Episode 11 · Investments & PE
Private equity leadership across global markets: Tony Couloubis on turnarounds, M&A and ethical investing
A 25-year alternative assets veteran on how cultural adaptability, consistency and ethical leadership determine whether a private equity mandate succeeds or fails.
23 June 2025 · Hosted by Oliver Helvin
Highlights
Why this episode matters
Tony Couloubis has 25 years in alternative assets and private equity across Africa and the Middle East, including co-managing a USD 400 million African infrastructure fund and senior roles at Gulf Capital, SPE Capital Partners and Harith. His perspective on turnarounds, M&A and what actually determines whether a private equity mandate succeeds is grounded in a level of operational depth most investors do not reach.
Key themes
Change as a baseline, not an event
Tony's operating philosophy across 25 years of private equity is that the leaders who thrive are those who have internalised change as a permanent condition rather than a disruption to manage. In the infrastructure and PE environments he has worked in, market conditions, regulatory frameworks and macroeconomic realities shift constantly. He talks about how he designs portfolio companies to be adaptive by default, and what most management teams get wrong when they treat stability as the baseline plan.
Turnarounds: double down on core strengths
Tony has led or supported multiple turnaround mandates across Africa and the Middle East, and his consistent finding is that successful turnarounds are built on a ruthless focus on what the business does well, not an attempt to fix everything. He talks about how he diagnoses core strengths quickly in a new mandate, what the common mistake is of confusing capability gaps with strategic gaps, and why the first 90 days of a turnaround almost always determine the outcome.
Ethics as a long-horizon advantage
Tony is direct that ethical shortcuts in private equity investments show up late but compound hard. He has seen both sides of this across a long career, and his view is that ethics is not a constraint on returns but the most durable source of them in markets where reputation is the primary deal-flow mechanism. He talks about specific situations where ethical discipline was tested and what the long-run cost would have been of getting it wrong.
Relationships are the asset
In pan-African and Middle Eastern private equity, deal flow is almost entirely a function of relationships built long before the deal is live. Tony talks about how he has built his network over 25 years, what relationship investment actually looks like in markets where trust is built slowly and lost quickly, and why most capital providers who enter African markets underestimate the timeline for building the access they need to source quality opportunities.
Relationships are the asset that survives every market cycle. Everything else is just timing.
Takeaways
- Treat change as a baseline condition, not an exceptional event; design for it from the start
- Turnarounds succeed when you double down on core strengths, not when you try to fix everything at once
- Ethics is a long-horizon advantage; the cost of ethical shortcuts shows up late but compounds hard
- Invest in relationships before you need them; deal flow in private equity is a relationship output
- Pan-African investment requires patience and local partnership that most capital providers underestimate
About Tony Couloubis
Tony Couloubis
Principal Investor and Advisor, Multiple (Gulf Capital, SPE Capital Partners, Harith)
Africa and Middle East
Tony Couloubis has over 25 years of financial experience with a significant focus on private equity and principal investments across global markets, particularly pan-African investments. He has held roles at AIG Investments, where he co-managed the USD 400 million AIG African Infrastructure Fund, and senior positions at Harith, SPE Capital Partners and Gulf Capital. He is also a founding partner in GIG SA (Edge Computing) and Paycasso Biometrics.
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