Five V Capital portfolio value creation lead lands new gig

Five V Capital head of portfolio value creation has left to join another business in the same role after almost three years.

Black Kite Partners, which opened its doors earlier this year, has welcomed Lucinda Abood to drive value in their portfolios. She brings over three decades of experience, including various C-suite roles in technology and healthcare-related businesses.

As managing director, portfolio value creation, Abood will lead Black Kite's value creation capability, working alongside portfolio company leadership teams and the firm's functional operating partners to drive growth, operational performance and exit readiness. She is joined by operating partners James Scollay, Laura Thomas, Roger Burgess and Simon Martin, and AI specialist in residence Jed Watson at the portfolio support department of the firm.

Most recently, Abood was the operating partner and head of portfolio value creation at Five V Capital, where she established its portfolio value creation function.

She was the chief transformation and operating officer at Direct Group - owned by CPE Capital - for more than a year. She also served as chief executive at Independent Living Specialists, a healthcare assistive technology solutions provider, before that.

Black Kite co-founder and managing partner David Odgers said: "Value creation is crucial to generating strong investor returns, and Lucinda has done this twice over: first as an operator running businesses herself, then building a value creation function at one of the market's most respected firms."

"Adding Lucinda to our senior team is a statement of intent for Black Kite. Lucinda's experience and drive will make us better partners to our portfolio companies and help them convert ambition into results faster."

Abood said: What drew me to Black Kite is the firm's conviction that value is created through genuine partnership with founders and management teams, backed by a team with first-hand experience building and running businesses.

"I am looking forward to working side by side with our portfolio leaders to help them build exceptional companies."

The firm also appointed its chief operating officer from MST Financial, a company she's stayed for almost eight years, in August.

Black Kite, the private equity investment manager, was launched in March this year by three former IFM Investors executives.

In October 2025, IFM announced it was dumping its private equity strategy to prioritise global investments, explaining it had struggled to scale the local strategy. Some $1 billion was invested in the private equity portfolio, representing 0.4% of IFM's allocation.

With around $1.3 billion in funds under advice, Black Kite targets technology and healthcare businesses operating in the lower and mid-market range, earning between $10 million to $250 million in annual revenue.

Founders Odgers, Adrian Kerley and Stuart Wardman-Browne carved out IFM's former private equity team to launch the new firm after working together for several years.

Wardman-Browne spent nearly a decade at IFM as the head of private markets. Odgers and Kerley spent more than seven years as executive directors in the unit.