The Power Top 50
Business XL releases its annual ranking of the investors, serial entrepreneurs and advisers every growing business should know.
1. Danny Rimer, general partner, Index Ventures
Forged in the melting pot of Silicon Valley, Danny Rimer’s experience has helped him become Europe’s very own Midas of venture capital. Crowned with an Outstanding Contribution Award at Business XL’s Investor AllStars Awards in 2007, Rimer has recently been involved with another $1 billion (£510 million) sale – the other was Skype – of portfolio company Minerva, developer of the MySQL open-source database, to computing giant Sun Microsystems. According to Rimer, the immediate future is going to be interesting as the start-ups of five to ten years ago enter strong growth phases. ‘The power of the European and global markets will be felt,’ he says.
2. Peter Cullum, chief executive, Towergate
Dealmaker extraordinaire Peter Cullum oversaw 14 acquisitions in the past 12 months at insurance intermediary Towergate, including the purchase of software company OpenGi for £275 million. The latter buy was Towergate’s largest to date, which shows its ambition given that it’s made over 130 acquisitions since Cullum established the business 11 years ago. ‘We don’t buy businesses unless we are targeting almost private equity-type returns of 25 to 30 per cent return on capital,’ he says. ‘That does tend to set us aside in terms of our competitors, which don’t have such goals.'
3. George Coelho, general partner, Balderton Capital
George Coelho has been investing in fast-growth companies in different continents for over 25 years. Balderton, formerly the European arm of legendary US venture capital firm Benchmark, has had a happy start to 2008 as it also had a stake in the Minerva trade sale to Sun Microsystems (as did Benchmark). ‘We’re in the process of making a bunch of exits,’ says Coelho. ‘A number of our businesses have come of age now; many have half a million customers.’ In his languid way, he says the firm has an open mind when it comes to finding entrepreneurs with promising businesses: ‘Our strategy is to do good deals with great people.’
4. Jon Moulton, founder, Alchemy Partners
Never short of an opinion, the founder of private equity firm Alchemy Partners fully expects the credit crunch to trigger a number of ‘large leveraged buy-out failures’ in the near future. ‘You are going to see some companies failing because of misrepresentation and lack of proper due diligence,’ he says. At Alchemy, the man who revived the fortunes of Parker Pen has seen the firm advise on over 100 transactions with close to £2 billion of equity invested. He says current conditions may bode well for an investor in the lower to mid-market space: ‘I think there are going to be more opportunities in troubled companies than there have been for a long time.’
5. John Dodd, co-founder, Artemis
Alongside Mark Tyndall, Derek Stuart and Lindsay Whitelaw, John Dodd launched Artemis in 1997 as a ‘dedicated active investment management house’. The company, whose majority shareholder is now ABN AMRO, has enjoyed meteoric growth and, at the last count, managed assets of £16.4 billion. Dodd still keeps his hand on the management tiller at the £696 million Artemis UK Smaller Companies Fund, which, since it was launched in 1998, has grown 778 per cent. Dodd eschews many of the trappings of the City and even wears a plain black Swatch watch to remind himself of his more humble beginnings.
6. Wol Kolade, managing partner, ISIS Private Equity
If the saying “start as you mean to go on” holds any truth, 2008 should be one to watch for ISIS Private Equity, of which the avuncular Wol Kolade is managing partner. Through its Baronsmead VCTs, the firm has completed a £7 million management buy-out of Playforce (see page 60), exited training provider Hawksmere, delivering a return of 2.5 times to investors, and sold RLA to The Mission Marketing Group for £21 million. Kolade was busy in 2007 as chairman of the British Venture Capital Association, mounting a dignified defence of private equity as it was demonised by the media and vilified by the Trade Union Congress. His tenure at the BVCA ends in April.
7. David Hall, managing director of private equity, YFM
‘2007 was a spectacular year for us,’ says David Hall. He notes that £47 million was invested in over 100 companies from the various regional funds and British Smaller Companies venture capital trust. Over the past 12 months the group, which has over £300 million in funds, raised a further £50 million and exited 12 investments. Optimistically, Hall notes that the current economic climate may favour genuine genuine risk takers. ‘This is a year for the entrepreneur,’ he says. ‘The general uncertainty creates a great opportunity to try and seize market share.’
