About

With 40 years business experience I am a specialist in start-up and growth capital in technology and hardware. Having started and grown several businesses of my own I am also experienced in business planning, operation and business development/sales.

Over the last 23 years I have built 3 venture companies, including Rivers Capital Partners Ltd.  With Rivers and other ventures I have raised over £90m of private and public capital. 

As the managing director of Rivers Capital Partners I have invested in some 70 businesses in the North East of England and managed successful exists.

FinanceTree has developed and managed investment readiness and entrepreneurship programs including the £2m “Finance & Business” project that assisted over 1800 companies and put on over 120 workshops.

Prior to setting up FinanceTree, I moved to Harwell Laboratory in 1998, which became AEA Technology PLC.  Over 10 years there, I was successful in a range of business development roles, commercialising technology in areas from Lithium Batteries to software and medical devices.  This included 5 years of business development in the Japanese markets. 

Following on from AEA Technology, I worked 3 years as an advisor in the UK central government. Whilst in the government I developed £56m of seed capital funds for universities, the University Challenge initiative.

My early career as a graduate chemist included setting up a startup company at Imperial College London. My career has involved a lot of work with universities and I have served as Chair of Council at Josephine Butler Collage at Durham University.

I am proud to be a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, the Institute of Directors and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and Manufacture.