Arshad Bhatti is a pioneer in airspace development and founded rooftop developer Apex Airspace in 2016. The company converts unused airspace above residential, commercial and public buildings into new and affordable homes with the use of offsite modular construction. Through innovation, he has steered the business into a market-leader in its field and has secured over £25m in funding from BGF (formerly the Business Growth Fund), Homes England and the Mayor of London, which will deliver a programme of 625 new homes.

Research commissioned by Apex in 2016 indicated the potential to build 180,000 new homes on London’s rooftops, one third of which above public buildings. He sees airspace development as a vital means to helping solve the capital’s housing crisis, with the possibility to be implemented regionally and globally.

Paul Bradford, CEO, Southern Communications has a clear vision for growth from the point he joined the business in 1995, leading a management buyout in 2002 he has driven the business from a turnover of just £2M in 2002 to £71M this year. His key strength has been to wrap a very strong diverse management team around him and together they have taken the business on continued progressive growth year on year. The ability to evolve in the market and spot market opportunities has also been key to the growth, with customer service as the centre of the strategy.

In recognition of team’s strong success, Southern Communications were awarded Best Mid Market Management Team at the BVCA awards (2019).

Jonathan Brod has approaching 25 years’ experience in private equity, investment banking and entrepreneurship, which he draws upon to add value to all aspects of Next Wave’s activities. Jonathan divides his time between investment, portfolio management and driving Next Wave’s growth.

Jonathan raised Next Wave’s first external private equity fund in 2006 and has been responsible for the strategic direction of the group, raising its investment funds and building the Next Wave team. Jonathan has transacted over 70 growth capital transactions with a value of over £2 billion to date.

An Oxford Graduate, Jonathan has founded several businesses as well as Next Wave, including Essential Escapes and Tots Too, a market leading, luxury family travel brand and The Bold Pub Company. Jonathan is involved with the majority of Next Wave’s portfolio companies at critical points of the investment cycle and holds or has held board seats on Fox International, The Delivery Group, Petainer and Molinare. He is the firm’s Chief Investment Officer on its Investment Committee.

Jonathan is also an active Series A high growth investor, with recent investments including SAM Labs (internet of things edtech), Car & Away (peer to peer car rental) and Laurel Canyon Ventures (restaurant concepts).

Laura Connell joined Balderton’s investment team in 2018 and focuses on growth stage investing. She spent the previous three years advising tech startups on their fundraising strategies as well as their early operational and financial structure in sectors ranging from online retail to healthcare and fintech.

Laura was previously at Goldman Sachs, first in the Investment Management Division and subsequently the Financial Institutions Group in M&A.

Laura undertook neuroscience research in the Brain Sciences Department of Imperial College’s Faculty of Medicine. She was a Fulbright Scholar and gained her MBA from Harvard, and she studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at the University of Oxford.

Laura speaks fluent English and French and her primary focus is the Liquidity I fund, Balderton’s direct secondary fund for growth-stage European founded tech companies.

Louise Corner has dual responsibility for investor relations and portfolio performance at Phoenix. She was previously a member of the investment team and has been involved in a number of the firm’s investments since joining in 2007.

Phoenix is a leading private equity investor in medium-sized, UK based businesses valued at up to £200m. Founded in 2001, Phoenix invests across a number of sectors, helping entrepreneurs and management teams with bold plans to build great businesses.

Prior to joining Phoenix, Louise spent four years in the M&A division at Lazard. She has an MA in Economics from the University of Cambridge.

Andrew Craig is one of the founding partners of Maven Capital Partners, which was established in 2009 as a spin out of the Private Equity division of Aberdeen Asset Management. Headquartered in Glasgow, and with ten offices throughout the UK, Maven has over 80 investment and support professionals providing a truly nationwide coverage. Maven has £600million funds under management and ready to invest, and manages assets for a variety of client funds, including Venture Capital Trusts, UK regional fund mandates, Maven Investor Partners – a syndicate of institutional, family office and experienced investors and recently announced a final close for the Maven UK Regional Buyout Fund.

He is a member of the Maven Investment Committee and is responsible for new Private Equity investments in Scotland and has over 20 years’ experience of investing in SME’s across the UK.

