The speakers during the Doing it Right London programme have dedicated their time to assist programme participants to stand out from the crowd, allowing entrepreneurs to enhance their company's ability to attract funding and cultivate invaluable relationships.
Speakers:
Robyn Abraham, International Capital Solutions
Brigitte Baumann, Founder and CEO, Go Beyond Ltd
Nick Beare, Investment Manager, Creative Capital Fund
Chris Blake
David Bloom, Managing Director, fdunlimited
Steve Brown, Tenon Group
Simone Brummelhuis, Founder and CEO, The Next Women
Karen Cooper, Partner, Osborne Clarke
Sophie Cornish, Co-founder, notonthehighstreet.com
Sherry Coutu, Cambridge Angels
Natalie Diep, Partner, Morrison & Foerster
Maria Dramalioti-Taylor, Founder & Managing Partner, Protos Capital
Brian Evje
Jenny Fielding
Isabel Fox, Founder, IF Communications
Celia Francis, CEO, WeeWorld
Cynthia Francis, CEO & Co-Founder, Reality Digital
Andrew Gaule, Founder, H-I Network
Judy Gibbons, Accel Partners
Sally Goodsell, CEO, Finance South East
Jennifer Grabowski, Associate, Osborne Clarke
Daniel Green, CEO, BioCeramic Therapeutics
James Gubbins, Partner, Morrison & Foerster
Dr. Chris Hollowood, Principal, Apposite Capital
Rowena Ironside
Robert Jenkins, Chairman, Protos Capital
Emmet Kilduff, Founder and CEO, cmypitch
Lyn Leaper, EPA, Ph.D, Vice President, Intellectual Property
Clare Logie, Director, Women in Business and Head of Sponsorship & Events Bank of Scotland Corporate
Emma Loisel
Ed Lukins, Partner, Morrison & Foerster
Cary Marsh, Founder and CEO, mydeo
David McMeekin, London Technology Fund
Hazel Moore, Chairman and Founder, FirstCapital
John Nuttall, CEO and Co-founder, First Columbus
Hugh Parnell, Great Eastern Investment Forum
Gary Reeman, Alpina Search
Whitney Rockley, Principal, Nomura
Sarah Ryan, Director, LexisNexis
Tracy Scribner, MMC Ventures
Andrew Seidler, Director of Taxation Services, Tenon Group
Saul Sender, Partner, Reed Smith
Anna Sofat, Founder, Addidi
Sue Stockdale, Director, Sue Stockdale Ltd
Dr. Glenda Stone, Founder and CEO, Aurora & co-Chair, UK Women's Enterprise Task Force
Amanda Tonsgaard, Director of Business Development, Capital Dynamics
Holly Tucker, Co-founder, notonthehighstreet.com
Mike Turner, Partner, Osborne Clarke
Dominique Valentiny
Permjot Valia, Help with Sales
Peter Vandervelde, Tenon Group
Jon Vollemaere, Founder & CEO Vollume
Sharon Vosmek, CEO, Astia
Sháá Wasmund, Founder & CEO, Smarta
Robert Wood, Associate, Osborne Clarke
Sarah Wyatt, Associate, Osborne Clarke
Bios:
Robyn Abraham, International Capital Solutions
Robyn Abraham is considered to be one of America’s top international ‘dealmakers’ having structured, negotiated and closed several of the most significant entertainment/sports/media and ‘branding’ transactions in the global marketplace. Trained by The Walt Disney Company in international legal and business affairs, Miss Abraham has structured and successfully closed cutting-edge transactions for Fortune 100 and multinational companies alike. Due to her extensive IP/IT content experience, she also consults on international biotech and pharmaceutical transactions. She has successfully negotiated and closed multi-figure transactions in a variety of industries in America, Europe, China, South America, Australia and New Zealand. Ms. Abraham is licensed as a UK Solicitor, a Washington DC and New York attorney, and holds several other US legal licenses. She also holds an MBA in international business from Georgetown University. Amongst her myriad transactions, include the negotiation of international entertainment franchises such as “High School Musical”, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” and “The Muppets”. Ms. Abraham also negotiated the Viacom takeover of Paramount Studios, and successfully negotiated and closed US National Basketball Association finance, franchise and licensing agreements.
She has been an invited speaker for the International Bar Association, the American Bar Association, INTA, the World Women Lawyers’ Conferences and British commercial entities. Miss Abraham also serves as a columnist for New York Park Avenue based Corporate Board Member magazine (www.boardmember.com) and consults for its sister company, Global Navigation. (www.globalnav.com)
Her pro bono work is dedicated to international efforts of protecting children.
Brigitte Baumann, Founder and CEO, Go Beyond Ltd
Brigitte is the Founder and CEO of Go Beyond Ltd., the European Angel Financing Services firm, www.go-beyond.biz . Go Beyond offers cross border investment opportunities, pooling, training/coaching, due diligence and investment monitoring services. Brigitte is a Business Angel and serves on a number of selection and investment committees in Europe. She is Vice President of the Board of the European Business Angel Networks association, and is on the Certification Board of CTI Start-Up, the Swiss agency promoting technology and innovation. Brigitte Chairs Young Presidents Organization’s www.ypo.org global Angel Investing group.
Brigitte Baumann has 20 years of experience in bringing new technologies to market in the US and Europe . She was the CEO and Director of iWORLD Group, a VC backed, global developer of mobile content. She came to iWG from American Express Corporate Services, where she held the position of Senior Vice President and General Manager Internet. There she launched a variety of new internet businesses including online travel (including Expedia.com), e-Procurement, online servicing of cards and online payment. Prior to that, Brigitte spent three years as President for US and Canada of GEMPLUS, the world’s leader in smart card technology and applications to orchestrate the introduction of smart cards to the US. She moved to GEMPLUS from American Express TRS Inc., where she had spent over six years in different Vice-Presidential/General Manager positions in the UK, France and Switzerland. She also spent five years with McKinsey & Company Inc. as Senior Engagement Manager, based in New York, Paris and Tokyo. She began her career in manufacturing and sales with Rohm & Haas, a leading specialty chemicals company.
Brigitte holds a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from Tufts University, Boston and an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. She has been the subject of a Harvard Business School case study.
Brigitte and her family live in Zurich. She is Swiss/French/US and enjoys triathlons.
