Principals

John O. Downing is a Founding Member and Principal of CDK Group LLC and the firm’s Chief Investment Officer. Prior to CDK, he spent 19 years at Goldman Sachs & Co., where he was a General Partner from 1992 to 2000 and served on the Firm’s Commitments and Credit Committees.  He spent the early part of his career in Investment Banking in New York and London.  During his last 10 years at Goldman, he ran European Equity Capital Markets and subsequently was one of several senior partners in the Global Equity Capital Markets group in New York. He graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1978 and received an MBA from the University of Virginia Darden School of Business in 1982.  He serves on several endowment boards including those of Vanderbilt University and the Hotchkiss School and two corporate boards: Brown Advisory and Sino-United Healthcare.

Peter G.C. Mallinson is a Principal of CDK Group LLC  and heads the firm’s London affiliate, CDK Investments LLP. Prior to CDK, which he joined in May 2005, he spent more than 20 years at Goldman Sachs International, where he was Partner and Managing Director from 1994-2002. He spent his entire career in the Equities Division in London, Hong Kong and New York including positions as Co-Head of Equity Capital Markets in Europe, Head of the Equities Division in Asia ex-Japan, and Head of European Equities. He also served on the Equities Division Operating Committee and the firm-wide Compensation Committee. He is a Director of Nextam Partners SGR, an Italian asset management company. Mr. Mallinson attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a Morehead Scholar and received his B.Sc. (Econ.) and M.B.A. there.   He is a Director of the Morehead Scholarship Foundation and Chairman of the Wellington College Investment Committee.

Thomas W. Keesee is a Founding member and Principal of CDK Group LLC and acts as the firm’s Chief Operating Officer. Prior to CDK, he was a partner of Banco Pactual S.A., a Latin American investment banking and asset management group, and a Director of Pactual Electra Capital Partners Ltd. (“PECP”), a private equity investment management company focused on Brazil.  He is currently a Director of Electra Capital Partners (Brazil) Ltd., the successor company to PECP, and a non-executive director of Copernico Capital Partners (Bermuda) Ltd., a Latin American hedge fund manager. Prior to joining Pactual in 1993, Mr. Keesee spent eight years at CS First Boston, where he was a Director in the International Investment Banking Division. He started his career in 1979 at the Morgan Guaranty Trust Company of New York, where he worked both in the global loan syndications group and the Latin American area. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA in International Relations in 1976, and received a MBA from the Wharton Business School in 1979.

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