Andrew joined Aberdeen Asset Management in 2004 having previously been with Bank of Scotland Corporate Banking in Edinburgh where he was an Associate Director of Integrated Finance working primarily on UK mid-market buyouts. Prior to joining Bank of Scotland in 1999 he worked in Business and Corporate Banking at Clydesdale Bank for 10 years.

He is a Member of both the Chartered Institute of Bankers in Scotland and the Institute of Directors and is also Chairman of BVCA Membership Engagement Committee.

Catherine Cutts leads data science initiatives for TA Associates across its portfolio of 70+ active investments.

TA Associates is a leading global growth private equity firm with offices in Boston, Silicon Valley, London, Mumbai and Hong Kong. Focused on a variety of industries, TA invests in profitable, growing companies around the world with opportunities for sustained growth. Investing as either a majority or minority investor, the firm employs a long-term approach, utilizing its strategic resources to help management teams build lasting value in growth companies. TA has raised $24 billion in capital and has invested in more than 500 companies since its founding, and is committing to new investments at the pace of $2 billion per year.

Prior to joining TA in 2018, Catherine worked for the Boston Consulting Group. She has a PhD in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Cambridge.

Leon de Bono is the BVCA's Assistant Director General and Director of Membership Services. Before joining the BVCA in 2010 he was the Publishing Director and a member of the team that launched Private Equity News, part of eFinancialNews, which was acquired by Dow Jones in 2007. He began working in the private equity industry with Caspian Media in 2001. He has a BA from University College London and an MA from The Courtauld Institute.

Alastair Douglas has a track record working with high-performing start-ups, including Worldpay Zinc, Podio and Simply Business.

At TotallyMoney, he’s focused on embedding a build, measure, learn culture across the business and creating an environment where employees have the structure and freedom they require to be empowered to make things happen. With extensive leadership experience, his focus has always been on start-ups and growing businesses.

Nick joined the partnership in 2007. He led our investment in Evans Cycles where he was Chairman until the business was sold in 2015. He is Chairman of Rapha Racing, where he has been an investor since 2006, and was Chairman of Leon Restaurants between 2008-2016, where he remains a Non-Executive Director. He is Non-Executive Director at Context, Finisterre, Honest Burgers, The Fold and TravelLocal.

Prior to joining Active, Nick was the CEO at MW Group in London (a group consisting of Mappin & Webb, Watches of Switzerland and TM Sutton) which he successfully returned to profitability and sold. He was the UK Managing Partner for Mitiska NV, where he led investments in Brantano UK, AS Adventure and Cotswold Outdoor. He was also a Partner at Net Fund Europe, a £70m private equity fund established by Mitiska. Nick started his career at Bain and Company in London, Hong Kong, San Francisco and Paris.

William Fletcher is Chief Executive of Recycling Lives - a social business supporting life-changing charity programmes through its successful recycling and waste management operations.

He joined Recycling Lives in 2013 bringing with him a wealth of experience from years working at a national and international level in the financial management and retail sectors, but keen to use his skills to create social, as well as commercial, impact. He became Managing Director the following year. The business - which recycles scrap metals, scrap cars and waste - has grown rapidly since, with a growing national footprint and sales more than tripling from £22m in 2013/14 to £75m in 2017/18.

Will has overseen Recycling Lives impressive growth in his time, growing from a regional, mid-tier recycler to a national top-tier recycler, exporting recycling materials to global markets. He was led on the installation of industry-leading waste management technology and opening of nine new sites across England and Scotland.

Will also works closely with leaders of Recycling Lives’ social enterprise and charity, supporting them to deliver a leading offender rehabilitation programme, a unique residential charity and food redistribution programme. These programmes are delivering significant social value, creating savings to society worth millions each year, by reducing reoffending, welfare dependency and costs for charities and community groups. Recycling Lives is a triple-Queen’s Award-winning organisation, recognised in 2010 and 2014 for Sustainable Development, and in 2018 for International Trade.

Aron Gelbard is co-founder & CEO at Bloom & Wild, having launched the company in 2013.

Bloom & Wild's mission is to make sending and receiving flowers the joy that it should be, and, in doing so, to build the world's leading and most loved flower gifting brand.

Bloom & Wild is the UK's third largest and top rated online florist, and was named the UK’s second fastest growing company by Deloitte in 2017. The company has raised £22m to date and has expanded internationally to Germany, France and Ireland.

Prior to Bloom & Wild, Aron worked as a consultant to the consumer and technology sectors at Bain & Company in London and Silicon Valley.