Nick Joined CCF as Investment Manager in January 2009, and is the first point of contact for the fund. Nick has spent the last 10 years working in the creative media sector, working initially as a strategy consultant with PA Consulting group and then with in-house venture teams with The BBC, O2 and most recently as Investment Director at Liberty Global Inc. He has worked on over 20 transactions managing the creation of several start-up and early phase media ventures across TV platforms, channels and content, and also radio and mobile content businesses.
Chris Blake
Chris Blake has at various points in a varied career been an accountant, CEO of an international publishing company, dot.com entrepreneur, investment director of a private equity firm, fundraiser and private investor in small and early stage companies, lecturer and, occasionally, a recreational poker player. He lives on a smallholding in the Brecon Beacons.
He is a regular lecturer at London Business School, Warwick Business School and Oxford Brookes University and is involved either as investor, director, or advisor to the companies listed to the right.
David Bloom, Managing Director, fdunlimited
Experienced commercial international CFO in media and technology. 20 years working with fast growth public and private companies including Getty Images (NYSE: GTY), Glu Mobile (NASDAQ:GLUU), Keystone Software PLC (AiM) and KPMG.
Steve is Director of Corporate Finance for the South of England, based in the Reading office. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, and holds the Corporate Finance Qualification. He worked with Deloitte for over 20 years before retiring from the partnership in 2004.
Steve joined Tenon Corporate Finance in 2008.
Steve has over 20 years experience advising companies on mergers and acquisitions and fund raisings, and management teams and private equity houses on management buy outs and management buy ins, as well as general corporate advice to his clients.
Simone Brummelhuis, Founder and CEO, The Next Women
Simone Brummelhuis worked as a successful lawyer before becoming an entrepreneur by setting up her own B2B publishing company Brummsbooks. Thereafter, as co-owner and managing director IENS, she developed this start-up into the no. 1 user generated content database publisher of restaurant guides in The Netherlands. With the Europeanmuseumguide.com, she intends to do the same. She is in the jury of the Accenture Media Innovation Awards 2008, she presents the internet program SHE (interviews with business women) on Blueshotstv, she is on the UK Advisory Board of Astia.org, supporting women led high-growth companies. She sits on the NCL Committee, and is a frequent speaker through Women.Inc and TheNextSpeaker. She created TheNextWomen after a series she wrote about Female Internet Heroes at thenextweb.org, proved successful.
Karen is the partner who leads the incentives team at Osborne Clarke. She has over ten years experience in the design, implementation and communication of a broad range of employee incentives on a national and international level, including tax approved and 'all-employee' schemes, as well as 'executive-only' arrangements.
Karen advises a broad range of both privately owned businesses and listed companies on their remuneration strategies.
Karen is an active member of the Share Plan Lawyers Organisation and has a particular interest in corporate governance. She is the author of the chapter on directors' remuneration in "A practical guide to Corporate Governance" by Richard Smerdon, published by Sweet and Maxwell.
Co-founders of Notonthehighstreet.com, Sophie Cornish and Holly Tucker between them have over 30 years of media and marketing experience working with big brands, top five advertising agencies and major magazine houses. Both have also run their own small businesses and worked on the launch teams of internet start up companies. They met when they worked in advertising 12 years ago and became best friends not realising that over a decade later they would become highly successful business partners.
Sophie Cornish (previously also working as Sophie Vincenzi) has been both a journalist and marketeer. She first worked at the National Magazine Co on the staff of Cosmopolitan and Good Housekeeping magazines as a beauty writer and editor. She was a channel editor at IPC Media's online magazine, BEME.com, and she generated content and PR coverage for the launch of the print and poster website WorldGallery.co.uk. Her marketing and advertising career, built on the back of her fashion and beauty market experience, has included creative brand development for Boots No 7 and 17 cosmetics, and the management of advertising campaigns for L'Oreal brands and Monsoon fragrances. In the lead up to the launch of notonthehighstreet.com, she worked as a freelance journalist, writing for a number of print titles, including the direct-shopping title PS Magazine, Boots Health & Beauty Magazine, Woman & Home, Brides Magazine, and the Evening Standard, as well as writing a wedding planning book, Your Wedding Your Way (Ebury Press, 2003), and building her own small business offering floristry and event styling. Sophie is married with two children, who are ten and twelve.
Sherry Coutu invests in early stage companies and serves on the boards of companies, charities and universities. As an entrepreneur, Sherry established and successfully exited two web-services businesses. The first (acquired by Euromoney plc) now has operations in more than 70 countries. The second was floated before being acquired (by AMP plc). Sherry has more than 20 early stage investments in her portfolio and she likes the consumer internet, financial services and clean energy industries. Current company affiliations and investments include Linkedin, Lovefilm, New Energy Finance, CUP, Alertme, Covester, Reevoo, I2O, RM plc, Zoopla, and Summit plc.
Natalie Diep is a partner in the London office of Morrison and Foerster and is a member of the Corporate Group.
Ms. Diep advises on a wide range of corporate issues including equity offerings, private placements, IPO's and mergers and acquisitions. Ms. Diep’s practice covers a range of industries although she has a particular expertise in the Life Sciences area.
Ms. Diep’s representative transactions include:
• Acambis plc. Advising Acambis on the £276 million recommended takeover offer by Sanofi-Aventis, implemented by a court approved Scheme of Arrangement.
• Amsterdam Molecular Therapeutics. Advising AMT on its IPO on Euronext and related fundraising of €50 million.
• Songbird Estates plc. Advising Songbird Estates (the acquisition vehicle of Morgan Stanley) on its successful £1.6 billion public takeover offer for Canary Wharf Group plc.
Ms. Diep spent a year as Legal Counsel for the Equity Capital Markets department of Lehman Brothers before joining Morrison & Foerster.
Ms. Diep qualified as a solicitor in 1998.
Maria Dramalioti-Taylor, Founder & Managing Partner, Protos Capital
Maria has worked closely with early stage companies through her business angel investments, mentoring work and advisory role with PoCKeT fund. She invested as a business angel in two early stage technology businesses, acting as interim CEO in one and Board Observer in the other. She has mentored five start-ups (two of which were since sold) and served on the steering committee of PoCkeT, a pioneering fund with a portfolio of 50 investments at proof of concept stage. Maria started her career in the family construction business in Greece and continued in Britain with the award of a CBI scholarship in 1995 as an engineer with Thames Water. After her MBA (1996-97) she joined the Ernst & Young Management Consulting practice (now Cap Gemini) and in 2001 joined Andersen (now Deloitte) specialising in business e-enablement. Maria has presented in various conferences & training courses on angel investing & entrepreneurship. Maria has completed the Private Equity & Venture Capital executive course at Harvard Business School.
