He specialises in advising on nursery deals, leading the childcare practice part of the business, as well as schools and skills.
Kanwar joined Cairneagle in 2015, and has more than 20 years’ experience, in consulting at LEK and PwC, as well as working in industry, including as head of UK mergers and acquisitions at Bright Horizons, the country's second largest nursery group.
He is a regular contributor to Nursery World, and writes the market view column.
Founded in 2001, Cairneagle focuses on education, including early years, K12, tutoring, SEN, further and higher education, corporate training, edtech, and service provision to institutions.
It undertakes strategy and commercial due diligence work both in the UK and globally. It has four partners leading the firm – Rupert Barclay, Jorge Amirola, Arun Kanwar, and Sam Lecacheur.
Earlier this year, Cairneagle joined forces with national law firm VWV to bolster their combined businesses in the education sector.
Kanwar is taking over from Rupert Barclay, who is staying on as a senior partner.
He said, ‘I am excited to continue the journey of building Cairneagle and adding value for our clients. Working alongside my fellow partners and our talented team – we have exciting ambitions for growth and our service delivery over the coming years. I’d like to thank Rupert for all he has done to build the firm and support his fellow partners, and look forward to his continued mentoring.’
Barclay said, ‘It’s an enormous pleasure to be handing over the reins of managing the business to Arun with whom I have worked closely over the last seven years. I can’t think of a more able person than Arun to lead the firm at this time in its development and I look forward to supporting him in this new role.’