The team
David McMeekin
David is Chairman of Company Guides Venture Partners, which manages the London Technology Fund. He has over 25 years experience in corporate finance and investment, encompassing stockbroking and banking, quoted and unquoted companies, venture capital, M&A and flotations. He is also chairman of the largest of the government's Regional Venture Capital Funds, the £50m Regional Venture Capital Fund for London: The Capital Fund. The Capital Fund has made over 100 investments in more than 60 companies. David was previously head of corporate finance at HSBC/Midland Bank, having been asked to join the bank on secondment from its stockbroking arm to establish and lead a corporate finance department. Whilst at HSBC he established and chaired an in-house venture capital fund and helped to establish 11 regional venture capital funds on behalf of the Finance for Enterprise initiative by the Prince of Wales. Prior to joining the bank, David was head of corporate finance at the stockbroking firm, Greenwell Montagu. David also has direct experience of industry, having started his career with ICI and been chairman of quoted and unquoted companies. He has been invited to serve as a member of various committees, including the Financial Services Panel of the Office of Science and Technology's Foresight Programme.
Eric Cooper
Eric Cooper is Deputy Chairman of Company Guides Venture Partners, which manages the London Technology Fund. He was formerly Deputy Chief Executive of Legal & General Ventures, where he worked for 12 years from 1988 until the end of 2000. During this time he was also responsible for Legal & General’s investment in a technology transfer seed fund and was chairman of London Biotechnology Ltd, in which University College London had a minority shareholding. Eric started his career in stockbroking, completed an MSc and then joined 3i, where he worked in both investments and corporate finance (1972-81). In 1981 he left 3i to become managing director of a 3i client company. In 1984 he became managing director of Dylon International, a manufacturer of household dyes and chemicals, and later a director of its parent company, Mayborn Group plc. He left Mayborn in 1988 to join Legal & General Ventures. Eric has a wealth of experience of managing venture capital investments in SMEs across a range of sectors, has served on the boards of a number of companies in which Legal & General invested and has also worked as managing director of two manufacturing companies. He has a sound understanding of SME investment, development and growth from both an investor’s and an industrial manager’s perspective.
Graham Ayres
Graham Ayres is a non-executive director of Company Guides Venture Partners (CGVP), which manages the London Technology Fund. Graham has substantial experience of working with institutional investors, advising on investment opportunities and dealing with management teams at a senior level. He spent 33 years in stockbroking, following an initial eight years in industry. He started his stockbroking career at one of the UK’s leading stockbrokers, Hoare Govett/ABN Amro, and was there from 1968 to 1996. During this time he became head of institutional sales for government securities before moving to equities and becoming deputy head of the institutional equity sales team. In this role he worked closely with the investment analysts across a wide range of industry sectors, meeting management teams and assessing opportunities to invest in large and small quoted companies. In 1996 he left Hoare Govett/ABN Amro and, together with a colleague from the equity sales team, joined the 3i-backed stockbroker Sutherland Limited, to form a new team in London as part of Sutherland’s expansion from its Scottish base. He left Sutherland in 2001 following its acquisition by Charterhouse Securities and the acquisition of Charterhouse by ING Barings, and then became a director of CGVP.
Allan Beattie
Allan is Finance Director and Compliance Officer and will play an active role in assisting start-up companies establish financial controls and install financial systems. He was previously Financial Controller and Compliance Officer at Royal Bank Development Capital in Edinburgh for 7 years where he set up and managed the back office. Allan’s previous experience includes 7 years with "Big 4" accountancy firms working as an adviser to SMEs across the UK, including working closely with owner-managers of small firms to introduce financial controls and reporting systems. Prior to training as an accountant, Allan worked for 3 years as a software developer, designing and writing accounting and management reporting software. Allan graduated with an MA in Economics and Politics from Glasgow University (1982), is a Fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants (1989) and holds an MBA from Manchester Business School (2000).
Christine Munro
Chris is Head of Research and has over 20 years experience in the City. She was formerly a director in the UK equity research department of Hoare Govett/ABN Amro, where she was head of the media and paper, packaging & printing research teams. She advised on investments in these sectors for 14 years, prior to moving into corporate finance advice with Company Guides Limited, which she co-founded in 1996 and which specialises in advising early stage companies in the technology, media and telecoms sectors. In 2001 Chris co-founded Company Guides Venture Partners, which manages the London Technology Fund.
Eliot Darcy
Eliot is an Investment Manager at the London Technology Fund. Previously, he worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers where his industry sector specialisations included technology, information, communications, entertainment and energy. He has an MSci in Chemistry & Molecular Physics and is a qualified Chartered Accountant.
Cranch Lamble
Cranch is an Investment Manager at the London Technology Fund. Previously, he worked at the specialist early stage technology venture capital fund, Cambridge Research and Innovation (CRIL). He left CRIL to join an investee company, Plastic Logic Limited. Plastic Logic specialises in plastic electronics and is a spin out from the University of Cambridge. Cranch's early career was at British Aerospace. He has a degree in electronic engineering and an MBA.
Rowland Savage
Rowland is an Investment Manager at the London Technology Fund. Rowland previously worked for ARCH Development Partners, a Chicago-based seed stage venture capital fund focused on technology. Rowland left ARCH to found Apothecary Software, a Northern Ireland based software company servicing the UK pharmaceutical market. His early career was as a software engineer at Logica and a project/program manager for Apion, during which time he worked on a variety of software projects for telecommunications operators in Europe and Asia. He has a BSc in computer science from Queens University Belfast and an MBA from the University of Chicago.
William de Mare
William is a Portfolio Executive. He previously gained experience in the Operations Department of a fund manager, where his role was to help maintain computer-based records and research responses to enquiries about the firm's funds and individual investments. He joined the London Technology Fund in August 2005 and is training as an accountant for the ACCA qualification.
Christine Hall
Christine is the Office Administrator for the London Technology Fund. She handles all initial enquiries from applicants for funding and all our marketing meetings and events. Previously, she worked for the Royal Society of Chemistry where she was responsible for the financial management, organisation and marketing of the Society's Faraday, Material and Dalton Discussion conferences. She has an MA in Food and Welfare Studies. Christine is currently on maternity leave.
Denise Mitchinson
Denise is the interim Office Administrator for the London Technology Fund whilst Christine Hall is on maternity leave. She has substantial experience in senior administration roles and has taken over responsibility for handling all initial enquiries from applicants for funding and all our marketing meetings and events. Denise joined LTF in May 2008.
Dr Edward Barrett
Edward is the London Technology Fund’s first member of its Postgraduate Intern Programme (PIP), which offers science graduates the opportunity to gain a year’s experience in the world of technology venture capital. He joined us in October 2007 and his responsibilities include the London Technology Fund Competition 2008 and in particular liaising with the major technology corporates and professional firms who are supporting the competition. He is an experimental solid state physicist with four years experience working with organic semiconducting materials. Prior to joining LTF he was a Research Assistant at the Blackett Laboratory of Imperial College, having completed his doctoral studies under Professor Donal Bradley at Imperial and his first degree at the University of Bristol.
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