Brian Evje
Brian Evje (EV-yah) helps people and organizations manage change and growth – this involves organizational health, strategy, culture, change management, leadership development, performance improvement, coaching, and hiring the right people in the right roles. He has worked in human resources and business operations with early-stage and high-growth startups, public companies, the public benefit sector, and as a private consultant.
As the first head of human resources for Coverity, a software tools startup with funding from Foundation Capital and Benchmark Capital, he helped grow the company from 24 to 150 people in 30 months, and established international entities, operations, and teams in England, Japan, Canada, and Germany. Earlier, Brian was the first head of HR for R4 Global Solutions, a bootstrapped start-up provider of RFID solutions. He helped grow the company from 6 to 65 people in 18 months, a phase that included R4’s acquisition by VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN).
Currently, he is consulting to Offerpal Media, a startup developing groundbreaking pay-for-performance online advertising technology (with funding from Interwest Capital and Northbridge Venture Partners, and D.E. Shaw Investors.) Additional work includes coaching engagements, organizational consulting, and collaborating with UK Trade & Investment in advising US companies on expansion to Great Britain. Pro bono projects include working with the JFK University Elder Law Clinic, an advocacy group fighting elder abuse, and The Modern Preparatory Secondary Boarding School in Ithari, Nepal. Brian is a graduate of Santa Clara University.
Jenny Fielding
Jenny Fielding has a background in law and private banking and went on to found, build and exit a leading US Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology company. She began her career as a lawyer negotiating and drafting contracts in the US and the Netherlands and went on to work at JP Morgan in New York, where she cultivated and managed high net worth client portfolios. In 2005, Jenny established Switch-Mobile, a VoIP mobile software company, providing low-cost international calling from mobile phones. The disruptive technology filled a gap in the US market and the company went on to scale into Europe. Jenny was responsible for general management and strategy as well as forging key partnerships with international distributors, licensors, operators and investors. In 2007, Jenny sold the company and intellectual property rights to Via One Corporation, a leading international telecommunications and payment processing company. Since the sale of her company, Jenny has been advising US based VC's on global investment opportunities as well as working with technology focused companies to build valuations, obtain funding and attract suitable acquisition targets.
Isabel Fox, Founder, IF Communications
Isabel has ten years of experience in financial and corporate communications. In May 2008, she set up IF Communications, an agency purely focused on the venture capital eco-system. Its approach is to know the space and contacts to truly make a difference.
IF Communications is a small PR firm made up of full-time and freelance directors with experience in the technology, mobile and venture capital space. By focusing on a specific area, means the team are experts in the field, attend the global conferences, know all the key people and are on top of the trends. It's simply not possible when supporting clients across many sectors. IF Communications is based in London but with outreach in San Francisco.
Prior to IF Communications, Isabel was a partner at Ballard Associates, where her clients included DFJ Esprit, Atlas Venture, Kreos Capital, Caliburn Capital, Video Island, Index Ventures, Library House, SMART, NESTA, G2i, TLCom, Seatwave, Trutap and Reddington Partners.
Before Ballard Associates, Isabel worked for Cubitt Consulting supporting the corporate communications requirements of professional services firms across Europe. She managed the European PR campaign for Ashurst (Ashurst Morris Crisp), a leading European law firm, across five countries as well as ongoing work for Capco, international financial services company; Marsh Europe, top three insurance company; Liberata, insurance outsourcers and McLeod Phillips, specialist M&A boutique.
Isabel started her career at an investment bank before moving into financial PR, advising clients on IPOs/M&A and investor relations as well as working in the private equity space for Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Legal & General Ventures and Barclays Private Equity.
Celia Francis, CEO, WeeWorld
Celia has worked within the consumer electronics, internet, media and wireless industries for over fifteen years, in a variety of marketing and leadership roles. Celia has a passion for product design. Throughout her career Celia has focused on making consumer interactions with products and services simple, fulfilling, and, most importantly, fun.
Before joining WeeWorld, Celia worked at T-mobile as UK Head of Product Marketing and then Executive VP of Marketing. Celia led teams which developed and marketed a number of first-to-market products and services throughout the UK and Europe. These included Picture Messaging, SMS and WAP Chat, Java Games, T-Mobile Hotspots and the RIM Blackberry.
Before moving to the UK, Celia's love of design found an outlet at IDEO, one of the world's leading product design consultancies. Previous positions before this included VP of Marketing at Xtime (raising Series B funding and growing the firm from 5 people to 50), Director of Marketing at AltaVista and Director of Compaq's Consumer Internet Division.
Celia received a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. Her 'must have' WeeMee accessories are the light sabre and camera.
Cynthia Francis, CEO & Co-Founder, Reality Digital
Cynthia is a serial entrepreneur with extensive experience building and leading pioneering companies in digital media management and online media technologies. She has served as Chief Operating Officer for the Content Group and Chief Marketing Officer / VP of Business Development for eMotion, Inc., as well held positions at Apple and Eagle River Interactive. She is a well-respected leader in her industry and a frequent speaker at events such as Under the Radar, Digital Hollywood, DPAC, NAB, OMMA and more. Cynthia holds two degrees from the University of California at Berkeley.
Andrew Gaule, Founder, H-I Network
Andrew is the founder of the H-I Network and leader of the network for Innovation and Strategic Growth. The H-I Network helps enterprises generate, validate and develop new ventures in established organisations. Andrew facilitates a CV Senior Executive Forum which includes BT, BOC, Philips, Shell, Unilever etc. Andrew has contributed to a number of reports and articles on Winning Ideas for Strategic Innovation, Rewarding Entrepreneurial Talent and Innovation Performance Measurement and is a frequent conference speaker. Prior to joining Corven, Andrew was the entrepreneurial founder of Henley-Incubator and has been a senior executive in an IT services company and a business change and project manager. He was previously an international SAP project manager and commercial manager with Unilever where he managed major divisional reorganisations and IT projects. Andrew has an Economics degree from St John’s College, Cambridge, is a qualified Chartered Management Accountant and gained his MBA at Henley Management College.
Judy Gibbons
Judy Gibbons has over 25 years experience in the computer industry with a focus on software, digital media, online advertising & Consumer Internet. She currently serves as CEO of Mippin, serves on the board of Autoquake and is a board advisor to WeeWorld.
