Lehman Brothers has formed an advisory council for its European private equity business to boost its deal sourcing abilities and assist in due diligence.

Lord Baker of Dorking, the Conservative peer, is the council's chairman. He is joined by Eric van Amerongen, the Dutch former head of Lucent Technologies in Europe; Rodolfo Bogni, former chief executive of UBS Private Banking; Emilio Novela, former chief executive of Vallehermoso, Spain's largest real estate company; and Lorenzo Pellicioli, the former chief executive of Seat Pagine Gialle, the Italian yellow pages directory business which became Europe's largest buy-out deal when it was sold to a consortium of private equity houses for €5.6bn ($6.9bn) last year.