Darran Green is an Investment Director and an investment committee member at Rockpool Investments, a lower mid-market private equity firm. His role is to invest in high growth businesses across the UK with a turnover of £5m to £40m, and to work with the boards of management teams in sectors including e-commerce, manufacturing, leisure, and learning & development. Darran has degrees in law and finance, and an MBA from the University of Cambridge.

Tim Hames is the Director General of the BVCA. He started his professional career as a Lecturer in Politics at Oxford University where he obtained a doctorate and specialised in American and British Government. He became a journalist at The Times assuming the roles of Assistant Editor, chief leader writer and columnist. He regularly edited the newspaper as a whole between 2006 and 2008 as part of his duties. He has also served as Special Adviser to the Speaker of the House of Commons in 2009-2010. He is an Honorary Visiting Fellow at De Montfort University and a Fellow of the Institute of Travel and Tourism.

After graduating in Modern Languages & European Economics, Darren joined NatWest where ultimately he co-founded their last mezzanine fund in the late 1990’s. Since then, Darren has led mezzanine businesses at Legal & General Ventures and Barclays, giving him over 20 years experience in subordinated debt and a high profile in the market. He is a regular speaker at international conferences on the mezzanine asset class.

Darren has worked in credit risk as well as on the front line and his roles have spanned origination, debt and equity structuring, distribution, portfolio fund management, workouts and risk strategy, both in the UK and across Europe. The common theme is partnering with entrepreneurial management teams and investors in expanding businesses, from SME’s to mid corporates.

Darren was invited to join Santander in 2011 to create and lead the Bank’s Growth Capital proposition which is aimed at supporting high growth SME’s though development capital and M&A projects. To date, the team has completed very nearly 200 investments, supporting 130 businesses who are in the process of creating well over 7,000 new jobs through their growth. Total new debt facilities committed through the programme are now approaching £600m.

Thomas Hovaguimian is the CFO of Checkout.com, one of the fastest growing payment solutions providers.

Checkout.com builds technology to help companies accept more payments worldwide through one integration. The Company’s unified global payment processing platform features in-country acquiring, relevant domestic payment methods, feature parity across geographies, and full reporting features, all via one API. Businesses use Checkout.com’s proprietary payment platform for faster processing speeds, better reliability, and full access to customisable data streams. Checkout.com’s payment experts work with global businesses like TransferWise, Deliveroo, EasyGroup and Samsung to optimise their payments with real-time data. Checkout.com has 350+ employees across nine offices in Europe, Middle East, the US, and Asia Pacific.

Checkout.com recently raised $230m in the largest FinTech Series A financing round in Europe.

Prior to joining Checkout.com in 2013, Thomas was an investment banker with J.P. Morgan for 8 years, in London.

Carolyn Jameson was Chief Legal Officer at Skyscanner during its period of rapid growth, ultimately leading the sale of Skyscanner to Ctrip International in 2016 for $1.7bn. Following the sale, Carolyn extended her role to work for Ctrip directly as their Head of International M&A until April this year. Carolyn is also a NXD for Visit Scotland, and two young Edinburgh start-ups - Wallet Services, a blockchain platform, and Cortex Worldwide, a digital marketing company.

Pip Jamieson is the Founder & CEO of The Dots, dubbed ˜The next LinkedIn?' by Forbes. The Dots is designed around the networking needs of 'No Collar' professionals - creators, freelancers and entrepreneurs. As routine jobs become more automated, these No Collar professionals will represent the future workforce.

Delightfully Dyslexic with a distinctive marmite laugh (you either love it or you hate it) Pip was named by The Sunday Times as one of the Top 100 Disruptive Entrepreneurs innovating in their respective fields, by Creative Review as one of the top 50 Creative Leaders & by Campaign as one of the 50 Trailblazers of the Future. Head to Wikipedia for more info.

Being a dyslexic sole female tech founder, Pip has put helping business build diverse teams at the heart of everything they do! 68% + of The Dots community is female, 31% + BAME & 16% + LGBT+. The Dots also do a lot of work around socioeconomic diversity and neurodiversity to fuel a more balanced industry of the future.

Gilbert Kamieniecky joined Investcorp in 2005. Previously, he was with Morgan Stanley as an Analyst in London where he worked in the Leveraged Finance Group, the Global Industrials Group and Firm Management. Gilbert currently serves on the board of Impero, Ageras, Calligo and eviivo.

