Growth & Innovation Forum 2017 - 31 January 2017

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.

Harry joined the Board in May 2014. He has over 30 years experience in the technology and telecommunications industries and has held a wide range of senior positions and responsibilities in sales, global product management, change management, and development programs.

Harry joined BT in 1970 and was responsible for the creation of BT Brightstar, a corporate incubator focussing on BTs R&D portfolio to create technology venturing. Harry is currently European Partner with New Venture Partners, a global venture capital firm dedicated to corporate technology spinouts with over $700 million under management.

He is also the Chairman of the Eastern Enterprise Hub, which is an organisation responsible for delivering entrepreneurship into academic establishments working with the University Campus Suffolk and colleges across the eastern region of England. Harry is also the Chairman of New Anglia Capital, which helps to provide funding for early stage businesses.

Martin is a high profile entrepreneur and experienced marketing practitioner. He founded the original Jaywing data analysis consultancy business in 1999 and has been the driving force behind its growth into complementary digital marketing services and data science led products.

Prior to Jaywing, Martin worked in start-ups including Guardian Direct where he was Marketing Director and Firstdirect where he was Customer Development Manager. He began his career at Barclays.

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.

Mark was appointed CEO of RedstoneConnect plc in January 2016, following ten months as a Non-executive Director. He is a former director of IBM (EMEA), founded and sold Barker Personnel Services to Carlisle Holdings and subsequently led the turnarounds of TAC Europe, Lorien plc and First Advantage, all of which saw rapid increases in profitability before being sold to private investors. Mark was CEO of InterQuest Group plc, a leading digital technology recruitment specialist, from April 2011 to December 2015.

Keith Butcher joined Blancco Technology Group as Chief Financial Officer in September 2016.

Keith is responsible for leading worldwide financial operations, investor relations and M&A opportunities. Over the course of his career, Keith has held CFO roles at several high-growth technology and e-commerce companies, including PaySafe Group, Flomerics and DataCash Group. In each of these positions, he played an instrumental part in streamlining costs, improving investor relations and guiding the companies through successful mergers and acquisitions.

Simon is a highly experienced and passionate tech-focused entrepreneur with a history of successfully building and developing companies in both the private and public arenas. As CEO, Simon has led CloudCall to continued year on year turnover growth, with run-rate revenue now reaching £10m p.a. Employing more than 150 people in four countries, CloudCall is now a business recognised as one of the fastest growing tech companies in the UK.

Dan Coatsworth is a Stock Market Analyst at AJ Bell and co-host of the Money & Markets podcast. He has written about investing for the past 18 years and his work has appeared in many of the UKs leading newspapers, websites and magazines.

Neil Crabb is Chief Executive of Frontier IP. He has considerable experience as an investor and director of a wide range of technology and university spin-out companies. He was previously an investment manager at Duncan Lawrie Ltd. with responsibility for a range of managed portfolios investing in smaller UK companies and unquoted technology companies, prior to which he was an investment analyst managing investments in UK small companies and larger stocks in the electronics sector with Equitable Life Assurance.

Rachel is responsible for overall financial management of Bango, for corporate financial functions and Bangos financial relationships with partners.

The global reach of Bango requires a wide range of financial and taxation models, Rachel ensures the smooth running of the team delivering this commercial flexibility. She has responsibility for innovation and management in critical finance functions, and is closely involved in product development to ensure the Bango Payment Platform can scale and handle complex requirements.

An experienced finance leader and Chartered Accountant, Rachel has spent 10 years in industry and practice at top 5 audit firms, specializing in the technology sector.

Based in London, Steve oversees global commercial activities and is accountable for setting and delivering LoopUps financial plan. Prior to LoopUp, Steve was EVP and main board director at GoIndustry, an online industrial auctioneering platform. As part of its founding team, Steve was involved in GoIndustrys organic growth and several acquisitions. Previously, Steve spent time at Monitor Company, Mars & Co, and Mobil Oil. Steve has an MBA from Stanford and MEng from St. Johns College, Cambridge.

