Justin Adams – Founder and Former Head, BP Ventures
Justin has spent 19 years championing innovation and sustainability within the energy and natural resource industries; he stepped down as head of Emerging Business & Ventures at BP in April. In that role, Justin was responsible for investing in early- and growth-stage energy and carbon-related businesses initially across the alternative energy sector and latterly in support of BP’s core businesses. His former team, which has more than $150m invested in 29 companies and funds, provides strategic foresight on energy and environmental innovation to the BP Group as well as spinning out and incubating new businesses from both BP and its global university partners.
Justin is now pioneering integrated approaches to land use combining opportunities for the agriculture, energy and carbon sectors and continuing to champion the role of corporate venturing. He serves on the board of a number of venture companies and funds in the US, Europe and Asia.
Michael Boshammer, Portfolio Manager, T-Venture
Michael has been with T-Venture, the corporate venture capital arm of Deutsche Telekom, since April 2001. Since April 2010 Michael is managing a dedicated Fund of exit-oriented portfolio companies to make them ready for divestment short to medium term.
He started at T-Venture as an investment director and was significantly involved in founding and establishing the T-Mobile Venture Fund with a committed capital of €100m.
In 2004 Michael was promoted as fund manager of the newly founded T-Systems Venture Fund . There he invested in ICT-related start-up companies with strategic importance to T-Systems´ more than 400 multinational corporate customers.
Previously he has broaden his varied experiences and professional skills as senior consultant of Detecon International, as product manager of the German fixed network operator o.tel.o communications and last but not least as founder of his own start-up company.
Gerald Brady, Managing Director, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB)
Gerald is responsible for leading SVB’s Entrepreneur Services Group as well as the company’s work with corporate venture and corporate development groups.
Prior to joining SVB, Gerald served as the director of investor relations for Siemens, where he was responsible for all aspects of investor communications in North America. Before that, Gerald was an acquisition director in the Strategic Planning Group at Siemens Corporation, and served as a managing director of Siemens Acceleration USA, which is the early stage venture capital arm of Siemens. He has also served as chairman of the NVCA’s Corporate Venture Group from 2006-2007.
Brady previously worked at 3i in London and Palo Alto, where he was a director, investing in a number of technology businesses, including ActiveCard (ACTI), Bitfone (acquired by HP), Raw Communications (acquired by Thomson Financial) and Winery Exchange.
Mike Brown, Founder and Partner, AOL Ventures
As founder and partner at AOL Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of AOL, Mike is focused on seed and series A, non-strategic investing in technology-centric consumer internet companies since its launch in February last year.
Previously, he spent 2.5 years helping start companies for Virgin Group and invest Richard Branson’s money in interesting things (primarily early stage consumer services + digital media).
Adam Caper, Managing Director, Synchrony Venture Management
Prior to founding Synchrony, Adam was managing director of Venture Management Advisors (VMA), a consulting practice focused on helping entrepreneurs and senior managers create and execute corporate and capitalization strategy. Adam was also the founder and chief executive of HubNet Communications, a media and web services company, and the founder and president of the first microcomputer systems integrator serving the New England pre-press community. He is an active member of the MIT Enterprise Forum, where he has served on several committees, is a mentor in the MIT $50K competition and is a judge at Brown University’s ‘Entrepreneurial Extravaganza’ business plan competition.
Peter Cowley, Investment Director, Martlet
Peter Cowley, a seasoned entrepreneur and angel investor, heads Martlet as Investment Director. Martlet is the Corporate Angel investment division of Marshall of Cambridge. Marshall has already invested in several successful start-ups and formed Martlet in early 2011 to continue investing in early-stage potentially high growth UK companies, concentrating on Cambridge and East Anglia.
Shellie Davis, Director of Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) at The Coca-Cola Company
The Coca-Cola Company’s M&A department is responsible for traditional M&A work, business development opportunities, as well as corporate venturing. In her current role, Shellie supports Coca-Cola’s Marketing and Technical functions globally across all three areas of M&A. Shellie has been with the Coca-Cola system for almost 19 years, in Canada and the US, working in both the Finance and Information Technology organizations.
Cédriane de Boucaud, Partner, Disruptive Capital
Cédriane has 18 years corporate finance and venture capital experience in infrastructure (waste, oil and gas, aviation, nuclear) across Europe, Russia and Asia. She has been involved in funding and growing more than 20 technology companies. Cédriane is on the Board of STF portfolio companies ECO Plastics, Q Chip, Lysanda and Pyropure and manages the Sustainable Technology Fund.
