Speakers
Luke Johnson
Chairman, Risk Capital Partners
Luke Johnson is the Chairman of Risk Capital Partners Ltd, a private equity house. He is the part owner and chairman of Superbrands, Giraffe Restaurants, Patisserie Valerie and Baker and Spice. He is a major owner and Director of the market leader in car park equipment, APT Controls.
Luke was Chairman of Channel 4 Television Corporation from January 2004 to January 2010. In that time he appointed a new CEO, restructured the board and saw the organisation enjoy record ratings, revenues and surplus. He also served as Chairman of the trustees of the £150m Channel 4 staff pension plan.
Luke writes a weekly column on entrepreneurship for The Financial Times and wrote a weekly column on business matters for The Sunday Telegraph for eight years until 2006. He also writes a monthly column for Management Today.
Luke studied medicine at Oxford University and graduated in 1983. He then worked as a media analyst at stockbroker Grieveson Grant (subsequently Kleinwort Benson Securities).
William Reeve
Serial Entrepreneur and Angel Investor
William Reeve is an internet specialist who has built two successful businesses (Fletcher Research, LOVEFiLM.com) from scratch to successful exits. William has been investing since 2000 and has been an active angel investor on the London scene in a number of high-growth companies. William is currently on the board of Paddy Power, Zoopla!, Graxe.com, Media Ingenuity and Secret Escapes. William has a Masters in engineering from The University of Oxford and also worked at McKinsey & Co.
His stated objectives are to build a UK business to the point that it buys its nearest US rival, not the other way round!
Robin Klein
Venture Partner, Index Ventures
Robin joined the London office of Index Ventures in April 2010 as a Venture Partner. He is a founding partner of The Accelerator Group, a seed investment company specialising in e-commerce, digital media and Internet services.
He is currently Chairman of Quickbridge (Wonga), Moo and MyBuilder and sits on the boards of Bill Monitor, EDITD, Farfetch, FreeAgent, LevelBusiness, OneFineStay, Skimlinks, Stylistpick, LevelBusiness and Zoopla. Robin is a governor of Rhyl primary school and a past Chairman of Great Ormond Street hospital's funding company.
Robin has 25 years of operating experience, 20 years of which as entrepreneur and 14 years of investing experience and he has been on the boards of three publicly quoted companies. In his last operating role as Chairman and CEO of Innovations, he conducted the very first UK ecommerce transaction in May 1995.
Since starting his investment career in earnest in 1998 by co-founding The Accelerator Group (TAG) with his son, Saul, they have made over sixty investments. Some of TAG's ten exits include Agent Provocateur (3i) where Robin was Chairman for five years, Sit Up TV (Virgin Media), board member for 4 years, Lastminute (IPO), Last.fm (CBS), Dopplr (Nokia), Lovefilm (Amazon), Fizzback (Nice Systems) and Tweetdeck (Twitter).
Robin is passionate about helping to build the European technology start-up ecosystem and actively supports Saul in the promotion of Seedcamp and OpenCoffee. He has a Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering and an MSc in Industrial Engineering.
Anil Hansjee
Internet Angel Investor
Anil Hansjee is an investor in the early seed companies in the internet space and is currently creating a disruptive funding approach to that market. In addition, since June 2011 he was appointed a senior advisor for the Internet Industry to EQT Funds, a major Continental European PE firm.
Anil was with Google from September 2006 to June 2011. At Google he was responsible for Google’s acquisitions and strategic investments in the region as well as relationships with the early stage technology community and their backers and advisers. Anil led investments, and was a board observer for Google, into FON (Spain), Mobile Planet (Kenya) and Ubiquisys (UK) as well as selling Google investment dotMobi to Afilias. In aggregate, Anil has completed over $230m worth of deals for Google, $140m originated by himself, incl. Google's first acquisition of a European publicly listed company Global IP Solutions.
Anil received an Honorary Doctorate in computing in 2011, for services to entrepreneurial IT sector in the UK. Anil also has a BSc. (Hons.) in Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science from Edinburgh University and has a MSc. in Finance at London Business School.
Jeff Lynn
Chief Executive Officer, Seedrs Limited
Jeff is a qualified lawyer with extensive experience in the worlds of corporate transactions and early-stage businesses. He began his career practicing corporate law with Sullivan & Cromwell LLP in New York and London and later served as co-chairman of the investment committee of a UK seed investment fund. He also serves as the Chairman of The Coalition for a Digital Economy (Coadec) and has acted as a strategic adviser to several startups. Jeff holds an MBA and a BCL (advanced law degree) from the University of Oxford, a JD from the University of Virginia and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania.
