Peter Stilwell
Peter is our Chief Operating Officer, based in London. Peter is responsible for running everything outside of the investment team - in finance, legal & compliance, marketing, HR and platform - and making sure Creandum’s operations run as smoothly as possible.
I grew up in London to Portuguese parents. When I was 13, my dad decided to set up his own architectural practice. I remember being very concerned that he hadn’t thought of everything that would be required to be successful. So I spent days writing out everything he needed to think about (his “business plan”, if you like!), including drawing a recommended floor plan of the office showing where each team should sit to maximize collaboration. When he moved into his first office, I spent a lot of time with him preparing everything for launch - even at that age, I was interested in helping start-ups succeed.
Peter with the team at the London AGM
In 2008, I was studying abroad in Philadelphia when Lehman Brothers collapsed. Until then, I had been planning to pursue a career in law, but this sparked my interest in finance having witnessed first-hand the profound global societal impact - both positive and, in this case, negative - that finance could have.
I spent the next 10 years living in London, Hong Kong and the Bay Area, working in HSBC’s M&A group, completing my MBA at Berkeley Haas and working for Bain & Company’s Private Equity Group. While in Hong Kong, I dabbled in entrepreneurship, using my experience from teaching English in Chile years before to set up an English language center that grew to over 200 students.
In the Bay Area, I became fully immersed in all things tech and understood the potential that tech and finance together had to foster positive change. That’s where Coinbase came in - I was inspired by the company’s mission to increase economic freedom in the world and moved back to London, where I helped grow the European business over the course of a tumultuous and formative time for the crypto industry.
I was excited when the opportunity to join Creandum arose as the role combined all the elements that I had enjoyed most about my previous positions - helping companies solve complex challenges and succeed, bringing structure and operational excellence, and growing and enabling high performing teams in a fast-paced, international environment. At Creandum I get to work with colleagues across four countries and founders in many more. I feel lucky to be able to work with smart, passionate and generous people supporting some of the greatest founders in Europe.
