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Catherine Lewis La Torre has announced that she will be standing down from the role of CEO of British Patient Capital, a commercial subsidiary of the British Business Bank, in December 2023 after seven years’ service with the Bank.

Press release 25 April 2023

Catherine joined the Bank as CEO of British Business Investments in 2016 and was appointed as the first CEO of British Patient Capital (BPC) in 2018. Since then BPC has become the UK’s largest domestic investor in venture capital and one of the most active investors in R&D intensive companies.

Photo of Catherine Lewis La Torre

In 2020, Catherine was appointed interim CEO of the British Business Bank for a period of two years, to lead the Bank through the Covid crisis and to manage the economic response to the pandemic for the UK’s smaller businesses.

Catherine has been an outstanding member of the Board and senior leadership team over the past seven years, building the organisation’s commercial arm to its considerable scale and impact today. Catherine leaves behind an impressive commercial legacy which, for years to come, will continue to support high growth, scale up businesses working in breakthrough technologies across the UK. She has also led by example in diversity, equity and inclusion. I would like to thank her for her commitment over the last seven years. I look forward to her ongoing contribution for the rest of this year and wish her well in the next phase of her career. Louis Taylor CEO, British Business Bank
It has been an enormous privilege to lead the British Business Investments and British Patient Capital teams, in addition to the opportunity to serve as interim CEO of the Bank. After seven years with the business and with the 10-year extension to British Patient Capital recently confirmed as part of the Spring Budget, this feels likes the very best time to seek a new challenge. I will continue to follow developments at the Bank with great interest, in the knowledge that it is very well positioned to capitalise and build on its many achievements to date. Catherine Lewis La Torre CEO, British Patient Capital

Prior to joining the Bank in 2016, Catherine was Head of Private Equity for Cardano where she managed a global portfolio of private capital investments on behalf of UK pension funds. Before this she was a Partner with Paris-based European private equity investor Fondinvest Capital. Previously she was a Co-founding Partner of Nordic venture and growth capital investor Proventure. Catherine has also advised Sovereign Wealth Funds and Institutional Investors in Asia, the Middle East and the US on their European private capital strategies. Catherine began her private equity career with CINVEN in London.

Catherine is a member of the Rose Review Board and the City of London Corporation’s Strategic Advisory Board for the Finance for Growth Project. Catherine was granted the Freedom of the City of London in 2021 and her leadership has been recognised in the Cranfield School of Management’s 2021 ‘Women to Watch’ list, the P2P Power 50 2022 and Real Deals Top 20 Most Influential.

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