Facing the Future: How FinTech and Alternative Finance are Transforming the World

Kelly Angood is the UK manager of Tech, Design and Hardware for Indiegogo – the world’s largest crowdfunding platform.

As a maker herself she understands the product development process and is passionate about revolutionising the way products are made by giving creators and makers access to capital.

Indiegogo empowers people to fund what matters to them and makes it possible for more people to make their dreams a reality.

Peter Baeck is Principal Researcher at Nesta where he focuses on alternative finance, digital social innovation and innovation in public services.

Peter has led on much of Nesta’s research into crowdfunding and P2P lending as an innovative way of financing products and services. He is the author of Understanding Alternative Finance (2014) and Working the Crowd (2013), Crowdingin (2013) and helped set up the UK’s first crowdfunding directory www.crowdingin.com. Peter is a frequent blogger, commentator and speaker on crowdfunding.

As part of his research in to public sector innovation Peter lead on a large 18 months study on mapping and understanding digital social innovation in Europe for DG connect and has previously co– authored a large study on public sector innovation labs in partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropy.

After three score years and more than ten, Alan Barrell finds it hard to say “no” to the innovation and entrepreneurial ideas that arrive in his life by all known communication means daily.

A biologist with experience in NHS medical technology turned salesman turned businessman, entrepreneur and venture capitalist fund manager, now labelled “pracademic”, Alan is a champion of the next generation and the vision of A World Without Borders – through Education Without Borders and Open Innovation. He is the Entrepreneur in Residence at the Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge, Visiting Professor at the University of Sunderland, Portsmouth in UK and an International Executive Fellow at the University of Essex. In China, he is a Professor at Xiamen University, Shanghai University, Shanghai College of Science and Technology and University of International Business and Economics Beijing as well as being a International Research Fellow at Laurea University Helsinki and Lahti University in Finland.

At the Tohoku Fukushi University Sendai Japan, Alan is currently engaged in support of NHS Healthcare Reforms after being Chair of NHS Health Enterprise East Ltd for eight years. His next generation work extends to Board Membership / shareholdings in four early stage health care companies and to having been Chairman of Trustees of NACUE – National Association of College and University Entrepreneurs – and advisor to Start Up Generation International and Youth Business China. In his spare time he raises money for the charitable causes he supports.

Alan’s book “Show Me The Money – how to raise the money needed to get your business off the ground” – co-authored with David Gill and Martin Rigby – came out in July 2013. One of the first ten recipients of The Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion, Alan was also knighted (Knight First Class of the Order of the White Rose of Finland) in Finland by the President in 2012 for services to education.

Alan travels widely but always loves coming home to Cambridge, and visiting Yorkshire and Canada.

Lawrence Bloom is Secretary General of the Be Earth Foundation, a United Nations IGO in collaborative status with ECOSOC. This foundation has been formed to support treaty countries in their achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and to give voice within the UN to Indigenous Peoples.

Lawrence is also Chairman of Be Energy, a start up triple bottom line energy company working to support, through the provision of jobs in the biomass sector, impoverished communities in the US and Canada and in developing countries to provide health and education services to all its employees, their families and where possible the larger community.

He sits on the Founders Board and is part of the creation of a new full spectrum, fully transparent New York Investment Bank and is an International Advisor to the Memnosyne Foundation.

Lawrence enjoyed a long and distinguished career in the property industry. Among a number of senior positions, he sat on the Executive Committee of the Intercontinental Hotel Group from where he managed their $3Bn.global real estate portfolio. Whilst there he created a hotel environmental manual, subsequently adopted by HRH Prince Charles, and currently in use in 5 million hotel bedrooms worldwide.

He assisted David Gershon in the creation of Global Action Plan. This initiative is designed to impact personal lifestyle choices around sustainable consumption and was recently chosen by Sky TV to be their Charity partner of the year. Together with Nick Hart Williams and Sir John Whitmore, Lawrence helped create and organise a series of annual events in London UK featuring cutting edge thinkers called “Be the Change” (now linked to the Pachamama Alliance).

