Speakers

Co-Head of Pan European Small and Mid Cap Team, Schroders

Andrew is Co-Head of our Pan European Small and Mid Cap Team. His investment career commenced in 1987 when he joined Schroders as a UK equity fund manager, becoming Co-Head of our UK Small Cap Team in 2002. He joined Price Waterhouse in 1985, at which he qualified as a chartered accountant. He has a degree in Economics.

Rupert Ashe (VideoJug Corporation)

Rupert Ashe ACA (47) is an entrepreneur operating in the media and retail sectors. After working at Deloitte’s, in 1991 he co-founded Focus Communications, an investor relations company, which he subsequently sold to Grey Advertising in 1998. In 2002, he helped to establish the UK & Eire operations of Build-A-Bear Workshop®, the NYSE-listed entertainment retailer, which was subsequently sold as part of a $41m transaction in April 2006. In 2006 he helped to found and raise capital for VideoJug Corporation, which has since become the world’s most popular on-demand self-help video website with 37,000 information-based films and over 4 million monthly users on www.videojug.com and its partner channels. He also runs a management consultancy, Wall House Consulting, which advises media and retail companies on realising value through the sale, merger or MBO of their businesses. During his career, he has been involved in over 50 fundraisings/IPOs and M&As as either an IR or corporate finance adviser or as a principal.

Piers Linney, a Partner at Trafalgar Capital, is a qualified lawyer and experienced cross-border corporate financier, who has been actively involved in developing the UK alternative finance market. He has broad entrepreneurial and private equity experience across a variety of sectors.

Piers has a joint honours degree in law and accountancy from Manchester University and gained a wide range of corporate finance and private equity legal experience at SJ Berwin, one of the UK’s leading private equity law firms, as well as in commerce. He left law to join the investment banking group at Barclays de Zoete Wedd where he specialized in UK M&A. He then joined Credit Suisse, where he focused on cross border M&A, LBOs and transaction origination between continental Europe, the UK and the US.

After establishing a number of media companies, Piers became a founding shareholder and CEO of Tower Gate Capital, one of the first UK-based specialist alternative finance placement agents. He worked with UK companies to source finance from US PIPE funds, alternative debt financing and hedge fund investment in structured public vehicles. Piers was personally responsible for the largest variable priced note issued by a UK public company in recent years. Piers has been a speaker on specialist UK PIPE panels, including the 2006 and 2007 PIPE Conference in London."

Before joining Creston plc, Barrie Brien spent nearly 6 years within the Interpublic Group of Companies. Barrie started as Finance Director of Lowe Howard-Spink and was part of the executive team implementing the successful merger with Lintas, winning the accolades of UK and European agency of the year. Barrie was soon promoted to the EMEA CFO and COO role for Lowe and Draft, which covered over 50 companies in 30 countries and $350m of revenue.

Prior to Interpublic, Barrie worked for five years at Saatchi & Saatchi in various senior finance positions in the UK, Europe and USA. The roles involved implementing client profitability systems, new company start-ups and global client contract negotiations. Before Saatchi & Saatchi, Barrie spent four years in the GGT communication group filling management accountancy positions within its BTL companies.

In summary, Barrie has considerable industry operational and commercial experience plus acquisition and merger. He also presently sits on the IPA Council, which is the industry’s governing body, and has chaired the Finance Policy Group for the IPA.

Richard, partner at Catalyst Corporate Finance, focuses on private equity transactions – MBO’s, MBI’s and development capital as well as working with existing private equity backed clients in planning for exit. During his time in corporate finance, Richard has been involved in a wide range of transactions, up to £300m in value, with a focus on the Leisure, IT Software and Services and House Building sectors.

Prior to joining Catalyst, Richard gained 10 years corporate finance experience in the major accounting practices as well as some time working on corporate restructuring with a major bank.

Richard is head of the IT Software and Services sector group and a member of the international IT and telecoms group giving him a wealth of knowledge of this sector in the UK and key overseas markets. Richard is also a member of the CBI Regional Council

Giles Peel joined Capita Company Secretarial Services as Managing Director in 2007.  Before this he spent 3 years as Policy and Development Director at the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators, marketing this profession and contributing to the development of corporate regulation and company law.  His first career was as a Naval Officer, serving at sea and in Whitehall.

Ten Alps is a factual media company that provides and manages content on television, radio, online television and print - targeting content to every media outlet that audiences and advertisers use; producing 530 publications and scores of television and radio programmes.
Nitil Patel has been a key member of the Ten Alps team since its conception and has worked with both Sayers Butterworth and Planet 24. In addition to his role as Group Financial Director for Ten Alps, Nitil Patel has operational control of Ten Alps Broadcasting across five production businesses.

Piers Lightfoot is one of the founding partners of The Conscientia Group Ltd, a company that uses Senior Executives and Business School professors to help solve client issues. Piers has had a career of over 28 years in management consulting, where he has managed consulting organisations, developed major relationships and lead client teams.

Highlights include operations management with Alexander Proudfoot, 8 years with Peter Chadwick (now Celerant Consulting) in client development and then setting up and running their French business. 3 years as European Commercial and Development Director for Personnel Decisions, Europe, the HR strategy specialists. Latterly, 5 years as European President and main board Director for REL Consultancy, the working capital specialists.

Some of his recent clients are: Shell, Audi VAG, Aventis, BP, KPN, EDF, Suez, Bayer, Henkel, RWE and Schneider-Electric. Piers holds a Law degree from the Paris Faculty of Law.

Andrew is CFO of SpinVox, which offers voice-to-text products in the carrier, enterprise and Web2.0 space. His previous positions include Chief Financial Controller of Vodafone and CFO of Cable & Wireless Caribbean. Andrew’s experience in the high growth, high tech sector includes GoIndustry - an AIM listed company which he co-founded. He has also worked at Cap Gemini, BAT and Price Waterhouse where he qualified as a chartered accountant. Andrew holds a BSc Physics from Sheffield University and an MBA from Kellogg Business School.