Dr. Gary Dushnitsky, Associate Professor of Strategic and International Management & Entrepreneurship, London Business School
Gary works on all aspects of entrepreneurship and venture capital with specific expertise in corporate venture capital. His publications include Entrepreneurial Finance meet organizational reality: Comparing Investment Practices by Independent and corporate VCs (with Z. Shapira), Strategic Management Journal (2009); and Limitations to inter-organizational knowledge acquisition: The paradox of corporate venture capital (with J.M. Shaver) Strategic Management Journal (2009).
Formerly, Dushnitsky was Assistant Professor, The Wharton School, and gained his BA MSC (Tel Aviv) and PhD (New York University).
Geoff Duyk, Co-Head, TPG Biotech and Alternative Renewable Technologies
Prior to joining TPG Biotechnology in 2004, Geoff served on the board of directors and was president of research and development at Exelixis, where he led a group of more than 550 people focused on the discovery and development of small molecule therapeutics. Prior to Exelixis, he was one of the founding scientific staff at Millennium Pharmaceuticals. As vice-president of genomics at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Geoff was responsible for building and leading the informatics, automation, DNA sequencing and genotyping groups as well as the mouse and human genetics group. He currently serves on the boards of directors of: Aerie Pharmaceuticals; DNAnexus; Draths Corporation; Elevance Renewable Sciences; fourteen22; Galleon Pharmaceuticals; Karos Pharmaceuticals; and Moksha8 Pharmaceuticals.
Mark Felix, Investment Manager, Dow Venture Capital (DVC)
Mark is responsible for sourcing and executing strategic investments that enable and acclerate Dow’s business growth. The intention is to enhance and elevate engagement and relations in the region enabling successful impelemntation of DVC’s strategy to invest in early-stage companies that have a strategic relevance to existing or emerging businesses in Dow. He has also had several roles in specialty and performance chemicals in the areas of household and personal care, biocides, Dow Wolff Cellulosics.
Neil Foster, Partner, Baker Botts
Neil is a corporate partner at leading law firm Baker Botts. He joined Baker Botts in December 2011. He was previously at a large European law firm, where he was a partner and head of venture capital and private equity. Prior to that, Neil was a founding member of the UK corporate practice in London of a large Californian law firm. He is on the editorial board of Global Corporate Venturing magazine and has advised on several corporate venturing deals. Neil’s practice in the London office of Baker Botts covers mergers and acquisitions, venture capital and private equity and corporate finance. His principal sector specialisations are technology and telecommunications, media and entertainment, life sciences and healthcare. As well as advising UK companies, venture funds and intermediaries, Neil represents many large US, Middle Eastern, South African and Asian corporations and institutions on their UK and European deals.
Andrew Gaule, Founder, Corven Networks
Andrew was the founder in 2000 of a Network of leading global organisations that brings the power the network to develop and implement best practise in Corporate Venturing and Innovation. The Corven Networks also delivers collaborative programmes in health, sustainability, technology, materials and other new business areas.
He is the creator of several management concepts now in use at organisations such as BAE Systems, E.ON, Health Protection Agency, KLM, Philips and Unilever, such as:
The "Five Ps", a methodology for ensuring innovation strategy and processes are sufficiently holistic and aligned to achieve significant value; and The New Business Cube, a methodology for evaluating business ideas throughout their development, from a holistic perspective, to prevent wastage and maximise the chances of successful deployment.
Andrew is the author of ‘Open Innovation in Action – How to be strategic in the search for new sources of value’ which includes case studies from H-I Network clients P&G, QinetiQ, Shell, DSM and Tate & Lyle. Andrew has also been an author on many reports and is a frequent conference speaker in Europe, the US and China.
Martin Grieve, Managing Director, Unilever Corporate Ventures
With the past nearly three years as managing director of Unilever’s global corporate venture and private equity investment portfolio, Martin has in total 25 years of professional experience in finance, strategy, accounting and advisory and recently corporate venturing. Unilever’s model of corporate venture investing now seen as leading edge in the consumer space, where Unilever have been awarded this year’s Global Corporate Venturing award for leading firm in the consumer space, while Martin has significant international experience gained through both local and global board level roles.
