Stan Laurent is a partner at Highland Europe. Prior to their current role, they were the president and CEO of PhotoBox Group, a European consumer print-on-demand service. Stan has also served as the chief operating officer of AOL Europe and the managing director of AOL Germany.

Stan Laurent’s educational career includes a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Science from ESCP Business School.

Sriram is a builder, engineer and podcast host. He invests in crypto/web3 as a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz. He spent the previous decade working on consumer internet software running product teams at Twitter, Meta and Snap. He also hosts a podcast with his wife Aarthi Ramamurthy covering tech, creators and how people can make it to the “inside”. Sriram’s specialties include product development, strategy, general management, deal structuring and community building.

Rana joined Balderton as General Partner in 2020. Previously, Rana was a Partner at Goldman Sachs, first in the Principal Strategic Investments Group and later in GS Growth. In that capacity, she oversaw investments in Financial Technology and Enterprise Technology, as well as the commercialization of Goldman Sachs’ technology assets in both New York and London.

Rana joined Goldman Sachs as an analyst in 2006 and was named Managing Director in 2013 and Partner in 2018. She represented Goldman Sachs on the Boards of Tradeweb, NAV, Vestwell, New York Shipping Exchange, and Swapclear @ LCH.

Rana holds a Bachelor of Science from the Wharton School and a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations, both from the University of Pennsylvania, as well as an MSc from the London School of Economics.

James joined Amadeus in 2019 and is an Associate in the Amadeus Digital Prosperity Fund and secondary funds team focussing on growth stage activities.James is qualified as a chartered accountant and joined Amadeus from Deloitte where he worked as a financial audit manager.

Whilst at Deloitte James had a particular focus on high growth technology-enabled and biotechnology businesses, supporting his clients with M&A, IPO readiness, and post-IPO process implementation. Prior to this James began his career at BDO, also within financial audit.

James holds an LLB in Law with French Law and Language from the University of East Anglia. Having spent time living in both Belgium and France, he is proficient in French.

Jean-Laurent Pelissier is a Managing Director and Head of Enterprise Software at HSBC Innovation Banking. He is based in London and is responsible for leading a team which supports venture-backed enterprise software companies with banking and lending solutions. Prior to running the Enterprise Software team, Jean-Laurent led the Strategic Capital team for HSBC Innovation Banking, focusing on providing growth- and late-stage venture debt and mezzanine solutions. He has been supporting the UK and European VC ecosystem for over a decade with experience as both a debt and equity investor. Jean-Laurent holds a BA in Economics and BS in Mathematics from the University of California, Davis, and a MSc Finance from the London School of Economics.

Ben is a Partner on the investment team at Atomico, where he leads investments in Enterprise Software and SaaS companies. He has a particular interest in companies solving complex problems through building standout products powered by technologies including machine learning, intelligent automation, advanced analytics and simulation. Atomico invests in Europe’s most ambitious tech founders at Series A and beyond.

Phil is a Co-founder and Managing Partner of FinTech Growth Fund, a FinTech focused growth fund launched in August 2023. Phil is also the CEO of FinTech Alliance, a non-profit digital platform launched in partnership with the UK Government, tasked with supporting the growth of the UK’s fintech ecosystem by generating access to market, capital, and talent.

Previously, Phil spent over four years as Group Strategy Director at Pollinate, a growth stage FinTech focused on reinventing merchant acquiring for banks around the world. Prior to this, he spent five years at the UK Treasury, most recently as Head of Global Markets where he was responsible for all financial services activity across Asia Pacific and FinTech globally.

Lina is a partner at firstminute capital, a $400m AUM pan-European seed fund, backed by 130 unicorn founders. Lina joined firstminute as the first member of the investment team in 2017. Based out of Berlin, Lina leads the German satellite office and leads on sourcing for the DACH and Nordic regions. Companies that Lina has sourced and works closely with include Engflow (developer tools, backed by a16z), Clockwork Labs (gaming, backed by a16z), Taktile (enterprise saas, backed by Index), Xata (developer tools, backed by Index and Redpoint), Lindus Health (health/bio, backed by Creandum), Vantis, Index.io, amongst others. Prior to firstminute, Lina was a strategy consultant with the Boston Consulting Group in Germany.

Chris is Co-Founder and CEO of what3words. what3words has divided the world into 3m squares and given each a unique 3 word address. It means that now people can refer to any precise location in just three words – from a delivery entrance in the city to a home in a settlement where addresses don’t exist.

Chris harnessed the idea having grown up on a farm where delivery drivers never found his house, then spending a decade running an international live music business where site entrances were unaddressed leading to widespread logistical challenges. Chris devised the what3words concept with two friends, a mathematician and linguist, the 3 went on to co-found the business together.

From Mercedes-Benz and Mitsubishi to Airbnb, DHL and the UN, today thousands of businesses use what3words to improve their efficiency, customer experience and even save lives. what3words is a team of over 100 based in London, with backers including Intel, Sony, & Ikea.

Chris is a TED speaker, winner of EY Accelerating Entrepreneur, Cannes Lions Grand Prix for Innovation, and a Schwab Social Entrepreneur of the World Economic Forum.

Joanne Dewar has been firmly at the centre of the Fintech revolution as CEO of Global Processing Services (GPS), now Thredd, where she took pride not only of what the company achieved in enabling the fintech ecosystem, at home and overseas, but also in her values based leadership. Fintechs enabled by GPS included Revolut, Starling, Monzo, and Curve. Since exiting, Joanne enjoys following her passions of advocating for embedding ESG, championing disability inclusion and mentoring female and minority ethnic CEOs on their scale up journeys. Recognition includes Businesswoman of the Year at the 2022 UK Tech Awards, Director of the Year at the 2022 UK Fintech Awards and Payments Leader of the Year at the 2023 European Women in Payments Awards.

Rishi Khosla is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and investor. He is the CEO and co-founder of leading financial technology company, OakNorth.

He is a champion of entrepreneurs – who he feels are the drivers of innovation, social progress, and economic growth – and believes that everyone can prosper by adopting an entrepreneurial mindset. This vision led Rishi to build his first business, Copal Partners (which later became Copal Amba) in 2002 with his business partner, Joel Perlman. Together, they grew the business to 3,000 employees across 11 markets, before selling it to Moody’s Corporation in 2014.

In 2015, they launched OakNorth with the aim of empowering scale-ups (£1m-£100m turnover) to boost growth, prosperity, and innovation for the benefit of all. Since its launch in September 2015, OakNorth has lent over £10bn to businesses across the UK and across a multitude of sectors, directly supporting the creation of tens of thousands of new jobs and homes across the UK.

Rishi is an early-stage investor in Paypal, with other investments including About Energy (battery technology), Spiracheck (biotech), and Xometry (3D printing and manufacturing).

Brent is Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Founders Factory (global venture studios, seed programmes and accelerator programmes), Founders Forum (global community of founders, corporates and tech leaders), and firstminute capital ($320m seed fund with global remit, backed by over 120+ unicorn founders). Previously, Brent co-founded made.com in 2010 which went public last year with a valuation of $1.1bn, and lastminute.com in 1998 where he was CEO from its inception and sold it in 2005 to Sabre for $1.1bn.

Brent has backed nine unicorns at Seed stage and technology businesses Brent has co-founded have raised over $1bn and include Karakuri (provider of robotics, AI and automation systems), Founders Intelligence (entrepreneur-powered consultancy – recently acquired by Accenture), EQL:HER (network taking action to change the underrepresentation of women in technology), Founders Keepers (technology executive search firm), Founders of the Future (network that identifies and supports aspiring entrepreneurs), Founders Pledge (community for entrepreneurs committed to finding and funding solutions to global challenges), Grip (AI-powered event networking solution), 01 Founders (a network of free-to-access coding schools with a job guarantee), Founders Law (full-service tech law firm), Founders Makers (a creative partner for challengers and forward-thinking corporates), and Polygo (graduate talent accelerator).

