Growth & Innovation Forum
John Arnold

John Arnold, CEO - Circle Property

FLOWERS ROOM - 16.15

John Arnold is a Chartered Surveyor with over 30 years commercial property experience. In 2002, John founded Circle Property as a limited partnership and by 2006 had virtually doubled investors money. In 2006 the business became a Jersey Property Unit Trust (JPUT) and ten years later, listed on AIM in February 2016.

Circle has been investing in regional offices and, in terms of NAV growth, is one of the top performing listed property investment companies.

Graham Bird

Graham Bird, CFO - Escape Hunt

BABBAGE ROOM - 17.15
(Biography coming soon)
Jon Bridges

Jon Bridges, CEO - Velocity Composites

BABBAGE ROOM - 16.15

Jon co-founded Velocity in October 2007 and has over 25 years experience within the advanced composites industry and is an experienced composite engineer. Previously, Jon was an Aerospace Specialist in the materials supply chain and prior to this held various engineering, development and manufacturing roles for OEM and Tier 1 aerospace manufacturers. Jon was appointed Chief Executive Officer in June 2016.

Neil Campbell

Neil Campbell, CEO - Inspiration Healthcare Group

FLOWERS ROOM - 15.15

In 2003, Neil became CEO and founding partner of Inspiration Healthcare Limited, leading them through the reverse acquisition of Inditherm plc and onto AIM in June 2015. Neil has spent 28 years in the Medical Device sector. Neil held a Non-executive Director position of Neuroprotexeon Limited, a drug-discovery and biotechnology company, in which the Group is a shareholder.

Key Areas of Expertise Medical device market, market development, product development, regulatory affairs, strategic planning.

Giulio Cerroni

Giulio Cerroni, CEO - IXICO

FLOWERS ROOM - 12.15

Giulio has over thirty years of experience in the life sciences sector and a track record of growing business operations in Europe, the US and Asia. Prior to IXICO, Giulio held global leadership roles at Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. and LGC Ltd, where he transformed the scale of LGCs Genomics division, completing 3 acquisitions in under eighteen months. Giulio was a member of the executive leadership team responsible for the successful sale of LGC Ltd to global investment firm, KKR & Co. Inc. He joined IXICO as CEO in February 2017.

Daniel Coatsworth

Daniel Coatsworth, Investment Analyst - AJ Bell

FLOWERS ROOM - 11.30

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.

Joseph Colliver

Joseph Colliver, CFO - Sativa Group

FLOWERS ROOM - 13.00

Joseph is a Chartered Accountant with a broad range of finance, commercial and management consultancy experience. Before joining Sativa Group PLC, Joseph was a Director of Consulting at Kantar Consulting, part of WPP PLC, advising external clients to enhance their commercial capability and the commercial competency of their staff. Prior to this, Joseph was CFO at WPPs Kantar Futures, and previously Global Commercial Director of WPPs TNS, a $1.8 billion turnover marketing agency.

Steven Cooklin

Steven Cooklin, CEO - Manolete Partners

BABBAGE ROOM - 10.50

Steven Cooklin founded Manolete Partners in 2009 and is Chief Executive. Steven is a Chartered Accountant having qualified at Coopers and Lybrand in 1991. Steven has over 20 years experience in corporate finance with National Westminster Bank, Calder Corporate Advisory Ltd and Hill Samuel Investment Bank and is a former director of HSBC Investment Bank (Corporate Finance Division). Steven is an Associate Member of The Association of Business Recovery Professionals.

Alex Dacre

Alex Dacre, CEO - Marlowe

FLOWERS ROOM - 16.00

Alex Dacre, Chief Executive , founded Marlowe in late 2015. He has a background in the quoted B2B services sector and an expertise in executing buy-and-build growth strategies. Prior to founding Marlowe, he directed Impellam plcs corporate development activities during an 18-month period of acquisitions during which its market capitalisation double to over £400m. Prior to this he worked with Charles Skinner to turnaround Restore plc into one of the UKs leading office services companies and the leading consolidator in the document management and commercial relocation sectors.

