Innovators & Investors Forum 2016
Simon Strong

Simon Strong, Head of Research, Growth Companies - Cenkos Securities (CNKS)

09.45 , 14.05

Simon has worked in financial markets for twenty three years, as both a UK equity fund manager and a sell-side analyst.  His analyst background is in the Technology sector. He has formally covered Technology equities since 1999 and been involved in numerous successful fundraisings and IPOs.   He currently acts as Head of Research for the Growth Companies Team at Cenkos.

Mike Boydell

Mike Boydell, MD - Shares

09.45

Mike is Managing Director of AJ Bell Media and has overall responsibility for the business, covering print, online, events and third party solutions. He was previously founding MD of ADVFN plc, which was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 2000. He has hosted and presented at hundreds of investment-focused events and has appeared on BBC Radio and TV, ITV, Sky, CNBC, Bloomberg, Al Jazeera and was a regular commentator on LBC radio.

Ian Dighé

Ian Dighé, Executive Chairman - Miton Group

09.50

Ian Dighé has over 25 years of direct market experience in the financial services industry and public markets.  He was formerly a Director of Manchester & Exchange Investment Bank, McLeod Russell Holdings Plc, and as Head of Corporate Finance at Singer & Friedlander Ltd. in 2000, he led the management buyout of Singer & Friedlander Corporate Finance, which laid the foundation of the Bridgewell Group Plc, where he remained as Deputy Chairman until its sale in August 2007. 

He formed Matterley Asset Management in late 2007, a Fund Management business whose interests were acquired by Charles Stanley Group Plc in September 2009.  Ian is also a non-executive director of Strategic Equity Capital Plc and a director of various private companies and charitable trusts.

Dr. Mark Payton

Dr. Mark Payton, CEO - Mercia Asset Management (MERC)

10.05

Mark is CEO of Mercia Technologies PLC, having led the flotation in December 2014 and before that the management buyout of its precursor Mercia Fund Management in 2010. Latterly he led the acquisition in 2016 of Enterprise Ventures. Mark chairs the executive committee and the boards of Mercia’s wholly owned fund management businesses (Mercia Fund Management, Enterprise Ventures and EV Business Loans). In addition he sits on the board of portfolio company Oxford Genetics and has portfolio responsibility for PsiOxus Therapeutics.

 

Graeme Purdy

Graeme Purdy, CEO - ILIKA (IKA)

10.20

As CEO of Ilika, Graeme’s work has revolved around the commercialisation of energy storage technologies and in particular, solid-state batteries. Ilika is a pioneer in solid-state devices. Graeme has been with the company since it was founded and has steered it through three rounds of venture funding before floating it on AIM. Graeme holds degrees in Natural Sciences and Chemical Engineering from Cambridge and an MBA from INSEAD business school in France.

Tony Stiff

Tony Stiff, CEO - Flowgroup (FLOW)

10.35

Tony Stiff is CEO of Flowgroup plc, the energy innovation and services business.  Tony has played key roles in a number of challenger energy companies, including founding Atlantic Electric and Gas and building his own energy software business.  Prior to joining Flowgroup, Tony was Commercial Director at Bglobal plc, the AIM-listed smart metering company. 

Elizabeth Gooch, MBE

Elizabeth Gooch, MBE, CEO - eg solutions (EGS)

10.50

Elizabeth Gooch pioneered the introduction of production management methodologies into the service sector and used these techniques as the basis for achieving improvements in customer service and guaranteed cost reduction for clients.

As a recognised leading British IT entrepreneur, she designed and launched the eg operational intelligence(r) software suite to deliver sustainable benefits.

eg solutions pioneered the back office optimisation market, now worth approximately $3bn and eg's software is now recognised as the most complete purpose built back office optimisation suite in the world.

Gavin Lavelle

Gavin Lavelle, CEO - Brady (BRY)

11.40

Gavin joined Brady in September 2007, with over 25 years’ experience in the international financial software and banking industry. Prior to Brady, Gavin worked in investment banking for over 10 years with Banque Paribas as Head of Equity Derivative Trading and latterly as Director of Deutsche Bank, heading up Global Equity Derivative Trading. Gavin then founded RioFin, a software company focusing on capital makets, which was subsequently acquired by Sunguard.

