Welcoming Adele Likin, Professional Triathlete, to Clavana
Clavana is pleased to welcome Adele Likin to the team. A professional Ironman 70.3 athlete with multiple top-five finishes, she now brings the same sporting discipline and consistency into deal origination at Clavana. After six years working with senior executives at Amazon (AWS), she brings a strong foundation in relationship-led engagement that aligns closely with Clavana’s approach.
Welcoming Adele Likin, Professional Triathlete, to Clavana
Clavana is pleased to welcome Adele Likin to the team, joining our Origination & Outreach function as part of the Elite Athlete Program.
Adele brings a rare combination of deep experience operating inside one of the world’s most demanding commercial environments, alongside the mindset of a high-level endurance athlete competing on the Ironman 70.3 professional circuit. Her background sits at the intersection of relationship-building, structured execution, and long-cycle performance - exactly the profile we look for in modern deal origination.
Before joining Clavana, Adele spent six years at Amazon (AWS), where she built a strong track record engaging senior executives, shaping complex conversations, and moving relationships from first contact to meaningful, outcome-driven dialogue. Her work required gaining access to decision-makers, navigating multiple stakeholder perspectives, and building trust in environments where clarity, credibility, and preparation matter.
That experience translates directly into origination: understanding how to open the right doors, how to structure the right conversations, and how to move opportunities forward with professionalism and momentum.
Before her business career, Adele rowed at the University of Washington, where she developed the competitive mindset, resilience, and team-first approach that still define how she operates today. More recently, she has been competing at a high level on the Ironman 70.3 circuit, where she has delivered multiple top-five finishes and a podium result in elite fields, and is now stepping into the next phase of her racing career as she competes on the professional circuit.
Endurance racing rewards patience, consistency, and the ability to execute well over long horizons - the same traits that define excellent origination work. Progress is built through preparation, discipline, and showing up day after day with the same standard of intent and focus.
At Clavana, Adele brings together her commercial experience and athletic discipline to strengthen the top and middle of funnel for our private equity and corporate clients. She is highly collaborative, deeply people-oriented, and thrives in environments where multiple moving parts need to align around a shared goal.
She joins a growing group of Olympic and emerging professional athletes powering Clavana’s Elite Athlete Program - a model built on the belief that these high performers, supported by rigorous commercial training, become exceptional originators.
“Adele brings a very special combination of energy, maturity and experience,” said Lara Hughes-Francis, Co-Founder of Clavana. “She has operated in high-pressure commercial environments, understands how to engage senior decision-makers, and brings a team-first, performance-driven mindset that fits perfectly with the culture we’re building.”
We’re delighted to welcome Adele to Clavana and excited to see the impact she will have as she builds relationships, opens doors, and helps our clients uncover opportunities others don’t reach. Welcome to Clavana, Adele Likin!
The Clavana Elite Athlete Program
Clavana’s Elite Athlete Program was created to support world-class athletes as they pursue their competitive ambitions while building meaningful careers beyond sport.
We recognize that elite athletes share many of the same qualities that make outstanding dealmakers: resilience, competitiveness, focus under pressure, adaptability, and exceptional communication. They are driven, disciplined, fiercely independent, and equally at home collaborating in teams to achieve something greater than themselves. These are the same traits that power success in origination, relationship management, and leadership within the financial and professional services industries.
Through the program, Clavana provides hands-on professional experience in origination, business development, and deal sourcing. This naturally aligns with the athlete mindset of persistence, curiosity, and continuous improvement.
The initiative offers both economic and structural support, creating a bridge between athletic excellence and future professional pathways. It helps athletes gain transferable skills, build networks, and develop commercial acumen while maintaining the flexibility required to train, travel, and compete at the highest level.
“Our goal is to create opportunities that not only recognize the discipline and intensity it takes to compete globally, but also provide a meaningful platform for transition, from sport to professional life,” said Clive Cooper, Co-Founder of Clavana, who has also enjoyed a remarkable career representing New Zealand in duathlon and continues to compete internationally. “This is about empowering exceptional individuals to thrive both on and off the field.”
By launching the Clavana Elite Athlete Program, the firm aims to champion those who embody the same grit, intelligence, and focus that drive success in investment and entrepreneurship - and to help them build futures that are as purposeful as their athletic careers.
About Clavana
Clavana partners with leading private equity funds, portfolio companies, and acquisitive corporates to deliver AI-driven market mapping, proprietary research, and fiercely effective deal origination.
Built on a simple belief - people power deals, not spreadsheets - Clavana represents a new breed of M&A origination: modern, human, and results-driven.
By combining data science with senior origination expertise, Clavana cuts through noise to uncover the right off-market opportunities and connect clients with the deals that move the needle.
Headquartered in the United States with a global, remote-first team, Clavana helps today’s dealmakers buy better, build better, and sell better.