About us

We are Kathryn and Carlos, a married couple with a young son.

Carlos grew up in Madrid, Kathryn grew up in Surrey, and we met at university in 2012. We got married in 2017, and welcomed our son in August 2024. We now live in London, enjoying life with a very energetic toddler!

Although our careers have been different, we have always shared one thing in common: a desire to build something that has a positive impact on people’s lives.

Carlos began his career as a lawyer before moving into strategy, where he helped organisations grow. He later became Chair of a non-profit running club, where he worked with volunteers to grow the community, make the organisation financially sustainable, and improve the experience for members.

Kathryn started in strategy and investing, and later worked with businesses on sustainability – helping them increase their positive social and environmental impact as they grow.

In every team we’ve led, we’ve cared deeply about creating supportive environments, psychological safety, and inclusive spaces where people can learn, grow, and stay for the long term – values that now shape how we think about early years education.

A few years ago, while travelling after visiting Kathryn’s family in Argentina (that’s where our website cover photo comes from!) we made a decision: we wanted to run our own family business – one that was built around people, and that had genuine social impact.

That’s when we launched Norte Partners: a search fund backed by a small group of long-term investors and mentors, with a simple ‘north star’ goal (“Norte” in Spanish) – to partner with a people-focused business, preserve its legacy, and help it grow with family values at its core. 

Why Early Years

Although we were initially looking at a broad range of people-focused industries, we quickly became fascinated by Early Years education – inspired by our own journey as parents! 

When we went back to work, we tried to place him in a local nursery. However, the experience was not what we had hoped for. We were fortunate to later find a nursery we trusted. 

But we kept thinking: parents shouldn’t have to be lucky. With early childhood being such a critical stage of development, high-quality early years education should be the norm, not the exception.

We began to think about how we could help more families access childcare that is not just safe, but also genuinely ambitious in trying to give children the best possible start in life.

We had a simple idea: to find nurseries that were already doing something special, and help continue that legacy. To support their teams, protect their culture, and, over time, help them reach more children.

That is what brought us here.