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 additionally covering South America, Asia Pacific and Japan and then MSN Worldwide including US Sales & Marketing. Judy also serves on the board of the Guardian Media Group and was previously on the board of 02, the European mobile network operator, until its purchase by Telefonica.
Prior to Microsoft Judy held various product development and marketing positions at Hewlett Packard, where she spent two years in Silicon Valley, and at Apple Computer where she was involved in the company’s early work in interactive multimedia and the Apple Newton PDA.
Judy has been ranked among the top 20 most influential European business women by the Wall Street Journal Europe for two successive years, as one of Time magazine’s five "People to Watch in International Business" and received the Women’s Leadership Award at Microsoft.
Judy holds an honors degree in Engineering and has undertaken executive education programs at Harvard Business School and London Business School.
Sally comes from a background in investment banking, having spent a number of years in corporate and structured lending with major financial institutions in the City. She joined Finance South East in November 2002 and has led the organisation through a period of rapid growth.
Jennifer Grabowski, Associate, Osborne Clarke
Jennifer is an Associate in our Thames Valley office and has experience of a broad range of corporate work. Her work includes the full range of M&A, joint-venture, corporate finance, private equity and venture capital transactions, as well as general company advisory matters. She acts for companies (both private and listed), institutions and private individuals and has particular expertise in cross border transactions.
Jennifer's recent deals include the management buy-out of Vanguard Healthcare, the sale of an Eastern European Bank to a Western European banking group and the purchase of a UK based distribution business by a an international competitor.
Jennifer trained at international law firm White & Case, qualifying in their London office in 2004 (after a secondment in their Singapore Office). She joined Osborne Clarke's Thames Valley team in January 2007.
Daniel is an experienced life sciences investor and entrepreneur. He co-founded Gendaq Ltd in 1998, and has worked in senior roles for life sciences investment funds HBM Partners (Zurich, Switzerland), Dresdner Kleinwort, and MVM (both London, UK) and other funds. He has served on many company boards, in the US, UK and France.
BioCeramic Therapeutics’ goal is to create smart materials that help the body repair itself. Its first target is bone repair and the company plans extend to the repair of any tissue. BioCeramic Therapeutics’ first generation of materials is based on tough ceramics which accelerate bone tissue growth.
BioCeramic Therapeutics’ second generation of materials is designed to promote tissue healing wherever it is needed.
James Gubbins is a UK-qualified partner in the London office of Morrison & Foerster.
Mr. Gubbins has more than 18 years of experience in the provision of advice on IPOs and other securities issues, private equity transactions and mergers & acquisitions. His clients include corporates, private equity funds and investment banks. Mr. Gubbins’ practice covers a range of industries.
Mr. Gubbins’ recent transactions include:
• Arrow Therapeutics Ltd. Advising the shareholders of Arrow, a privately owned UK biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of anti-viral therapies, in its $150 million acquisition by AstraZeneca;
• Domantis Ltd. Advising the selling shareholders of Domantis on the $450 million acquisition of Domantis by GlaxoSmithKline plc;
• Hunter Fleming Ltd. Advising the selling management and shareholders of UK biotech company, Hunter Fleming Ltd, in relation to their disposal of the entire issued share capital of Hunter Fleming to Newron Pharmaceuticals SpA;
Mr. Gubbins spent a number of years with Clifford Chance and joined Morrison & Foerster in 2005 from the London office of Weil, Gotshal & Manges.
Chris started his investment career as a fund manager with Neptune Management, with responsibility for Healthcare sector investments, before moving into Healthcare focused venture capital and corporate advisory at Bioscience Managers. He attained his first degree in Natural Sciences, specialising in Chemistry, and a PhD in Organic Chemistry, both from Cambridge University. Between his first and second degree, Chris worked in the pharmaceutical industry as a medicinal chemist at GlaxoWellcome (GlaxoSmithKline) and Pfizer.
Rowena Ironside
Rowena Ironside is a Business Angel based in London. She serves on several boards in the commercial and not-for-profit sectors and is actively involved with the London Business School entrepreneurial community, Enterprise 100. Rowena works with a variety of young companies to provide strategic advice and angel investment. She is also involved in fund-raising for the Microloan Foundation, a microfinance charity working in Malawi.
Before embarking on her current “portfolio career”, Rowena enjoyed an international career in the technology industry, holding senior executive positions in professional and managed services companies including Exodus Communications, Synon and Tandem Computers. Her responsibilities were cross-cultural, spanning the US, Europe and Asia Pacific. In the 1980’s, Rowena was one of the founders of Mentis Computing, a professional services company based in London that was successfully sold to Tandem Computers after 4 years of growth.
Rowena has an MSc. in Management from the London Business School (Sloan Masters, Distinction) and a BA in Business Administration gained in Perth, Western Australia.
Robert is a pioneer of the private equity industry in the UK. He joined Prudential Venture Managers in 1982 which he left in 1985 to found Phildrew Ventures and raise a £32m private equity fund – a record size for a start-up fund. The Second and Third funds were raised in 1988 and 1992; the funds achieved average net IRRs of 18%, putting two in the top quartile and one in the second quartile. Phildrew Ventures was sold to UBS Capital in 1998. Robert remained with UBS Capital until 2002 when he joined Bridgepoint Capital to manage some of their legacy portfolio. In 2002 he started investing as a business angel in early stage companies and has made six investments, joining the boards of four. Robert has presented at a number of European private equity conferences and more recently he has been a speaker on the Equity Entrepreneurship programme designed to impart investment skills to business angels.
Emmet Kilduff, Founder and CEO, cmypitch
Emmett is the son of a successful software entrepreneur, who became a business angel. He has a Degree in Business & Law and a Masters In The ‘Internet’. He spent 9 years in Investment Banking at Credit Suisse where he raised £10bn+ of equity funding for several European companies. His favourite deal was the moneysupermarket.com IPO, the world’s largest price comparison site. He left Credit Suisse in February 2008 to found cmypitch.com. It provides online services to support UK entrepreneurs and small businesses. He is a member of the UK Early Stage Investment Committee. Emmett has relevant and recent fund raising experience having raised £525k business angel funding in December 2008. In April he launched the world’s first business cashback website: companycashback.com. It enables any UK business to earn cashback on their everyday business purchasing.