Brent sits on the advisory boards of Google Cloud, The Tessa Jowell Foundation, the UK Government Digital Service and the WEF Digital Europe Group. He was also a founding Champion of Change for The Global Tech Group, has been an advisor to four UK prime ministers and in 2015 was awarded a CBE for his services to entrepreneurship.

Richard is the founder and CEO of moo.com.

Launched in late 2006, MOO helps companies bring their brands to life in a sustainable way.

MOO is focused on disrupting the trillion dollar print and branded merchandise industry, with its unique approach to design, technology and operations. This has allowed it to sustain industry-leading NPS, gross margin and top-line growth for a business of its size. To date, MOO has served millions of customers in nearly 200 countries and employs around 500 people across 5 locations in the UK and USA.

Before founding MOO, Richard worked for the design company Imagination, other past companies also include sorted.com and the BBC. Richard has spend the last ten years on public company boards as a Non-Executive Director, first with Ladbrokes PLC between 2012 and 2016, and then with N Brown PLC between 2016 and 2023.

Richard has been featured in the ‘Wired 100’ and ‘Media Guardian 100’ lists, was named amongst the Telegraph Newspaper’s ‘1,000 Most Powerful People in British Business’, and was ranked in the Guardian Newspaper’s top 10 most influential people in digital media. Richard is also an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year, a member of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences and the Young Presidents Organisation.

Richard was awarded an MBE for ‘Services to Entrepreneurship’ in the Queen’s 2015 New Year’s Honours.

Carolyn Dawson is Chief Executive of Founders Forum Group, overseeing all FF events and businesses, and steering the strategic development of our global network. Previously, Carolyn was President at Informa Tech, a FTSE 100 UK company championing specialists in their core markets. Carolyn led a global portfolio of Digital Media, Research, Events, and Training across a variety of technology sectors and presided over the joint venture between Founders Forum and Informa Tech, prior to her assuming her role as FFG CEO.

Carolyn was recently appointed an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for her services to London Tech Week, which she’s led for the past seven years. In this time, she built its global profile and advanced its mission to showcase the best of UK tech. Carolyn is passionate about growing a dynamic and inclusive tech community to realise the positive impact of technology on our world and to empower the next generation of entrepreneurs.

Tugce is passionate about the power of AI and the positive change it can bring to the world. As a serial entrepreneur, Tugce started a number of AI businesses including Streetbees where she served as the CEO for 8 years. She is currently working on Alchemy, a new dating service that brings executive matchmaking to the masses using GenAI tools to deliver hand-picked matches to its users.

Previously, Tugce was a strategy consultant at EY-Parthenon advising Private Equity houses on M&A and portfolio businesses. Tugce is a published author and a Cambridge economist, focusing on the use of technology to bolster economic development.

Before co-founding job search engine Adzuna, Doug was COO of property portal Zoopla. From 2008 he led the growth of the team from 5 to 100+ people, organically and through acquisitions, and left to start Adzuna prior to Zoopla’s IPO and subsequent sale to Silver Lake for $3B. Previously he was MD of Gumtree.com, the UK’s largest classified ads site, where he led the business through a strong period of growth after acquisition by eBay in 2005. Doug has an MBA from Kellogg, a BA in English Literature from Cambridge and hates to admit he is a qualified accountant.

Joel Perlman is the Co-founder of OakNorth, the neobank for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs. OakNorth has lent over £10bn since its launch in September 2015 and has reached profits of over £150m in 2022 (2023 results are yet to be published). Previously, Joel founded Copal Partners, a financial research company, in 2002 with just $60k. Over 12 years, he and his Co-founder, Rishi Khosla, scaled it to a 3,000-employee organization across 12 markets, before selling it to Moody’s Corporation (NYSE: MCO) and returning over 200x to seed investors. Joel grew up in Bogota, Colombia. He began his career as a Consultant at McKinsey & Company and has degrees from the London School of Economics and Georgetown University.

Megan Goodwin is an award-winning creative innovator and entrepreneur who has worked at the cross section between psychology, technology, gaming and media for 20 years.

Megan started out at the embryonic online divisions for News International and Express Newspapers at the beginning of the digital revolution. As a result, Megan was headhunted by Celador to spearhead the digital development of the show ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’. She launched over 70 products globally and generated revenues in excess of $400 million.

In 2004 she left to co-found an Innovation business and raised seed funding to license some of the world’s biggest entertainment brands, including Agatha Christie, Mastermind, Cash Cab. She has also been drafted in to devise digital strategies for some of the most notable international media companies including Endemol, Star Television, BBC Worldwide and Fox Television.
She advises entrepreneurs for Bpeace (working in crisis-affected communities to grow employment for all, and expand the economic power of women) and sits on the advisory board for Surrey Business school.

Most recently, she has launched The Vision. The Vision unlocks innovation and growth for businesses by providing project based advisory boards fuelled by diverse teams of world-class entrepreneurs and thought leaders. Megan is passionate about using her understanding of people and technology to re-balance society and our footprint on the planet.

Jacyn is an entrepreneur and founder and CEO of Epos Now. In 2011, as a bar owner, he experienced firsthand the lack of high-quality, flexible and affordable technology solutions accessible to small business owners like himself. Determined to create the technology he wanted, Jacyn set out to develop his own cutting-edge point-of-sale and embedded finance platform, augmented by artificial intelligence.

Since then, Epos Now has grown into a leading global embedded finance and POS solution provider, boasting a global workforce of over 600 employees, headquartered in the UK, and with head offices in the USA and Australia. Operating in 74 countries, Epos Now serves customers in over 67,000 locations across the retail and hospitality sectors.

Today, Epos Now is one of the UK’s largest and fastest-growing tech scale-ups, with an average of 65% growth YoY over the last 6 years and recurring revenues in excess of £100mm – completely organically funded.

Jacyn has received over 20 business awards, such as IOD Director of the Year, the Queen’s Award for Enterprise, and presented with an honorary doctorate from the University of East Anglia.

Jeremy is CEO and Founder of Attest, a SaaS business based in London and New York. Attest exists to inform every intuition and dissolve any doubt, by making it simple and fast to uncover opportunity with consumer data.

He previously worked at McKinsey & Company across >25 countries, holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, also studied at MIT, and was originally a scientist, focusing on behaviour, genetics and ecology.

Jeremy’s charity board roles include – Chair/Trustee/Member at REAch2; supporting and improving ~60 primary state schools across the UK – and also Trustee at Nesta; the UK’s innovation agency for social good; a ~£450m endowed charity which designs, tests and scales new solutions to society’s biggest problems.

Jonathan is the Co-Founder and CEO of And Rising, a creative ventures company building the future’s favourite brands. Through brand strategy, design, marketing, and advertising, And Rising’s partners have achieved a combined valuation of over £1.7 billion.

Jonathan has over 25 years of brand experience, including WPP, Omnicom and Publicis, before founding an advertising agency successfully acquired by the Unlimited Group in 2015. A regular contributor to CityAM, Guardian, and AdAge, Jonathan speaks at the London School of Economics and Said Business School, Oxford, is a member of The Sunday Times Debrett’s 500 list of most influential people in Britain and a distinguished Fellow of the Marketing Society.

As a pioneer in the B Corporation movement, Jonathan and And Rising demonstrate a distinct commitment to brands that support positive futures.

After working on the trading floor at UBS, Joe Mathewson left finance to build, lead and grow edtech SaaS platform Firefly Learning. The award winning platform helps 900 schools better connect their students, teachers and parents. After years of bootstrapping, Firefly raised the largest Series A in UK edtech and went on to raise a Series B, acquire and integrate two other edtech businesses, achieve profitability and then exit to PE backed US edtech leader Veracross. Joe then worked with the Firefly & Veracross leadership teams to successfully integrate the Firefly business. Having been supported by other successful entrepreneurs and participated in Future Fifty at Firefly, Joe is passionate about supporting up and coming software leaders and businesses as they scale to profitable growth.