Edward Griffiths, Partner, DLA Piper
Edward is a partner in the London Corporate group and so a member of DLA Piper Middle East LLP. He specialises in private equity and mergers and acquisitions transactions acting for institutional investors, management teams and UK and international corporates. His deals include advising on the buyouts of Avery Weigh Tronix, Bluestep Capital Camden Corporate Fleet Services, Leading Edge Labels, Miles 33, Mirror Controls International, and Robinia Healthcare; the sale of SLI Lighting and Geo Networks; investments in Streetbroadcast and Iris Financial Engineering; and on the acquisition of Antenna Audio and Blackwell Publishing.
Chris Haase, Principal Business Adviser to Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Executive Vice-President of Innovation R&D, Royal/Dutch Shell
Chris is the business advisor to the CTO of Royal Dutch / Shell and assists in matters of strategy, operations and corporate development. Previously, he was manager of External Research for Americas with Shell in Houston, Texas, where he oversaw research projects and collaborations between Shell and universities, institutes and small businesses. He was also a principal with Shell Technology Ventures and Shell’s innovation group, GameChanger, which invested in disruptive, transformational opportunities in the energy sector. Before Shell, Chris was an investment principal with BTG Ventures, the corporate venture arm of BTG International and held various positions under the US Department of Defense. With his background in defence, technology transfer and business development, he is an active adviser to the National Technology Transfer Center in Alexandria, Virginia.
Fabienne Herlaut, Managing Partner, Ecomobilité Ventures
In November 2011, Fabienne left SNCF to create Eclaircile Gestion, in charge of managing Ecomobilité Ventures, the newly created €30m multi-corporate (SNCF, PSA, Orange, Total) venture fund, dedicated to sustainable mobility. Ecomobilité Ventures will invest in services, products and technologies related to mobility in Europe, with tickets ranging from €1-4m.
She had joined SNCF as head of Corporate Strategy and Sustainable Development, member of the Executive Committee, in 2007 before launching Ecomobilité Partenaires, SNCF’s corporate venture fund, a year later. She continues to manage Ecomobilité Partenaires, which had invested in six companies from its €15m fund.
Previously, Fabienne worked at ArcelorMittal’s Flat Carbon division, in charge of business development and partnerships with Nippon Steel (Japan) and co-led the integration between Alcan and Pechiney having originally joined Pechiney as head of Corporate Strategy in 2001.
From 1990 until 2001, she worked at Harwanne, a diversified holding company (mining, packaging,electronics), listed in Paris and Geneva, as general manager after earlier working at Bain and Co, a leader in management consulting, in Boston and Paris offices after graduation.
Masato Hisatake, Visiting Professor, Business Law Department, Law School, Tilburg University
Masato is also a senior official (the level of director) at Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), having joined the department (when it was called Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI)) in 1982. He spent three years between 2003 and 2006 as director of research coordination and a senior fellow at the Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI). Masato was visiting fellow at ClareHall, the University of Cambridge, UK; and is also visiting professor, NICHe, Tohoku University; with his research areas covering applied microeconomics, law and economics and innovation policy.
Nagraj Kashyap, Vice President of Ventures, Qualcomm
Nagraj Kashyap is vice president of Qualcomm Ventures. In this role, Kashyap is the global head of the group and oversees the company’s strategic investments in wireless-industry ventures. In addition, he provides direction and guidance to the Qualcomm Innovation Network team and oversees business development activities for research and development programmes, such as augmented reality, indoor positioning and contextual awareness.
Kashyap joined Qualcomm in July of 2003 as a senior manager in business development having previously been a manager at PRTM, a management consulting company and had direct client engagements with Nextel, Motorola, DuPont, Caterpillar, Michelin, Bell Mobility and ADC. Prior to PRTM, Kashyap was a senior product marketing manager at Motorola. He has also held engineering positions at 3Com/US Robotics and Nortel.
Kashyap serves on the boards of Brain Corporation and Avaak. He also manages or is involved as a board observer at Tango, Viddy, Livescribe, Location Labs, Obopay, Gaikai and Sotera Wireless.
Martin Kelly, Partner, IBM Venture Capital
Based in Ireland, Martin is partner with IBM Venture Capital. Martin established the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) group in 2007 and currently has responsibility for www.ibmsmartcamp.com which is now being rolled out globally.
Previously, Martin was a business development executive at IBM and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Jules Kortenhorst, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Topell Energy
Jules Kortenhorst is the chief executive of Topell Energy, the leading biomass torrefaction technology company. Until recently Kortenhorst was the founding chief executive of the European Climate Foundation (ECF), the largest philanthropic organization in Europe focused on influencing government policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Before launching the ECF, he served as a member of the Dutch parliament for the Christian Democratic Party, CDA. Earlier, Kortenhorst was the CEO for International Operations of ClientLogic Corporation and worked for eight years for the Royal Dutch/Shell Group in several roles and countries.
