Justin Adams is currently Business Unit Leader for Venturing in BP Alternative Energy (the dedicated cleantech division of the BP Group). In this role he is responsible for investing in early and growth stage cleantech businesses of strategic relevance to the Group. He serves on the Board of a number of the companies within the venture portfolio. His team is also responsible for spinning out and incubating new businesses resulting from BP’s global university partnerships.
Mr Adams joined BP plc. in 2003 as Director of Long Term Technology working for the Chief Scientist. He led the development of the Group’s Long Term Technology Strategy laying out a strategic roadmap to 2030 and supported the initial set up of the Hydrogen Energy, biofuels, distributed energy and clean coal businesses.
Prior to joining BP Mr Adams was the founder and CEO of High Power Lithium a Swiss company developing next generation battery materials for hybrid electric vehicles in collaboration with Toyota. He was also an advisor to Konarka Technologies, a Massachusetts based start-up, developing next generation solar cells utilising conducting polymers and nanostructured materials.
Before this he worked as a consultant with Arthur D. Little, ultimately leading the Advanced Energy Systems practice in Europe, delivering strategic and techno-economic consulting on emerging energy technologies to many of the world’s leading energy majors, and supporting technology start ups develop commercialisation pathways.
Kevin is CEO and Director of concentrator PV cell company QuantaSol Ltd., a spin-out from Imperial College London who secured their seed round funding of £1.35M in June 2007, and are now manufacturing prototypes of their innovative Quantum Well solar cells, which promise world beating efficiency and spectral performance.
QuantaSol are in the process of raising an ‘A’ round of £7M to finance product development and the recruitment of manufacturing Operations, R&D and sales and marketing teams.
Prior to QuantaSol, Kevin operated his own portfolio executive practice, and held senior roles with young high growth companies such as Sitel Semiconductor, Si-Light, Izezi and Quantemol, and worked with BskyB, RBS and PepsiCo in various leadership development roles. Before this, in corporate life, he held executive positions with a number of multinational semiconductor businesses, including Director of EMEA Sales and Marketing for TRW LSI Products, Director of EMEA Sales, Marketing and Operations for Raytheon Semiconductor and Vice President Global Sales for Mitel Semiconductor, and has a total of 25 years experience in Semiconductor sales and marketing.
Gene T. Barton Jr. is a principal in the corporate and securities group in the Boston office of Fish & Richardson PC. Mr. Barton focuses his practice representing private companies venture capital, and private equity firms as well as mergers and acquisitions. Prior to joining Fish & Richardson, Mr. Barton was a partner at Choate, Hall & Stewart LLP.
Some of Mr. Barton¹s notable projects have included the sale of Published Image, Inc. to Standard and Poors, Inc.; the sale of Cross Industry Communications to Protocol Holdings; the sale of The Credit Network to Kroll; and the sale of Beacon Fiduciary Advisors to the Bank of New York.
He has also been involved with many venture capital financings including the financing of Sentient (formerly known as ebizjets) by Credit Suisse First Boston¹s Private Equity Group, the financing of E5 systems by Bain Capital, and the financing of HomePortfolio in its ³angel² and four rounds of venture capital financing.
Mr. Barton is admitted to practice in Massachusetts and is an active member of the National Association of Corporate Directors. He received his J.D., magna cum laude, from Boston University School of Law in 1982 and his B.A., cum laude, from Boston University in 1979.
Rudy Burger is a leading expert in digital technologies and international business development. Over the past twenty-five years, he has founded five companies in the US, run a European public company, and served as a senior executive for two global 500 companies. He is an effective, dynamic leader with a proven track record in strategic planning, change management, and business development. In addition to being the Chairman and CEO of US Development Partners, Dr. Burger serves on the boards of several US and overseas companies including Quester Capital Management and Motorola's Research Visionary Board. He is a frequent keynote presenter, and is the author of numerous books and articles on the business of technology.
Before becoming Investment Director at London Seed Capital Rob was the Investment Manager for its sister organisation London Business Angels where he acted as the ‘gatekeeper’ to the network. Prior to London Business Angels he was the market analyst for the University of Ulster's technology transfer and new ventures vehicle 'UUTech', where he analysed and managed 'Proof of Concept' and seed stage investments in IP-led businesses. Having founded his own digital media technology company in 2000, Rob went on to work for a strategic marketing company specialising in pre IPO, venture capital backed, Silicon Valley technology companies. During his time in Silicon Valley he was awarded employee of the year from the late Fred Hoar. Rob holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Information Technology Systems and Business and a BSc (Hons) in Biomedical Science from the University of Glasgow.