Ben founded and led the Karmarama Group of companies specialising in marketing services and digital transformation. Karmarama went on to become one of the biggest independent agencies in the UK. Ben worked directly with the CEOs and CMOs of start-ups like Lucky Saint and household brands like Costa, IKEA, Just Eat and the BBC advising them on their marketing strategies and campaigns. In 2016 he led the sale of Karmarama to Accenture where he became responsible for all the agency acquisitions in Accenture Song, working with over 1,000 creatives and helping to form Accenture’s Global Creative Council. Ben left Accenture last year after completing his earnout and is now working with brands and agencies as a Consultant and Chair / Non-Exec.

Co-Founder and former CEO at identity unicorn Onfido. Now Founder and CEO at new startup Quench.ai – using internal recordings to empower smarter work by delivering relevant learning in the flow of work. WEF Tech Pioneer; Forbes Contributor and “30 Under 30”; BA in Economics and Management from Keble College, Oxford.

Adrienne is the Managing Partner at And Rising, a creative ventures company building the future’s favourite brands. Through brand strategy, design, marketing, and advertising, And Rising’s partners have achieved a combined valuation of over £1.7 billion.

Adrienne has over 18 years of brand experience across diverse sectors from fashion, finance and FMCG, inc. previously launching the UK’s first contactless technology at Barclaycard. Co-Founder of And Rising’s creative ventures firm, investing in and scaling brands of the future. Adrienne has expertise in working holistically with innovative companies to build, launch and grow brands, helping successful scale ClearScore, Seedlip (acquired by Diageo), Duolingo (IPO), Sweaty Betty (acquired by Wolverine) and LOVEFiLM (acquired by Amazon).

Dr. Graeme Malcolm OBE, a pioneer in the laser and photonics industry with over 30 years of experience and now a driving force in the nascent Quantum Technologies sector, is the CEO and Founder of M Squared. His mission is focused on developing innovative solutions in deep-tech scientific and industrial sectors, particularly in solid-state lasers and photonics. Under his leadership, M Squared Lasers has achieved high growth and multiple awards for its impactful technology.

Dr. Malcolm leads a team of talented engineers, scientists, and business professionals at M Squared Lasers, delivering products that cater to diverse needs in quantum technologies, biophotonics, chemical sensing, and environmental monitoring. This includes significant work for Earth Observation Satellite Missions targeting pollution and climate change gases including the missions that will arbitrate the Treaty of Paris on CO2 reduction.

He also serves on the UK Government’s Regulatory Horizons Council, advising on emerging technologies and regulatory considerations. His role as a Visiting Professor at the University of Strathclyde’s Institute of Photonics demonstrates his commitment to the intersection between academia and deep-tech.

Graeme is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Institute of Physics and the Royal Society of Arts recognising his contribution across disciplines. He was awarded an OBE for services to Science and Innovation in the 2015 New Years Honours List by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Notably, Dr. Malcolm is currently at the forefront of Quantum Technologies, developing ultra-cold matter sensors and clocks, and contributing to neutral atom Quantum Computers. His efforts in these areas highlight his significant impact on advancing quantum technology applications.

David has has held senior, executive and Board level roles across a number of high-profile global companies such as Microsoft Xbox, Nintendo, BSkyB, Nielsen, Rocket Fuel, Piano Inc and Surrey University Business School.

In addition, he was CEO of Venture Capital backed I-Play, a mobile gaming business, which he scaled and sold in 2007. He has been involved with a number of high profile launches such as Digital Satellite TV in the UK; across Europe the Nintendo Wii and the Pokémon phenomenon as well as the introduction of downloadable digital content for Xbox. More recently he led global teams in groundbreaking DSP, DMP and customer journey platforms in Rule of 40 SaaS businesses. .

Experienced at both buy and sell side M&A, his focus has always been delivering profitable growth through sales, marketing, customer success and organisational empowerment strategies.

Asi Sharabi co-founded Wonderbly (previously Lost My Name) as a DIY project with some friends back in 2013 on a mission to use the power of meaningful personalisation to help kids see their unlimited potential.

Just over 10 years old, Wonderbly is an award winning scale up that lives on the intersection of storytelling, engineering, digital and print. Wonderbly turn books into moments of deep connection, recognition and joy so the people who receive them feel valued, loved, seen and loved.

They are building a new class of global publishing business that brings millions of people into their superbly high quality products – as co-creators and audiences – and in doing so empower them to build connections with each other.

Originally backed by some of the best VCs in the world (GV, Project A Ventures, Greycroft, Ravensburget and more) Wonderbly is now backed by the brilliant team at Graphite Capital.

To date Wonderbly sold well over 10 million books in over 100 countries through their DTC, full-stack global POD publishing platform and recently awarded B-corp accreditation as well as The King’s Award for Enterprise.

Emma McFerran is the Chief Executive Officer of Lyst, the leading premium and luxury fashion shopping app. Lyst connects retailers and brands around the world, including Gucci, Prada, Loewe, &Other Stories, ASOS and more with 200 million shoppers each year. Lyst’s best-in-class customer experience is powered by data, AI and technology.
Emma joined Lyst 10 years ago after starting her career as a lawyer. Emma has worked across all areas of the company and has a deep understanding of the Lyst platform, and the fashion industry it supports.
Key to her role is ensuring that Lyst is always guided by its culture and values, so that the business and its people grow together. Emma is a fierce advocate for diversity and inclusion, and is passionate about building powerful teams and coaching the next generation of leaders.

Tom joined HSBC Innovation Banking in April 2023 as Chief Financial Officer and is responsible for the financial management of the Bank and is also a member of the Board.

Tom is a Chartered Accountant with 25 years; experience in the financial industry and has spent over a decade at
HSBC, most recently as HSBC UK’s Head of Retail Banking.

Tom has held a number of finance leadership roles
across HSBC including the CFO & Head of Strategy for the
UK Wealth and Personal Banking business, Global CFO
for HSBC Insurance and CFO for the Retail & Wealth
business in MENA, based in Dubai. Prior to HSBC, Tom
was an Audit Director at KPMG, specialising in Banking &
Insurance clients across the world.

Tom has a degree in Econometrics from the University of
Sheffield and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered
Accountants England and Wales.

Danielle is Duco’s Chief Financial Officer. Danielle has held numerous senior leadership finance roles, largely across financial services bringing experience from industries including Inter-dealer broking, investment banking, and insurance. Danielle has a track-record of leading financial strategies, delivering significant transformation programmes and managing M&A financials for both acquisition and divestment, including the delivery of the TPICAP integration/separation. Danielle holds a BA in Accounting & Finance from Nottingham Trent University.

Pranav Sood is the Executive General Manager, EMEA at Airwallex. Based in London, Pranav is responsible for all aspects of Airwallex strategy and operations across EMEA. As part of the global leadership team, Pranav also plays a key role in supporting Airwallex’s global strategy. Pranav started his career at Bain & Company, working in the firm’s London, Mumbai and Mebourne offices. Prior to joining Airwallex, Pranav spent five years at GoCardless, including roles leading the firm’s International and Global SME businesses.

Rupy is the Chief Strategic Transformation Officer at HSBC Innovation Banking. Rupy is responsible for the strategic planning and delivery of the change portfolio supporting the scale up of HSBC Innovation Banking. In her current role she is able to spend time with founders in the innovation ecosystem and understand the growth challenges they face.

Rupy is a commercially focused Business Leader with over 25 years’ experience in Tier 1 Banks including HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group and Barclays. Rupy has experience across Retail Banking, Private Banking & Wealth, Insurance, Commercial Banking and Investment Banking. She has also worked across functions including COO, Technology, Operations, Finance, Risk and Treasury.