John Cronin

John Cronin, Executive Chairman - Cyan (CYAN)

11.55

John Cronin is a highly successful Chairman and CEO across international markets in the Technology, Media and Telecommunications sectors including Smart Metering, IT Software, Telecommunications, Utilities and Managed Services. John’s contribution to high-tech industries includes key roles at Antenova, GCI Com, Aria Networks, Picochip, Arqiva, i2, Cambridge Networks, Netsource, Mercury (C&W). He has created significant value for shareholders with four company exits of Picochip, Azure Solutions, i2 and Netsource Europe totalling $600m.

Julian Smith

Julian Smith, CFO - Abzena (ABZA)

12.10

Julian is a Chartered Accountant with 18 years senior experience in listed and privately held technology companies. 

He joined the Abzena Group in 2013 as CFO to assist the privately funded acquisition of Antitope; taking the Company public in July 2014 raising £20m; and a secondary placing in 2015 of £20m to support the acquisitions of two US bio technology service providers, Pacific GMP and TCRS.

Prior to this he spent over seven year as a CFO of Imperial Innovations plc guiding it through its IPO, two secondary placings raising £196m, and arranging a £30m loan with the EIB. 

Julian has an MA in Engineering Science from Magdalen College, University of Oxford.

Phil Reason

Phil Reason, CEO - Instem

12.25

Phil is an experienced chief executive who has developed a number of IT businesses in the life sciences and nuclear industries, organically and through acquisition. He joined Instem’s former parent company in 1982 and was appointed Managing Director of the Life Sciences division in 1995 and CEO following a demerger in 1998. Given the importance of the North American market to Instem’s organic and acquisitive growth, Phil relocated from the UK to the US in 2003, establishing a new headquarters in the Philadelphia area.

Richard Penny

Richard Penny, Senior Fund Manager - Legal & General UK Alpha Trust

13.50
Richard started his investment career in 1992 and has been a fund manager since 1994. Most recently he has been the manager of the Legal and General UK Alpha Trust, winner of the Money observer best UK Growth fund award in 2009, 2010 and 2011. The Fund is an aggressive stock picking Fund looking for investments that can double or more over three years. It uses a mix of deep value and strong growth strategies.
Russ Mould

Russ Mould, Investment Director - AJ OLD

14.05
 
Russ Mould has 26 years' experience in the capital markets. He started at Scottish Equitable in 1991 as a fund manager and in 1993 he joined SG Warburg, now part of UBS investment bank, where he worked as an equity analyst covering the technology sector for 12 years. Russ joined Shares in November 2005 as technology correspondent and became Editor of the magazine in July 2008. He was appointed as Investment Director in summer 2013 following AJ Bell's acquisition of Shares' parent company, MSM Media.
Mark Taylor

Mark Taylor, CEO - Equiniti Financial Services

14.05

Mark joined Equiniti in 2009. He has overall responsibility for Equiniti’s regulated business including Selftrade, wealth management services and international payments.

Mark has over 30 years’ experience in the financial services industry with a track record in managing start-ups and turnarounds in the retail investment space. He was previously Director at Virgin Money and Egg Invest and has held senior positions at Fidelity and Charles Schwab.

Mark is also a NED for Abundance, the UK’s first regulated social investment platform.

Mark Fahy

Mark Fahy, Head of UK Small & Mid-Cap Companies - London Stock Exchange Group

14.05

Mark is Head of the UK Small & Mid-Cap team at the London Stock Exchange covering UK Equity Primary Markets. Mark is also specifically responsible for the North of England, Northern Ireland and Scotland and as part of that role manages the Exchange’s relationship with over 300 quoted companies on both the Main Market and AIM. He has further responsibility for the Exchange’s relationships with private companies considering flotation and the Advisory and Financial Sponsor community across the same regions. Mark also supports the ELITE programme across the UK Regions, ELITE is a unique platform designed to help the UK's most exciting and ambitious private companies prepare and structure for their next stage of growth.Previously he was an Institutional Fund Manager running a UK Pension Fund and is also an Associate of the Society of Investment Professionals.

Nicolas Serandour

Nicolas Serandour, CFO - Advanced Oncotherapy (AVO)

14.30

Nicolas Serandour joined Advanced Oncotherapy (AVO) in September 2014 as Chief Financial Officer.

