Growth & Innovation Forum 2018 - 30 January 2018

Thomas Beergrehn founded the Group, having spent five years with McKinsey & Company where his expertise was in strategy under uncertainty. Prior to McKinsey, Thomas was Commander in the Swedish Navy, following graduation at the Swedish Navy Academy. Thomas holds a PhD and an MSc in Systems Engineering from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, as well as an MSc in Engineering Physics from the University of Uppsala. Thomas has been elected a member of the European Commissions eTendering Expert Group.

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.

Oliver is an Investment Director at R.C. Brown Investment Management having joined in 2006 and became Lead Fund Manager of the MFM UK Primary Opportunities Fund in May 2013. Oliver has in-depth knowledge of the UK equity market and a specialist knowledge of IPOs and other event driven transactions. Prior to this, Oliver qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Grant Thornton, where he worked with listed clients in a variety of sectors, specialising in the construction, leisure and IT industries.

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.

Jonathan has extensive industry, corporate finance and capital markets experience having worked as an exploration geologist at Shell, as the top-rated Exploration & Production sell-side equity analyst at a number of City companies, including Investec and Deutsche Bank and most recently as Chief Financial Officer at Salamander Energy plc, which was acquired by Ophir plc in 2015. Jonathan has a PhD from the University of Cambridge and a First Class BSc in Geology from the University of Durham.

John is a highly successful Chairman, CEO and MD in International markets (Europe, Americas, SE. Asia) in the technology, media and telecommunications sectors.

John is a successful professional with experience in raising equity, debt facility and vendor finance funding, as well as setting up operations in international markets. He has created significant value for shareholders with four company exits in Picochip, Azure Solutions, i2 and Netsource Europe, totalling $600m. He has been instrumental in mergers and acquisitions worldwide, including Cyans recent acquisition of Connode.

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.

Stuart was appointed CEO of Intelligent Ultrasound in 2009. He was a joint founder and executive director of Fusion IP, an AIM-listed university IP commercialisation company, before its purchase by IP Group for £103 million in 2014. Stuart has a sales, marketing and general management background with over 25 years experience in starting small technology led companies, fund raising for and managing SMEs and acting as an executive director for several public companies. He has previously worked at British Airways, the Promotions Partnership, Anvil and Toad Group.

Stuart brings over 25 years of experience of team building and executive management in the software industry to his role as CEO. Stuart established ZOOs business strategy and difference in the marketplace by using technology to innovate. This is now adopted by the worlds leading TV and movie businesses to bring their content to market around the world faster and more efficiently. Previously he founded three software companies. Stuart has a Ph.D. in Computer Science and is responsible for securing over 30 patents in the ZOO intellectual property portfolio.

James has been involved in financial markets for 25 years, initially joining Investment Management firm Williams de Broe and moving on as Investment Director at Brewin Dolphin Securities. Within the past 10 years, he served as Managing Director of fintech FX business, Caxton, where he developed and ran several successful prepaid currency card programmes, as well as a leading online money transfer platform. James joined FairFX at the end of 2016 as Chief Commercial Officer where most recently he was involved in a fundraise and subsequent acquisition of CardOneBanking and City Forex.

Anthony Hotson is Chief Executive of Cenkos Securities plc. Anthony worked at the Bank of England during the 1980s, including a secondment at the Building Societies Commission. He was employed by McKinsey & Company before joining S.G. Warburg where he worked as a corporate financier and director during the 1990s. Thereafter, he has served as a non-executive director on a number of company boards in the insurance, fund management and banking sectors. Dr Hotson is currently Deputy Director of the Centre for Financial History in Cambridge.

Neil Johnson is Duke Royaltys founder and CEO. Mr. Johnson has 25 years of experience in investment banking and fund management in the Canadian and UK capital markets. During his 19 years at Canaccord Genuity, he was Head of Corporate Finance for 7 years in London and raised over £3 billion for Canadian dual-listed companies, and Canaccord became AIMs #1 Broker.

Bobby is the founder and major shareholder of business energy supplier, Yü Group PLC. Bobby has a degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering with previous roles at Marconi PLC and COLT Telecoms. He subsequently invested in the care home sector, eventually owning and running a group of four care homes. In 2013, he sold the care home business so that he could focus on the market opportunity presented by the deregulation of the energy sector.

Wendys NHS career spans some 20+ years. She was Chief Executive of three large Primary Care Trusts with a combined budget of £460m, where she successfully delivered 100% within budget and target deliveries. Wendy led a number of projects on behalf of the Strategic Health Authority including the establishment of new commissioning models for ambulance services and NHS Direct, as well as contributions to national projects including Reforms of Urgent Care Provision and Taking Healthcare to the Patient.