Rupy has led multi-million transformations across Innovation, Technology, Digitisation and Organisational Agility. She has led diverse teams across UK, Europe, Asia, the Americas, Middle East and Africa. A strong believer in developing solutions for the clients need and also the colleague, she is an expert in guiding people to evolve alongside new immersive technologies.

She was awarded the Innovator of the Year: Enterprise at the Women in Tech Awards 2021 and a finalist as Digital Leader of the Year & Woman of the Year, demonstrating her commitment to the innovation tech landscape and her role in supporting organisations to scale with an evolutionary approach.

Rupy is an advocate of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion and is Executive Co-Sponsor of the Racial Equity Employee Resource Group at HSBC Innovation Banking.

Future Fifty program alumni, Yannick is a data-led, customer-focused, and commercially minded expert who has 15+ years of experience with renowned international brands like Expedia and Zipcar as well as scale-up businesses like Oddbox (food), LloydsDirect / Echo (health-tech), Lenstore (eye-care), and PeoplePerHour (talent marketplace). He has held leadership positions for 10+ years, and at C-level for 6+ years with board-level experience.

Yannick is also an advisor to start-ups and scale-ups in various industries (men’s fashion, pet tech, food & drink, eye care), supporting founders / CEOs and their marketing teams.

Tracey runs a portfolio career as a Fractional strategic CFO/COO, Scale-up director and NED offering expertise in business strategy, growth, finance management, operations, business resilience, risk and regulatory compliance. Part-time, she works with Russ Shaw CBE of Global Tech Advocates and Tech London Advocates as the Head of corporate development and community growing the tech ecosystem within the UK and across the globe. Tracey spent many years embedded in the Tech ecosystem lead-mentoring for accelerators such as Techstars, Outlier Ventures and Nat West. Her ongoing involvement in angel groups and helping founders with investor pitch training, forecast reviews, and due diligence readiness demonstrates her commitment to nurturing emerging tech startups.

Tracey is a former KPMG Director and Chartered accountant. She led in strategic growth and resilience, Brexit readiness, climate change and sustainability in many sectors and covered strategy, transformation, business resilience, operations, audit and transactions. She led diverse teams internationally, cross-organisation and within multiple sectors as an operator and client-facing. She worked with clients from startups up to FTSE 100.

With a keen focus on governance and strategic oversight, Tracey’s role as Institute of Directors 2023 award-winning non-executive director, audit and risk committee member and Chair of EDI at regulated institutions like the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland and London Metropolitan University underscores her dedication to fostering inclusive leadership, driving growth and business resilience. By combining her corporate experience with hands-on involvement in the startup ecosystem, Tracey is well-equipped to help C-suite scale-up teams establish strong business fundamentals and focus on growth in today’s dynamic business landscape.

Paola Parsons is Head of HR for HSBC Innovation Banking in the UK. She is responsible for the HR Strategy including Board and executive remuneration, reward strategy, succession planning, talent management and organisational design. Paola has extensive experience across all aspects of HR, but with particular expertise in employee engagement, transformational change, employee relations and talent management.

Paola joined HSBC Innovation Banking UK, formerly SVB UK in 2021 as the Group Head of HR for EMEA and her remit expanded to International (India GDC and China). Prior to joining SVB she was the Regional Head of HR, Europe and Americas at Standard Chartered Bank where she established the European subsidiary in Germany in preparation for Brexit and set up a new office in Poland as nearshore for the region.

She also spent five years at Experian where she held several senior HR positions including Regional HR Director covering the UK and EMEA. She was responsible for end to end HR as well as Communication and Corporate Responsibility, managing a team of 100 professionals. She managed complex M&A activity (acquisitions and divestments) and set up offshore shared services in Asia and Eastern Europe.

Paola also worked for Barclays Bank for 14 years in a variety of specialist, regional and global HR roles.

David Shriver is Chief Reputation Officer at Ocado Group, a FTSE-100 listed company which provides end-to-end online fulfilment solutions to some of the world’s largest grocery retailers. He has served as a Supervisory Board member for online pet food retailer zooplus AG, as Strategic Adviser to the Chief Executive at Groupe Carrefour, and as Managing Partner of Tulchan Communications, a leading financial PR agency. David began his career in investment banking and was Managing Director and top rated equity analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston.

Elly leads Marketing and Client Experience for HSBC Innovation Banking globally and in the UK. In this role she is responsible for shaping the organisation’s overarching Marketing and CX strategy and overseeing areas including our brand, corporate communications, insights and partnerships – aligned with the long-term vision of the business, corporate goals, and the wider business strategy.

Elly is an accomplished marketing executive with 18 years’ experience delivering business growth and scaling brands across regions through marketing excellence. Prior to taking the global role, Elly led EMEA Marketing – most recently supporting the launch of Innovation Banking under the HSBC brand – having spent over 13 years with Silicon Valley Bank leading Marketing, CX and Communications across multiple markets, including the US and Asia. During her tenure she drove the launch of the SVB brand in the UK, Ireland, Germany and the Nordics, as well as playing a leading role in the development of the Marketing strategy for SVB’s joint-venture with Shanghai-Pudong Development Bank.

She has worked across all life stages of the innovation economy – from consumer tech to B2B both in house and agency side – always working hand-in-hand alongside sales and product teams to deliver commercial outcomes.
Elly is a passionate champion of the innovation ecosystem and continues to spearhead work on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion within HSBC Innovation Banking.

Carson is an experienced scaleup CMO with a particular passion for building digitally lead consumer brands. Despite this passion for tech-lead products, his approach to marketing is centred around efficiency and efficacy and is solution agnostic across media channels, ad tech stacks, and conversion funnels. This approach allows for maximum agility across new and traditional media, as well as continuous optimisation of the whole marketing funnel.

He has enjoyed success with a few different sectors. Most recently he built the online estate agent Strike from scratch and drove it to become the 2nd largest estate agency brand in the UK. Ultimately enabling the takeover of its closest rival Purplebricks. Prior to that he helped develop Clippings, a professional interior design marketplace which resulted in the successful exit to US firm Material Bank. Carson joined Made.com as the first marketing hire and orchestrated all acquisition channels to drive rapid growth in the uncharted waters of DTC furniture. Prior to moving to the UK, Carson lived in San Francisco and helped establish Academia.edu as the preeminent digital platform for academic research online.

Outside the proverbial office Carson enjoys following the latest in consumer tech, AI, blockchain, behaviour economics, and biohacking and when offline a bit of travelling and hiking too.

I’m a highly accomplished commercial “T shaped” CPeO who has successfully transitioned from CPeO to COO & back to CPeO bringing the best of both and learning a LOT along the way. A compelling storyteller I bring positivity, vulnerability, fun, and energy to everything I do. I have recognised spikes in finding, attracting, and recruiting awesome people and advising Founders on commercial growth, bringing into play my knowledge, experience, and playbook to help solve scaling challenges.

I’ve worked for and with some of the UK’s most celebrated entrepreneurs at companies including Moneysupermarket, MOO, Octopus Ventures and iTech Media group and now the incredible GoCardless.

Vaso was previously the very first People person at Deliveroo, where she helped business leaders grow Deliveroo from a tiny London food delivery company to today’s global unicorn. Subsequently, she was VP People at TrueLayer, an opening banking and payments platform, where she scaled the company from 40-500 across 12 markets and another billion dollar+ valuation. She’s an experienced hyper-growth people leader and a long suffering Leeds United fan!

Edward Jackson, a seasoned C-level coach and Vice President of Marketing at Vinted has been pivotal in the company’s remarkable growth during his nearly nine-year tenure. Leading a team of 140 marketers, Edward has driven Vinted’s member base from over 10 million to more than 100 million, expanded its market presence from 6 to 24 countries, and boosted revenues to over half a billion euros in 2023. His extensive experience in consumer technology has been instrumental in transforming Vinted into a globally recognized brand.