Gilbert holds an MSt in International Relations from the University of Cambridge and also graduated as Valedictorian from Cass Business School with a BSc in Business Studies.

Joshua Kaplan began his career in the legal division of the Federal Reserve working closely with the monetary policy and Reserve Bank operations and payment systems functions of the Federal Reserve Board. Representative subject matter areas included: discount window operations; digitisation of check processing; wholesale payments, ACH and electronic funds transfers; interchange; reserve requirements and GSE intraday credit.

In private practice, Joshua developed extensive experience across a range of financial products and geographies advising on regulatory and commercial aspects of transactions, including change in control, de novo licensing, and the structuring and approval of novel capital markets products; as well as defending and resolving regulatory enforcement actions.

During his time at Checkout.com, Joshua has expanded the company’s card scheme principal memberships into the APAC region; managed the applications for an e-money institution licenses from the UK FCA and the Banque de France; managed the company's entry into Australia, Hong Kong, Germany, France, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the US; and led the COO division within Checkout.com through an inter-disciplinary approach to problem-solving across the card scheme and payment method partnerships, legal, risk, compliance and operations teams that comprise the division.

Joshua holds an MBA from INSEAD and a JD from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law.

Miles Kirby is Managing Director AV8 Ventures. AV8 is a €150m fund investing at Seed and Series A stages in Next Generation Mobility, Big Data and AI, Digital Health and Cybersecurity in Europe and the US. Prior to AV8 Ventures Miles was Managing Director of Qualcomm Ventures, leading Qualcomm’s investments in Europe. At Qualcomm Ventures Miles lead investments such as Call Sign, Formula E , Voluntis, Arieso, Chargemaster, Iridigm and A123 Systems. While at Qualcomm Miles formed and ran an internal incubator and developed Qualcomm’s effort in Augmented Reality, Wireless Charging and Machine learning and holds 34 patents. Miles holds an BA in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Bristol University and an MBA from University of California, Irvine.

Joe Knowles is a Principal at Smedvig Capital, having joined in 2015. He is currently a board member at Infinity, Poq, Adzuna and Masabi and was on the board of Picture Production Company prior to exit in 2017 and My Home Move in 2019.

Joe spends half his time finding and executing investments. This means meeting with hundreds of ambitious founders to understand their mission to improve the world we live in by bringing technology to life (the fascinating part). He spends the other half of his time working with the teams he has backed to help them achieve their ambition (the rewarding part).

Prior to Smedvig, Joe was a strategy consultant at OC&C, where he worked with FTSE 250 and Private Equity backed management teams on strategy projects across retail, consumer, media and technology. He has also worked in debt capital markets at JP Morgan and at Airbus having originally graduated as an engineer.

Outside of work Joe enjoys trying (and usually failing) to look in control on the slopes and in the sea. His current activities of choice are surfing, kite-surfing and skiing, with a bit of yoga thrown in for good measure.

Michael Labriola is a partner working out of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati’s Washington, D.C., and New York City offices, where he counsels public and private technology and emerging growth companies through all stages of their growth. Michael also frequently represents investment banks, venture capital funds, and private equity firms in a broad range of investment transactions.

Michael’s practice focuses on corporate and securities law, including general corporate representation, public offerings, venture capital financings, and mergers and acquisitions. He has assisted clients with matters ranging from formation and early-stage venture financing to listings of publicly traded securities on U.S. and foreign exchanges. He also has considerable experience in counseling publicly held companies on disclosure matters, SEC compliance, NASDAQ and NYSE listing matters, and other securities laws issues.

Prior to law school, Michael was a senior auditor with Arthur Andersen LLP’s Chesapeake-region growth, services, and products assurance practice and later with Ernst & Young LLP’s assurance and business advisory division. While at Arthur Andersen and Ernst & Young, Michael audited public, private, and not-for profit entities in several sectors. Michael is a certified public accountant in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Rannia Leontaridi is the Director of Business Growth at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). Rannia leads government’s policy focus on entrepreneurs, small businesses, but also new and emerging high growth businesses, including those in technology and emerging future sectors, and has the sponsorship of the UK’s development bank, the British Business Bank. She is also the Co-Director for the Office for Artificial Intelligence for the UK Government and leads the Industrial Strategy Grand Challenge on Artificial Intelligence.