Daniel is the founder of Tribeka Ltd, creator and developer of the SoftWide system, the multi award-winning and revolutionary process for the retail selling of computer software (including games, business applications, and educational software).
SoftWide licenses and manufactures discs and full product packaging fully equal in quality to the traditional version, on demand to customers in the store in 2 to 3 minutes at each individual store.
With a showcase store launched at London Heathrow airport Terminal 4, Tribeka is now to license SoftWide to retailers worldwide.
Prior to Tribeka, Daniel held the positions of Assistant Vice President, Equity Systems at Credit Lyonnais and Executive in Derivative Pricing Systems division at Banque Paribas.
Mark Emanuelson has directed major sales, business development, and marketing teams around the world in high technology and media industries.
Currently, Mark leads a 100 person sales, marketing, and business development team in Central and Eastern Europe for Cisco Systems, the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. His responsibility is stretched across 18 countries focusing on the fast growing emerging markets of the new European Union entrants. Previously, Mark led service provider marketing for Cisco across Europe, Middle East, and Africa, developing broadband and services strategy with some of the largest and most strategic telecommunications companies in the region.
Mark started with Cisco in Silicon Valley, California, where he led e-commerce development and Internet marketing. Cisco has one of the largest e-commerce sites in the world today handling tens of millions of dollars worth of online transactions each day. Mark also launched the first major online community for Cisco in 1999 that today is generating over 1000 posts per day from members across 120 countries worldwide.
Prior to his career with Cisco, Mark led Internet marketing for Adaptec, another high technology firm based in California. Before joining the technology sector, Mark had a six year career in the media business as a sales account manager for some of the largest media firms in the USA including Gannet, Scripps and others.
Mark Emanuelson holds a Masters of Business Administration from Santa Clara University located in Silicon Valley, California, where he graduated with honours. Now, he resides near London in the United Kingdom.
Will co-founded Ubiquisys in 2004 inspired by his frustrations of poor mobile coverage and high mobile costs at home. Prior to this, he developed the hugely successful wireless innovation centres for Lucent Technologies – inventing and developing innovative solutions based on cellular, WiFi and IMS technologies. He also led Lucent’s EMEA business development for fixed wireless.
Previously Will was with Racal Electronics' radio division where he held a number of key positions including head of their Saudi Arabian operation. More recently Will pioneered the creation of the Femto Forum to bring direction and a voice to this fledgling industry.
Judy has over 25 years experience in the computer industry with a focus on software, digital media, online advertising & consumer internet.
Before joining Accel, Judy was Corporate Vice President of MSN Global Sales and Marketing at Microsoft managing the business across 40 markets worldwide. She joined Microsoft in 1994 to launch MSN in the UK and went on to manage MSN Europe. Later she ran MSN International and then MSN Worldwide.
Prior to Microsoft Judy held various product development and marketing positions at Hewlett Packard and Apple Computer.
Judy has been ranked among the top 20 most influential European business women by the Wall Street Journal Europe, as one of Time’s five "People to Watch in International Business" and received the Women’s Leadership Award at Microsoft.
Steve Howell is a former journalist with national and regional newspapers and BBC Wales radio and television. He founded Freshwater, then named Howell Associates, in 1997 and has developed the business from a freelance consultancy to become one of the leading public relations agencies in the UK.
As chief executive, he has overseen a growth strategy involving nine acquisitions since 2004 to create a business combining a regional network with specialist teams in technology, consumer, health and public affairs and a range of marketing support services. Freshwater now has nearly 140 staff in nine locations, including Glasgow, Cardiff, London and Brussels. The Group listed on AIM in July 2007 through a placing raising £4m.
Steve graduated in economics and history from the University of Sheffield and is a member of the Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations. He is currently the PR representative in Wales of the European Ryder Cup Board.
Andy Jones leads the Business Process Services line of business of Xerox Global Services Europe. Andy’s responsibilities range from service offer development to business development. Business Process Services helps clients streamline and automate document-intensive business processes via a portfolio of process aligned outsourced services.
