ECI Welcomes Gillian Fox and Orlando Machado as Growth Specialists

WHY THIS MATTERS
ECI’s appointment of dedicated specialists in both people & culture and data & AI highlights a key shift in private equity value creation. Beyond financial engineering, firms are increasingly focusing on operational levers—particularly talent and technology—to drive growth across portfolio companies.

As AI adoption accelerates, success is no longer just about deploying tools, but ensuring organisations have the leadership, culture and skills to use them effectively. By strengthening expertise in both areas simultaneously, ECI is aligning two of the most critical—and interconnected—drivers of modern business performance.

ECI Partners, the leading growth-focused mid-market private equity firm, today announces the appointment of two new independent Growth Specialists to its panel of expert advisors. Gillian Fox joins to focus on people and culture, while Dr. Orlando Machado joins to focus on data and AI.

Gillian Fox is an experienced Chief People Officer, with over 25 years’ experience in global roles. She has held Chief People Officer and senior HR leadership positions at organisations including Euromoney, Reckitt Benckiser, Hovis, RBS, Aviva, and Allen & Overy, and is the founder of people performance advisory business, Optimal People. As Growth Specialist – People & Culture, Gillian will support ECI’s portfolio companies on culture, leadership, people strategy, executive development and team effectiveness, helping management teams to build compelling employee propositions that drive value.

Gillian succeeds Lesley Davies, who will be retiring from the role. Lesley has worked on People & Culture since 2018 and is a founder member of ECI’s Growth Specialist Panel. As well as supporting ECI in development of its People & Culture toolkit, Lesley has worked closely with the leaders of many portfolio companies as they have scaled, helping them to develop senior talent, focus on retention and high employee engagement and build sustainable in-house strategic HR capability.

Orlando Machado joins ECI as Growth Specialist – Data & AI, bringing deep experience in data science, analytics and artificial intelligence. Over a career spanning more than three decades, Orlando has held senior leadership roles across industry and academia, including serving as Chief Data Officer at the LEGO Group and in senior data and technology roles at WPP, dunnhumby and Aviva. In his role at ECI, Orlando will support management teams in using data and AI to drive better decision-making, unlock growth opportunities and build scalable, future-ready platforms.

ECI’s Growth Specialists are a panel of independent experts, available as needed to support management teams on projects that drive value across ECI’s key focus areas, being people and culture, technology and data, sales and marketing, M&A and international growth.

Lewis Bantin, Partner, comments: “We are delighted to welcome Gillian and Orlando, who respectively bring deep expertise in leadership and culture, and in turning data and AI into real commercial value. Two of the most important levers for growth we are seeing across our portfolio today are AI and people. As organisations look to adopt and scale AI, HR and leadership teams increasingly sit at the centre of that journey, shaping how technology is understood, trusted and used. Strengthening our Growth Specialist Panel in both areas is therefore a critical development for ECI. We would also like to thank Lesley for her significant contribution, dedication and support over the last eight years, and for the lasting impact she has had across ECI and the portfolio.”

Gillian Fox, Growth Specialist – People & Culture, ECI, comments: “I’m excited to be joining ECI’s panel of Growth Specialists and to be working with such a high-quality portfolio of businesses. Helping organisations grow through their people has been the focus of my career, and ECI’s commitment to investing in people and their understanding of how employee engagement drives value, resonated strongly with me. I’m looking forward to working with the portfolio leadership teams to deliver value through their people.

Orlando Machado, Growth Specialist – Data & AI at ECI, comments: “There is huge opportunity for businesses to use data and AI to support smarter decisions. I’m pleased to be joining ECI’s Growth Specialist Panel and to work alongside the ambitious management teams that ECI back to demystify AI and turn it into practical, value-creating capability, driving material profit growth and further upside at exit.”

FF NEWS TAKE
This is private equity evolving in real time. AI and people aren’t separate growth levers anymore—they’re deeply linked. ECI is recognising that scaling technology only works if the organisation is built to absorb it.