Davorin Kuchan, Director of Corporate Venturing and Innovation, Texas Instruments
Based in Palo Alto, Davorin manages corporate venturing and innovation for Worldwide Strategic Marketing Group at Texas Instruments (TI), global semiconductor leader. Prior to that, Davorin managed global sales team and $600m Electronic Manufacturing Services Industry (EMSI)/Flextronics business for TI. Before joining Texas Instruments, Davorin held key sales and business roles at Telogy Networks (acquired by TI), Neuron Data/Blaze Software (IPO, then acquisition by Fair Isaac Corp), Saber Software / Centerline and NuThena Systems. Davorin speaks English, Croatian and French and holds UC Berkeley MBA in Entrepreneurship and Venture Finance.
David Lawson, Open Innovation Manager, Procter & Gamble (P&G)
As of June 2011, David is the open innovation manager for all P&G’s research and development activities in Silicon Valley, based out of San Francisco, seeking collaborations and innovations is as diverse areas as renewable materials, systems biology, smart products and advanced materials among others.
David started with Procter & Gamble in Schwalbach, Germany in 1992 with responsibility for regulatory affairs for food and beverage products in Europe before managing the product development activities for the Pringles snack food business within Europe. In 2001 he transferred to Procter & Gamble’s headquarters in Cincinnati, US, and from 2004, David was the associate director for Global Health Care Connect + Develop identifying new technologies and collaboration opportunities for P&G’s Health Care businesses.
Crispin Leick, Managing Director, Innogy Venture Capital
Crispin has been leading Innogy Venture Capital (IVC) since its foundation in September 2010, having established the corporate venture capital activities of RWE Innogy in February 2008. He has over 14 years of managing experience in the energy business with a focus on portfolio management, structured transactions and business development in power, gas and renewables markets.
Crispin managed a multi-billion gas contract portfolio in RWE and has led the UK market entry of the windturbine maker REpower Systems in 2003. Previously, Crispin worked at Enron and Wingas, being part of the first liberalisation wave in the European energy markets, and currently serves on the board of Enercast, Topell Energy, Voith Hydro Oceant Current Technologies and Quiet Revolution.
Dr Adam Lent, Director of Programme, Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce – the RSA
Adam is Director of Programme at the RSA where he has responsibility for its thought leadership and practical innovation work, which focuses on the reform of public services, the encouragement of enterprise and the improvement of educational standards. He also manages the team that works with the RSA’s 27,000 Fellows to develop innovative solutions to social and economic problems. Since starting at the RSA he has helped the Society establish its chain of academy schools and sign its first major public service delivery contract working in the field of drug and alcohol recovery. He is now developing a major project on closed loop manufacturing. Prior to the RSA, Adam has worked as a freelance researcher, a lecturer at Sheffield University and as head of economics for the Trades Union Congress.
James Mawson, Founder and Editor, Global Corporate Venturing
James was editor of Private Equity News, part of Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal in London, for nearly four years until May 2010 when he launched Global Corporate Venturing as an independent title from his own publishing company.
Previously, James had freelanced for a host of national and trade media titles, including the BBC, Financial Times, Economist, Independent on Sunday, Sunday Express and Dow Jones Newswires; provided research for Nick Davies’s book, Flat Earth News; was a foreign correspondent in central and eastern Europe; and was international editor for FT Business.
He is also a director of the London Press Club and has acted as a pro bono editor for the European Venture Philanthropy Association’s monthly newsletter.
Matthew Mead, Head, NESTA Investments
Matt joined Nesta in January 2010 from 3i where he was a partner in their venture capital business. Matt joined 3i in 1995 and over a twelve-year period through to 2007 invested in a number of notable successes, including Vistorm (sold to EDS), Datanomic (sold to Oracle), Nimbus Partners (sold to TIBCO), and Garlik (sold to Experian). Matt then led the disposal of 3i’s venture portfolio in 2007 to 2009 in a series of international secondary portfolio disposals.
At Nesta, Matt leads the venture investing team which manages a £30m evergreen fund which currently has 30 live investments and five limited partner positions. With Nesta’s transition to charitable status, Matt is leading the development of an impact investment fund working alongside Joe Ludlow, an experienced impact investor. This fund is targeting innovative ventures that address major social needs in the UK:
an ageing population;
the learning and employability needs of younger people; and
efficient use of resources by households and communities.