Nick Dashwood Brown

Nick Dashwood Brown, Head of Investor Relations - Anexo Group

BABBAGE ROOM - 15.00

Nick has over 25 years experience in the investment industry. Initially covering South-East Asia, he changed focus to the UK in 1998 and has held senior roles in equity sales, trading and corporate broking. He joined Anexo Group in May 2019 as their first dedicated investor relations representative.

Nick has an MA in Mediaeval History from the University of St Andrews. He also attended the College of Law and was articled as a solicitor at Clifford Chance.

Peter Davenport

Peter Davenport, Finance Director - Hardide

FLOWERS ROOM - 15.30

Peter was appointed Finance Director of Hardide in March 2006. He combines operational and strategic roles and has responsibility for the Groups operating budget and financial management. He has participated in several fundraisings since the Hardide plc listing on the London Stock Exchange Aim market in 2005. Peter was CIMA qualified in 1998 and held finance positions at Valspar Industries UK Ltd, Parcelforce Worldwide and Royal Mail. He holds an MA from Oxford University and MSc from Oxford Polytechnic. He is also Company Secretary.

Steven Frazer

Steven Frazer, News Editor - Shares

FLOWERS ROOM - 14.45

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.

Cathal Friel

Cathal Friel, Executive Chairman - Open Orphan

BABBAGE ROOM - 15.30

Cathal is Executive Chairman at Open Orphan plc which is creating a rapidly growing European full pharmaceutical services company with a platform of complementary specialised service providers. Cathal co-founded Open Orphan in 2017, in June 2019 Open Orphan completed its reverse takeover of Venn Life Sciences and in January 2020 completed a merger with hVIVO plc. Prior to establishing Raglan Capital, Cathal was a co-founder and Director of Merrion Stockbrokers in 2000 which was successfully sold for €80m in 2006.

Stuart Gall

Stuart Gall, CEO - Intelligent Ultrasound Group

BABBAGE ROOM - 14.45

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.

Professor Christopher Hancock

Professor Christopher Hancock, Founder & CTO - Creo Medical Group

BABBAGE ROOM - 10.05

Chris is the founder of Creo Medical with over 20 years experience in medical device innovation and development. He holds a personal Chair in the Medical Microwave Systems Research Group at Bangor University. Chris is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, a Chartered Physicist, Fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology, a Chartered Engineer and a Senior Member of the IEEE. He is also a Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor at UCL and was awarded Katherine Burr Blodgett Gold Medal and Prize in 2018 for work on the Creo Medical Platform Technology. Chris is a named inventor and lead author on over 800 granted patents, patent applications and international journal publications.

James Hickman

James Hickman, CCO - Equals Group

BABBAGE ROOM - 17.00

James has over 20 years experience in currency markets and has set up several successful currency card programmes and a leading online money transfer platform.

Phil Higgins

Phil Higgins, CEO - Shearwater Group

FLOWERS ROOM - 12.45

Phil has over thirty years industry experience during which time he has been instrumental in the delivery of next generation technology solutions to many leading global FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 companies. Following a six-year secondment to the US as International Business Director for Info Products Europe (now SCC), Phil returned to the UK market in 2001. In December 2018, Phil joined the Board of Shearwater as an Executive Director, and in April 2019 was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of Shearwater Group.

Matthew Hudson

Matthew Hudson, CEO - MJ Hudson

BABBAGE ROOM - 15.15

Matthew Hudson is CEO of MJ Hudson. Matthew has over 30 years of asset management experience, both as a lawyer and as an investor. Matthew has created and led major UK and US law firms in asset management law, as well as spending a number of years in large investment groups, before creating his own consultancy, MJ Hudson, from scratch in 2010. Matthew also wrote two leading text books in the asset management industry, both published by Wiley Finance.

Neil Johnson

Neil Johnson, CEO - Duke Royalty

BABBAGE ROOM - 10.35

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.

Philip Johnston

Philip Johnston, CEO - Trackwise

BABBAGE ROOM - 12.30

Philips early career was in the space industry which included a key project management role in the Prime Contractor team for Envisat, a major European satellite programme. Philip joined Trackwise in 1999 and acquired the Company in 2000. Under his stewardship the Company has enjoyed sustained growth based largely through export success and innovation. Philip is named inventor on a number of UK and international patents.

Philip holds degrees in both Aeronautical Engineering and Law and is a Chartered Engineer.

