TEAM
Paul-René Albertini - Chairman & CEO, London
Paul-René co-founded Sushi Venture Partners. He has had a 25-year executive career in the media industry including Sony Entertainment and Warner Music Group. Most recently he was the CEO and Chairman of Warner Music International overseeing a very large global division of TimeWarner. Paul-Rene’s expertise in managing large ventures as well as establishing development strategies for new ventures are behind the foundation of SVP and his daily endeavour here.
Shahar Namer - Managing Partner, Israel
Shahar is a blockchain expert and the co-founder of Sushi Venture Partners. He is an experienced entrepreneur specialising in startup acceleration, business development, product licensing and advisory services in the crypto industry. Shahar ensures SVP’s structure is nimble, efficient and provides high value to our portfolio companies for their development needs. He has close ties with Israel’s technology networks and leads SVP’s deal sourcing. Shahar manages SVP’s portfolio, deal-flow, international operations and leads the Startupbootcamp accelerator programs in Israel.
Kalam Ali - VP Senior Analyst
Background in technology investment focusing on early stage companies in fast growing tech sectors. Kalam is a Startup and Innovation Advisor at European Innovation Hub in Berlin where he works with tech startups on their product development and user testing at the EuropeanPioneers accelerator in Berlin. At Sushi VP he assesses the next wave of tech startups with strong growth prospects, focusing on opportunities in media tech. Kalam is active in the startup hubs of London & Berlin.
Alain Levy - Investment Committee Board, Media
Alain moved in 1984 from CBS to PolyGram as CEO of its French operations. In 1991 he was appointed worldwide president and CEO of PolyGram. Under Alain’s tenure, PolyGram became the number one music company in the world and remained in this position until 1998 when the company was sold to Seagram.
Beginning in 1993, Levy led the company’s expansion into the worldwide movie business with the establishment of PolyGram Filmed Entertainment which produced and distributed films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Trainspotting, Bean, Fargo and Dead Man Walking. After leaving PolyGram in 1998, Levy consulted and made seed investments in a number of different media companies and also joined EMI Music as chairman and CEO in October 2001. Alain sits on the advisory board of Schroders Ventures in the US.
Michael Marshall - Investment Committee Board, Private Equity
Michael was intimately involved in transactions with major Japanese corporates including: Hitachi, Denon, Columbia Music Entertainment, Sammy Sega and others. Prior, Michael was a team leader with Soros Real Estate Investors in Japan, working with leading Japan large cap corporates, all in restructures and asset backed buy outs and turn-arounds.
Prior to Michael’s involvement with Soros, he was with Morgan Stanley’s private equity real estate group (MSREF) in Los Angeles, New York, Japan and Australia during 1996 through 2000. Michael was responsible for investments of almost $10.0B.
Claude London - Investment Committee Board, Corporate Strategy
Claude is currently a director at Google and the former Senior VP of Global Digital Properties and eCommerce within BBC Worldwide. Previously, Claude was the VP of Digital Operations at Warner Music International, where he was central to driving digital commerce expansion outside of the US. Prior to Warner, he worked at management consultancy Bain & Company, working across major media, technology and telecom clients in the US and Europe. Claude holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, and an MSc in Computer Science from Ecole Superieure d’Electricite.
Jason Keiles is a Strategic Advisor, Investor and Mentor, advising CEO's, Board members and management teams on key business imperatives including investment opportunities. He has spent much of his career identifying, structuring, negotiating and closing deals (acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures and strategic partnerships) within the TMT sector across Europe, North America and Asia. Jason has held senior positions with Hollywood Studios (e.g. Universal Studios, Twentieth Century Fox), privately held media companies (e.g. Virgin Radio International) and entrepreneurial start-ups in television, radio, digital and other related fields.
Martin is running EuropeanPioneers Accelerator in Berlin on behalf of the European Commission. Before, he headed Operations at Startupbootcamp Media in Tel Aviv and London and has also been active as an educator, teaching courses about entrepreneurship, business modelling, and fundraising at Tel Aviv University. He holds an M.Sc. from ESCP Europe, which he got in London, Paris and Madrid. At SushiVP he’s managing deal flow and selection of startups for the Accelerator programs.
Co-founder and Managing Director of Marathon Artists (Courtney Barnett, Jagwar Ma) and Marathon LABs, Jimmy Mikaoui has 10 years of experience in talent management, music publishing and running record labels as well an education background in Music Technology (NYU) and Law (Cornell). One of his main focuses is integrating new technology and innovations with the everyday business of the Artists he works with.
Founded Audiotube Ltd. 2006. Worked for 10 years prior with Lennox Lewis, managing and assisting in strategic planning for all of Lewis’ major fights. Transitioned into digital media and headed business development for several leading media companies, including Visual Media (Intel, Benchmark, 3i funded)
Tanguy is running the music tech accelerator Marathon Artists LABs. Prior to that, he has been advising a London-based VC firm on music investments and innovation. Before living in London, he was based in New York where he worked for independent labels. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce from McGill University and a Master in Music Business from New York University. His main focus is scouting for innovators redefining the music ecosystem.