Following on his appearance a number of times at the World Economic Forum, Annual General Meeting, at Davos where he addressed groups interested in the future of cities Lawrence was appointed the first Chairman of the Global Agenda Council on Urban Management, and he is a current alumnas of all Agenda Councils.

Lawrence is also the former Chairman of the UN Environmental Programme, Green Economy Initiative, Green Cities, Buildings and Transport Council.

He is Vice Chair of Climate Prosperity Strategies which is an initiative of Global Urban Development created to demonstrate the economic benefits of creating a sustainable society. He was a Member of the Jury of the Globe Award for Sustainable Cities, held annually in Stockholm, Sweden and of the Corporate Responsibility Advisory Group of the ICEAW. He is a member of HRH Prince Charles “Accounting for Sustainability Group.” and also sits as an Advisor to Hazel Henderson Ethical Markets. Lawrence is also President of Pathway International, a not for profit registered in Geneva Switzerland.

For thirty years Lawrence has been on an inner search to discover the real nature of the world in which we live; and how that relates to the current converging financial, environmental and social crises which threaten to overwhelm our social structures and even our species.

Kieron Boyle is Head of Social Investment at the Cabinet Office, where he leads the UK government’s efforts to grow the social investment market. Kieron has worked across UK government, including as Head of Delivery at the Department for Business, Head of Policy at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and as a Senior Policy Adviser at the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit. He was the UK representative to the G8 Social Impact Investment Taskforce and sits on the European Commission expert group on social business.

Prior to joining public service, Kieron worked as a strategy consultant with the Boston Consulting Group in both London and New York. He has an M.Phil in International Relations and an undergraduate degree in Social and Political Sciences, both from Cambridge University. Kieron writes for a number of journals, and has particular research interests in criminal justice, social innovation and impact investing.

Outside of work, Kieron is a Trustee of the Design Council and of Catch22, one of the UK’s leading charities. In 2014 he was selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

Ben Brabyn helps global investors engage with UK innovation to identify the transformational technologies and teams that will reshape industries.

He has spent the last two years as Chief Operating Officer of UK Trade & Investment’s Innovation Gateway where he was responsible for boosting supported investment by a factor of 20. He covers cyber security, fintech, digital media, health tech, advanced materials, robotics and autonomous systems, satellite and space, and life sciences, and specialises in helping strategic and financial investors to identify the opportunities most relevant to them among the many thousands of startup and scale up businesses in the UK.

Before joining UKTI, Ben was an entrepreneur, co-founding the UK’s first crowdfunding business (sold in 2010) and a social commerce business as well as an advisor to several early stage companies. He started his career as an officer in the Royal Marines Commandos, from which he joined JP Morgan as an investment banker, working in the UK, USA and Middle East. He has an MA from Edinburgh University and an MBA from Warwick Business School.

Rhodanus Capital Limited envisions a world in which investors value and embrace financial as well as social and environmental returns. This is an attitude that reflects awareness and responsibility, an attitude that reflects a commitment to use capital to create a world of equality and sustainability.

Having worked for many years for traditional private equity and hedge funds, Susanne Bregy set up Rhodanus Capital to focus on sustainable and impact investing.

As a consultant, Rhodanus advises traditional investors on impact investing. This is done by sharing information and knowledge, supporting the strategic and tactical asset allocation and assisting the manager selection and the due diligence processes.

As a catalyst, Rhodanus supports handpicked funds and enterprises that not only have a defined financial interest, but also a social and/or environmental mission with their fundraising activities.

Susanne Bregy grew up in Switzerland, studied Philosophy and Business Administration in Munich and currently works and lives in London.

Vern Brownell joined D-Wave as CEO in 2009, leading the company through its transition from research into the world’s first commercial quantum computing company. During his tenure D-Wave secured its first customers including Lockheed Martin, Google and NASA, and raised over $100 million in venture funding. Mr. Brownell joined D-Wave from Egenera, a pioneer of infrastructure virtualization, and a company he founded and at which he held various executive roles including CEO. Prior to Egenera, Mr. Brownell served as the Chief Technology Officer at Goldman Sachs where he and his staff of 1,300 were responsible for worldwide technology infrastructure, including computing platforms, datacenters, data networking, telecommunications and trading-floor operations. He holds an MBA degree from Anna Maria College and a BEng. degree in Electrical Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology.

