Permira has appointed John Tang as a senior adviser to its services team.
Based in London, Tang will work with Permira’s services team and portfolio company management teams to accelerate AI-led transformation and help identify and build the next generation of AI-enabled services businesses. The firm said he brings "deep expertise" across AI, data, product and engineering and will support the team both in deal sourcing and in working alongside portfolio companies to build and scale AI capabilities.
Tang has more than 20 years of experience across AI, data science, technology and investing. Most recently, he led the EMEA Technology Solutions arm at Cerberus Capital Management, where he was responsible for technology and AI strategy across deal sourcing, due diligence and portfolio value creation.
Previously, Tang held senior data and AI leadership roles at Barclays and JP Morgan. As chief data scientist at Barclays’s UK Information Business, he led the commercialisation of data and AI capabilities serving more than 20 million retail customers. Earlier, as Head of EMEA for J.P. Morgan’s Big Data and AI group, he helped develop and execute data and AI strategy across the business.
Tang began his career as a research scientist at the University of Cambridge and remains active in the technology ecosystem as an adviser, mentor and angel investor.
Philip Muelder and Daniel Brenhouse, partners and co-heads of services at Permira, said: “AI is creating a significant opportunity across the services ecosystem, not only to transform established businesses, but also to build entirely new company categories. We believe the winners will combine deep domain expertise with technology, proprietary data and AI to deliver better outcomes for customers and scale in fundamentally different ways. John brings a rare combination of investment judgement, technical depth and operating experience and we’re delighted to welcome him to the team.”
Ben Rogers, global director of AI Value Creation at Permira, added: “We are already seeing AI move beyond productivity tools to reshape products, workflows and entire service delivery models. The opportunity is increasingly not just to use AI within a services business, but to redesign the business around AI. John has spent his career at the intersection of AI, technology and commercial value creation and his experience will be hugely valuable as we partner with management teams to turn that opportunity into tangible growth and competitive advantage.”
Tang, senior adviser at Permira, said: “AI is fundamentally reshaping services companies, blurring the boundaries between people, software and technology. Permira has a strong track record of backing ambitious teams to build category leaders, and I’m looking forward to working with the team to help identify and build the next generation of AI-native services businesses.”