Peter Keeling

Peter Keeling, CEO - Diaceutics

BABBAGE ROOM - 11.45

As CEO of Diaceutics, Peter Keelings role with the company complements over thirty years experience in international healthcare which began at GSK and Diagnology. He has operated and led companies and teams in the US, Europe, Asia and BRIC countries, inspiring product innovation and global launches while repeatedly delivering high corporate value growth for shareholders. Widely published in peer reviewed economic and precision medicine journals; Peter is a seasoned speaker and is considered one of the worlds thought leaders in the diagnostic commercialization industry.

Mark Lawrence

Mark Lawrence, CEO - TClarke

FLOWERS ROOM - 11.45

Mark has had 34 years with the company and started his career here by completing an electrical apprenticeship in 1987. He progressed through the company, becoming Technical Director in 1997, Executive Director in 2003 and Managing Director, London Operations in 2007. As Group Chief Executive Officer since January 2010, Mark has led strategic changes across the group and remains a hands-on leader, taking personal accountability and pride in TClarkes performance and, ultimately our shareholders and clients satisfaction.

Paul McGlone

Paul McGlone, CEO - Seeing Machines

FLOWERS ROOM - 15.45

Paul McGlone was appointed as CEO of Seeing Machines on 4 July 2019. Paul has extensive experience in management, public company leadership as well as logistics, supply chain management and technology driven businesses. During his 10-year career at Australian listed company, Brambles, Paul held operational and corporate leadership roles including President of CHEP Asia Pacific and Group Vice President Strategy, Planning and Innovation. He was the architect of its global growth plan which resulted in a threefold increase in the companys market capitalisation.

Trevor Mitchell

Trevor Mitchell, Finance Director - TClarke

FLOWERS ROOM - 11.45

Trevor was appointed to the Board in February 2018. He is a Chartered Accountant and an accomplished finance professional with extensive experience across many sectors, including financial services, construction and maintenance, education and retail.

Julian Morse

Julian Morse, Head of Growth Companies - Cenkos Securities

BABBAGE ROOM - 09.40

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.

Richard Penny

Richard Penny, Fund Manager - CRUX Asset Management

BABBAGE ROOM - 09.45

Richard joined CRUX Asset Management in June 2018 from Legal & General Investment Management. Richard is Fund Manager of the FP CRUX UK Special Situations Fund since it launched in October 2018. Richard had worked at LGIM for 15 years where he had managed the award-winning L&G UK Alpha Trust and L&G UK Special Situations Trust as well as several segregated mandates. Richard has a masters degree in Engineering and Economics from Oxford University.

Graeme Purdy

Graeme Purdy, CEO - ILIKA

FLOWERS ROOM - 16.45

As CEO of Ilika, Graemes 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.

Robert Ross, CFO - Xpediator

FLOWERS ROOM - 12.00
(Biography coming soon)
Matthew Sassone

Matthew Sassone, CEO - LiDCO

BABBAGE ROOM - 12.00

Matt Sassone took over the role of Chief Executive Officer during August 2015 following the retirement the business founder Dr Terry OBrien. He has over 20 years experience in the medical industry having started his career in sales for Quintiles in 1996. He spent 12 years at Smiths Medical in various sales, marketing and

business development roles achieving the role of Regional Managing Director, Northern and Eastern Europe and Russia in 2010. In 2012 he moved to ArjoHuntleigh, a division of the Getinge Group, as Senior Vice President Global Marketing and was subsequently appointed Chief Marketing Officer of Maquet, also a division of

Getinge. Matt Sassone has a degree in biochemistry with microbiology.

John Shaw

John Shaw, CEO - Itaconix

FLOWERS ROOM - 15.00

John is a passionate leader in the use of safer chemicals in everyday applications to improve the world we pass on to our children. He has over 30 years of experience in developing the commercial success of chemical and medical technology companies. John began his career at McKinsey & Company, founded Kensington Research, and held senior roles at SmithKline Beecham, Westaim, and Mitek Systems. He has a BA in Economics from Pomona College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Sean Smith

Sean Smith, CEO - Eden Research

BABBAGE ROOM - 12.15

Sean has a bachelors degree in microbiology and over 25 years of experience in the speciality chemicals and industrial biotechnology industries. He has held senior commercial leadership roles ranging from sales and marketing to business management and intellectual property licensing in blue chip companies such as Ciba (now BASF) and Honeywell. In recent years, Sean has focussed on technology commercialization through licensing and company formation working with Intellectual Ventures and several start-ups.