In this role, Michelle works with Canadian companies and helps them to understand the London/UK Financial Services sector and potential opportunities on a trade and investment basis. Michelle also works with UK companies looking to invest or expand their operations in the Canadian Financial Services Sector.

Michelle previously worked at IBJ International (now Mizuho) in Structured Corporate Financial Sales and Merrill Lynch.

Michelle is currently a Trustee of the Canadian High Commission Pension Scheme and was previously Chair, Treasurer and Trustee of the Canadian Centennial Scholarship Fund.

Michelle has a BComm (Hons) from Queen’s University, an Msc in Accounting and Finance from the London School of Economics and is a CFA Charterholder. Michelle is originally from Canada but has been living and working in the UK since 1987.

Sherry Coutu is an Entrepreneur, Investor and Advisor to Companies, Universities and Charities.

She currently serves on the boards of Zoopla Property Group, The London Stock Exchange Group, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Assessment, Raspberry Pi, Cambridge University Finance Committee and Artfinder. She also serves on the advisory boards of LinkedIn and Care.com.

She was awarded a CBE in 2013 for “Services to Entrepreneurship” and was recently appointed by the Mayor of London as an Ambassador for London.

Sherry is currently leading a report recommending how to boost UK GDP by shifting our attention to ‘supporting high growth firms as they scale up’ their operations.

Sherry has an MBA from Harvard, an MSc (with distinction) from the London School of Economics, and a BA (Hons with distinction) from the University of British Columbia, Canada.

Jeffrey Crelinsten is CEO of Research Money Inc. and publisher of RE$EARCH MONEY. He is also President and CEO of The Impact Group, a consultancy he co-founded in 1987, specializing in science, technology and innovation policy, communications and education. Jeffrey has been studying challenges facing tech entrepreneurs and the innovation ecosystems that try to support them for over 25 years. He developed the R$ conferences to bring together leaders from the private and public sector to address critical issues around innovation policy and knowledge-based commerce.

Before founding The Impact Group, Jeffrey taught science and human affairs at Concordia University and had an active career as a science documentary writer for radio and television.

Jeffrey is Senior Research Fellow at the Innovation Policy Lab, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto. He is a founding director of the International Commercialization Alliance and is a past-President of the Canadian Science Writers Association. Jeffrey has a B.Sc. in physics from McGill University, a M.Sc. in astronomy from University of Toronto and a Ph.D. in history of science and science policy from University of Montreal.

Nathan has been involved in venture capital and private equity investment in high growth businesses for almost 20 years and has successfully backed companies in a wide range of sectors and from startup stage through to buy-outs. Originally an engineer, Nathan is a Chartered Accountant and previously worked at Arthur Andersen, Barclays Private Equity and Social Finance.

Nathan is also an advisory board member and founder mentor of Emerge Education, a leading edtech accelerator, on the investment committee of the Shared Lives impact investment fund, an active business angel and non-executive director of a number of businesses.

Brad has worked in the consumer financial services and technology sector for 15 years, having held various senior positions within the Australian insurance industry.

Brad’s impressive career includes roles with Superpartners, Australia’s largest superannuation services provider; Avanteos Superannuation Trust; Aviva Australia; as well as AXA Australia, where he was responsible for measuring all aspects relating to operations, budget reporting and project performance.

He recently moved to the UK at the start of 2014 after a successful period as CEO responsible for the success of one of the fastest growing Australia-based consulting and technology firms. Brad’s achievement saw him recognised as one of the youngest CEO’s in the wealth management industry, directly responsible for growing the company from five to 50+ people over a four-year period.

Brad has a passion for disruptive service models, and having worked with large global fintech brands as startups, he has a unique understanding of what it takes to build teams focused on challenging the status quo. With proven capability in both operational and technology roles, Brad has forged a reputation as a leader who infuses creative thinking with calculated implementation.