She joined the Cabinet Office in May 2011 to head the delivery of one of the key Coalition Government commitments, the Mutuals Programme, which created more than 100 employee owned private sector businesses to deliver public services worth more than £2bn. Rannia was the Co-Founder and Director HMG Shareholder at Crown Hosting Data Centres, a joint venture between the Cabinet Office and Ark Data Centres.

Rannia came to the Cabinet Office from the Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) where she was the Head of Strategy following a two year placement at Universities UK as the Director of Strategy and Policy. Before that she was a Deputy Director at the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit.

Rannia started life as an entrepreneur and later built an academic career in the UK. She was educated at the Saïd Business School, University Oxford (2014-2016). Prior to this, she completed an MSc in Economics at the University of Glasgow and a PhD in Economics at the University of Aberdeen. She is a Carnegie Scholar in Economics and a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts.

Catherine Lewis La Torre joined the British Business Bank Group in 2016 when she was appointed CEO of British Business Investments, the Bank’s commercial arm engaged primarily in direct lending strategies. In 2018 Catherine took on the additional role as CEO of British Patient Capital, a commercial subsidiary with a £2.5bn mandate to make long term equity investments in high growth businesses in the UK. Catherine was previously Head of Private Equity at Cardano Risk Management where she was responsible for managing a global portfolio of private capital investments

Sean Longsdale joined Santander in June 2012 to help build out the Structured Finance business in the Corporate & Commercial Bank. Structured Finance now incorporates five separate teams involved in supporting companies undertaking M&A; IPOS; Private Equity/ leveraged finance or project finance, as well as the Growth Capital team who focus on high growth SMEs.

Sean has a particular passion for supporting high growth businesses and entrepreneurs, to deliver their visions and ambitions. From leading Santander’s Trailblazers Research to spearheading Santander’s priority of helping high growth businesses – Sean is focused on finding the right funding solutions for high growth businesses in all stages of their development.

After graduating from Bristol University, Fiona joined the BBC in 1986 and in 1997 led a £21m Management and Employee Buy-out backed by 3i and Electra, of their international communications services to become CEO of Merlin Communications International. This was sold to Babcock for £95m five years later.

She then became Chairman and Founder of Oracle Care, providing specialised services to children with severe behavioural issues. Oracle was sold six years later for £12m to Bestport.

In 2010, Fiona founded and became CEO of The Good Care Group providing live in carers to enable elderly clients to remain in their own home for as long as they wished. The Company achieved a five star Outstanding rating from CQC, raised funds from BGF and Santander and was listed in The Times top 100 Fast Track Companies in UK. Tgcg was sold to Sodexo in April 2019.

Fiona is Chairman of The Classic Prop Hire Company and Ignis llp which is a property investment partnership.

She has been married for 29 years and has two teenage sons and is a Magistrate.

Malcolm MacDougall is a corporate lawyer specialising in private equity and mergers & acquisitions.

His experience includes a wide range of both UK and cross-border M&A and private equity work including acquisitions, disposals, joint ventures, reorganisations, private equity investments and exits.

Malcolm heads up the wider Private Equity team at Charles Russell Speechlys, who advise on all aspects of private equity transactions including MBOs, MBIs, buy-and-builds, secondary buy-outs and exits. As a firm, we have an unusually broad range of skills and experience across the full spectrum of business and personal needs, which enables the team to originate deals and refer transactions to Private Equity houses.

Steve Mace is Chief Revenue Officer for e-days Absence Management, a high growth SaaS company in the $6.5bn Workforce Management marketplace. Steve joined e-days following the successful $2.3bn acquisition of Interoute by GTT in May 2018, where he was Vice President of Strategic Partners and Channel and responsible for the customer integration and growth of £40m+ ARR business unit into Interoute’s cloud networking GTM.

David Mott co-founded Oxford Capital and is passionate about investing in and building businesses. David is focused on the expansion of the firm’s investment strategies and relations with its family office and institutional clients.

During his career as an investment manager, David led numerous investment and exit transactions, including both IPOs and acquisitions. In 2017, David was appointed Chairman of the BVCA Venture Capital Committee to promote the long-term sustainability of the UK’s venture capital sector and support the thriving enterprise economy. He is a member of YPO, the Young Presidents Organization, London chapter. David has also advised the government and the European Commission on investment policy.

