Damon Buffini

Damon Buffini is an English businessman, who heads the private equity company Permira.

Biography

Born in Leicester in 1962, the son of an American serviceman and a British woman, he was educated at the Gateway school in Leicester. Buffini graduated in law from St John's College, Cambridge University, and has an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Buffini worked for LEK Partnership, and under the fims scholarship scheme undertook an MBA from Harvard Business School. On return to the UK he joined Imperial Group working as a management consultant, before being recruited by Jon Moulton (now head of rival firm Alchemy), in 1988 to join Schroders leveraged buyout team, known then as Schroder Ventures Europe.

Buffini became a partner in 1992, and promoted to Managing Partner of of the UK business in 1999, and Managing Partner of Permira in 2000, just before it was bought by a management group and renamed as Permira. He took home £3.2 million plus bonuses in 2004.

Buffini is also a non-executive board member of SVG Capital plc.

Personal life

Married to an ethnic Chinese solicitor Deborah, the couple have three children, have a family home in Weybridge and a city falt in Wandsworth. Buffini plays tennis and golf, football for a local amateur side, and supports Arsenal.

A devout Christian, Buffini and his family attend the Holy Trinity Church in Clapham. One weekend, the GMB Union placed a camel outside the church in a reference to the phrase from the Bible, with the stated aim of exposing Buffini as a hypocrite. The following week in an open letter he invited their General Secretary Paul Kenny to a meeting.

External Links

• Profile at Permira
• The Times Newspaper article on Damon Buffini