About Vertus Alliance

Matthew Marais

CEO

Matthew Marais is responsible for the Vertus Alliance. After completing a business science honours (finance) degree at Cape Town University, Matthew worked for Accenture, before joining the Lombard Insurance Group as a portfolio manager. He subsequently joined Lombard Life Limited as the executive head of partnerships and new business development. It was here that Matthew became a founding director of BrightRock, a successful life insurance challenger brand in South Africa. Matthew has been focussed on debt and equity deals in the intermediary sector (financial advisers, insurance brokers and MGAs) for ten years. He is a certified financial planner (CFP®) and has practised as an active wealth and risk adviser in South Africa. Matthew is one of the founding directors of Vertus Capital Limited.

Morten Urdal Bakke

Commercial Director

With more than 10 years’ experience from private equity and management consulting, Morten has extensive knowledge across strategy, M&A, capital planning and funding. Morten represents Explore Equity, where he is an Investment Director and has worked since the firm was set up in 2016. Outside Vertus, Morten also supports multiple firms in the financial services industry in the Nordics.

Morten lives in Oslo, Norway, together with his partner and their wide assortment of running shoes.

Lyon Botha

Chief Financial Officer

Lyon oversees financial strategy, operations and growth initiatives at Vertus. He previously provided outsourced CFO and COO services through his consultancy practice, providing strategic business reviews, acquisition due diligence and operational and financial direction for businesses. He was also the CEO, and prior to that CFO, at an international financial advisory business with over $1bn under advice.

Elizabeth Thomas

Head of Compliance

Elizabeth joined Vertus to head up our regulatory compliance and risk function, which supports partners as well as Vertus head office. She worked in financial advice and legal practices, most recently having previously held Senior Management Functions 16 (Compliance Oversight) and 17 (Money Laundering Reporting Officer) roles at Argentis Group. During her tenure at Argentis, she oversaw risk and compliance in five regulated entities, including the integration of acquired firms.

Nicholas von Roretz

Commercial Manager

Nick is a qualified chartered accountant. After qualifying with EY, Nick has worked with private equity-backed startups to listed entities in a range of industries in South Africa, Sweden and the UK. At Vertus, Nick is responsible for business partnering between finance and operations, driving strategic initiatives and supporting sales.

Ciara Ó Murchadha Flynn

Portfolio Manager

Ciara serves as the day-to-day liaison between Vertus and its partners. She works closely with leadership teams across the portfolio to support strategic priorities, operational initiatives, and ongoing growth efforts. Before joining Vertus, Ciara spent more than eight years in financial services at Paragon and Wellington Management, where she held a range of sales and relationship management roles serving large institutional clients.

Jacob Lynch

Management Accountant

Jacob began his career at Omnicom Media Group as an analyst, building a strong foundation in financial reporting and commercial analysis within a global media environment. He then advanced to Freud’s Group, where he played a key role in the in-house accounts team, supporting senior stakeholders with management accounting and business-critical financial insights. Jacob studied Accounting, Business Finance and Management at The University of York and is currently pursuing his ACCA qualification. A keen lacrosse player and coach, Jacob enjoys staying active both on and off the field.

Maria Wrench

Financial Reporting Manager