Prior to establishing Oxford Capital, David worked in London, Switzerland and Germany with Result Ventures, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte and in Hong Kong with Jardine Fleming. David has a BA in Economics and Japanese from the University of Durham and completed the Private Equity leadership development programme at Harvard Business School.

David speaks French, German and Japanese. David is a passionate collector of contemporary art and loves to venture north into the polar regions.

Cheryl Potter is Partner and Co-Head of the Consumer team at Permira, an international investor focused on consumer, healthcare, financial services, industrials and technology. She has worked on numerous transactions including Allegro Group, Arcaplanet, Creganna, Dr. Martens, Homebase, Iglo Group (and its subsequent acquisition of Findus Italy), Maxeda and Schustermann & Borenstein. She has recently been appointed as Chair of the BVCA Council, for 2018/19.

Prior to joining Permira, Cheryl worked at Royal Bank Development Capital. Previously she spent six years at Arthur Andersen in Manchester and London.

Cheryl has a degree in Biochemistry from the University of Liverpool, England, and is a Chartered Accountant.

As an Assistant Director at Calculus Capital, Roshan leads new investments in growing companies and supports existing portfolio companies in scaling up. Having worked with businesses in the software, technology and leisure sector, Roshan has a broad industry experience. Prior to joining Calculus Capital, he qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Ernst & Young where he worked advising domestic and international companies on structuring investments, mergers and acquisitions, and preparing companies for external investment and sale.

Mike and his team at Frog Capital are focused on helping European technology CEOs succeed during the pivotal ‘Scale-Up’ phase, once they are demonstrating product market fit. Frog has access to the most promising CEOs of European tech companies through its partnerships with Europe’s leading early-stage VC firms, its network of successful CEOs and deal-tracking capabilities. Frog only backs the very best Software companies that have growth potential but also positive unit economics with realistic profitability potential. With over a decade experience, Frog has built-up expertise across a number of themes and sectors.

As an experienced tech VC investor, Mike understands the challenges facing tech entrepreneurs and CEOs as they transition from start-up to scale-up, and has been a key contributor to Frog’s proprietary ‘Scale-Up Methodology’, advising on important matters such as customer acquisition and marketing through to the right path to exit.

Frog focuses on software enabled companies in industries that are undergoing significant digital change. Frog's current fund has profile to fast growing companies in the financial services, media, property, education and mobility industries. Mike himself is currently involved in the Boards of DynamicAction (an ecommerce analytics SAAS company), McMakler (a German online, hybrid real estate agent) and VuLog (a global leader in in-car and car sharing software). Mike led Frog's investments into GBG Plc (now UK AIM quoted), eCommera (acquired by DentsuAegis), Dealflo (acquired by OneSpan Inc.), Mediatonic (world leading 'games as service' provider) and Rated People (UK largest marketplace for trades companies).”

Carmen leads Samaipata UK, the UK arm of Samaipata VC, a pre-seed/seed stage fund investing in market networks and digital brands. Very active in the early-stage tech ecosystem, she also co-heads the London Marketplace Startup group - largest community of marketplace founders in London- and is a mentor at Techstars, Backstage and Huckletree Alpha, amongst others.

Carmen started her career as an investor at Felix Capital - a Series A and B thematic VC focused on digital lifestyle - after three years as an investment banker at Morgan Stanley. At Morgan Stanley Carmen co-founded TEDxMorganStanleyLondon, the first TEDx Conference ever sponsored by an Investment Bank. Carmen is also the co-founder of an online fashion brand for pregnant women selling into the UK & US market and right after school she launched a crowdsourcing journalism marketplace.

After graduating summa cum laude in M.A. Law. and in M.A. in Economics, she started her career in politics, as economic advisor to the Government in the midst of the Spanish crisis. Spaniard at heart, Carmen spent most of her school and university years in the US and Germany.

Jan Rutherford is a Partner at SEP with responsibility for new investments and investor relations activities and works closely with the limited partners across our funds.

With an operational and commercial background in the pharmaceutical industry, she leads SEP’s healthcare investment activities, with a particular interest in digital health.

