Why private equity has become lazy, the importance of trust, and the key to a successful fundraise.

Mark Williams is the co-founder and managing partner of Goldenpeak, one of the most exciting private equity firms to have launched in recent years.

Mark began his career in investment banking at Close Brothers, before holding key investment roles at Bank of America, Sovereign Capital and most recently Inflexion.

At Inflexion, he was responsible for the sourcing, execution and management of private equity investments between £25 – 100m across business services, data and information, and education sectors. Most notably, Mark led Inflexion Partnership Capital’s most successful ever deal, reported to have generated almost 6x return in just 18 months.

In 2025, he co-founded Goldenpeak with ex-Houlihan Lokey banker Leon Gillespie, raising the debut fund at £375m, and hitting the hard cap in just 12 weeks.

In this conversation, we talked about:

• How Mark began a career in Private Equity
• The key factors that made such a fast fundraise possible, and the challenges along the way
• Where there is value to be found in the current market
• Building a high performing team
• And of course, what Mark thinks success will look like for Goldenpeak

First Close is powered by Langham Hall, the award winning provider of fund services to global emerging managers.

First Close is the emerging manager podcast, hosted by Tom Pinnell.

Each episode, Tom will sit down with emerging managers and the people who back, advise, and work alongside them — talking honestly about what it really takes to build a private equity firm from scratch. The fundraises, the failures, and the moments that define whether a first-time fund becomes a lasting franchise.

Episode 1 is coming soon. Hit follow to be the first to know when it drops.

First Close is powered by Langham Hall.