8. Martin McNair, general partner, Advent Venture Partners
With 20 years’ experience of investing in technology companies, Martin McNair’s passion for great businesses hasn’t waned. A keen runner, McNair notes that highlights in 2007 included the series B fundraising round of mobile technology specialist Ubiquisys (see issue 49, p35) and the firm’s involvement in the $330 million (£165 million) sale of software consulting firm Cartesis to Business Objects. ‘We are under some [non-disclosure agreements] with Business Objects,’ says McNair, ‘but I can say it was a very good venture return for all parties.’ The firm manages over £500 million.
9. Richard Feigen, managing director, Seymour Pierce
At the end of 2007 broker Seymour Pierce edged past Landsbanki to become the leading broker on the Alternative Investment Market in terms of the number of clients it represents (see AIM Adviser Index, page 62). This success is largely due to Richard Feigen, who oversaw the firm’s increasing involvement in M&A which now represents over a third of the group’s revenue compared to less than ten per cent two years ago. ‘To go through what has been a difficult year in the public markets with this alternative source of revenue is pleasing,’ he says in characteristically measured tones.
10. Patrick Reeve, managing director, Close Ventures
‘One of our principles is that our investee companies don’t have any outside borrowing,’ says Patrick Reeve. ‘It increases our control – and it means we don’t have to worry about bankers getting nervous.’ Since joining Close Brothers in 1989, Reeve has built up its ventures arm, which now manages £240 million through seven VCTs. When you add a further £90 million invested across Close’s three AIM VCTs, the firm emerges as the biggest VCT player in the market. In his spare time, Reeve indulges his love of ancient history by ‘pottering around ruins’, and even dabbles in archaeology.
11. Luke Johnson, founder, Risk Capital Partners
The purchase of national book retailer Borders Group for £20 million demonstrates Luke Johnson’s love of a challenge. Famed for his success with Pizza Express and Strada, Johnson currently sits on ten or so boards and is non-executive chairman of Channel 4. His icy cool persona only cracks at the mention of government red tape: ‘I find the level of bureaucracy that smaller businesses especially are subjected to is frustrating. There should, at the very least, be two sets of rules, so that businesses of a certain size are wholly or partially exempt from a great deal of regulation.’
12. Jo Taylor, managing partner of venture division, 3i
With 20 years’ experience in UK venture capital, Jo Taylor runs the 15-person global ventures team at private equity giant 3i. ‘We look for companies that are international leaders; we’re less keen on something that could be a good UK business,’ says Taylor, who adds that his main challenge is finding the right opportunities. An example is antibody therapy specialist Domantis, which 3i sold to pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline for £230 million in cash. That generated an internal rate of return of over 100 per cent for 3i. Taylor also chairs the venture committee at the British Venture Capital Association.
13. Anne Glover, founder, Amadeus Capital Partners
A passionate advocate of the virtues of venture capital, Anne Glover has seen Amadeus Capital Partners, which she co-founded, become a serious investor in technology companies. Glover, who holds a US and UK passport, honed her skills at Apax Partners & Co Ventures and then became a business angel, investing in UK-based information technology start-ups. It was Amadeus that led the original financing round in flexible screen-maker Plastic Logic, which went on to receive $100 million (£50 million) from the likes of Oak Investment Partners and Tudor Investments.
14. Bernard Fairman, founder, Foresight Group
The urbane Bernard Fairman was at his property in southern California when he decided that clean, renewable technology (cleantech) should become a priority for Foresight. It was a eureka moment that led to broader reforms. ‘We’ve completely repositioned ourselves from being a technology venture capitalist to an investment house with interests in four separate areas,’ he says. ‘In the unlisted, cleantech sphere we’re almost by ourselves, as I’ve not seen any competition. How much cleantech infrastructure the world will require over the coming years is almost an infinite amount.’ With the Foresight venture capital trusts paying a dividend of 5p or more and plans to grow the £160 million already under funds, Fairman will hope to be cleaning up in every sense.
15. Andy Stewart, founder, Cenkos
Racehorse fanatic Andy Stewart is currently hogging the headlines on account of his audacious £1.4 billion tilt at Britain’s oldest independent finance house, Close Brothers. The bid, spurned by Close, is the kind of deal Cenkos (named after Stewart’s most successful steeplechaser) relishes, being one-tenth the size of its targeted rival.