Andy has over 25 years experience in the document and content management arena. During his time at Xerox Andy has been responsible for the introduction of new service offerings working closely with the Xerox R&D community plus specialist partners. Prior to Xerox his career included founding a design consultancy group, heavily involved in the introduction of CAD / CAM to many engineering companies and also a member of the management team of a start up document management technology business. Andy has three children and a passion for sailing.
Over the last 20 years, Troels has been active in the international health care sector and has worked predominantly in commercial roles ranging from Product Manager for large multinationals to Managing Director for public, listed companies. Employment ranges from Leo, Denmark; J&J Orthopaedics, UK; Genzyme and IsoTis in The Netherlands; to Clinical Cell Culture (C3) Ltd and Bone Medical Ltd.
Troels' technology background ranges from absorbable medical devices to cell therapies, including more traditional orthopaedic implants and devices. Troels started working with cell therapies back in 1996 when he became part of the commercial cell therapy pioneers Genzyme, launching Carticel® in Europe, where he was responsible for 14 quarters of consecutive growth. Since then Troels has been responsible for all commercial aspects with IsoTis, who initially focused all initiatives on regenerative therapy and C3. Under Troels’ stewardship C3 obtained product approvals for 2 cell therapy products in more than 30 countries and established distribution network with more than 160 sales reps.
Today Troels is based in Cambridge with his family. Over the last 8 years Troels has been a part of Management Teams raising in excess of EUR 120 million and today has a broad network of venture capital and corporate finance contacts. Troels has two international management and marketing degrees.
Chief Juicer and Founder of BrainJuicer Group PLC now regarded as one of the leading innovators in the international market research industry.
John’s role in conceiving, inventing and leading BrainJuicer made him Ernst & Young’s ‘Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year’ in 2005. Prior to BrainJuicer John founded innovation agency, Brand Genetics Ltd which invented new products and services for large blue-chip companies. Before starting his first business, John had been Planning Director of one of Publicis’ UK advertising agencies. John started his career over 20 years ago as a graduate of Unilever's management programme rising to be a senior marketer at Elida Gibbs before moving into advertising.
John’s recipe for entrepreneurial success is; creativity, resilience, determination, perseverance, stamina, drive, imagination, resourcefulness, courage, self-belief, commitment, ability to go without sleep and a touch of madness.
Martin is the partner responsible for establishing IBM Venture Capital Group in EMEA in 2007. This group is part of company’s commitment to innovation in the venture capital community. Previously, he led business development in public sector and healthcare businesses in lBM Ireland. He has worked in the industry for 18 years in a variety of technical, project management and business development roles for firms including PWC Consulting, Masterfoods Europe, H.J.Heinz UK and Bank of Ireland.
Martin has an MBA from Smurfit Business School and a BSc in Information Systems from Trinity College, Dublin.
Simon Kerry became Karus’s first Chief Executive Officer in May 2006: he has more than fifteen years business development and general management experience in the life-science sector. Karus is a spin-out from the University of Southampton focused on the discovery and development of new drugs to treat cancer and inflammatory disease. Karus has successfully completed seed and angel rounds and secured an important co-development deal in 2007.
Prior to joining Karus, Simon was Director of Business Development at Ablynx NV (Ghent, Belgium) where he played a key role in the company’s rapid growth, which included securing major licensing agreements with top-ten pharmaceutical companies.
Prior to joining Ablynx, Simon occupied key business development positions within the Active Biotech group, including International Business Manager at Actinova Ltd, General Manager at Actigen Ltd, Business Development Director at Active Biotech AB (Lund, Sweden) and Vice President Business Development at Isogenica Ltd, a spin-out from Active.
Simon has a life-sciences PhD and an MBA from Loughborough University Business School
Saul Klein joined the London office of Index Ventures as a Partner in 2007. His primary focus is on internet services, ecommerce and online advertising companies. He currently sits on the boards of Glasses Direct and Openads.
Before joining Index, he served as the global vice president of marketing and e-commerce for Skype (recently purchased by eBay). Prior to Skype, Saul co-founded and served as CEO for Video Island, an Index-funded venture that recently merged with LoveFilm to become Europe’s leading online home entertainment service. He is also a founding partner of The Accelerator Group, where he was an active seed investor in both US and European start-ups including Moo, Netlog, Astley Clarke and Last.fm (CBS).
