-Market Fund
José joined PAI in 2020 as a member of the Mid-Market Fund Team. He has been involved in the Angulas Aguinaga, Nuzoa and Uvesco investments.
He has extensive experience of the mid-market segment, having worked in the space since 2014, most notably at Abac Capital in Spain, where he was focused on the origination, execution, financing, monitoring and divestment of several deals.
Prior to that, he worked at the Boston Consulting Group as an Associate Consultant for two years.
José holds an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management (Boston) as well as a Bachelor’s Degree and a MSc in Business Administration from ESADE Business School (Barcelona).
Andreas Holtschneider
Partner, Mid-Market Fund
Andreas joined PAI in 2024 as a member of the Mid-Market Fund Team. He has significant experience in the mid-market, particularly in Germany, and in the industrial, healthcare and business services sectors. He has been involved in the VITREA investment.
Previously, Andreas worked at Cathay Capital Private Equity, where he was a Partner covering the DACH region since 2015. Prior to this, Andreas was a Principal at Silverfleet Capital and an M&A adviser at Ferber & Co in Munich and ING Barings in London.
Andreas holds a degree in Business Administration from the University of Applied Sciences in Munich.
