Laurie Pinto joined Cambridge Wilkinson as a managing director of its sports and entertainment division.

Pinto has had a long career in banking, including experience in cross-border investments and deal structuring. He started in the banking industry in the early ‘80s and has worked in a variety of senior roles that required transaction execution and team management skills. More recently, he has been involved with building and then selling his interest in his last venture to Everbright Sun Hung Kai, which is a China-focused advisory business.

In 2021, Pinto was appointed as an external advisor to the Facebank Group and currently advises the founder and team on football related interests. Facebank Group is a technology company engaged in developing and promoting human likeness technologies and their applications. The group also has purchased stakes in four major football clubs.

In the mid ‘90s, Pinto became a director of Commerzbank before joining U.S. firm DLJ International as a director to run the company’s agency hedge fund business. After DLJ was taken over, Pinot joined Dresdner Kleinwort as a director.

In 2003, Pinto was appointed chairman of the board of Pali International, a broker dealer firm which built into a business between London, New York and Singapore. Pinto headed the platform out of the United States and focused on event driven funds and cross border mergers and acquisitions. His appointment lasted until 2008 when he joined North Square Capital, initially as chairman of the board and then as CEO. Since then, alongside his family interests, he has diversified his activities. Pinto was a director of the House of Britannia from 2015 to 2017 and a senior advisor at Momenta Group Global from April 2018 to September 2021. In 2018, he also started working as a senior consultant for Blackstar Capital and was appointed chairman of the board in 2019, a position he held until 2021.

“We are thrilled that Laurie has joined our sports and entertainment practice. His is among the most connected in the space across the globe. We have a number of sports related clients currently that will benefit from his deep experience and look forward to scaling the platform further with him,” Rob Bolandian, co-founder and global head of investment banking at Cambridge Wilkinson, said.