Matt is an ACA qualified accountant and had a ten-year corporate finance career at Ernst & Young prior to joining 3i. He is currently on the venture committee of the BVCA and on the Board of the British Business Angels Association.
Dominique Megret, Head, Swisscom Ventures
Dominique joined Swisscom in 2002 as head of the Group Strategy unit before starting Swisscom Ventures three years later. He has a background as a entrepreneur in the UK, Germany and France (co-founder of Kick-Start Ventures). In addition, Dominique has worked as strategy consultant and manager in the IT industry.
Bernhard Mohr, Managing Director, Evonik Corporate Venturing.
Bernhard is heading Evonik’s Corporate Venturing activities that have been started in January 2012. Prior to joining Evonik, Bernhard was a member of the BASF Venture Capital team. He has held senior positions in the BASF Group since 1996 and has an international expertise in marketing, finance, corporate development and research and development.
Evonik, the creative industrial group from Germany, is one of the world leaders in specialty chemicals and Evonik Corporate Venturing plans to invest up to €100m in Europe, the US and Asia over the medium term in highly promising start-ups and leading specialist venture capital funds.
Jon Moulton, Founder and Chairman, Better Capital
Jon has long experience of turnarounds, having invested in them for 30 years and with considerable success. Jon is a Chartered Accountant, a CF and a Fellow of the Institute for Turnaround Professionals. Former Managing Partner of Alchemy, Jon also previously worked with Citicorp Venture Capital in New York and London, Permira and Apax. Jon is a Trustee of the UK Stem Cell Foundation. He is a very active angel investor. He is non-executive chairman of FinnCap, the stockbroker and a member of the advisory board for the £2.4bn UK Regional Growth Fund.
Volodymyr Pigrukh, Chief Executive, Profitero
Volodymyr has extensive experience with technology, sales and marketing, having worked at Microsoft, Accenture and Google and now at his new company, Profitero, is winner of IBM’s Smartcamp. Prior to that, he had his own mobile phone business, where he learnt firsthand how a very competitive retail industry works. It was here he learned that by keeping track of competitor price changes, he could influence and maximise his sales and company revenues.
Mark Radcliffe, Partner, DLA Piper
Mark concentrates in strategic intellectual property advice, private financing, corporate partnering, software licensing, internet licensing, cloud computing and copyright and trademark. His practice is split between private corporate funding transactions and intellectual property licensing. He works with both large companies, such as Sony and eBay and startups. He is the chair of DLA’s Corporate Venture Group. The respected English publishers Chambers and Partners has repeatedly named him in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, and has described him as "outstanding" and "a leader in open source-related matters." Legal 500 also recognizes him, commenting: "His expertise in providing strategic IP advice, with particular specialism in open-source matters, has won him plaudits. Indeed, one client describes him as ‘probably the best lawyer in his field.’" Additionally, Mark is listed in The Best Lawyers in America in the area of Intellectual Property Law every year in the past decade. In April 2009 (the first year of the award), he was recognized for his experience by Intellectual Asset Management magazine as one of the World’s Leading 250 IP Strategists. He has been recognized again in 2010 and 2011. The National Law Journal in 1997 named him one of the 100 Most Influential Lawyers in the United States. In 1998, Harvard Law School designated him a "Distinguished Alumni".
Erik Sebusch, Partner, CMEA Capital
Erik joined CMEA in 2010 and has no doubts about who’s at the top of the food chain in the world of venture capital – the limited partner. During his long career at UPS, which he calls a "left-brained organization," Erik encouraged them to use "right brain thinking" to develop new products while in New Product Concepts. This innovation continued while in UPS’s venture arm, UPS Strategic Enterprise Fund. Erik was involved in assisting and strategizing with early-stage startups to get their message and technology exposed to UPS and out to the world.His board seats include CEO Ventures, American Security Challenge, SouthEast Emergency Response Network and a stealth retail start-up.
Tony Stanco, Executive Director, National Council of Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer (NCET2.org)
Tony Stanco, is the executive director of the National Council of Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer (NCET2) and executive director of the Angel Investors of Greater Washington. Previously he was the director of the Council of Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer and Commercialization (CET2C) of The George Washington University. Tony was a senior attorney at the Securities and Exchange Commission, where he worked on more than two hundred IPOs and innovation policy, including start-up creation and funding by angel investors and VCs. At School of Engineering and Applied Science at The George Washington University, Tony works with universities and governments around the world on innovation policy, start-up finance policy, software policy, open source, cyber-security, and e-government issues and teaches the Lab to IPO course dealing with start-up formation and funding.