Before joining ENTIQ, Brad founded McLaren Innovation in 2014 and worked there as a partner. The firm provided an integrated management of strategy for their clients, including brand and marketing, operations, investments and innovations.

Serial Entrepreneur and Co-founder of Amadeus Capital Partners, Dr Hermann Hauser CBE has wide experience in developing and financing companies in the information technology sector. He co-founded a number of high-tech companies including Acorn Computers which spun out ARM, E-trade UK, Virata and Cambridge Network. Subsequently Hermann became vice president of research at Olivetti. During his tenure at Olivetti, he established a global network of research laboratories. Since leaving Olivetti, Hermann has founded over 20 technology companies. In 1997, he co-founded Amadeus Capital Partners. At Amadeus he invested in CSR, Solexa, Icera, Xmos and Cambridge Broadband.

Hermann is a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Institute of Physics and of the Royal Academy of Engineering and an Honorary Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge. In 2001 he was awarded an Honorary CBE for ‘innovative service to the UK enterprise sector’. In 2004 he was made a member of the Government’s Council for Science and Technology and in 2013 he was made a Distinguished Fellow of BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT.

Hermann Hauser has honorary doctorates from the Universities of Loughborough, Bath, Anglia Ruskin and The University of Strathclyde.

A prolific serial technology CEO, investor and philanthropist, committed to building world leading high growth technology organizations through “Venture 2.0” boutique VERDEXUS. We have a globally portfolio of business-to-business, “Enterprise 2.0” companies in which I help drive strategic execution as founding General Partner.

Currently, General Partner at Verdexus, a transatlantic strategic advisory firm, primarily delivering our “Venture 2.0” hands on investment playbook to early and mid-stage companies in Canada and Europe. Prior to 2001 was founder and CEO of MKS, a global lead in application lifecycle management solutions, which was sold in 2011 to Parametric Technology Corporation for $304 million.

I am passionate about building a globally competitive tech ecosystem locally and helped grow Golden Triangle AngelNet by driving its Selection process such that over 40 transactions were completed from inception in 2009.

Finally, I have a passion for transformation and growth in the world of Social Enterprises and believe that a new crop of “Social Innovation” can truly change the world. In that regard, am Director since founding of Innovation Guelph, Board Chair of Centre Wellington Community Foundation and Director and Treasurer of Roseneath Theatre. In late 2013 was invited to the “Group of Seven” by Governor General David Johnston to assist in nation building around Canada’s 150th birthday in 2017.

I bring long experience as a corporate director with strong knowledge of governance, strategic risk assessment and financial literacy.

Patrick leads KPMG’s High Growth Technology Group based in Shoreditch, London. His team is focused on helping early stage and fast growing technology businesses succeed through providing guidance, advice and contacts in the ecosystem for UK technology start-ups. The team’s remit includes advising companies on: successfully scaling their business, understanding what tax incentives and reliefs might be available, corporate structuring and expanding internationally, accessing equity and M&A transactions. Furthermore, KPMG’s High Growth Technology Group hosts a range of industry and networking events for the start-up and technology community in London and supports a number of start-up accelerator and incubators as coaches and/ or mentors. Prior to working closely with start-ups, Patrick worked for KPMG in Germany, France and the UK on a variety of advisory projects and international audits across industries with a focus on Media, Telecommunications, and Technology companies.

Hanadi is passionate about entrepreneurship and innovation. She has founded and built businesses in several industries, including education, online retail and property. Hanadi has driven the creation of Accelerate Cambridge, the new accelerator at the Cambridge Judge Business School, and is currently its director. Hanadi has been closely involved with over 100 start-ups over the globe and across industries over the last three years.

Tim Jackson is the EVP Corporate and Community Development and Lead Executive, MaRS Centre for Impact Investing. He comes to MaRS most recently from the University of Waterloo, where he served as the vice-president of university relations, with responsibility for the offices of communications and public affairs, government relations, and community relations and events. Tim has an extensive background as an entrepreneur and business leader. A founder and partner of Tech Capital Partners (an early-stage venture capital firm), he served as CFO and CEO at Waterloo tech firm, PixStream. He has also served as CFO, CEO or board member for numerous technology companies and other organizations.