Jan was heavily involved in SEP’s investment in BioVex, a cancer therapeutics company, and supported management through its sale to Amgen in a $1bn deal. She also led SEP’s investment in Exco InTouch, a leading provider of mobile patient communication and management solutions for clinical research and healthcare providers which was sold to ERT in December 2016 representing one of the most successful recent exits for a UK venture capital backed business in the digital health market.

Currently non-executive director of healthcare informatics business Aridhia and e-cancer screening tools development company Abcodia, she is also a Trustee of the National Deaf Children’s Society.

Henry Sallitt is joint Managing Partner and co-founder of FPE Capital. He is passionate about building businesses and has spent all his career with growth companies both as an investor and as an operator. Prior to FPE Capital he was a Director of Quester, one of the largest growth capital investors in the UK. This followed eight years at AFA Systems, a financial services software company which he co-founded and joined full-time immediately prior to its IPO in 1996. From its foundation, Henry was part of a small team that drove the development of the group, both organically and by acquisition, resulting in an 8-fold increase in revenues. He returned to private equity, following the sale of AFA in 2004 to a trade buyer.

Outside the office, Henry has a large competitive family who keep him on his toes. He is rarely happier than when with them all on the south coast of Cornwall.

Myles Stephenson is the Chief Executive at Modulr and was appointed Deputy Chair to the Emerging Payments Association Advisory Board in 2018.

The Payments as a Service API for digital businesses. Modulr is the new integrated payment service, built around a new type of digital account. For businesses that need a faster, easier and more reliable way to move money. Modulr automates pay out, simplifies pay in and delivers new services for businesses across lending, payments fintech, payroll services, travel, marketplaces and more.

Myles is an experienced payments executive and entrepreneur, having founded CorporatePay in 2008, which grew rapidly to be a leading provider of commercial prepaid solutions. In May 2012, CorporatePay was acquired by WEX Inc. (NYSE: WEX) and Myles became Managing Director, WEX Europe.

Prior to founding CorporatePay, Myles spent seven years with Retail Decisions Plc, a world leader in fraud prevention and payment services. Myles’ roles included Director of Retail Decisions Europe, with P&L responsibility for the European business unit, and Strategic Development Director, leading investments and joint ventures.

Vic Stewart is Finance Director at The Alchemist, a group of premium cocktail bar and restaurants owned by Palatine Private Equity. Since she joined the business, the company has grown from nine sites to fifteen and has gone through a successful £16m debt fundraising to continue this expansion. Vic started her career at Deloitte then joined the private equity secondaries firm Coller Capital before moving in to industry, taking roles in private equity backed companies.

Jenny Tooth is CEO of the UK Business Angels Association, the trade body for angel and early-stage investing, representing over 18,000 investors around the UK. Jenny has over 20 years’ experience of facilitating SMEs’ access to investment, both in the UK and internationally. She ran her own consultancy on access to finance for SMEs, including spending nine years based in Brussels, working closely with the EC. In 2009, Jenny co-founded Angel Capital Group which incorporates London Business Angels, one of the most established and active angel networks in the UK and which was a sold to Newable in April 2017.

Jenny is an angel investor and in her role at UKBAA she focuses on building the angel community around the UK, connecting investors to good deal flow and assisting entrepreneurs to attract investors. Jenny sits on the steering group for emerging technologies and innovations for Innovate UK and the advisory board for the London Co-Investment Fund. Jenny is an experienced speaker on angel investing and entrepreneurship both in the UK and internationally. She has an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Jenny was awarded an OBE in 2015 for services to small businesses.

Zac is an Investment Director at Synova Capital focused on leading deals in technology and tech-enabled businesses. Zac joined Synova in 2013 having previously advised private equity houses and UK mid-market companies on M&A whilst at Catalyst Corporate Finance (now Alantra) and in the investment banking division of PwC. He holds a Masters in Software Engineering from Birmingham University and is a qualified Chartered Accountant. Zac serves as a Non-Executive Director of Mintec, Mediatonic and Oakland and previously served as a Non-Executive Director of 4Ways (exited in 2018). Zac was recently featured in Real Deals’ Drax Future 40 for top European private equity dealmakers.