Simon Devonshire
Director, New Business Ventures, Wayra Europe
Since January 2012 Simon became Director of New Business Ventures at Wayra Europe, providing telecommunications to businesses across the UK who employ 1-2000 employees.
In addition to his role at O2, Simon is also actively involved with a number of small businesses, and is co-founder of One Water. One Water is a social enterprise that sells products in the developed world in order to fund related projects in the developing world. To date, the One portfolio has generated and donated more than £6m.
The business division of O2 has delivered consistent growth for the past four years. More than a third of UK business now depends on O2’s communication services. Simon is the champion of business within O2, who share his passion for the success of British business.
Trevor Williams
Chief Economist, Lloyds TSB
Trevor joined Lloyds Banking Group from the UK Civil Service where he worked as an economist, a position he was offered while studying for a PhD. He has both a BA (Hons) and a Masters degree in Economics.
Trevor is now Chief Economist at Lloyds Bank, and is part of the economics team that supports the Bank’s trading and sales activities. He regularly writes articles for publications and appears in the financial press and on television.
Trevor is a member of the Institute for Economic Affairs Shadow Monetary Policy Committee, an elite group made up of leading independent monetary economists. This shadow MPC was set up two years after the main MPC began in 1997.
Lucy Armstrong
Chair of Capital for Enterprise
Lucy has worked with SME businesses throughout her career. She joined The Alchemists as CEO after an early career in private equity; corporate development and headhunting with 3i plc, Courtaulds Textiles and Tyzack. Her work involves matching up experienced and successful entrepreneurs with high growth mid-corporate businesses to accelerate their growth and success.
She is chair of the CBI's SME Council and an angel investment network; trustee of a national qualification body and Acting Chair of Northumbria University. She recently participated in the Banking Taskforce and Future Shape of Business projects for the CBI and a similar BBC Governors' review of European Union coverage. She was educated at Oxford, holds an MBA and has recently completed a MSc in forensic psychology and criminology.
Ryan Gallagher
CEO and Co-Founder of IOVOX Limited
Ryan is CEO and co-founder of IOVOX Limited. IOVOX provides smart phone numbers to businesses, giving them better marketing analytics on phone calls and increasing ROI, leads, and functionality. Prior to founding IOVOX Ryan was CTO of Silicon Valley start-up Vazu, funded by Globespan. Ryan’s has held a wide variety of positions at companies such as KPN Qwest, Compaq and Alstom Holdings. He helped pioneerstreaming media over the internet with technology partners like Inktomi, Cacheflow and NetApps.
Doug Munro
Co-Founder, Adzuna
Doug co-founded classifieds search engine Adzuna in 2011, to help make it easier to find your perfect job, car or home. The business is backed by Passion Capital, Index Ventures, The Accelerator Group and angels.
For the previous 3 years, he was COO of property portal Zoopla, where he led the growth of the team from 5 to 75 people and the site to number 2 in UK property with 10M visitors a month. Previously he was MD of Gumtree.com, the UK's largest classified ads site, where he built up the team and business after acquisition by eBay in 2005.
Prior to Gumtree, Doug worked for eBay UK, Bain & Company, Unilever and also as an entrepreneur. Doug has a BA in English from Cambridge, an MBA from Kellogg, and occasionally admits he is a qualified accountant.
John May
New Vantage Group, Chair Emeritus, Angel Capital Association (USA)
The Managing Partner of the New Vantage Group, which has organized five angel investing organizations in the Washington, D.C. area since 1999, placing funds into more than 50 companies.
May is the co-author of two books on angel investing, Every Business Needs an Angel and State of the Art: An Executive Briefing on Cutting-Edge Practices in American Angel Investing. May is Chair-Emeritus of the Angel Capital Association and Co-Chairman of the World Business Angel Association. He is a lead instructor for the "Power of Angel Investing" seminar produced by the Angel Capital Education Foundation and supported by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, a Batten Fellow at the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia and a Managing Director of Seraphim, a UK-based venture capital fund. May served on the board of directors of the Mid-Atlantic Venture Association, the trade association for the venture capital industry in the Mid-Atlantic region.
