Previously, Helyar was chief executive and chairman of International Private Equity Services, which she co-founded. She also co-founded another firm, Jacana Venture Partnership, which invests in sub-Saharan African emerging growth capital investment management firms.  

She also holds a directorship with a Belgium clean tech fund and sits as a non-executive director on a number of private equity funds' boards.

In other recent developments, in October Charles Parkinson, a specialist in commercial property and alternative investments, was appointed as a non-executive director of Legis Group. He is also a board member of Bailiwick Investments, which helped fund the company’s management buyout in March 2012.