Saul held management positions at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond; served as the senior vice president for Firefly Network (acquired by Microsoft), and was director of digital communication at WPP’s Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide.
Saul is dedicated to broadening networking opportunities for Europe's young entrepreneurial community and in 2007 he initiated the now global Opencoffee event. He has also recently launched Seedcamp, an organisation dedicated to helping young entrepreneurs access a network of great mentors and seed funders.
From 2004-07, Tony Kypreos held the position of Group Executive Vice President - Business Development & Innovation at T-Mobile International, where he led three business units reporting to the Group CEO. His group’s responsibilities included upstream development for core propositions / key differentiators, user experience design, new business models, roadmap priorities and the European Product Creation Centre.
Prior to T-Mobile, Tony spent 4 years as a partner in a US / Europe venturing company and was previously European Vice President, Strategic Services at Omnicom Group (Agency.com) – an agency specializing in multiple digital channels, including mobile, digital TV and Internet.
His Telecoms and Technology experience is reinforced as a consumer champion from 9 years in international consumer goods sales & marketing at Nestlé SA and Diageo Plc.
Most recently Tony has been involved in a range of non-executive and advisory roles including; representation of HM Consulate (Western USA) to encourage FDI into the UK, Telecoms investment strategy advisor for a Global Japanese Private Equity organization, Non-Executive Director Wecomm Ltd, Board of Advisors TagText Ltd and strategic advisor to the board of leading Polish mobile operator.
Tony holds a BSc in Physics & Electronic Systems, Brunel University and an MBA from the Henley Management College.
Andy is the Research Director for Eco-Efficient IT at The 451 Group. He has been studying, analyzing and writing about the IT industry for more than 20 years, enjoying a career as an award-winning journalist and technology publisher before becoming a full-time analyst.
Before joining The 451 Group, Andy was cofounder and Editorial Director of London-based Infoconomy, publisher of Information Age magazine. Prior to that, he was the Editorial Director at ComputerWire, a global IT news service. He was also the founding editor of London-based Computer Business Review magazine, where he pioneered critical, in-depth business coverage of the IT industry in the European press. Andy is frequently invited to appear at conferences, on TV, and in podcasts and webinars discussing developments in enterprise IT.
Jeremy Leggett, Executive Chairman, Solarcentury has been described by Time Magazine as "one of the key players in putting the climate issue on the world agenda." He was an award-winning scientist, oil-industry consultant, and Greenpeace campaigner before setting up the UK's leading solar energy company Solarcentury.
He is a director of the world's first private equity renewable energy fund, Bank Sarasin's New Energies Invest AG, served on the UK Government's Renewables Advisory Board and is chairman of SolarAid, a charity started in 2006 with a share of solarcentury’s operating profits.
Jeremy is also an associate Fellow at Oxford University's Environmental Change Institute. His first book "The Carbon War" has been described by the Sunday Times as "the best book yet on the politics of global warming", whilst the recently published ‘Half Gone’ has been described as the “book of the year” by The Independent on Sunday.
The Wall Street Journal calls Gerd one of the leading media futurists in the world. He is the co-author of the influential book The Future of Music (2005, Berklee Press), as well as the author of Music2.0 (January 2008, self-published), and of "Open is King" (Fall 2008). Gerd's background is in music (he won the Quincy Jones Award in 1986 and is a graduate of Boston's Berkee College of Music) as well in technology and the Internet (former CEO of LicenseMusic, and currently as CEO of Sonific.com). Gerd's work focuses on the overlap zones of music & content, technology, communications and culture, and he is considered an expert on topics such as Web/Media 2.0, social networking, copyright vs. technology, online content commerce models, media convergence, mobile entertainment, the future of advertising and branding, and future scenarios for digital content, and next generation business models.
Gerd's keynotes, speeches, and think-tanks are renowned for his hard-hitting, provocative yet inspiring and motivational style. With over 50 engagements in the past two years Gerd has addressed global audiences in the sectors of recorded music & music publishing, radio, TV, film/video and broadcasting, online gaming and virtual worlds, telecom & wireless, and advertising and branding. His clients include SonyBMG, RTL, ITV, the BBC, France Telekom, German Telekom, Orange, LebWeb3, Financial Times, TribalDDB, the European Commission, Nokia-Siemens, and many others. Gerd is a fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts (London), and resides in Basel, Switzerland.