Michelle partners with founders at Notion Capital to develop their leadership team and hiring plans over the course of their Start, Build Scale journey. She specialises in People Insights, Compensation, Org Design and Talent Strategy. Prior to Notion, Michelle worked as an operator in Product at Mirza, a US-based seed stage HR tech company and People Ops at AMEX. As a Strategy Manager at Accenture in New York City, she led projects for the United Nations, Harvard Business School, Shell, and Danone.

Simon has Co-Founded three innovative tech-enabled businesses, one of which is Utilita Energy, a pioneering Energytech. As a CFO, he has established numerous finance teams, systems, and processes to support scale and international expansion, from pre-revenue through to £300m+ revenue. He has led successful exits between £100m and £200m and his career includes fundraising experience across pre-seed, Series A, B and C rounds, typically between £5m and £30m. He has worked for two VC/PE groups and has project experience of buy & build integrations and finance/business transformation.
As a highly commercial and strategic CFO, Simon’s recent career has been focused as a fractional CFO and business partner with many early-stage tech businesses. Coupled with his Co-Founder and NED experiences, Simon is well-placed to add value to aspiring ventures. Simon’s technology business background spans Smart Meters, SaaS, Telematics and In-Car AI devices, Apps, Marketplaces, Price Comparison Sites and various business and finance system development deliveries.

Stan Laurent is a partner at Highland Europe. Prior to their current role, they were the president and CEO of PhotoBox Group, a European consumer print-on-demand service. Stan has also served as the chief operating officer of AOL Europe and the managing director of AOL Germany.

Stan Laurent’s educational career includes a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Science from ESCP Business School.

Sriram is a builder, engineer and podcast host. He invests in crypto/web3 as a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz. He spent the previous decade working on consumer internet software running product teams at Twitter, Meta and Snap. He also hosts a podcast with his wife Aarthi Ramamurthy covering tech, creators and how people can make it to the “inside”. Sriram’s specialties include product development, strategy, general management, deal structuring and community building.

Hussein is a partner at Hoxton Ventures. He currently represents Hoxton on the boards of Avantia Law, Baseimmune, BeyondRisk, Biocortex, Biotx, DruidAI, Finesse, Fy!, Giraffe360, Kbox, Kitt, Luminary, Peptone, PillSorted, Raptor Supplies, Really Clever, Rensair, Replai, Replan, Skin Analytics, TourRadar and XYZ Reality, and serves as a board observer on Behavox and Karakuri. He previously served on the boards of Babylon Health (NYSE:BBLN), bd4travel (acquired by Dnata), Campanja (acquired by 24/7 Media), Darktrace (LSE:DARK), Deliveroo (LSE:ROO), Panakeia, SOCOS (acquired by Sophos), Yieldify (acquired by Publicis) and Vidya Health.

Hussein serves on the board of UCLB, the commercialization company of UCL and also sits on the advisory board of GTO Partners, a tech mid-market buyout firm, and Landscape, a venture capital review site. Previously he served on the board of Tech Nation, a UK quasi non-governmental organization. In a personal capacity, he is an angel investor in Apex:E3, Builder.ai, Callaly, GoCardless, Mellizyme, MyGlamm, Reachdesk and Signpost.
While forming Hoxton, he helped Eros STX Global develop ErosNow, an online streaming video platform for Bollywood. Prior to Hoxton, Hussein was an associate with Accel Partners. He joined Accel from Microsoft Corporation. Earlier in his career, he worked with three startups, Safe-View (acquired by L-3), Radiance Technologies (acquired by Comcast) and Studio Verso (acquired by KPMG).

Hussein holds an MBA from London Business School and did his undergraduate studies in Symbolic Systems at Stanford University.

Rana joined Balderton as General Partner in 2020. Previously, Rana was a Partner at Goldman Sachs, first in the Principal Strategic Investments Group and later in GS Growth. In that capacity, she oversaw investments in Financial Technology and Enterprise Technology, as well as the commercialization of Goldman Sachs’ technology assets in both New York and London.

Rana joined Goldman Sachs as an analyst in 2006 and was named Managing Director in 2013 and Partner in 2018. She represented Goldman Sachs on the Boards of Tradeweb, NAV, Vestwell, New York Shipping Exchange, and Swapclear @ LCH.

Rana holds a Bachelor of Science from the Wharton School and a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations, both from the University of Pennsylvania, as well as an MSc from the London School of Economics.

Phil is a Co-founder and Managing Partner of FinTech Growth Fund, a FinTech focused growth fund launched in August 2023. Phil is also the CEO of FinTech Alliance, a non-profit digital platform launched in partnership with the UK Government, tasked with supporting the growth of the UK’s fintech ecosystem by generating access to market, capital, and talent.

Previously, Phil spent over four years as Group Strategy Director at Pollinate, a growth stage FinTech focused on reinventing merchant acquiring for banks around the world. Prior to this, he spent five years at the UK Treasury, most recently as Head of Global Markets where he was responsible for all financial services activity across Asia Pacific and FinTech globally.

Chris is an entrepreneur, investor, and mentor. He is the Managing Partner of Outrun Ventures, and one of Europe’s most prolific investors in Fintech companies. After a ten year career at GE Capital, he co-founded a specialty finance company that became one of the fastest growing businesses in the UK. He and his partners sold the business to a NASDAQ listed entity and specialist buy-out fund in 2014. After exiting he turned his attention to venture investing and mentoring founders. He led the Techstars Fintech Accelerator for five years during which time he made 50 investments – making first cheque investments into Everledger, Cuvva, Cutover, Shieldpay and Seldon. He has also invested as an angel into a further 130 companies, many of them now notable, including Railsbank, Kuda Bank, Quant Network, Marshmallow, Smart Pension. Monese, and Atom Bank. He was named the UK’s Angel investor of the year in 2018/19 and Sifted named him the most active fintech angel in Europe in 2020. Chris formed Outrun Ventures to facilitate investment into the growth stage round of some of his most exciting portfolio companies.

Ben is a Partner on the investment team at Atomico, where he leads investments in Enterprise Software and SaaS companies. He has a particular interest in companies solving complex problems through building standout products powered by technologies including machine learning, intelligent automation, advanced analytics and simulation. Atomico invests in Europe’s most ambitious tech founders at Series A and beyond.

Maria is a product builder and a fintech veteran. Maria spent the last ten years in product leadership positions at successful UK fintech startups and growth- stage companies, namely Nutmeg, Bought By Many and Ebury. Maria is currently a fintech business and product consultant, an advisor to startups and an angel investor with a focus on the UK, Europe and US. Maria holds an MBA from Stanford, a Masters degree in Physics from Pisa and a Postgraduate Certificate in Software Engineering from Oxford.

James joined Amadeus in 2019 and is an Associate in the Amadeus Digital Prosperity Fund and secondary funds team focussing on growth stage activities.James is qualified as a chartered accountant and joined Amadeus from Deloitte where he worked as a financial audit manager.

Whilst at Deloitte James had a particular focus on high growth technology-enabled and biotechnology businesses, supporting his clients with M&A, IPO readiness, and post-IPO process implementation. Prior to this James began his career at BDO, also within financial audit.

James holds an LLB in Law with French Law and Language from the University of East Anglia. Having spent time living in both Belgium and France, he is proficient in French.

Lina is a partner at firstminute capital, a $400m AUM pan-European seed fund, backed by 130 unicorn founders. Lina joined firstminute as the first member of the investment team in 2017. Based out of Berlin, Lina leads the German satellite office and leads on sourcing for the DACH and Nordic regions. Companies that Lina has sourced and works closely with include Engflow (developer tools, backed by a16z), Clockwork Labs (gaming, backed by a16z), Taktile (enterprise saas, backed by Index), Xata (developer tools, backed by Index and Redpoint), Lindus Health (health/bio, backed by Creandum), Vantis, Index.io, amongst others. Prior to firstminute, Lina was a strategy consultant with the Boston Consulting Group in Germany.