Lyn Leaper, EPA, Ph.D, Vice President, Intellectual Property
Lyn Leaper was appointed to the role of VP of Intellectual Property at Astex in October 2002. In this role, Lyn is a member of Astex' senior management team and is responsible for all intellectual property issues within Astex.
Lyn holds an honours degree in biochemistry and obtained her PhD in plant biochemistry & molecular biology from The University of Birmingham.
Lyn is a qualified European Patent attorney with over 20 years experience in intellectual property. Lyn’s career in intellectual property began at The Wellcome Foundation Limited from 1988 to 1995. At Wellcome she worked on a range of topics, but with special responsibility for antiviral new chemical entities. Lyn became a senior patent executive at Wellcome and gained a wealth of experience in all aspects of intellectual property and contract work.
In 1996, Lyn moved to the Netherlands to work with Akzo Nobel N.V. to broaden her experience of European patent matters. At Akzo, she was a patent advisor for Organon, Intervet and Organon Teknika for all intellectual property related activities relating to the fields of depression, pyschoses, anaesthesia and parasitology.
In January 1998, Lyn moved to Janssen Pharmaceutica N.V. (a Johnson and Johnson Company) to establish and develop a Biotechnology group. In July 1999, she was made Director of Patents. In her new position Lyn assumed responsibility for the Biotechnology, GI and Oncology groups and an increased number of staff within the Patent Department.
Lyn returned to the UK in April 2001 to take up a position at Stratagem Intellectual Property Management Limited. In this role Lyn worked with a number of biotech companies in the Cambridge area including Astex, providing both intellectual property and contract advice.
Clare Logie, Director, Women in Business and Head of Sponsorship & Events, Bank of Scotland Corporate
Clare is Director of Bank of Scotland Corporate's (BoS) triple award-winning Women in Business programme, which aims to support and encourage women entrepreneurs and to showcase their contribution to all aspects of the UK economy, as well as supporting the advancement of women within BoS Corporate. She has pioneered the development of a women-led focus within the organisation and driven both an externally focused, PR and business development driven programme alongside an internal, employee-led agenda, to help ensure that BoS financial solutions, services and culture match the needs of today’s female client and employee. She also heads up the Bank of Scotland Corporate Sponsorship & Events function and was Chair of the Global Banking Alliance (GBA) for Women 2006 - 2008. Clare is a regular speaker at UK and international conferences and a regular contributor to media and publications in the diversity field.
Emma Loisel, Business Manager, KPMG Consulting
Emma began her career as a Criminologist before moving to the City to join KPMG Consulting as a business manager. During her tenure at KPMG she had 3 key roles; initially managing the Insurance Consulting practice, before becoming the Business Manager for the UK Consulting business; followed, at the request of KPMG’s Chief Executive, as Chief Operations Officer of Metrius, a Creative Consulting agency start-up under the KPMG umbrella. Emma went on to spend 3 years as the Chief Operations Officer and General Manager of two internet based businesses, Atlas Europe and Mediabrokers. Working with the founder, Emma scaled and prepared these businesses for sale to aQuantive LLC. The businesses achieved revenues of £28 million annually, leading to a maximum exit value following a two year earn-out. Emma holds a Masters in Criminology.
Ed Lukins is a UK-qualified corporate partner with experience in all areas of corporate finance law. His clients include public and private companies, private equity houses, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and banks. He has particular experience of advising companies in the technology sector.
Mr. Lukins has a focus on private equity, including advising on the establishment and marketing of funds, the making of investments and the structuring of deals on a domestic and cross-border basis. He frequently advises management teams and investors on management buy-ins, buy-outs, equity packages and incentivisation arrangements. He also advises companies through all the stages of their life cycle including seed capital, first and subsequent fundings, exits (including flotation and trade sales), public to privates and institutional buyouts.
Mr. Lukins began his legal career with Norton Rose and was a partner with Simmons & Simmons before joining Morrison & Foerster. He has spoken widely on corporate finance issues and is a regular commentator in the technology and business press. Mr. Lukins is a member of the British Venture Capital Association and the City of London Solicitors Company. He received his LL.M in International Financial Law from Kings College in London in 1989.
Cary Marsh, Founder and CEO, mydeo
Cary is the CEO and Founder of Mydeo.com. She graduated with an honours degree in Manufacturing Engineering from The University of Nottingham.
Cary launched Mydeo in 2005 following a DTI Research and Development grant for Technical Innovation. She has since gone on to raise over £0.5 million in funding for her start-up. Mydeo became the first and only service to be fully integrated into Microsoft’s Windows Movie Maker software. Mydeo now provides high-quality streaming video hosting to over 250,000 individuals, communities and businesses around the world.
In October 2007 Mydeo announced that Best Buy, the largest consumer electronics retailer in the US with market cap of over $20bn, were taking a minority equity stake in Mydeo, and would be using the Mydeo platform for its own bespoke video sharing service.
Mydeo won a commendation in the ‘Best Streaming Service’ category at the 2008 UK Internet Service Provider awards and has been named a Red Herring Europe 2008 finalist.
In July 2008 Mydeo launched its ‘Mydeo Media Manager’ enterprise offering aimed at the SME market. Mydeo Media Manager (m3) provides the high performance and reliable delivery of global CDN, but on more flexible commercial terms designed for small businesses. This includes low cost plans, no set-up fees, free premium reporting and no minimum contracts.
Cary regularly speaks at events about her passion for getting more girls interested in science and technology, knowing that enthusiastic role models can change lives.
