2018 Forum

Gerald Ratner

Eloise Ellis, Aston Lark

With over 13 years' experience, Eloise's main focus is to provide a service that goes beyond the ‘traditional insurance broking' offering. By working with a number of firms in the SEIS/EIS and VCT space, Eloise is uniquely positioned to offer advice and guidance on a variety of topics, including insurance solutions and risk management to both Fund Managers and the companies that they invest in.

Peter Smith, BDO

Peter has audited and advised businesses in the financial services sector for over 10 years, working with a range of businesses in the capital markets and asset management sectors.

He is responsible for the audits of FCA regulated firms including broker/dealers, clearing firms, spread betting firms and commodity traders. Peter is well versed in the regulatory requirements affecting FCA regulated firms and conducts client money and assets audits on behalf of the firm. Peter is currently responsible for the audits of large international groups with a significant technology component to the audit and works closely with our IT audit team. Peter has strong technical and commercial experience of the sector and the issues it faces.

Peter also specialises in the audit of listed investment funds and is currently responsible for the audits of listed funds across a range of investment managers and administrators. All of these clients invest in unquoted and quoted investments covering a wide range of industries, sectors and business life cycles. He is a member of the AIC’s VCT Technical Committee.

Henry Whorwood, Beauhurst

David Craven, Blackfinch

Nina Carr, CHF

Mehjabeen Patrick, Creative England

Charles Owen, CoInvestor

Stephen Powell, Deepbridge Capital

Kieran O'Gorman, Deepbridge Capital

As Technical Partner, Kieran leads the Deepbridge Capital investment management team. With a wealth of experience in financial services, including institutional fund management within the Lloyd’s of London insurance community, and HNW private client stockbroking at Popes Stockbrokers (now Brewin Dolphin), Kieran has an in-depth knowledge of the private capital markets, involving capital raising, investor relations and communication, and is responsible for the fund-raising activities at Deepbridge. Kieran has been a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investments since 2001.

David Newman, Delio

Gary Butcher, Exact Llibris

Jake Wombwell-Povey, Goji Investments

Jake Wombwell-Povey, CEO, is responsible for Goji's overall strategy and performance. Jake has been working in the alternative finance, lending and wealth management sectors since 2012, giving him valuable insight as to how the sectors intersect and how investors can benefit from investing in lending. Prior to joining Goji, Jake worked at Grant Thornton in the Financial Services Corporate Finance team where he qualified as an accountant (ACA). Jake also chairs TISA's forum on Peer to Peer and Alternative Lending.

Daniel Rodwell, GrowthInvest

Bruce Colley, Innovate UK

Raimund Berens, IronBox

Judy Naake KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Jo Oliver, Octopus

Jo Oliver is a fund manager for Octopus Titan VCT. Titan is managed by Octopus Ventures which manages £1bn of Venture Capital assets and whose purpose is to help pioneering entrepreneurs. Titan VCT is the largest VCT, with AUM of over £600m and a portfolio of nearly 70 early stage companies. Titan investments include Zoopla (floated); Secret Escapes; SwiftKey (acquired by Microsoft); graze.com; Eve (acquired by Amazon); and Magic Pony (acquired by Twitter). 

Jo is a partner at Octopus Ventures having joined the team in 2005. He is heavily involved in the team’s investment process, portfolio management and fundraising activities, as well as sitting on the board of a number of portfolio companies, including SwiftKey Microsoft and VisionDirect. 

Alex Beck, Oxford Capital

Andrew Castell, Par Equity

Paul Munn, Par Equity

Grace England, Resonance

Tom Wilde, Shooosmiths

Tom is the partner at Shoosmiths LLP who heads up the firm’s enterprise investment scheme and venture capital trusts (VCT) tax practice.

He is one of the UK’s leading experts in this field, with extensive experience advising investors and investee companies on structuring and implementing tax efficient investments, reorganisations and exits in compliance with the EIS and VCT regimes, ensuring that returns from investment are optimised. 

Tom’s in-depth experience also includes advising clients on share option schemes including EMI options, employee shareholder shares and company share option plans, as well as negotiating with HMRC on both contentious and non-contentious matters.

Matthew Steiner, Stellar

Kealan Doyle, Symvan Capital

James Sore, SyndicateRoom

Belinda Thomas, Triple Point

Dave Hall, YFM