Brent Williams
Managing Partner
Brent joined AgFe in 2008 and is responsible for the day to day management of the firm. Brent started his career in 1994 at Arthur Andersen in its real estate advisory group. Subsequently he worked as a commercial real estate investment banker at UBS and Morgan Stanley, where he was also responsible for the acquisition, set-up and management of the firm’s mortgage lending businesses in a number of European jurisdictions. Brent has a B.A. in Romance Languages and Literatures from Princeton University.
Gudrun Steele
Partner
Gudrun joined AgFe in 2007 and is the firm’s General Counsel and Compliance Officer. Gudrun started her career in 1995 at Clifford Chance where she worked as a corporate lawyer. Subsequently, she spent several years at Weil Gotshal & Manges, before leaving to join Noble Group as Group Legal Director and a member of the management committee. Gudrun has a law degree from Kings College, London and an LPC from The College of Law.
James Wright
Partner
James joined AgFe in 2010 and is the Portfolio Manager for AgFe’s Commercial Real Estate business. James started his career in 1997 at Price Waterhouse in its Valuations Services Group. Subsequently, he spent 8 years working on CMBS, RMBS and whole business financings in the Structured Products Group at Morgan Stanley. Prior to joining AgFe, James was an Executive Director at Lehman Brothers Real Estate Mezzanine Fund. James has a B.A. in Natural Sciences from Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
Xin Zhang
Partner
Xin joined AgFe in 2015; she leads the firm’s ESG efforts and is also responsible for a variety of real estate lending and asset management activities. Xin previously worked in the finance team at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP in London and Minter Ellison in Australia where she advised on a range of financing products including commercial real estate, infrastructure and project finance.  Xin holds a BCom / LLB (Hons) from the University of Melbourne.

Non-Executive Team

Paul Rolles
Founder and Non-Executive Director
Paul founded AgFe in 2006. He is currently focused on building AgFe’s footprint in the technology sector, with a particular emphasis on facilitating funding for underserved market segments, including the SME sector. Paul started his career in 1991 at Morgan Stanley where he was a founder member of the European securitisation group. He held various positions during his 15 year tenure, including head of the European financial asset backed business. Paul holds a B.A. in Mathematics from Oxford University.
Richard Atterbury
Non-Executive Director
Richard is a non-executive director of Agfe, having joined the firm in 2010. Richard has held positions including Vice Chairman at Nomura International, Co-Head of European Capital Markets at Lehman Brothers as well as Global Co-Head of the Financial Sponsors Group at both Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley. Richard is a Board Director at Alta Advisors, Factern Ltd, Draper Oakwood Royalty Capital and of the Economic Advancement Programme at Open Society Foundations. He is Chairman of both New Philanthropy Capital and With Love All Things Are Possible. Richard is a graduate of Jesus College, Cambridge.
Karl Essig
Partner
Karl joined AgFe in 2012 and applies his experience across the firm with a particular focus on the aircraft and trade finance businesses. Karl started his career in 1980 and spent over 20 years at Morgan Stanley where he was latterly Global Co-Head of Structured Finance. During his time at Morgan Stanley, Karl founded and ran the US, European and Asian structured finance businesses. Karl has a B.A. from Stanford University in Political Science and an M.B.A. from Yale School of Management.