Tim has a bachelor of arts degree in accounting from the University of Waterloo and is a chartered accountant. Tim was named a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario (FCA) in 2009, the highest designation the institute confers, awarded for outstanding career achievements as well as outstanding service to the community and the profession.

Edwina Johnson is COO of Startupbootcamp FinTech London, part of the award winning Startupbootcamp global startup accelerator. She is one of the top 100 Women in FinTech in the UK – Innovate Finance 2015 – with a background in operations, digital marketing strategy and startups.

Candace Johnson is co-initiator of SES/ASTRA and SES Global, the world’s pre-eminent satellite group. She is also founding President of Europe Online Investments S.A., the world’s first internet-based online service and satellite broadband network, and founder of Loral Cyberstar-Teleport Europe, Europe’s first independent private trans-border satellite communications network. Ms. Johnson is also founding President of the VATM, the Association of Private Telecom Operators in Germany and founding President of the Global Telecom Women’s Network (GTWN).
Candace Johnson is also President of Johnson Paradigm Ventures (JPV) which is a principal founding shareholder with AXA, Caisse des Depots, Bayerische Landesbank, and the SPEF of Sophia Euro Lab. She is also a member of the Advisory Board of numerous European and US ventures as well as being a Member of the Board of Governors of EDHEC (France), the University of Haifa in Israel, Sabanci University in Istanbul Turkey, and a Senior Enterprise Fellow for the University of Essex. She has been a featured speaker in the OECD International Entrepreneurship Forums in Shanghai, Riga, and Cape Town. She holds Masters Degrees with Honors from the Sorbonne and Stanford Universities, a Bachelors Degree from Vassar College and her high-school degree from Punahou.

Jack Lang is a serial entrepreneur and business angel with high-tech and internet companies. Based in Cambridge, UK, he is Entrepreneur in Residence and Fellow at the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, an affiliated Lecturer at the Computer Lab and a bye-fellow of and Director of Studies in Management at Emmanuel College. Recent ventures include www.raspberrypi.org, an ultra-low cost computer for education. Previously he was founder of Netchannel Ltd, an early Interactive TV company which was acquired by ntl (Virgin Media) where he became Chief Technologist. Before that Jack was founder of Electronic Share Information Ltd, one of the first online brokerages, acquired by E*Trade Inc. He is author of “The High Tech Entrepreneurs Handbook” (FT.Com/Prentice Hall 2001). He has other interests including molecular gastronomy and fireworks.

Geoff Mulgan is Chief Executive of Nesta (the UK’s National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts). Nesta combines investment in early stage companies, grant programmes in fields ranging from health and education to the arts and giving, and research. From 2004-2011 Geoff was the first Chief Executive of the Young Foundation, which became a leading centre for social innovation, combining research, creation of new ventures and practical projects.

Between 1997 and 2004 Geoff had various roles in the UK government including director of the Government’s Strategy Unit and head of policy in the Prime Minister’s office. Before that he was the founder and director of the think-tank Demos. He has also been Chief Adviser to Gordon Brown MP; a lecturer in telecommunications; an investment executive; and a reporter on BBC TV and radio. He is a visiting professor at LSE, UCL, Melbourne University and a regular lecturer at the China Executive Leadership Academy. He is an adviser to many governments around the world, and has been a board member of the Work Foundation, the Health Innovation Council, Political Quarterly and the Design Council, and chair of Involve. He is currently Chair of the Studio Schools Trust.

His books include The Locust and the Bee – a study on the future of economic growth (Princeton University Press, March 2013), The Art of Public Strategy – Mobilising Power and Knowledge for the Public Good (OUP, 2008), Good and Bad Power: the ideals and betrayals of government (Penguin, 2006) and Connexity (Harvard Business Press and Jonathon Cape, 1998).