Georgie is an investor on Sapphire’s Growth team, where she focuses on investing in European B2B companies at Series B+ and supporting Sapphire’s portfolio companies across Europe. Prior to this, she was at CVC Capital Partners and Boston Consulting Group. Georgie graduated from Magdalen College, Oxford.

Chris is a successful entrepreneur and startup executive with a track record of helping companies succeed. In 2019, he co-founded Front of the Pack (FOTP), a pet wellness startup that raised a Series A at $50 million from leading institutional investors and angels. Under Chris’s leadership, FOTP became one of the top pet wellness companies in the world.

Before FOTP, Chris worked as the Director of People at Paws Group, Europe’s largest pet supply ecommerce business. He has also helped build and align leadership teams for some of the most exciting startups around the world, many of which have gone on to list on the NASDAQ or FTSE or become unicorns.

Chris’s work in people and culture has been featured in The Times, and his playbook is used by over 40 scale-ups, including four of the top 10 in The Sunday Times Tech Track 100. In addition to his professional pursuits, Chris co-founded and runs NOMFUP, a social mobility organization that is soon to become a charity.

Niki is Co-Founder and Operations Director at Pledge Ventures and currently covers External Relations at Founders Pledge, where she previously worked across the organisation as Chief of Staff. Niki began her career in quite a different space as a Stage and Production Manager for theatre, music and live events. She also ran a chain of theatre venues at the Edinburgh Festival before going on to lead Operational and Exhibitor Services at the Royal Horticultural Society, working across their portfolio of major events including the Chelsea Flower Show. Niki also ran her own aerial theatre company on the side, which combined elements of circus and dance with storytelling and had several sell-out shows.

Justin is based in London and works as the Director for Europe at Liquidity Group, a $2.5bn AuM alternative asset manager. At Liquidity, Justin works with leading growth-stage European technology companies and VCs to provide debt financing solutions of up to $120m in a range of flexible structures. Prior to Liquidity, Justin worked as Head of Investor Partnerships at Uncapped, and in Portfolio Strategy for Venture Builder, Blenheim Chalcot.

Nick is a Partner at Oxford Science Enterprises (OSE). He leads their Independent Investments Team, working exclusively with established portfolio companies that have developed a significant degree of independence from the firm. He manages OSE’s investments in these companies, supports their continued growth and development, and is responsible for investing fresh OSE capital into them.

Prior to OSE, Nick was an Investment Principal at Valiance, a MedTech-focused venture capital firm. He has also held roles as a private equity investor at Nordic Capital and as an investment banker at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Nick holds a Triple First Class MA (Cantab) in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge.

Raph is Orrick’s Managing Director for technology clients in Europe with a focus on Great Britain, France, Germany and Italy. He serves as the interface between the European tech ecosystem at large and the Orrick partnership and team in all European countries.

Uniquely positioned as a business advisor within Orrick, Raph drives opportunities for clients throughout the technology sector across Europe and Great Britain.

Raph supports existing clients & assisting in identifying new opportunities, drive execution on expanding client relationships. He is also tasked with raising the firm’s profile in key markets, sectors and practices. Prior to joining Orrick, Raph served as Business Development Partner with C4 Ventures, in charge of Fundraising and LP relationships. He also founded & managed the Startupbootcamp IoT Program, which invested in more than 30 early-stage companies. Until 2011, Raph occupied various responsibilities at a leading tech company (U.S.) , closing with the role of Head for iPhone & iPad in Business for Europe based out of London.

Julia Hobsbawm is an award-winning writer, speaker, consultant who writes, broadcasts and consults about the past, present and future of work. The author of the acclaimed book The Nowhere Office: Reinventing Work and the Workplace of the Future, she was a founder of the US-led Workforce Institute, was Chair of the inaugural UK Demos Workshift Commission, and now co-hosts the popular podcast The Nowhere Office.

Julia is the of The Simplicity Principle which won two awards for Best Business Book and Best General Self- Help book 2020 in the USA, and Fully Connected: Social Health in an Age of Overload which was shortlisted for Management Book of the Year in the UK. An acclaimed entrepreneur Julia was awarded an OBE in the late Queen Elizabeth II’s Birthday Honours List in 2015 for Services to Business . She regularly consults for and speaks to corporations, government and change-makers around the world and is often in the media including Fortune, Forbes, the BBC, Sky News, CNN and Bloomberg for whom she writes and broadcasts regularly and she speakers to corporate and Government audiences around the world.

Working Assumptions is her seventh book. Bruce Daisley, bestselling author and podcaster, Eat, Sleep, Work Repeat and Fortitude says of it: “Working Assumptions provides an insightful, forthright perspective on this fast-moving topic. Anyone wanting to take stock of where we are should start here”.

Nick is Head of Entrepreneurs at Evelyn Partners – the wealth management, tax and accountancy group. They help fast growing businesses and the people that own them to make smarter financial decisions. Nick’s specific expertise is helping founders structure their personal financial affairs before, during and after liquidity events.

Jamie’s practice focuses on venture capital with significant experience in advising start-ups through to unicorns.

Jamie acts for both early and late stage companies in intellectual property rich sectors and those who invest in them, including some of the most active venture capital funds, corporate or individual investors.

Jamie has a passion for disruptive technologies, innovation and entrepreneurial business. He has acted on countless transactions across a broad range of sectors both in the UK and internationally, but is most known for his experience in acting on investments into fintech and Artificial Intelligence companies.

Jamie has deep knowledge of the practice area in which he operates and market trends, which he leverages to provide clear and concise advice on a range of corporate issues taking high growth technology companies from start-up through to exit.

He presents on corporate law and venture capital to clients and at seminars in the City, including practitioners’ conferences on practical legal issues in venture capital transactions and SEIS/EIS investments.

An active participant in the venture capital community, Jamie Moore has contributed to industry standard form documentation, acted as a mentor for various Seedcamp portfolio companies and hosted office-hours for the Barclays’ TechStars cohort.

Alistair works with both fast scaling businesses and large privately owned or PE backed international groups. He leads the International tax team at Evelyn Partners and during his 20+ years of experience has established an extensive network of trusted tax, accounting and advisory contacts around the world.
Alistair is regularly in the US, working with both US and UK headquartered businesses, often supporting these businesses as they prepare for an exit event.
As an experienced relationship Partner, Alistair brings other specialists to his clients to maximise opportunities and mitigate risks on a real time basis.
Alistair joined Evelyn Partners in 2017 from EY, having worked in their mid-market team for 10 years. Prior to EY, Alistair worked for PWC.

Jules is CEO of Kokoro, a not-for-profit founded by Natasha Müller, which champions mental health as the foundation for a safer, kinder and more productive world. Kokoro runs the Future Mental Health Collective (a global peer to peer network for private funders who include mental health in their giving and investing), and supports initiatives such as www.cop2.org, which focuses on the intersection between mental health and the climate crisis.

Formerly, Jules was CEO of London & Partners Events; Managing Director at London & Partners, London’s international trade, investment and promotional body; and Partner at communications consultancy, Hawthorn Advisors. She started her career as a UK diplomat, serving in Jordan, Iraq, the USA and Ethiopia. She remains the UK’s youngest ever Ambassador, appointed to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador from 2009-2012. In 2016, Jules was named a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and in 2017, she was made an Honorary Group Captain with the Royal Air Force’s 601 Squadron.

Jules currently sits on the Advisory Board of Climate Cares at Imperial College London, PhaseSpace, which uses VR to help reduce stress and anxiety, L’Oréal’s Climate Emergency Fund and clean energy and clean tech specialists, Longspur Capital. She also advises the Women of the Future Programme, Apolitical, the Unsung Foundation, the Mental Health Innovation Network and the NFL UK Foundation.