Steven Frazer is Shares online editor and technology writer, covering all the big tech themes from big data to mobile, microprocessors to new energy, with an investment slant. Hes been writing about technology, business, investment and markets for 15 years and his off-diary stories, deeper think features and daily Tweets often move share prices. Find him at the Shares magazine website (www.sharesmagazine.co.uk) or tweeting at @SharesMagSteve.

Peter Harrison has worked in the field of antibody technology since 1986 and has extensive experience of the development and commercialisation of antibody technologies. In 1991 he joined KS Biomedix Ltd and helped to establish sheep monoclonal antibody technology at their Farnham research laboratory. Following the acquisition of KS Biomedix Limited by Xenova plc in 2003, he led a management buy-out that resulted in the formation of Bioventix and he has led the subsequent commercial development of the Company.

Terry Hart has over 20 years experience in Financial, Commercial and Operational roles, and since 2000 has specialised in telecoms and technology. As UK FD of Easynet Group plc, Terry provided the financial leadership to manage the business through high growth, including the management of the investment programme for the first national roll-out of unbundled broadband and its launch to consumers and businesses. Terry later became UK MD and prepared the business for the successful sale to BSkyB.

Simon joined TP Group in 2014 as Managing Director of Atmosphere Control International, and was appointed to the Board in April 2015. Simon joined from Raytheon UK, where he was Business Development Director following a 30 year naval career including active service as Commodore and with responsibility for the UKs naval shipbuilding programme, ship sensors and weapons.

Julian is Head of the Growth Companies Team and one of the founding members of Cenkos, as well as being appointed as an executive board member of Cenkos Securities plc. He has over 22 years experience in the City, and he has been involved in 100s of successful fund raisings and IPOs. Previously, Julian was a Director at Beeson Gregory and Evolution Securities.

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 Bells acquisition of Shares parent company, MSM Media.

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 ANGLEs Parsortix non-invasive cancer diagnostics and has lead ANGLEs team building this business since 2005.

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.

Appointed in July 2015, Philipp has over 20 years experience as a chartered accountant, having qualified with Stoy Hayward (now BDO LLP) in 1995. He spent 16 years in corporate finance, becoming a partner in 2002, during which time he led over 50 capital market transactions. Prior to joining Defenx, Philipp was CFO at Enecsys, a Silicon Valley solar technology business. He has an MA in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University and is a fellow of the ICAEW.

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 Instems 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 Instems organic and acquisitive growth, Phil relocated from the UK to the US in 2003, establishing a new headquarters in the Philadelphia area.

David co-founded WANdisco in Silicon Valley in 2005 and has led the Company on a course for rapid international expansion, opening offices in the UK, Japan and China. David has over 15 years executive experience in the software industry, and has established and successfully exited several highly successful Silicon Valley technology companies. David was the founder & CEO of Librados, an application integration software provider, and led the companys acquisition by NASDAQ listed NetManage, Inc.

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.

Alastair has been Chief Executive of Avacta since its inception in 2005. He has a degree and PhD in Physics from Manchester University and, following a period of working in the U.S., took up a position at Leeds University in 1995. At 38 he was awarded a Chair of Molecular Biophysics and grew one of the leading biophysics research groups in Europe. He left his academic career in 2007 to focus full time on delivering value to Avacta shareholders.

Ian has 30 years experience in Business as a board level Finance Director and Chief Executive following qualification as an accountant. Previously, Ian was a member of the management team which successfully sold Q Chip Ltd to Midatech plc in 2014 and also sold UDEX Limited on behalf of 3i plc in 2006. As Finance Director of Surface Technology Systems plc, he was instrumental in its floatation on AIM in December 2000, subsequently leading the business as Chief Executive through the technology sector downturn from 2001 to 2003. Prior to that Ian was Group Finance Director to LSE -listed UK Safety Plc.

Ian is responsible for all of the Strategic and Operational activities of the group in the CEO role and also sits on the Nominations, Remuneration and Risk Committees of the Board of Directors.

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.

José Luis, founder and CEO of Mirada, is a broadly recognised professional with almost 20 years of experience in the Telecommunications industry. Chairman of AEDETI, José Luis holds a degree in both Advanced Telecommunication Engineering (UPM) and an MBA from IESE Business School. He is a regular conference speaker and is considered one of the most important personalities in the Spanish digital TV industry.