May began his work in angel investing when he co-founded the Investors' Circle, a network of over 200 investors who use private capital to fund businesses that address social and environmental issues. May co-founded The Dinner Club, an investment group of 60 Washington, D.C. angels who collectively invest in regional early stage ventures. A larger private investor pool, the eMedia Club with 75 members, followed it, and in 2000, the Washington Dinner Club with 75 members was started. In 2003, May started Active Angel Investors fund and in 2008 he created D’ArchAngels a group of accredited investors in the Mid-Atlantic region with significant expertise in the intelligence and defense industries.
Washingtonian Magazine named May one of its 100 Tech Titans of DC. At the Angel Capital Association Summit in San Francisco, CA on May 6, 2010, May was awarded the 2010 Hans Severiens Award for the contributions to the angel investing industry.
Marco Villa
Founder and MD Italian Angels for Growth
Marco Villa is a Business Angel and Managing Director of Italian Angels for Growth - IAG (www.italianangels.net), that he co-founded in 2007. Marco manages the angel group with a strong commitment towards the organisation’s philosophy of being dedicated to promote entrepreneurship as an engine for economic growth and a mean to foster human development. Italian Angels for Growth is the largest angel group in Italy. It has 90+ members that have, so far, committed in excess of €15M in deals in Italy and Europe.
Marco is also owner and Managing Director of Mirade Ventures Srl, a boutique venture firm specializing in equity investments in high-potential start-up businesses. Marco has invested in more than 15 companies in Italy and abroad across industries and is involved as an investor, executive and non-executive director in start-up businesses in Italy, China and Latvia.
As a business angel, Marco is constantly involved in coaching entrepreneurs and providing training to start-up companies and served as Board Member of the Italian Business Angel Network.
Previously Marco has been Director and Head of Business Development at Villa & Bonaldi (www.villabonaldi.com), a production company in the oil & gas processing industry and Manager in the global office of PricewaterhouseCoopers (www.pwc.com), based in London, New York and Amsterdam. Before joining the private sector and has held various positions in two global nongovernmental organizations: the Society for International Development (www.sidint.org) and AIESEC (www.aiesec.org), where he has also been a recipient of the Global Alumni Contribution Award.
Marco holds a Master degree in Economics and Business Administration and has received executive education in Private Equity and Venture Capital.
John Filla
Angel Investor, Houston Angel Network
John S. Filla is an experienced angel investor based in Houston, Texas USA whose background in industrial technologies supports his current activities with early-stage companies. Previous operational leadership roles include positions at ABB Ltd. (Switzerland) and Invensys plc (UK); recent Board assignments as a Non-Executive Director include Chairman of Senscient Inc. and its UK subsidiary in Poole. Angel investing activities since 2004 include serving as President and as a Board member of the Houston Angel Network, assisting in the formation of a sidecar fund, launching a startup accelerator program focused on energy technologies, and regularly investing in prototype-ready companies with promising growth prospects. He currently serves on the Boards of two technology startups in the USA and as well as HPI Energy Services Ltd.in Lincoln. Affiliations include membership in the Institute of Directors (UK and UAE), the National Association of Corporate Directors, and Angel Capital Association in the US.
Anthony Clarke
Chair, British Business Angels Association; Director and Co-Founder, Angel Capital Group
Anthony qualified as a Chartered Secretary in 1977 and a Chartered Accountant in 1980 whilst with Deloitte Haskins & Sells (now PWC). Thereafter, he worked on a full time basis as a Finance Director and Chief Executive of a number of SME companies and since 1995 he has been a Business Angel Investor/Non Executive Director of many start up/early stage businesses.
Anthony was a Main Board Director of GLE Group and Managing Director of its early stage fund management arm GLE Growth Capital from 2002-2009. During this time he set up with Government the UK’s first angel co investment fund in 2002 being London Seed Capital. Anthony founded Angel Capital Group in 2009 which includes fund management activities as well as London Business Angels, the UK’s oldest Network having been operating in various guises since 1982.
Anthony is a co founder and Advisory Board Member of the UK’s first Enterprise Capital Fund being the £30m Seraphim Capital Fund. Anthony is Chair of the British Business Angels Association. He is a member of the BVCA’s Venture Capital Committee, is President Emeritus of the European Business Angels Network (EBAN), and co founder and co Chair of the World Business Angels Association (WBAA). Anthony is also Chair of the EC’s expert Group on Access to Cross- Border Investment.