Andrew Walwyn started on the shop floor at Carphone Warehouse, he was one of the very first members of staff. He quickly worked his way up the company, and was then recruited into DX Communications in Glasgow where he was a Director and Shareholder. DX was sold to BT Cellnet in 1999. The retail footprint makes up much of what you see as the O2 chain of mobile phone stores today. Andrew’s next challenge away from traditional retail outlets focused on the opportunity the internet offered. He set up the Flat TV Company in 2001 with a colleague Vince Tang, and by 2007 this had become the 7th Fastest Growing Company in the Sunday Times Fast Track listings. In 2008 Andrew returned to the Telecoms sector after discovering satellite broadband products. For the first time a consumer orientated satellite broadband solution had become available to help the many people living and working in the so-called “Not Spots” and those sitting outside the fibre footprint.

Emma Watkinson, 32, is the CEO & Co-Founder of SilkFred.com. Whilst working on buying and merchandising team at a fashion e-commerce site, Emma and her co-founders saw the opportunity to bring independent brands online (they were constantly banging on the doors of the buyers) and also show online customers something new and exciting they couldn’t get anywhere else. She quit her dream job at 24 to start SilkFred. A champion for female entrepreneurship, Emma is a Facebook ambassador for the She Means Business campaign and was shortlisted for Young Champion of the Year in 2017 at the Champion of Women Awards. With over 1m fans on social media, 600 brands, a team of 70 and a brand new London HQ, Emma & her team have big ambitions to take the company global and make SilkFred the number one place to shop exciting, affordable fashion.

As CEO of BGF, Stephen Welton is responsible for the management and strategic direction of the company. Stephen founded BGF in 2011 and under his leadership BGF has grown to become the most active provider of growth capital for small and mid-sized companies in the UK & Ireland.

Prior to BGF, Stephen was one of the founding partners of the global private equity firm CCMP (formerly JP Morgan Partners), and Managing Director of Barclays Private Equity and Henderson Ventures, which he co-founded.

In 2018, Stephen was appointed as a member of the first Council of Innovate UK, which forms an integral part of UK Research and Innovation. In 2017, he was a member of the Industry Panel for the Government’s Patient Capital Review and in 2013 served as an Advisor to the Government regarding the establishment of the British Business Bank.

He has served as an independent director on a broad range of companies both in the UK and internationally during the past 25 years, and is currently a non-executive director at ICG plc, the FTSE 150 alternative asset manager.

Stephen started his career in banking, has a law degree from Durham University and is a qualified Barrister-at-Law.

Henry leads Beauhurst’s Research and Consultancy team. He is an expert on business finance and has worked on briefs for clients including the British Business Bank, Penningtons Manches, Syndicate Room, and Innovate UK. Henry regularly gives presentations on market trends at events around the country. He studied Classics at the University of Oxford.

Anthony Woolf joined Generation in 2016 and is a member of the Growth Equity strategy where he focuses on Healthcare, Energy and Mobility sectors. Generation was established 15 years ago with the aim of investing in growth-stage businesses which are part of the transition to a more sustainable economy. Generation believes that technology can drive systemic change via lower carbon, lower cost, and more equitable business models. Prior to joining Generation, Anthony spent five years at Warburg Pincus in London, in the Consumer and Healthcare team, focused on late stage private equity investments across Europe. During his time at Warburg Pincus, Anthony moved to the UAE where he helped manage the carve-out of an aviation software business from Emirates Airline. Prior to joining Warburg Pincus, Anthony worked in the healthcare investment banking team at Morgan Stanley in London. He has a master’s degree in Chemistry from Oxford University.

Diane Young is co-founder and CEO of The Drum, an international media company serving marketers and media professionals. From a degree in pure and applied mathematics through a short stint in the health service, Diane has been instrumental in growing The Drum from 14 people in a damp basement in Glasgow to a B2B media powerhouse with offices in Glasgow, London, New York and Singapore. As well as services which help marketers to prepare themselves for the future, she has led the team that has built thedrum.com into the third biggest marketing news platform in the world and is pursuing second and then first place! Strangely she also finds herself as a pub landlady as The Drum Arms pop-up pubs now appear in London, Austin, New York and Cannes. In her spare time she looks after her family of husband (and business partner), three children and an investment property portfolio.

Shani zindel is a founding partner of mid-market private equity firm Livingbridge. Shani joined Livingbridge in 1997 and, as Chief Investment Officer, is responsible for driving deployment and leading the new investment teams. Livingbridge has invested in over 125 growing businesses and manages over £1.6bn. Shani is a board trustee of youth charity Impetus which finds, funds and builds the most promising charities focused on transforming the lives of disadvantaged young people.