Previously Director Apple Education EMEA, then China/AsiaPAC. Led the team who built Education Podcasting, iTunesU Europe then China, worked on the development of Apple Education mobile strategy, iOS Education APPs. Developed the SEED CSR project in China, a collaboration between Apple, Foxconn and Pearson.

Current portfolio includes; Director Trust Architect at ASI.Tech (previously Digest.Ai) conversational Ai. Senior External Advisor McKinsey & Co. Health Tech and Education. Director BD, Strategy and International at Spooler.fm digital media publishing, podcast technology/platform. Non-Executive Director at eKidz.eu language, literacy Ai platform, project with Government of Ukraine supporting 5m+ children. Board Director iOi Institute of Imagination, Charity. Advisor/Contributor to CognitionX Conference & Education APP. FRSA Fellow, The Royal Society of Arts, London. Mentor at Village Capital (Washington DC.), Meaningful Business (London), Deeptech Labs (Cambridge).

Roles and responsibilities include; Non-Exec Director, Board Advisor and Consultant to a portfolio of both early stage and established education, health technology, Ai, blockchain and digital businesses, worldwide. Portfolio includes companies located in London, Berlin, Stockholm, Zurich, Dubai, Delhi, Tokyo, and New York. Contribute across multiple disciplines including; venture building, fundraising for early stage and scale-up technology businesses. Business scale-up: strategy, BD, technology architecture and platform development, brand development, international engagement, channel partnerships, and content strategy/partnerships.

Skyscanner’s CEO, Gareth Williams, became fascinated with computers as a teenager. Pursuing his love of code, he went on to study mathematics and computing at Manchester University, where he met Bonamy Grimes and then Barry Smith, who went on to become Skyscanner co-founders.

After leaving in 2019 he is now ‘funemployed’.

Emily is Head of Growth at Founders Pledge, a global nonprofit that supports entrepreneurs to do the most good possible with their charitable giving. Emily started her career working in international development in Ghana and Bangladesh, before spending six years working for the Mayor of London, in both Shanghai and London. During this period, Emily supported international tech companies expanding internationally as part of the foreign direct investment team and then led partnerships as Head of Corporate Engagement. Emily completed her BA in International Relations at Exeter University and MSc in Social Business and Entrepreneurship at the London School of Economics.

Kutlu is the head of ventures for Creative Destruction Lab at University of Oxford, overseeing the scouting, selection, support and alumni relations across AI, fintech, climate, health and space programmes. He has 20+ years of business experience, advising startups and technology companies around the world. Before joining the CDL programme, Kutlu launched and ran startup programs in UK and EMEA, including UKBasecamp, SUCool, Founder Institute, Galata Business Angels, Endeavor Turkey as well as cofounding an enterprise innovation software company, WeDecide. Previous to that, he worked as a banker in New York and Jakarta. He holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering with distinction from Stanford University. He is also an investor in ~100 startups across North America and EMEA, part of European Investment Committee of Angelschool, part of Stanford UK Angels.

Rhona Munro is a passionate go-to-market strategist and business development executive with a deep strategic and entrepreneurial conviction. With over 30 years experience, Rhona’s proficiency and expertise in business strategy, go-to-market strategy and scale up is second to none, having orchestrated the business development and expansion of over 60 brands throughout the UK, EMEA, USA and Canada in a variety of sectors including, consumer electronics, wearables, telecoms, biotech, health & wellbeing, lifestyle and fashion.

As an added string to her bow, Rhona also holds a Masters in Coaching & Development working with founders and associated teams to enhance leadership communication, authentic influence, inner confidence and resolve imposter syndrome.

Dr. George Windsor is Director of Research and Intelligence at Notion Capital, a pan European, UK based VC, investing in business software companies at Series A. George also holds advisory positions with data, consulting, and research organisations. Prior to Notion Capital, George was Director of Data and Research at Tech Nation, working with scaling tech companies, UK government, and enterprise clients to better understand the dynamics of UK and global tech ecosystems. George was a researcher at innovation foundation, Nesta, and holds a PhD from Loughborough University, where he explored the relationship between migration and entrepreneurship.

Tom is an experienced IP/IT and Tech lawyer with a focus on the European Fintech space. Having built up the practices of two multi award winning UK FinTech companies, he launched Founders Law in 2019 and its became part of the Founders Forum group in late 2022. Founders Law provides a full service, bespoke and embedded legal service to high growth companies across the UK, Europe and the Middle East.

Ed is passionate about entrepreneurship, and has worked with start-ups and scale-ups since 2016. and supports Series A – C founders as the Fintech and Enterprise lead for PwC’s Raise | Ventures team, the highly-regarded and well-renowned fundraising accelerator. He is also part of Cardiff Capital Region’s Innovation Investment Fund’s investment team. Further to his day-to-day work, he is also an advisor to Skin in the Game group, an early-stage investment syndicate focusing on the future of human performance, marrying his passions for entrepreneurship and investing with his love of sport.

Not your typical Chief People Officer, JooBee Yeow is a trained Systems Engineer with a PhD in Leadership Development. Throughout her extensive career, she’s worked with 2, 20 and 200-year-old companies with revenues ranging from £1m, 10m, 100m to £1 billion.

JooBee’s primary focus is guiding founders and start-up leaders to decode relationships between people, structure and processes during critical inflection points, ensuring a smooth transition from the ‘STARTing to Build’ phase to ‘BUILDing to Scale’ – all while achieving a growth rate of 15% YoY, 15% QoQ and even 15% MoM.

The creator of the ‘Scaling Start-Ups’ blog series and newsletter, as well as the ‘Learngility Open Source’ repository, JooBee believes in accessibility of knowledge. As such, she contributes extensively to the start-up community’s collective knowledge base via Notion Capital, Atomica, Balderton, Forestay, Offbeat and Sifted among many other publications, communities and VCs.

Ric has spent his entire career helping build leadership teams for some of the world’s most successful ventures and has helped amazing people to fulfill their ambitions and potential.

Ric has worked with some of the fastest-growing consumer companies globally including Allbirds, Reformation, Harry’s, Nextdoor, Away, Pangaia, Voi, DoorDash, and many more.

He also partners with the most successful Venture Capital and PE-backed companies such as Andreesen & Horowitz, Sequoia, Index, Advent International, Bain Capital, and Hellman & Friedman to help them hire impactful leadership talent into their portfolio companies such as InPost, Hermes, and WorldPay.

Earlier in his career, Ric placed senior talent at Skype and Zong before their eBay and PayPal acquisitions. He also made the first hires in Europe for the likes of Admob (now Google), Makerstudios (now Disney), and Wayfair ($10bn IPO).

She has a decade of experience running award-winning campaigns in London and New York, at Campaign Agency of the Decade and AdAge International Agency of the Year. She has led global marketing campaigns for brands including Samsung, John Lewis, Aviva, Molson Coors, Meta, Pepsi and Bulldog, with these receiving recognition by the IPA and Cannes Lions awards for effectiveness and creativity.

Katie has run her own marketing strategy consultancy for the last few years, advising brands including Headspace, Bodega Bay Hard Seltzer and Deliveroo. She has also worked with a number of mission-driven start-ups in the femtech, sustainable food and healthtech industries.

Katie has a unique and diverse blend of experience across ATL advertising, social-first marketing, broadcast, start-up strategy, brand partnerships, go-to-market planning, activations, podcasts, influencer marketing and business development.

Passionate about scaling businesses with impact, Katie also mentors young founders of purpose-driven companies, and volunteers with TERN – The Entrepreneurs Refugee Network.

Beyond her brand marketing work, Katie also regularly moderates and MCs at events, speaking on the topics of entrepreneurialism, leadership, creativity, purpose-driven business, gender equity, resilience, and the future of work. She has interviewed high-profile leaders including Beyond Meat Founder Ethan Brown, femtech leader Cindy Gallop, and Pension Bee CEO Romina Savova.