Steve Lewis has founded and built three category defining, sector leading companies since becoming an entrepreneur in 1993. Currently, he is the Founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Teneros Inc. Teneros has developed a new category of solution for mission critical Exchange email application continuity and data protection called the Teneros Application Continuity Appliance™ for Microsoft Exchange 2003 & 2007.
Formerly, Mr Lewis was CEO of All Covered, the leading outsourced IT services company in the small business arena. Under Steve's leadership, the company grew from a single small office to the largest outsourced IT provider to small business in the US. Prior to building All Covered, Steve co-founded Pharmanex, today the world’s leading phytopharmaceutical company as a subsidiary of NuSkin (NASDAQ: NUS).
Steve has focused much of his career on global business and emerging markets. In 1993 he co-founded one of the first venture firms focused on building new enterprises in China, Generation Ventures. While at Generation Ventures, he co-founded both Guangzhou HuaMei Telecommunications, China’s first Broadband telecommunications company, and Pharmanex.
Zickie Lim is an associate in the corporate finance team of Mills & Reeve LLP. She has advised in relation to over 40 university spin-outs from institutions including the Universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Sheffield, UEA, Essex, Warwick and Aston.
Her recent spin-out deals include acting for Metalysis Ltd, a metals extraction company which spun out from the University of Cambridge and the reverse takeover by Oxford Advanced Surfaces Ltd (which spun out of the University of Oxford) of AIM listed Kanyon plc. Zickie also acts for a number of early stage venture capital funds, some of which invest in university spin outs, including a number of university challenge funds.
Zickie has recently published a suite of documents and know-how for the spin out process in Practical Law Company, the leading supplier of precedents and training to the legal profession.
Claude London is the Launch Director of BBC Worldwide’s Commercial Media Player and as such is responsible for overseeing the growth and management of the commercial strategy, product development and launch of the product. Additionally Claude coordinates the marketing strategies to develop a strong brand proposition for the service. As a result of this, he is directly involved in the continual monitoring of and communication with the commercial market. This role sits within the senior management of BBC Worldwide’s Digital Media Division and as such is a central part of BBC Worldwide’s long term digital strategy.
Before joining BBC Worldwide, Claude was the Vice President of Digital Operations at Warner Music International, where he was central to driving digital commerce expansion, growing revenues from $5M to $95M over two fiscal years. Prior to that he worked at management consultancy Bain and Company in the US, working across multi-billion pound media and technology accounts.
Stuart founded Ascendant in late 2003. He studied engineering before taking an MBA at Manchester Business School. Since graduation he has been consistently involved in corporate finance either as a client or in an advisory capacity. Prior to Ascendant worked for Hill Samuel, Nomura, Regent Associates and Cobalt Corporate Finance. He was a founding member of Nomura’s technology team in 1995, and has raised many millions of pounds for high growth technology companies and advised on M&A transactions both in the UK and throughout the world. A notable success was the flotation of Xaar plc on the main London market. More recently, Stuart set up and led the Private Equity/Fund Raising operations of Regent Associates. He then moved to Cobalt, where he was one of two directors who established the business as one of the leading technology focused corporate finance boutiques in the UK. Stuart has worked with businesses from start up right through to final exit.
Since 1997, he has been one of the key researchers in the area of Venture Capital Investment in Technology Companies. His team produce quarterly research notes highlighting, inter alia, “hot areas”, funds invested, number of deals completed and most active investors. This research has been cited in many journals including the FT, Electronics Weekly, Real Deals, Silicon South West, and Young Company Finance.
His clients have included, inter alia, ACAL Energy, Trampoline Systems, AKJ Associates, Impaq AG, Skinkers, Focus Solutions plc, Edenbrook, Screen Pages, Staffcare, AIM Technology, Sun Microsystems, Nvigorate, Visual Approval, Vicorp, Terahertz Photonics, Broadreach Networks, Zygon, Opsys, Mergermarket, Mercator Systems, Widget Group, Summit Document Management, Systems Union, Magenta Logic, PayShop, Connect Communications, Radiant Networks, Xaar, RAMAR, and Logos.
