Zeina Bain is a self-confessed “nerd”. She likes visiting the factories of the companies that she invests in, and trying to get to know the staff. She joked: “I get the really glamorous ones, like the frozen food factory. In Poland. In December. In heels.”

Take Carlyle's buyout of paper and packaging maker Chesapeake last year for over £400 million. During the deal, Bain visited 10 carton factories to see what was happening on the ground. Glamorous it is not, but this attention to detail has helped the firm's investment director rise to prominence and led her to be named one of Financial News' rising stars of private equity executives under 40 in 2013, as well as one of the most influential female executives working in the European financial market.