Alison Nankivell was appointed Vice President, Co‑investment and Government Initiatives, BDC Capital in 2015. In this role, she leads BDC Capital’s efforts as the key execution agent for the Government of Canada’s Venture Capital Action Plan (VCAP) and oversees other government initiatives. She also manages the development of BDC Capital’s co‑investment and private equity framework as well as the Diversified Portfolio and GO Capital teams.

Alison has over 20 years of corporate financing and investment experience in Canada and Asia. Most recently, she served as BDC Capital’s Vice President, Venture Capital Action Plan.

Before joining BDC, she served as Director, Funds Asia with Teachers’ Private Capital as well as Head of Funds at Export Development Canada (EDC). During her 15‑year tenure with EDC, Alison served in a number of financing and investment roles including as Chief Representative for Greater China, and Principal and Head of Asia Fund Investments.

She has also worked as a China economic analyst and editor for the Economist Intelligence Unit. Fluent in Mandarin, she has also served as an independent economist undertaking consulting work for the International Labour Organization, the United Nations Development Program and CIDA in both Beijing and Ottawa.

Alison holds a Bachelor of Arts in Commerce and Economics from the University of Toronto and a Master’s degree in Public Administration and Public Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.

Jérôme Nycz was appointed Executive Vice President, BDC Capital in 2013.

In this role, he leads the activities of BDC Capital, a subsidiary of BDC that offers venture capital, equity as well as growth and business transition capital. He also oversees BDC’s deployment of the Venture Capital Action Plan.

Mr. Nycz has over 20 years of experience in the financial and public sectors.

He joined BDC in 2002, overseeing corporate strategy and planning, and shareholder relations. In subsequent years, he added responsibility for enterprise risk management, economic analysis and knowledge management to his portfolio. During this time, he conducted several internal strategic reviews, including subordinate financing and venture capital (taking on the additional role of Interim, Executive Vice President, Venture Capital in 2011), and led a multidisciplinary team that prepared the Bank’s submission for the 2010 legislative review of the BDC Act.

Prior to his current role, he was Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Subordinate Financing.

Mr. Nycz began his career with the federal government as a senior economist and policy advisor at the Department of Finance, Industry Canada and National Defence. He also worked at Export Development Canada and as an investment officer at the Canadian Consulate in Boston.

Mr. Nycz is a board member of Canada’s Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (CVCA), Réseau Capital and CIRANO.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Political Science from Concordia University and an IMBA from Hartford University.

Amber is a global systems change architect, social entrepreneur and facilitator of an inclusive economy. She is recognized as a leading global pioneer in the fields of impact investing and social enterprise; and is an expert in global innovation ecosystem and meta-network design. For over two decades she has lead numerous world first’s in channeling the power of entrepreneurs and markets to address humanity’s great challenges.

She has served as Director of Social Entrepreneurship Incubation for the Women’s Technology Cluster (now Astia); and Founder and President of Social Fusion, the first network based global social venture incubator – whose cluster design was propagated across the U.S., Europe, Latin America, and parts of Asia and Africa; and as a Principal in Tendris, a Dutch social venture holding company and PE fund pioneering 21st Century business.

As a potent advocate, speaker and Master Facilitator, Amber has lead eight hundred+ private and multi-stakeholder systems change sessions on every continent with select impact investment families, firms, funds and development groups with over $3tn in AUM, unlocking well over $10 billion of new capital into impact. Her current focus is engaging women, millennials and a $60tn wealth transfer to ignite a Golden Age of Impact.

Manny is an Entrepreneur, Educator, Angel Investor, and Philanthropist based in Vancouver, B.C. He is the founder of New Avenue Capital, a global firm focusing on four fundamental pillars: Venture Capital, Recruitment, Private Lending & Real Estate, and Social Venture & Philanthropy. He is also the Founder and current Managing Director of two large-scale recruitment firms, PM Search Partners and KeyStep Recruitment.

A self-made entrepreneur who built his first multi-million-dollar company at age 26, Manny is dedicated to providing education and mentorship to today’s youth. He is a co-founder of GradusOne, an organization that connects students and new graduates with mentors and provides them with resources to help them refine their career path and achieve success.