William Taranto, Managing Director, Merck Global Health Innovation Fund
Bill is managing director of the Merck Global Health Innovation Fund and executive director of the US-based healthcare company’s Global Health Innovation Group (GHI), where he is responsible for building the GHI capability for Merck. Established in 2010 as an independent limited liability company, GHI deploys its evergreen $250m fund to rapidly identify and develop transformative global health care opportunities adjacent to Merck’s core business of pharmaceuticals and vaccines.
Bill is a member of the Innovative Ventures Board, a group that manages the identification and funding of portfolio businesses; and is also head of the GHI Fund LLC Management Board. Mr. Taranto is also a board member of the Imperial College of London’s Intellectual Property Research Centre.
Prior to joining Merck, Bill spent 18 years at Johnson & Johnson (J&J) in various marketing, sales and business development roles, latterly as executive director of Health Care Strategy & Alliances. Prior to joining J&J, Bill spent eight years in investment banking.
Tom Thornton, Head of Innovation Alliances, Cleveland Clinic Innovations
Since April 2011, Tom has been general manager of alliances at the Innovations unit of Cleveland Clinic. Prior to this, for five years he was chief executive of Kansas BioAuthority, 2006-2011, and previous president of Illinois Technology Development Alliance and managing partner of incubator Divine InterVentures from October 1999 to May 2001.
Matthias Ummenhofer, Head of Equity Fund Investments, EIF
Matthias is responsible for European Investment Fund’s Venture Capital operations, which has committed €3.4bn to about 220 funds. Besides managing EIF’s VC team he is focussing on business development and shaping EIF’s strategy in the early stage technology market.
Prior to joining EIF, Matthias worked at European Investment Bank (EIB) as adviser to an Executive Board member and doing project financing transactions in the infrastructure sector. He has also worked in France as a consultant in the transportation and logistics sector and founded the research unit "Logistics & Environment" at the University of Aix-Marseille II. He was Director for the "Environmental Application Division" of the Society of Logistics Engineers (Hyattsville, US).
Erik Vermeulen, Senior Counsel Corporate, Philips, and Professor of Business and Financial Law, Tilburg University Law School
At Philips, Erik works on matters of corporate governance and corporate structuring within the Philips group of companies, corporate venturing and international mergers and acquisitions transactions. Erik is also Professor of Business and Financial Law at Tilburg University Law School and Tilburg Law and Economics Center (TILEC). He is Chairman of the Department of Business Law. He has written extensively in the area of corporate law, partnership law, corporate governance, joint ventures, venture capital and innovation. His current research looks at trends in corporate governance, disclosure regimes, financial and venture capital markets, dispute resolution and enforcement, business law/lawyers, innovation and entrepreneurship, and listings on alternative stock markets. He is a founding member of the International Venture Club Council, a member of the Board of the Foundation for Education of Inhouse Lawyers in the Netherlands and a member of the Legal Committee of European Issuers.
The Rt Hon David Willetts MP, Minister for Universities and Science
David is the UK’s Minister for Universities and Science, and has been the Member of Parliament for Havant since 1992. David has worked at HM Treasury, the Number 10 Policy Unit, the Centre for Policy Studies and served as Paymaster General in the last Conservative Government. He has also previously served as the Shadow Secretary of State for Work & Pensions. He is a Governor of the Ditchley Foundation and a member of the Council of the Institute for Fiscal Studies. He has written widely on economic and social policy, including his book on Modern Conservatism.
Stephen Ziff, Partner, Coller Capital
Stephen is a partner at Coller Capital, the leading global private equity secondaries firm. He is responsible for originating and closing secondary private equity investments and currently sits on the advisory boards of Absolute Income Fund, CIP Industries, New Venture Partners and Nova Cross, amongst others.
In addition to private equity fund portfolios, he is responsible for many of the firm’s secondary direct transactions with significant experience of structured solutions having transacted with banks, hedge funds and corporates; in this latter area he has closed deals alongside Lucent, AEA and QinetiQ.
Prior to joining Coller Capital in 2003, Stephen was an investment manager at an early-stage venture fund listed in London and he started his career by spending five years with the Rothschild Group carrying out M&A activity.