Awards:
• Red Herring Europe 100 finalist 2008
• Blackberry Women in Technology Awards, Best Use of Technology Finalist 2008
• ISPA Awards, Best Streaming Service finalist 2008
• Everywoman Iris Award Winner 2007
• Red Herring Europe 100 finalist 2007
• Courvoisier ‘The Future 500’ list 2007
• Sharpe Edge awards, Best e-Company finalist 2007
• ISPA Awards, Best Streaming Service finalist 2007
• IWA Europe ‘Best Streaming Innovation’ finalist 2007
• Red Herring Europe 100 finalist 2007
• WebUser Magazine ‘Best New Websites’ 2006
• Blackberry Women in Technology Awards, Best Technology Entrepreneur finalist 2006
• HSBC Start-up Stars Regional Winner 2006
• NatWest Startup Awards, Best Use of Technology finalist 2006
• ISPA Awards, Best Streaming Service finalist 2006
• Digital Video Magazine Gold Award Winner 2006
• DTI Research and Development Grant for Technical Innovation 2004
David is Chairman of Company Guides Venture Partners, which manages the London Technology Fund (LTF), London’s specialist investor in new technology companies. LTF has to date made 16 investments in seven companies, acting as a key investor to help secure over £18m of equity funding for London-based high technology companies. He was also founder Chairman of the largest of the government's Regional Venture Capital Funds, The Capital Fund, from which he retired after six years following the acquisition of the fund management company in 2008. The Capital Fund has made over 100 investments in more than 70 companies and has now ceased making new investments. David was previously head of corporate finance at the stockbroker Greenwell Montagu before joining its parent, Midland Bank (subsequently HSBC), as head of corporate finance. At HSBC he established and chaired an in-house venture capital fund and helped to establish 11 regional venture capital funds on behalf of the Finance for Enterprise initiative by the Prince of Wales. He has over 30 years experience in corporate finance and investment, encompassing stockbroking, banking and venture capital. He has led an enquiry for the DTI and served as a member of the Financial Services Panel of the OST’s Foresight Programme and on the Membership & Authorisation Committee of the Insolvency Practitioners Association.
Hazel Moore, Chairman and Founder, FirstCapital
Before starting FirstCapital, Hazel was Sales Director in London for WI Carr, a leading Far Eastern institutional stockbroker. She moved to London from WI Carr in Hong Kong, where she was Head of Equity Research, specialising in the analysis of telecommunications companies in Asia. She started her career as a research scientist for GEC Marconi. Hazel is a Chartered Financial Analyst and has an MA in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University.
Hazel Moore, Chairman and Founder, FirstCapital
Before starting FirstCapital, Hazel was Sales Director in London for WI Carr, a leading Far Eastern institutional stockbroker. She moved to London from WI Carr in Hong Kong, where she was Head of Equity Research, specialising in the analysis of telecommunications companies in Asia. She started her career as a research scientist for GEC Marconi. Hazel is a Chartered Financial Analyst and has an MA in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University.
John Nuttall, CEO and Co-founder, First Columbus
John has over 12 years of corporate finance and equity analysis expertise at Panmure Gordon and Investec, focused on the small and mid cap space. He has executed numerous AIM IPO's in the industrial and intellectual property sectors and has consistently been a top ranked analyst by both the CFO and Fund Management community. John co-founded First Columbus in 2006, which has been specifically set up to advise and invest in small and mid size US and international companies seeking to raise capital in London.
Hugh Parnell
Director, NW Brown Group Ltd, Chairman, Envirotech Ltd and non-exec of several other companies.
Since qualifying as a chartered accountant with KPMG in 1978 Hugh has had a diverse career centred around finance, management and business development. He joined British Petroleum and gained extensive experience of business development, his last role being responsible for strategy implementation and planning for the refining and marketing businesses across Europe.
Hugh then joined Robert Fleming and Co. and later Dresdner Kleinwort Benson in the City of London to develop their oil-sector corporate finance businesses. In 2000 Hugh joined the NW Brown Group - a regional financial advisory company in Cambridge - to head up corporate finance and take responsibility for the early stage VC, business angels and access to finance activities around high-tech Cambridge. He acquired mandates amounting to managing a suite of early stage venture funds totalling £40m.
Since early 2007 Hugh has divided his time between consulting to the NW Brown Group and related companies for business angels and the early stage funds, and engaging with businesses directly to help with their growth and development.
In parallel he has been involved in supporting environmental and energy technology companies since 2002, i) as Chairman of business support organisation Envirotech Ltd, ii) founding the Cambridge Energy Forum and iii) diverse other roles in the innovation and “turning ideas into businesses” arena in the “cleantech” arena.
Since co-founding AlpinaSearch in 2000, Gary has partnered with Europe's fastest growing venture-backed technology companies to build high impact leadership and commercial management teams. He's also helped mentor the start-ups at several high profile bootcamp and networking events including European Venture Academy, Red Herring 100 and Innovate!Europe.
Prior to his career in executive search and selection, Gary worked at Lucent Technologies. Responsible for Lucent's partnerships with European mobile internet start-ups, Gary gained exposure to the propositions, the strategies and the challenges faced by dozens of emerging technology vendors. This experience, combined with a far-reaching network of contacts and a rigorous search and selection process, enable Gary to deliver international searches for talented individuals who demonstrate the mindset, track record and cultural fit to deliver sustainable growth to Europe's early stage technology companies.
The teams AlpinaSearch have recruited have shaped profitable exits for the founders of many of the company's portfolio of clients: trade exits have been achieved with blue chip investors such as Sun Microsystems, Lucent Technologies, Microsoft and Nokia.
Whitney Rockley, Principal, Nomura
Whitney joined Nomura in February 2007.
Prior to Nomura Whitney started up and managed corporate venture capital funds for a large Canadian power and water company (EPCOR) and a large Canadian oil and gas company (EnCana – previously PanCanadian Energy). While at EnCana, she was seconded to Nth Power, a leading energy venture capital fund in San Francisco. In addition to Whitney’s venture capital experience, she has extensive operating experience in the areas of analytics, finance and environment.
Whitney has a very positive track record for investing in this sector with experience investing in carbon credit trading funds.
Whitney is on the board of DeepFlex Inc. and Novinium, Inc. as well as being an observer on the board of SpectraSensors, Inc. Whitney is also a member of the EU advisory board for the Cleantech Network.
Whitney holds a BComm (honours) from Canada and an MBA (honours) from the University of Calgary.
Sarah Ryan, Director, LexisNexis
Sarah Ryan is a Director of Strategy and Business Development at LexisNexis International, focusing on market expansion and acquisition opportunities. Prior to joining LexisNexis, Sarah was a Director at Business Development at Thomson Financial, where she was responsible for Mergers and Acquisitions in Europe and Asia and an M&A investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Sarah holds an MBA with honours from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BA in Economics from Duke University.
Tracy joined MMC in July 2008 as an associate on the Investment Team. Prior to this, she worked in Equity Capital Markets at Rothschild. Tracy has a degree in Maths from Balliol College, Oxford.
Andrew Seidler, Director of Taxation Services, Tenon Group
Andrew has been a Director of Taxation Services in the Windsor office since 2005. Andrew started his career as a Chartered Accountant in general practice advising clients from a wide variety of commercial and industrial sectors. He specialised in tax having qualified as a Chartered Tax Adviser and joined Tenon in 1999.