Tim Minshall is a lecturer at the University of Cambridge Centre for Technology Management and a non-executive director of St John’s Innovation Centre Ltd, Cambridge.
Before joining the University of Cambridge, he was an executive director at St John's Innovation Centre Ltd managing a series of projects to support industry / academic collaboration focused around new technology ventures. Two of his main projects were the setup and early management of the University of Cambridge Entrepreneurship Centre (now Cambridge Enterprise and the Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning) and the management of the 'Developing Entrepreneurs' project. ‘Developing Entrepreneurs’ led to the formation of the 'Enterprise Link' networking group for new technology ventures, the production of the annual 'Cambridge Technopole Report', the formation of the Cambridge Technopole Group, the setup of the University of Cambridge Enterprise Network, and the publication of the 'Funding Technology' report series.
Prior to working at St John's Innovation Centre, he worked as a teacher, consultant, plant engineer and freelance writer in the UK, Australia and Japan. He has B.Eng. from Aston University and a PhD from Cambridge University Engineering Department.
Simon Murdoch is founder and CEO of FriendsAbroad.com Ltd, a company running two language-related web services: doyouspeak.com and friendsabroad.com.
doyouspeak.com is on online English language school providing multimedia language lessons given by native English-speaking teachers. friendsabroad.com is a language exchange website for people who want to practise their language skills and develop friendships with people from other parts of the world.
Previously, Simon was VP Europe of Amazon.com. He managed huge growth from start up in late 1996 through to multimillion turnover and hundreds of staff, ie from founding of his own Internet bookselling company Bookpages in late 1996, through acquisition by Amazon.com in April 1998, launch of Amazon.co.uk in October 1998 and ultra-high growth through 1999.
He is also co-founder and partner of Episode 1 Partners Ltd, an early stage technology investment company. Episode 1 invested and managed the $100m Chase Episode 1 Fund which was launched in early 2000 to invest at start up or early stage in Internet and technology businesses such as Betfair.
Simon has also invested directly as a business angel and advised as non-executive chairman or director a number of software technology and Internet businesses based in the UK including LoveFilm (DVD rental), Shazam Entertainment (music recognition) and Commerce Decisions (e-sourcing solutions).
As VP of Marketing, International Ziv Navoth is responsible for the creation of an engaging user experience to attract and retain users. Prior to joining Bebo Ziv founded and ran Verve, a boutique management consultancy offering strategic advisory services to leading companies in the US, UK and elsewhere. Verve's client list included Google, Microsoft, BBC, Infospace, RealNetworks, Network Appliance and many others.
Before founding Verve, Ziv was Managing Director at Startup Station Plc; a private equity firm he founded and then sold to a UK public company. Ziv was also a co-founder of Tagma, a Logistics consultancy and Automatic For The People, a CD-vending business.
Before founding Startup Station, Ziv served as Executive Director at the Institute for Technology and Enterprise, New York's premier Management and Technology research centre. His work at the Institute focused on the disruptive effects new companies have on established businesses.
Ziv holds Bachelor's degrees in Psychology and Philosophy from Tel-Aviv University and an MBA in Innovation, Strategy, Information and Technology from the Theseus Institute in France. Ziv is also the author of Nanotales - a collection of short short stories.
John O’Donohue has spent over 20 years in the Wireless Technology sector, building wireless networks, marketing & selling networks and developing next generation wireless technology.
He set-up Motorola Ventures in Europe in the 2003 and now has expanded Ventures internationally to cover Israel and China. Motorola Ventures invests in emerging technology companies which are strategic to Motorola. In particular, technology companies focused on mobile video, WiMAX and next generation network technologies.
John has built up Motorola Ventures to be the global No2 Corporate Venture Investor. In 2007, Motorola Ventures invested in 17 new portfolio companies and had 7 exits.
Ian Pearson entered the House of Commons in the first by-election after Tony Blair was elected leader of the Labour Party in December 1994. He was appointed as a Minister in the Northern Ireland Office in November 2002 having previously served as a Government Whip and on the Education and Employment Select Committee. Ian takes a deep interest in industry, treasury and regional policy issues. He was Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Paymaster General at HM Treasury from 1997-98 and served on the Treasury Select Committee as an opposition back bencher before the 1997 General Election.