With 30+ years of experience of the global IT industry in sales and marketing leadership roles, Andrews passion is delighting customers. He has held executive roles with companies from modest start-ups to industry-leading brands such as Oracle, CA/Netegrity, and WorkForce/Workplace.

Prior to transitioning to his current Executive role in January 2017, Andrew spent 4 years as one of Coreros Non-Executive Directors. During this time, he was Workplaces Chief Customer Officer and is actively applying his experience to drive Coreros growth.

Pioneer in the electric vehicle sector, David started Chargemaster in 2008 to provide reliable, convenient and sustainable charging for electric vehicle drivers. David was recently ranked the 10th most influential person in the world in shaping the low-carbon fleet industry. He also founded Trafficmaster in 1989, one of the first nationwide traffic sensing and satnav companies, which was floated in 1994.

Scott McGregor leads the effort to commercialise redT energys industrial-scale, non-degrading, liquid energy storage technology. Scott has developed over $1bn of energy projects globally with Camco Clean Energy and has extensive experience in the environmental, mining, finance and technology industries, having advised leading corporations in North America, Asia and Europe. Scott holds an MBA from the London Business School and a B.Econ from Monash University. He is also a Chartered Accountant and a respected commentator on energy, technology and innovation.

A Chartered Director, Tim has 20 years experience in the energy/utility industry across utility connections, smart metering, data and energy services having been part of the UPL business almost since its inception and is now Managing Director of SMSs Asset Management, Data and Energy Management businesses.

Tim has expert knowledge of electricity and gas smart metering having been responsible for setting up the SMS electricity metering business following deregulation in 2004, now a fully accredited HH and NHH MOP/DCDA, specifically to provide AMR services to the I&C supplier market. Health and safety has always been at the heart of the electricity metering business, which is recognised for its quality of service delivery and installation activity.

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.

Dave is COO of PrimaryBid, directly responsible for the day-to-day business operations as well as Marketing and PR. He has more than 20 years of experience working for Internet businesses, including senior marketing and operational positions at Amazon, Yahoo, StepStone and Zattikka. In addition to his role at PrimaryBid, Daves capital markets experience also includes being part of the team that raised $20m on AIM in April 2012 for Zattikka, a mobile and social games company.

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 Mercias 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.

Dr Powell graduated in microbiology from the University of Wales and was awarded a PhD from the University of Aberdeen. He has over thirty years operational and investment experience in pharmaceutical and healthcare companies in the UK, USA and Scandinavia. Including his current role at Cambridge Cognition, he has held five CEO roles, three in public companies. In 2003, he joined Gilde Healthcare, a pan-European life sciences investment fund as a partner and remained an adviser to the fund until 2016.

Faisal is a founder shareholder of Plastics Capital and Director of the Company. He has worked for and with manufacturing companies for over 20 of the last 30 years. He spent 7 years working in private equity with Capricorn Ventures International and prior to that was a partner at Deloitte & Touche, and was a managing director of a specialist consulting subsidiary of Deloitte & Touche. He is a graduate of Oxford University and has an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Nick Searle has over 20 years of equity markets experience. He is currently a member of the Cenkos Growth Companies Team focusing on delivering capital solutions to UK listed and private businesses. Nick joined Cenkos just less than three years ago from a similar role at Investec. Prior to finding his passion to support UK growth companies Nick gained a wealth of experience in specialist biotech/healthcare equity sales and equity trading. Nick started his career on the emerging markets team at Pictet Asset Management.

Tom is AJ Bells head of retirement policy and a prominent commentator on retirement issues. Tom is regularly quoted in national print and broadcast media, including appearing on a weekly BBC Radio London personal finance slot. He joined AJ Bell as senior analyst in 2016, having previously spent six years as a financial journalist. He has a degree in Economics from Newcastle University.

Elaine is CEO of British life sciences, tools and diagnostics company QuantuMDx Group. She is an entrepreneur with over 25 years healthcare and biotechnology experience with an eclectic background in nursing, genetics, chartered accounting and running hospitals. Elaine has taken QuantuMDx from concept to product raising around $50m in both equity and grants. She has overseen strategic collaborations with established Life Science companies, blue chip academic organisations and NGOs. She was awarded an OBE for services to innovation in healthcare.

Gervais Williams joined Miton Group plc in 2011. He manages a number of funds and trusts that aggregate to a little under £2.0bn. His fund management career extends over 30 years including 17 years at Gartmore. Gervais is a member of the AIM Advisory Council, chairman of the Quoted Companies Alliance and a board member of The Investment Association. He has written three books Slow Finance; The Future is Small; and his most recent book The Retreat of Globalisation.