His specialist areas include international corporate tax, expatriate tax, employment tax including share schemes and the taxation of high net worth non-UK domiciled individuals.
Andrew has advised companies in the ICT, bio-tech, medical devices, clean tech, property development/construction and leisure sectors, ranging from expanding entrepreneurial organisations up to Fortune 250 companies and household names. He advises international corporations, particularly North American companies on their expansion into the UK, Europe and beyond.
In his spare time Andrew is a semi-professional musician, singer and choral director.
Saul Sender, Partner, Reed Smith
Saul’s practice covers a broad spread of areas including equity capital markets, general corporate, public and private M&A, and joint ventures. He has experience of advising on a number of UK and cross-border transactions in a wide range of sectors including financial services, media, advertising, software, life sciences and consumer products.
Saul has a particular expertise in advising US companies wishing to list on the London markets, particularly AIM. He advised on four listings of US companies on AIM in 2006.
Saul joined Reed Smith in 2005. Prior to working at Reed Smith he trained and qualified at Allen & Overy including a secondment to Allen & Overy’s Hong Kong office and secondment to the in-house legal department of Morgan Stanley in London (investment banking division)
Anna Sofat, Founder, Addidi
Anna set up Addidi to provide financial planning and wealth management services for business and professional women. In keeping with its meaning (Addidi means to inspire in Latin), Addidi has set up an investment club, Addidi Angels, to provides access to business angel investing and Kitaz, its fun angel.
Anna graduated from Hull University and has a Masters Degree from London School of Economics. She is also an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers, gained her Advanced Financial Planning Certificate in 2005 and Certified Financial Planning certification in 2007.
As well as advising private clients on their wealth, Anna contributes to national press and TV. As Anna says “Wealth and its role in our lives has never been so relevant or so exciting!”
Sue is a combination of business woman, author and record breaking explorer. She held a senior role in corporate training and development in British Gas and worked for a period with the United Nations in the former Yugoslavia. In 1997, she founded Mission Possible - her company which is now focusing on inspiring women to achieve their goals.
Sue has an MSc. in Quality Management and Improvement, an MBA in Entrepreneurship and Business Venturing and is author of Kickstart your Motivation and Secrets of Successful Women Entrepreneurs.
In addition, Sue is an accomplished athlete, representing Scotland in 3000m and cross country events. Sue was runner-up in Channel 4's Superhuman where she undertook some of the toughest tests ever seen on TV including escaping from a crashed helicopter submerged under water, and appeared on BBC1's Test the Nation as part of the winning Explorers team.
Glenda has worked in private, public and entrepreneurial fields and is educated to post-graduate level. Her international career spans education, central Government, consulting and technology, international trade and investment, and the digital economy. Glenda founded and leads Aurora, a company providing online recruitment advertising and employer perception services to the corporate sector. Glenda co-Chairs the Women's Enterprise Taskforce established by the Prime Minister and is a member of various finance-related Government groups. Glenda's business angel investment to date has been in two R&D renewable energy companies. She has won various business awards, is regularly invited by the media for comment on business issues, and is a judge on business awards.
Amanda Tonsgaard, Director of Business Development, Capital Dynamics
Amanda Tonsgaard is a Director in the Business Development Team at Capital Dynamics. Prior to joining Capital Dynamics, Amanda was a principal at Langholm Capital LLP; a UK based mid-market private equity fund, where she was responsible for the Nordic region. From 1997-2001, she was a corporate lawyer at Bech Bruun Law Firm, where she advised private equity funds and international clients on the purchase and sale of companies. Amanda holds an MBA from London Business School and a Masters in Law from Copenhagen University.
Co-founders of Notonthehighstreet.com, Holly Tucker and Sophie Cornish between them have over 30 years of media and marketing experience working with big brands, top five advertising agencies and major magazine houses. Both have also run their own small businesses and worked on the launch teams of internet start up companies. They met when they worked in advertising 12 years ago and became best friends not realising that over a decade later they would become highly successful business partners.
Holly Tucker has been a sales professional for over ten years. She began her career at the UK's fourth largest advertising agency, Publicis, servicing major clients such as L'Oreal, before moving to Conde Nast where she grew both new and established advertising revenues on Brides magazine. Headhunted to build the advertising client portfolio of premium bridal website, CoolWhite.com, Holly then spent three years as sales manager of London Magazine. In these roles she increasingly identified the difficulties small businesses experience in finding suitable sales platforms, and consequently created Your Local Fair: well-marketed, upmarket fairs that were staged in affluent areas of London. Designed to take small businesses to these areas and deliver potential loyal customers, the fair had a huge variety of inspiring and creative exhibitors - and hundreds of thousands of visitors to its website. Holly and her partner have a four-year-old son.
Mike Joined the City office of Osborne Clarke in July 2008 as a Partner in the corporate group and as head of the firm's digital business group.
Mike has over 20 years of experience advising private and publicly held clients on corporate transactions, primarily in the technology, leisure, traditional media and digital media sectors. As well as handling mergers, acquisitions and disposals, Mike has advised clients in the UK and overseas on joint ventures, corporate finance and governance.
Mike qualified as a solicitor with Wilde Sapte in 1984. From 1985-2006 Mike was with Wiggin LLP in England and (for 4 years) in Los Angeles where Mike held a variety of positions including managing and senior partner as well as head of corporate. Mike's clients included Telewest Communications, ITV, UKTV and Global Crossing.
In 2006 Mike left Wiggin to join investment firm Oakfield Partners as a Partner; amongst his other responsibilities at Oakfield, Mike managed an early stage digital media venture fund. Mike holds a number of non-executive directorships in the digital sector.
Dominique Valentiny
Dominique Valentiny has 20 years of experience in the telecommunications industry, fixed and mobile, B to C and B to B markets.
She began her professional life as a Consultant for Booz Allen and Hamilton. Then she joined in 1989 the France Telecom Group (now Orange Group) as a project Engineer for the cellular network. After an MBA at M.I.T., Dominique held several sales and marketing positions: Sales and Marketing Director of a Region in Metz, international Director in the Key Account Division, and VP Sales and Marketing for the international mobile division, Orange International.