Liz is a long time tech ecosystem builder, advisor and advocate. She has supported businesses large and small, nationally and internationally to grow, innovate and evolve for over 20 years. As the Director at the newly established Turing Innovation Catalyst Manchester (TIC), Liz is focused on building a new not-for-profit that will catalyse an AI ecosystem across Greater Manchester, and will use AI to grow careers, businesses and the city economy. Over the next 2 years TIC will be delivering AI accelerators, Venture Builders, Skills programmes as well as a whole host of events and activities to drive the AI ecosystem forward.

Prior to TIC Liz was part of the Executive Board at Tech Nation, responsible for supporting a National Community of 4500+ scaleups; delivery of international programmes; the Global Tech Talent Visa programme; all non-grant revenue; and strategic partnerships. In her Non-Exec Director and Advisory board roles Liz works with a number of scaleups and tech sector focused organisations.

David is the Founder and CEO of Founders Pledge, and Founder and Partner at Pledge Ventures. He moved into the non-profit sector from an eclectic commercial background, having worked in investment banking and subsequently founded and sold a boutique real estate firm. After running the gauntlet of finance, start-up, and academia, he started Founders Pledge to make it absurdly easy for entrepreneurs to do good in their work and lives. Most recently, David launched Pledge Ventures, a rules-based venture fund which has committed 85% of GP carry to charity.

Jay is the VP & GM of Cisco’s Webex CPaaS business and joined Cisco when imimobile was acquired in 2021. He helped start IMImobile PLC and as CEO led it to a successful IPO in 2014 and then to its acquisition by Cisco. Today he is working on combining the IMI cloud communication platforms with relevant technologies from Webex to create solutions that help clients deliver the world’s best customer experiences.

Jay enjoys working with entrepreneurs and fast growth technology businesses and has served as both an executive and non-executive director on the Boards of private and public companies and has led several investments and exits.

Prior to IMImobile Jay co-founded Spark Ventures plc (an early stage venture capital firm) and held corporate finance roles at UBS Warburg and BSkyB. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG and has an MBA from INSEAD and an Economics degree from LSE. Jay is passionate about technology, economics and social justice.

Matt Hyde specialises in connecting people and has acted as a catalyst in the Fintech sector for over a decade.

As visionary Founder of Fintech Awards in London, North, South West and Wales, Matt’s purpose is to bridge the worlds of finance and technology, recruiting top-tier talent for a diverse range of companies. As Director of Recruit 121 he has led the executive search and hiring of C-Suite teams for dynamic startups to FTSE 100 corporations. His keen eye for identifying individuals who can navigate the intricate intersection of finance and technology, along with his stellar network of Fintech professionals has positioned him as a sought-after expert in the industry.

In addition to his accomplishments in recruitment, Matt is the driving force behind the Fintech Awards in key regions, recognizing and celebrating excellence in the financial technology sector. These awards serve as a testament to Matt’s commitment to acknowledging and promoting innovation and talent in the ever-evolving landscape of Fintech.

Matt’s influence extends beyond his roles as a director and founder. Recognized in Fintech circles as an influencer, Matt continues to make an impact on the Fintech industry. His ability to shape and contribute to its growth and development is clear to see through the calibre and span of the Fintech Awards portfolio and prestigious judging panels, through to the career progression of previous award winners.

Matt’s passion for excellence, innovation, and the continuous evolution of talent in these dynamic sectors is only matched by his love of rugby and discovering French wines.

Zeynep is a Vertical Lead for Start-Ups Account Management at Amazon Business UK where she works with some of the UK’s top Start-Ups and helps them on their digitised procurement journey on the B2B side. Previously at Amazon, she has overseen the growth of artisanal small sellers from across the UK and France, enabling their growth on the Amazon marketplace. Based in London, she has focused on developing Customer Success and GTM strategy at several VC-backed Start-Ups and Scale-Ups such as OYO UK, Doctify and Duetto prior to joining Amazon in 2021. Working directly with founders and the C-suite, she has amassed invaluable insights into the Start-Up ecosystem and the tech industry alike.

She holds a BA in European Politics, Economics and French from King’s College London and SciencesPo Paris. She is passionate about fostering and nurturing Start Ups in the UK as well as those tackling some of humanity’s biggest issues such as climate change, mental health and social mobility. Outside of work, Zeynep is a restless polyglot who is fluent in Turkish, English, French, Modern Greek and is currently taking on Polish.

15 years of experience in bridging B2B technology businesses from Europe with APAC
Born and raised in the Netherlands with 18 years of entrepreneurial experience in Singapore
Master’s degree Financial Business Administration from University of Amsterdam
THNK – School of Leadership

Wanda is an organisational psychologist with 20+ years experience helping organisations and teams navigate change, growth and international expansion. Working across Europe, the US, Africa and Asia with Founders, CEOs and their teams, Wanda helps to align and ensure resilient, high-performance teaming across cross cultural boundaries. With deep experience working in Tech businesses, her focus lies on balancing transactional and relational aspects of work, and this brings fulfilled and engaged thinking and doing. Internationally expanding businesses has been a key area, where she brings leaders and teams together to think, re-think, balance, adjust and implement what’s most helpful to them at every stage – from seed to IPO.

Katy Trost is a coach and advisor to tech CEOs in London and New York City. They partner with her to become more effective leaders and build healthy organizations while navigating the challenges of scale. Understanding the responsibilities and challenges that come with serving a company and its people, her mission is to support CEOs at Series B and beyond on their growth journey.

Her clients include companies backed by leading investors, including SoftBank, First Round Capital, Primary Venture Partners, Felix Capital, Octopus Ventures, Inflexion, Maven, and more. Katy is a coach and judge to Tech Nation Future Fifty and Upscale, Octopus Ventures, Founders Forum, Techstars, Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs, PwC Fintech, and the Mayor of London Mentoring Program as well as an advisory board member of various startups.

Dora has spent the last 10+ years in different capacities in the tech and startup ecosystem both in Silicon Valley and in Europe. Currently, she is working with mostly European tech CEOs and their exec team as they start scaling their business. Her clients include tech companies backed by leading investors such as Atomico, Hoxton Ventures, Entrepreneur First, Coatue and more. Dora is also on the judging panel of the Scale-Up Awards and Go:Tech Awards by Business Leader, and a mentor to the Chief of Staff Network. She is also on the advisory board of various startups.

Previously, Dora held leadership roles at Google, YouTube, and SoftBank’s Vision Fund where she helped to scale the operations and the team from 4 people to 200+. Dora has also co-founded a personality-profiling startup and holds executive coaching certifications from Harvard Business School and Animas.

Xenia runs an executive coaching, moderation and geopolitical advisory business, Wickett Advisory, that helps organisations and individuals find clarity and direction amid uncertainty. She helps clients identify the signal – what matters – from the noise. As an ICF accredited executive coach, she specialises in working with leaders and organisations in transition. Around 40% of her coaching clients are entrepreneurs, driving their organisations forward in the US, UK and beyond. She arrives at this from an extensive career at senior levels of government (US White House and State Department), academia (Harvard’s Belfer Center), think-tanks (Chatham House) and the private sector (Equinor). She believes that decisions are improved by gaining different perspectives and that the client holds the answers. She will meet you where you are.

Jennifer’s work centres on enabling female and impact driven founders. She’s certified as a coach though Meyler Campbell’s Mastered programme and is an inaugural coaching partner for Octopus VC, working with their female founders, co-founders and leadership team. She also provides group coaching for female founder CEOs and to Tech Nation. Clients value Jennifer’s calm, positivity and compassionate challenge. Her coaching offers them new perspectives and a deeper self-awareness as they tackle business growth challenges. They leave coaching sessions with greater clarity and a sense of agency.