He also sits on a number of advisory boards in the education and not-for-profit sectors, and is an active Advisor and Angel Investor in Vancouver’s tech community, having personally invested in start-ups including Picatic, MyBestHelper, Change Heroes, ShareShed, and Tangoo. It is Manny’s personal mission to build 1,000 schools and to educate more than 1 million people worldwide.

Manny is a graduate of Harvard Business School’s Private Equity & Venture Capital program, and is currently completing the Entrepreneurship & Innovation program at Stanford University Graduate School of Business. He holds an MBA from Queen’s University and a BBA (Honours) from Simon Fraser University.

Sophie Paquot is the Director of Toniic Europe. She started at Toniic in 2013 by launching the UK chapter. She is now developing Toniic throughout Europe working with family offices, foundations and private investors on their impact investing journey. She has a specific interest in enabling Corporate Venture Funds to increase their impact. Previously, she worked as a Relationship and Business Development Manager for a charity fund in the philanthropy sector. Through her years in philanthropy, she discovered the potential of impact investing, and undertook various projects (fundraising, marketing campaign, seminars, etc.) with experts in the social investment arena which led her to work for Toniic. She is also an impact investor with ClearlySo Angels in the UK.

Sophie initially came from the IT industry. She has an extensive experience in the Marketing field developed at IBM and Ricoh.

Sophie has a Master in European Studies, a Master in Roman Languages and Literature and a graduate diploma in education. She enjoys writing in her spare time. She lives in London with her husband and three kids.

Sanjay is currently working with Canadian ICT company CEOs, planning their operations overseas, particularly in the UK and EMEA regions. He has 20+ years experience of technical and commercial expertise in ICT and Life Science companies working to establish their international presence. Sanjay also serves as Team Captain for The Canadian Government multi-country ICT team for Europe, and leads The Canadian Technology Accelerator in the UK.

His specialty areas of interest and expertise include: International Trade, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Strategy, Economic Development, Project Management (Prince 2 and AgilePM qualified), Marketing Communications (CIM, Chartered Marketer qualified), Change Management, Government Business Support programmes, Government Relations and Policy and forming Global Marketing Partnerships. Sanjay is a graduate of Liverpool University, UK and is married with 2 daughters.

Senia Rapisarda joined HarbourVest in 2014 to focus on partnership and direct co-investments in Canada and to expand HarbourVest’s local presence in the market.

Senia joined the Firm from BDC Venture Capital, where she was responsible for the establishment of a team focused on direct and indirect investments across Canada. Her previous experience includes positions at Nur Energie in London, London Business School, Nomura International, and Salomon Brothers, among other roles.

Senia received a JD (summa cum laude) from LUISS University in Rome in 1987 and a Masters in Law and Economics (Fulbright Scholar) from Columbia University in 1989. An Italian citizen who holds permanent resident status in Canada, Senia speaks fluent Italian, French, and Spanish.

Samantha Ridler manages the P2P Finance Association (P2PFA), which represents 90% of the UK’s Peer-to-Peer lending market. The P2PFA promotes best practice for peer-to-peer finance platforms, supports members and engages with the UK regulatory authorities for fair and proportionate policy for this emerging sector.

Samantha is part of the European Crowdfunding Stakeholder Forum – an expert group established to consider the opportunity of harmonising rules for Crowdfunding across the EU in order to both protect consumers and encourage alternate finance across the EU.

Aaron Rosland is the Counsellor (Commercial – Ontario), at the Canadian High Commission in London, UK. He was previously the Counsellor (Commercial – Ontario) in New Delhi, India. His office is responsible for building commercial relations between the United Kingdom and Ontario.

Aaron has held various senior-level commercial roles in Government which have given him experience in Asia, the Americas and Europe. He has also started branch offices in India and the UK for a Canadian organisation and managed a $15 Million, 25-country international office expansion project.

Aaron’s education includes a Master of Business Administration, Bachelor of Arts and Certificate in Economic Development.

Over the past 20 years, Varun Sahni has had a diversity of experiences focused toward building businesses and allocating capital to organizations serving low to middle income consumers across global markets.