Before his election, Ian headed up WMEB Group, a West Midlands based economic development company providing development capital to small and medium sized companies and consultancy to a range of public and private sector clients. Previously he has worked for a large accountancy practice, a national urban charity and a firm of strategic policy consultants.
Ian Pearson has a degree in economics and politics from Balliol College, Oxford, and a master's and a doctorate in industrial and Business Studies from Warwick University.
Chris is a world-leading specialist in value-driven corporate strategies for exploiting IT, and Director of Dominic Barrow. He works with executives in industry-leading companies around the world, helping them to integrate strategic IT investment and exploitation into their mainstream business management, with advice and mentoring, hands-on help, facilitation and skills transfer.
Chris has twenty-two years’ experience in corporate, business and IT strategies, IT investment management, enterprise architecture and hands-on IT delivery. His public seminars in Europe and Australasia “Corporate Strategies for Exploiting IT” are founded on his own breakthrough work with clients and are attended by executives, managers and IT specialists from blue chip organisations.
He is also a regular – and sometimes controversial – conference speaker. In 2007 he was ‘keynote’ and ‘featured’ speaker at Enterprise Architecture conferences in London and Sydney respectively. In April 2008 he will be the keynote speaker at the IT Strategy 3.0 Conference in Sydney, presenting “IT Strategy is Dead: Now What?”
In the USA, the global CIO website CIO.com has awarded him the accolade of Expert in his field. In February 2008 his groundbreaking book “fruITion: Creating the Ultimate Corporate Strategy for Information Technology” is scheduled for publication, also in the USA. In the UK he is a member of Computer Weekly’s panel of Strategy Clinic experts, and the Strategic Planning Society.
Chris has published numerous articles on strategies for exploiting IT, the CIO’s strategic positioning and evolution, investing in change, and delivering business value. He has trained partners and consultants from some of the world’s leading consultancies.
Allyson Reed, Director of Strategy and Communications at the Technology Strategy Board, is a commercial business leader with a scientific academic background.
She was previously Director of Innovation Partnerships at QinetiQ plc and prior to that Commercial Director of a national research laboratory where she headed technology transfer, developing a substantial commercial collaboration programme including licensing and setting up CLIK, the technology transfer company, the Rainbow Seed Fund, a portfolio of spin-outs, and a joint venture science park and incubator with an RDA.
Following early research as Rosalind Franklin Fellow at Cambridge University, Allyson has held senior management roles in a number of international healthcare, engineering and communications businesses. Until recently she was CEO of 3CResearch, a company commercialising research in new digital media.
She has extensive experience of public and private sector innovation, of the business and people skills needed to accelerate sustainable new business and of engaging large and small organisations in enterprise.
Nigel leads PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Vision to Reality Programme in the UK. This programme offers a wide range of services to entrepreneurial companies. Nigel is passionate about this sector and PwC are committed to helping build tomorrow’s best companies.
Nigel is an audit partner. In this role, he co-ordinates PwC’s wide range of services to his clients, by building a deep understanding of their businesses. This enables him to help them build value in areas as diverse as developing business plans and executing strategy, making and integrating acquisitions, moving into overseas markets and creating wealth for shareholders through flotation and trade sale.
Nigel also runs a networking and seminar club for Venture Capitalists, who are looking to invest in dynamic companies. He is also a regular speaker and a variety of industry and accountancy events.
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Having appeared in the first and second series of Dragons' Den, Doug is the founder and Chairman of Library House, Founder and Vice-Chairman of the Cambridge Angels, Chairman and CEO of Trutap, and Chairman of the Conservative Party Small Business Task Force.
Doug is a successful entrepreneur with 20 years' experience in the development and leadership of technology and software ventures, both in the US and in the UK. Between 1996 and 2000 he was President and CEO of Micrografx, a US publicly-quoted software company which he sold to Corel Corp. in 2000. Prior to that he also founded and subsequently sold two other companies: Visual Software and ITAL Computers. Doug holds a BA in Psychology from University of California at Berkeley and a Juris Doctor at the school of Law, University of California at Los Angeles. In 2006 Doug was an Honorary Recipient of The Queen's Award for Enterprise Promotion. In 2007, Doug became a fellow of the RSA.
