Private Equity AI Strategy
Breakfast Briefing #8
8-11am | Tuesday 1 December 2026 | London
Responsible AI Under Scrutiny
Our breakfast briefings are carefully crafted to cut through the hype, provide accessible and actionable insights for Private Equity professionals. Dive deep into real case studies, engage in hands-on workshops, and develop valuable connections with experts.
Insightful
Turn AI interest into scalable, measurable impact across your firm and portfolio
Practical
Practical playbooks, real cases, and working sessions you can apply immediately
Accessible
A clearer path from “where do we start?” to confident action in a no attribution setting
Independent
Explore AI’s potential with confidence with an open, trusted network and no hidden agenda
Our Partners
Visionary Partners
Innovation Partners
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Breakfast Partner
Speakers
(sample from our June Breakfast - update coming soon)
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Global CIO, allnex
Jilles Eissen
Jilles is a seasoned CIO and Digital Transformation leader with 25+ years of experience across multiple sectors. Expert at converting enterprise strategy into pragmatic digital, IT and OT programs that deliver.
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Group Chief Product Officer, Forge Holiday Group
Jule Owen
Jule has 15+ years applying AI to real products across Microsoft, PE/VC-backed scaleups, and multi-brand organisations. Specialises in operating model redesign, modernising legacy platforms, and embedding AI at scale.
Portfolio Growth Director, Growth Capital Partners
James Craig
James leads value creation at GCP, partnering with portfolio management teams to drive profitable growth. He has private equity experience, previously leading value creation at Puma Growth Partners and ScaleUp Capital.
CEO & Co-Founder, OriginalVoices
David Dobrin
David founded OriginalVoices, a human context layer for AI, giving agents real-time human perspectives. He previously co-founded Inconvo, acquired by YouGov, where he went on to serve as the AI Platform Product Director.
Snr Principal Architect AI/ML FS, EMEA, Snowflake
Mats Stellwall
Mats is an AI/ML Senior Principal Architect for Financial Services at Snowflake, advising customers on running workloads on the platform. He has worked in analytics since the mid-90s, focusing on AI/ML since 2010.
Delegates
Operator Brief
Agenda
(sample from our June Breakfast - update coming soon)
You Can’t Cook AI in a Dirty Kitchen: What AI Readiness Really Looks Like
Speaker: Jilles Eissen, Global CIO, allnex
AI cannot create value at scale if the organisation behind it is not ready. In this opening keynote, Jilles Eissen will use his “dirty kitchen” metaphor to explore what AI readiness really means inside a global manufacturing business.
Drawing on allnex’s multi-year journey, Jilles will examine the foundations required before AI can move beyond pilots, including data quality, process consistency, platform choices, ownership and organisational maturity. He will also share how businesses can think about different levels of AI adoption, from everyday AI through to more disruptive use cases.
For PE firms and portfolio leaders, the session will provide a practical lens for assessing whether a company is genuinely ready to benefit from AI, and what to look for before assuming that AI can simply be layered onto the business.
Case Exchange
From AI Ambition to Operating Discipline
Moderator: James Craig, Portfolio Growth Director, Growth Capital Partners
Speakers:
Jule Owen, Group Chief Product Officer, Forge Holiday Group
David Dobrin, Co-founder and CEO, OriginalVoices
In this practical panel will explore how different types of businesses are mobilising for AI, moving from experimentation into more structured operating models, culture change and measurable adoption.
Julia Owen will share the perspective of a mid-sized, PE-backed business, including how Forge Holiday Group is building a more structured AI transformation model across the organisation. David Dobrin will bring the view from an AI-native start-up, showing how a small team can operate differently when AI is embedded into product, workflow and team design from the outset. Our PE executive will moderate the discussion and bring a PE perspective on how firms are mobilising internally and supporting portfolio companies on the journey.
The session will be grounded in clear examples rather than general commentary, helping delegates understand what is changing in practice and what they can apply across their own firms and portfolio companies.
Roundtable
Operating Model Lab: How PE Firms and Portfolio Companies Organise for AI Value Creation
Led by: Mats Stellwall, Senior Principal Architect AI/ML, Snowflake
AI value does not scale through experimentation alone. It requires the right operating model: clear ownership, decision rights, data foundations, governance, prioritisation and accountability for outcomes.
In this interactive session, Mats Stellwall will lead delegates through a practical operating model lab focused on one of the most important questions now facing PE firms and portfolio companies: how should organisations structure themselves to turn AI ambition into repeatable value creation?
The session will combine a short expert framing from Mats with structured table discussion. Drawing on Snowflake’s work with financial services and enterprise customers, Mats will introduce the common patterns, traps and operating model choices that determine whether AI remains a set of disconnected pilots or becomes a scalable capability.
Delegates will then work through a practical exercise at their tables, considering the operating model required to support AI across the firm and portfolio. The discussion will explore questions such as: who should own AI, how should use cases be prioritised, what should sit centrally versus inside the business, what data and governance foundations are required, and how should value be measured?
The aim is for each table to leave with a clearer view of the decisions and trade-offs required to mobilise for AI, including the first actions leadership teams should take over the next 90 days.
This will be a practical, peer-led session designed to turn the morning’s insights into a useful working output.