He has over 15 years of experience in the investment banking industry, having worked at JP Morgan, Lehman Brother and Lazard, where he was responsible for coordinating the European Healthcare sector coverage. He has extensive experience providing strategic and financial advice to senior executives at leading healthcare companies internationally. He brings with him a great combination of finance, capital allocation, value-based planning and strategy skills.

Andrew Newland

Andrew Newland, Chief Executive - ANGLE (AGL)

14.45

Andrew Newland is the founder and Chief Executive of ANGLE plc.

Andrew has an MA in Engineering Science from the University of Cambridge and is a qualified Chartered Accountant. Andrew has co-founded and led eleven technology companies in partnership with world class research organisations, both in the UK and the US.

Andrew was a founder of ANGLE’s Parsortix non-invasive cancer diagnostics and has lead ANGLE’s team building this business since 2005.

Andrew Scaife

Andrew Scaife, CEO - Quantum Pharma (QP.)

15.00

Andrew joined Quantum as Finance Director as part of the MBO in 2009, and became Managing Director in 2010. Since then, Andrew has guided the Group through a period of significant organic and acquisitive growth, as well as setting and delivering the strategy which is currently being followed.

Prior to joining the Group, Andrew spent 12 years at KPMG, qualifying as a Chartered Accountant in 1999, following which he spent 10 years in the corporate finance team, latterly leading KPMG's corporate finance business in Newcastle.

As well as knowledge of the markets in which the Group operates, Andrew has expertise in finance, corporate transactions, corporate finance, integration of acquired companies and crisis management.

Nick Ball

Nick Ball, Group FD - Plastics Capital

15.15

Nick, who is the Group Finance Director of Plastics Capital, joined in October 2005. Previously he spent 10 years working at Deloitte & Touche, initially in Audit and then in Corporate Finance, where he principally worked on financial due diligence for manufacturing businesses and lead advisory work for the private equity industry. He has also worked in leveraged finance at ScotiaCapital. He is a graduate of Bath University and is an ACA accountant.

Bruno Jactel

Bruno Jactel, CEO - TyraTech (TYR)

15.30

Dr. Jactel was appointed as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in January 2013. He spent 12 years at Merial Limited, the Animal Health subsidiary of the Sanofi Group as combined Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Marketing Officer. Before Merial, Dr. Jactel was Deputy Minister for Economic and Commercial Affairs at the French Embassy in Washington D.C. Prior to that, he was Assistant Professor at National Veterinary School of Alfort, Paris. Dr. Jactel is a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and has a Masters in Economic Sciences from the Sorbonne University in Paris.

Dr. Arnab Basu

Dr. Arnab Basu, CEO - Kromek (KMK)

16.15

Dr Arnab Basu MBE, CEO, has a PhD in physics from Durham University, specialising in semiconducting sensor materials. Arnab held senior management positions in his family business which manufactured materials for the electronics industry. He worked in commercial product development for Elmwood Sensors Ltd, (Honeywell Group, UK). A prominent figure within the business community, he was awarded Ernst and Young 'Entrepreneur of the Year' (2009) and received an MBE for services to regional development and international trade (2014). 

Jamal Rushdy

Jamal Rushdy, CEO - Collagen Solutions

16.30

Mr. Rushdy is CEO of Collagen Solutions Plc (AIM:COS) and brings over 20 years of experience in the medical device industry in successful entrepreneurial and high growth public companies. Prior to joining Collagen Solutions he served in senior commercial and operational leadership positions leading global orthopedic and biologics product marketing teams at DJO and Tornier. He has helped achieve successful exits for private equity and angel investors as a founding member or senior executive of four medical device companies.

Simon Clifton

Simon Clifton, Founder & Chief Technology Officer - Satellite Solutions Worldwide (SAT)

16.45

Simon has a background in satellite broadband product development that goes back twelve years, and was one of the founders of SSW. Simon has developed the company’s satellite broadband product portfolio, and is responsible for the IT and network infrastructure including SSW’s in house IT system Aurora which forms the interface between back-office systems, customers and the satellite owners’ own networks. This enables SSW to deliver real time multi-currency, multi-lingual sales order processing, support and provisioning across multiple satellites, 24/7.