Ernie Richardson, CEO & Managing Partner of MTI, is a graduate Chemical Engineer and Chartered Management Accountant with a long career in finance and general management roles in various process industries prior to joining MTI in 1985. This included periods with Ciba Geigy in Switzerland, British Steel and a spell in international banking with the Royal Bank of Canada. His final position before joining MTI was as the Chief Financial Officer in a start up venture in the oil processing sector.
He is a Director and Chairman of several of MTI’s investee companies with a general focus on software and communications. At MTI he has been responsible for a number of MTI’s most successful transactions and became CEO & Managing Partner in 2003. He is also active in a number of industry bodies including membership of the Council of the BVCA.
As Regional Manager for Central England, Wales and the Channel Islands, Mark is responsible for all business development and customer relationship management activity with the London Stock Exchange’s Primary Markets customer base from across these regions. This includes providing guidance to Boards and Management teams of both quoted and private companies as well as Corporate Finance Advisers and Investors on stock market-related issues, including, pre-flotation evaluation and procedures for AIM, the Main Market and the Specialist Fund Market, corporate governance, investor relations and share-trading liquidity provision. In addition, Mark also manages the London Stock Exchange’s Regional Advisory Groups - a series of UK-based groups comprising market participants that form part of the London Stock Exchange’s formal consultation process.
Mark joined the London Stock Exchange’s Company Services team in May 2000, becoming Regional Manager in 2004. Prior to that, Mark spent three years in retail and corporate banking with HSBC including the investment support division of First Direct.
Mark is a Chartered member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM).
Mark Shorrock is the founder of Low Carbon Investors, the investment manager of Low Carbon Accelerator.
Since 2003, Mark has worked with a group of advisers to identify business solutions to climate change seeking out fast growing businesses capable of reducing CO2 emissions immediately and uncovered numerous strong management teams and solid business models which, in many cases, were synergistic with other potentially fast growing businesses. It was this preparatory work which led to the formation of Low Carbon Investors and Low Carbon Accelerator.
Mark was formerly founder and CEO of Wind Energy Ltd, the UK's largest independent developer of wind farms with over 650MW of onshore wind power in planning in Scotland which has recently sold a majority stake to the US multinational AES, creating a substantial return on investment for its founder shareholders.
Mark's early career was in the film industry where he produced a number of films and set up a number of drama and film productions.
Mike’s career spans 33 years in Electronics and Telecommunications, with the last 20 years in Mobile Communications. He was appointed Contracts Director of Cellnet in 1989 dealing with major infra-structure investments and UK interconnect agreements. In 1993 the focus moved to launching Cellnet’s GSM service and establishing Roaming Agreements.
He was elected Chairman of the GSM Association for 1995/96 and served on their Executive Board for 5 years. He has also served as a member of the UK Home Office Internet Task Force and UK OSAB (Ofcom Spectrum Advisory Board) until 2006 and 2007 respectively.
Mike has chaired the MDA since 1998, leading the Association as Chairman /spokesperson and on Public Policy.
He was appointed VP Technology for O2 Group in 2000, Visiting Professor at Surrey University in 2003 and to the Coventry University Board in 2006. He is a Fellow of BCS/CIPS/RGS, a Member of IET and the Royal Television Society
Mike’s focus today is on Third Generation cellular, Mobile TV and steering Telefonica O2 Europe’s Group Research and Development in mobile.
Malcolm Skingle has a BSc in Pharmacology/Biochemistry and a PhD in Neuropharmacology. He has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for more than 30 years and has gained a wide breadth of experience in the management of research activities.
Part of his former role as a research leader in a Neuropharmacology department involved co-supervising collaborations with academics in the UK, Europe and USA.
He has more than 60 publications including articles on the interface between industry and academia. For more than a decade he has managed Academic Liaison at GSK and has staff in Stevenage, Research Triangle Park and Philadelphia. This role involves close liaison with several groups outside the Company e.g. Government Departments, Research and Funding Councils, Small Biotechnology Companies and other science-driven organisations.
He sits on many external bodies including the BBSRC Strategy Board, the East of England RDA Science and Industry Council, the CBI academic liaison group and several UK University Department advisory groups. He also chairs several groups including the BBSRC Bioscience for Industry Panel, the Diamond (Synchotron) Industrial Advisory Board, the Inner Core Lambert working group on boilerplate agreements and the ABPI group working on academic liaison.
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