In 2001, she joined Aéroports de Paris Group to carve out the in house telecommunications activity and launch an independent telecom operator, Hub Telecom. She led the development of Hub Telecom during six years, as CEO, defined and implemented a competitive B to B business model with a strong expertise in mobility, and expanded the models towards other large business venues as ports and exhibitions centres, growing the business organically and by acquisition/partnership.
Permjot Valia is the principle partner of Help With Sales. With a background in FMCG sales, Permjot then joined PricewaterhouseCoopers as a sales manager and more recently was sales and marketing director at Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneurial Services division. Since founding Help with Sales, Permjot has worked and personally invested in more than 12 fast growth companies (link to companies I have invested in). In that time, he has also worked with law firms and accountancy firms to help them with their sales approach.
Peter joined Tenon Corporate Finance in 2005 to lead the South's due diligence team. Before that he had worked in the deal environment for 10 years, including heading up the Transaction Services business for PwC in Reading and Southampton.
While Peter's experience is broadly based he has specialist knowledge in the travel, insurance broking, technology and defence sectors. He has been involved in a range of transactions and services supporting financial institutions and corporates, and worked with international corporate organisations, as well as owner managed companies.
Jon Vollemaere, Founder & CEO, Vollume
Many new technology companies have a great new innovation but struggle to find a market for it or cannot afford the top quality Sales and Marketing resources they need to close those early deals. Alternatively, established firms would like to expand outside their home market, but cannot justify the cost of a foreign office without having the clients first.
Vollume fills that gap by providing outsourced business development. Through our vast experience, global contacts and advisors we help get those early adopter customers, with very little risk. New Technology can often solve the business problem in many countries, but you need a local presence.
Throughout his career, Jon has been successful in expanding new business Ideas into greenfield regions across the World. He has sold and managed a wide variety of technology solutions ranging from highly complex Enterprise Software to GUI design. From Online Content to serving the specific demands of on-line Financial Markets trading and Exchanges. Jon holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Auckland University, NZ is AFMA accredited, holds certificates in both Foreign Exchange and International Finance Markets and in Film Studies from New York University.
Sharon Vosmek, CEO, Astia
Sharon Vosmek became Astia’s CEO in 2007 after serving as its COO since 2004 and as a community member since 2002. Sharon has greatly increased the number of advisors, sponsors, thought-leaders, and entrepreneurs that make up the Astia community. She has also launched Astia’s programs in New York and Europe, making Astia an international organization.
Before joining Astia, Sharon was a management consultant, an executive at American Express and an aide to United States Senator Dennis DeConcini.
Sharon currently serves on the Board of Directors for the YMCA of San Francisco, on the Advisory Board of the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs & Executives, and as co-chair of the Entrepreneurial Alliance for the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT). In the recent past she has served on the boards of the Level Playing Field Institute, Food First: The Institute for Food & Development Policy, and Global Exchange.
Sháá Wasmund, Founder & CEO, Smarta
A graduate of The London School of Economics, Sháá’s entrepreneurial career had an unusual start. Having won a competition to write for Cosmopolitan magazine, she interviewed World Champion Boxer, Chris Eubank; by the end of the interview he offered her a job promoting his next fight. At just 22 Sháá became responsible for promoting and organising the biggest fight to ever take place in this country; with a live audience of 48,000 and a further 18 million people watching it from home.
In 1994, she set up her first business, a PR and Marketing company. James Dyson was one of her first clients and her role in establishing Dyson as one of the best known brands in the UK won her numerous awards including Cosmopolitan Business Woman of the Year. 5 years later with Dyson now a household name, Sháá was ready for a new challenge.
In late 1999, a chance meeting with Sir Bob Geldof ignited her contagious passion for the internet and all the possibilities that it holds. As one of the founding directors of his travel company, www.deckchair.com Sháá found herself at the heart of the internet revolution.
A year later, Sháá decided to pursue her own venture and in 2000, raised substantial funds to launch www.mykindaplace.com. The company was recently sold to BSkyB.
In 2007 Sháá established a formidable partnership with fellow entrepreneur Dan Wagner to launch Bright Station Ventures, a unique investment vehicle with $100 million of capital dedicated to investing in internally generated ideas and seeding young companies that use information technology in innovative ways to create high growth business opportunities.
Sháá was selected as one of Management Today’s 35 Under 35 – their list of the brightest females of 2007 and in the same year, was named a “Young Gun” (entrepreneurs who are 35 or under and set to make big waves in the business world) by Growing Business.
Sháá's latest venture, Smarta.com, launched in January 2009 and is an innovative business platform providing help and advice for entrepreneurs and business owners. Smarta.com has the support of leading entrepreneurs such as Theo Paphitis, Deborah Meaden, Michael Birch and James Dyson and is backed by Vodafone and the Royal Bank of Scotland Group.
Rob specialises in the full range of private equity and venture capital transactions on behalf of institutions, management teams and companies. Recent transactions include:
• Advising LDC on its £27m buy out of the insurance loss adjusters, Davies Group
• Advising management and NVM Private Equity on the £9m sale of the legal software provider, TFB, to Tikit plc
• Advising the shareholders of the social housing group, Apollo, on the £410m secondary buy out led by BoSIF
• Advising Enigmatec Corporation (a leading enterprise data center automation vendor) on its $14m fundraising from new investors, Scottish Enterprise and Noble Venture Finance, alongside existing investors, Amadeus Capital Partners, Pentech Ventures, Herald Ventures and Kevin Lomax.
Rob was also involved in recent funding rounds for three of the companies named in the top ten of the Guardian Library House 2008 "CleanTech 100", a list of the hottest private cleantech companies in Europe that are most likely to change the world (published in the Guardian newspaper on Thursday 18 September). The three companies concerned were Nujira ($18m raised), Deepstream (£8.3m raised) and CamSemi ($26m raised).
Sarah has experience of a broad range of corporate work and acts for companies and financial institutions of all sizes . Her work includes mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, private equity and venture capital investments, securities offerings and general company advisory, covering a wide range of industry sectors, including, in particular the biotech sector.
Sarah's recent deals include acting for the vendors of Codian Limited on their $270m sale of that company to Tandberg, acting for management on the buy out of Aspinal of London Limited, acting for Anacomp Inc. on its sale of its European MVS business and acting for Imperial Innovations Investments LLP on its investments in Circassia and OSspray.
Sarah trained at Allen & Overy LLP, qualifying at their London office in 2004 (after a secondment to their Milan Office). She joined Osborne Clarke's Thames Valley office in October 2005.