Varun co-founded Impact Investment Partners (IIP) in 2010. IIP is a UK based FCA regulated firm that provides consulting services and does its own direct investing and asset management across multiple global markets, industries and asset classes.

Prior to IIP, Varun was the first country director of Acumen in India (2005-2010) and has had a number of roles across the not for profit and for profit sectors including Oxfam, CARE and Unilever, where he focused primarily on building scalable enterprises for low income markets.

As well as having been on over 15 boards of investments, Varun has been an independent director, adviser, trustee and investment committee member. He has also had a number of successful entrepreneurial ventures.
Varun is an alumni of Columbia University and the London School of Economics, where he is a Chevening Scholar, in addition to being an Asia Society Global young leader and a TED India Fellow.

As President of Ryerson Futures Matt runs a seed stage investment fund, an acceleration program for early stage technology companies and an Innovation for hire consulting practice for Corporate clients in Toronto, Canada and Mumbai India. He also mentors the 80+ companies in the Ryerson DMZ Incubator.

Matt has 17+ years’ experience as an entrepreneur and executive working with companies in the technology and service based sectors. Matt was a founder and co-CEO of NRG Group (a consulting firm; internet based incubator; and investment fund) which he ran for five years and raised over $30MM in financing. Matt has an undergraduate in Marketing and Management and MBA from Northeastern University.

Dr Christopher Sier is co-lead on FiNexus, a programme to build a series of research and innovation centres in the UK for financial services. Until recently, he was also the Director of the Financial Services Knowledge Transfer Network. He is an authority on pension fund costs and complexity and has been at the heart of all initiatives in the UK to understand fund charges over the past 5 years. He also works with innovators in financial services and Fintech, believes in challenge-led innovation is this area and is an angel investor. For a while in his career he immersed himself in the complex world of the operational management of derivatives for the buy-side and has advised a wide range of market participants including investment managers, service providers, brokers and IT vendors on strategic and operational issues. Before coming to the City and after completing his PhD, Chris was a police officer in Edinburgh.

Goncalo is the CEO of SyndicateRoom. Goncalo is a serial entrepreneur with a strong background in business angel investment and equity crowdfunding, and is one of the best-networked people in the business angel industry. His passion and vision for SyndicateRoom is to give the crowd access to the top deals out there. He is also committed to help ambitious entrepreneurs to get the best of both worlds: mentoring and contacts from Business Angels, and quicker access to capital from the crowd.

SyndicateRoom
SyndicateRoom is an investor-led equity crowdfunding platform that gives its members access to the very same top early stage companies that experienced business angels are investing in. SyndicateRoom members can analyse, comment and invest with the most exclusive groups of private investors at a touch of a button.
www.syndicateroom.com/

Darren is the co-founder of Crowdcube. Crowdcube is the first crowdfunding website in the world to offer people equity in exchange for their investment. Since launching in February 2011 Crowdcube has raised over £67m in over 200 deals and has over 150,000 registered investors.

Prior to Crowdcube Darren founded and exited 2 businesses in the field of Voice over IP. Based on his experiences and frustrations in raising money for companies Darren came up with the idea for Crowdcube and founded the company.

Darren has been awarded the Financial Services Entrepreneur of the Year at the Great British Entrepreneur Awards 2014 and Debretts has recently named him in their list of the 500 Most Influential People of 2015.

Dr Rob Wylie is the co-founder and Chairman of WHEB, which evolved from an award winning incubator to a sustainability focused multi-asset class investment firm covering private equity, listed equities and renewable energy infrastructure. Rob has focused on resource efficiency investments for over 25 years.

A chemist with an MA and PhD from Cambridge, Rob spent ten years in Shell’s agrochemical business before working in the 1980s with Rothschild’s Bioscience unit investigating environmental investment opportunities. He then joined KPMG where he worked on numerous M&A and privatisation transactions as well as on the development of environmental funds in Central and Eastern Europe.

Rob has been an active participant on numerous industry, UK government and university advisory boards and manages investments in 5 Agritech companies.