Roland Spencer

Roland Spencer, Head of Corporate Development - Shares

BABBAGE ROOM - 09.40

Roland is Head of Corporate Development at AJ Bell his role includes responsibility for sponsorship and advertising across their portfolio of investor engagement webinars and events, awards, websites and Shares magazine having joined the publication in 2008. Roland started his career in financial media in 2000 and has experience in the hedge fund, institutional investment and pensions and retirement sectors.

Dmitri Tsvetkov

Dmitri Tsvetkov, CFO, Director - OPG Power Ventures

BABBAGE ROOM - 16.45

Mr Tsvetkov has over 25 years of financial, accounting and operational experience, including significant experience of working with promoter/founder-led energy sector listed companies in London, Africa, Asia and Canada. Mr Tsvetkov was Chief Financial Officer of OPG Power Generation Pvt Ltd, the Chennai subsidiary of OPG from July 2017 to October 2017.He has a Chartered Accountant (CA) designation from the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants, an FCCA designation from the Association of Chartered and Certified Accountants in the UK and Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation from the CFA Institute in the US.

José Luis Vázquez

José Luis Vázquez, CEO - Mirada

FLOWERS ROOM - 12.30

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.

Tim Watts

Tim Watts, CEO - Shield Therapeutics

BABBAGE ROOM - 16.30

Tim joined Shield Therapeutics as Interim Chief Financial Officer in August 2018 and has over 25 years experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors. A qualified chartered accountant, Tim was at AstraZeneca for 22 years, and was Group Financial Controller of AstraZeneca from 2002 to 2006. Between 2007 and 2011 Tim was CFO of Archimedes Pharma and CFO of Oxford Biomedica plc from 2012 until September 2017. Tim is also a non-executive director of Fusion Antibodies plc.

Gervais Williams

Gervais Williams, Senior Executive Director - Premier Miton Group PLC

BABBAGE ROOM - 14.05

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.

Scott Winner

Scott Winner, CEO - Ingenta

FLOWERS ROOM - 16.30

Scott has been CEO of Ingenta since 2018 after 3 years as COO and has been driving technology solutions in publishing since 2004. He is a practical innovator focused on providing near term value in pursuit of a larger vision. His success has stemmed from his knowledge of the industry with his technical knowledge. In his short time as CEO Scott has driven the organization to increased profits, new structure, new markets and unlocked Ingentas potential. He holds both a BSCS and an MBA.

Jenny Winter

Jenny Winter, CEO - Animalcare Group

BABBAGE ROOM - 10.20

Jenny spent most of her career in Human Pharmaceuticals with GSK and AstraZeneca and worked in a range of roles including Research and Development, Sales, Marketing, General Management, Product development, Corporate Affairs and Supply chain. Jenny also spent some time as CEO of a charity for children with cancer and was a Non-Executive Director of Allied Irish Bank and the Project Management Group.

Jenny joined Animalcare in October 2018 as CEO.

Shaun Yates

Shaun Yates, Head of Investor Relations - AJ Bell

BABBAGE ROOM - 14.25

Shaun joined AJ Bell in 2010, having trained as an accountant in a public practice based in Lancashire. He was appointed as Head of Investor Relations in March 2018, ahead of AJ Bell plcs listing on the main market of the London Stock Exchange in December 2018.

Shaun is a fellow member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and a member of the Investor Relations Society.

Dr. Yuri Zhuk

Dr. Yuri Zhuk, Technical Director - Hardide

FLOWERS ROOM - 15.30

Yuri has more than 25 years of international technology business experience in advanced materials and is responsible for all aspects of development of the Groups technology. He has in-depth knowledge of surface engineering technology, proven expertise in management of R&D and commercialisation of advanced materials, technology start-ups, patenting and IP management. He holds an MSc (with Distinction) in Physics and a PhD degree in Plasma Physics and Chemistry from the Lomonosov Moscow State University, and an MBA from the UK Open University.