A veritable City celebrity, 56-year-old Stewart started his career as a stockbroker in 1969 and set up Cenkos two years ago following his ousting from Collins Stewart, which he had co-founded, by arch-rival Terry Smith.
16. Rod Richards, managing partner, Graphite Capital Partners
As war chests go, the £475 million raised last year by Graphite, along with a co-investment fund of £80 million for larger investments, isn’t too bad. Managing partner Rod Richard says there is plenty of deal activity in the market, especially on the secondary buy-out front. Graphite made a series of smart exits last year, such as the sale of Avery Healthcare to Southern Cross for £96.5 million, and investments came fast and furious, not least the £100 million management buy-out of recruitment outsourcing provider Alexander Mann Solutions to the private equity group Advent International.
17. Jonathan Brown, head of corporate finance, Landsbanki
At the tail end of 2007, Landsbanki’s acquisition of Bridgewell Securities saw the Icelandic firm double in size, with nearly 100 clients. But it’s not something Jonathan Brown likes to boast about. ‘It’s a metric we try to avoid,’ he explains. ‘We’re more concerned with the quality of our clients – we’ve been quite happy to manage our list down a bit over the past few months.’ The ex-JP Morgan man says the bank has a robust spread of services to cope with the economic downturn: ‘The IPO market is not quite closed, but very near it. The M&A market will be healthier. In the debt market, your guess is as good as mine.’
18. Joel Plasco, chief executive, Collins Stewart
Still in his mid-30s, the highly regarded Collins Stewart chief executive presides over the most active IPO broker in the AIM space. By the end of November last year his group had raised £534 million as broker to 13 clients (and nominated adviser to 12). The company recently moved further into the US with the purchase of a small-cap technology specialist investment bank. Having joined in 1999, former solicitor Plasco left Collins Stewart to set up venture capitalist group NewMedia Spark, but was lured back five years later to direct the group’s inter-dealer broking arm before being promoted to his current role last year.
19. Roger Parry, executive chairman, Media Square
Ex-journalist Roger Parry is reviving the fortunes of marketing company Media Square, which suits him fine. ‘It was in trouble and I’ve always liked turnaround situations. They’re the ones that give you the greatest possible capital upside.’ Before Media Square Parry was instrumental in the turnaround of marketing group Aegis and Jazz FM. He currently chairs YouGov and Future, works with private equity firms and is chair of Shakespeare’s Globe Trust.
20. Rosemary Banyard, co-head of small and mid-cap team, Schroders
The UK small and mid-cap team at investment group Schroders manages over £5 billion, half of which is devoted to the smaller end of the Main Market (sub-FTSE 250) and AIM. Banyard says she is a long-term investor, with an average holding period of between three and five years. A bottom-up stock picker, she steers clear of serial acquirers and debt-driven businesses and the strategy appears to have paid off. The £457 million Schroder UK Smaller Companies Fund has returned an annualised 10.2 per cent over the past ten years – a tribute to her skills through some tricky times. Outside work, Banyard has taken on a different kind of challenge: learning the violin.
21. Stuart Veale, managing director, Beringea
Stuart Veale sees digital marketing as a growth sector. Among the 12 investments Beringea made in 2007, he highlights digital agencies ILG Digital and Steak Media, both of which have won multiple awards. On the fundraising front, Beringea’s ProVen VCT (the best-performing VCT on the market, according to Growth Company Investor) pulled in its target of £15 million from retail investors. It was a quieter year for realisations: of the three exits Beringea achieved this year, two were in AIM companies – ATM operator Cardpoint and dental care specialist Oasis Healthcare.
22. Ernie Richardson, CEO & managing partner, MTI Partners
There is a pragmatism to chemical engineer and chartered management accountant Ernie Richardson that is reflected in the companies backed by MTI Partners. Powerlase, for example, creates industrial lasers for making flat screens, while ApaTech specialises in synthetic bone grafts. According to research by UBS, both Powerlase and ApaTech were among the UK’s fastest-growing venture-backed companies last year. A notable high point for MTI in 2007 was the £50 million fund set up with the University of Manchester to foster and develop university spin-outs.
23. Richard Plackett, lead manager in UK Smaller Companies Fund, Merrill Lynch
This Cambridge graduate has been the lead manager of Merrill Lynch’s £250 million fund for the past five years. His firm is the biggest backer of AIM and is currently invested in over 150 companies. Before staking his cash, the former international bridge player and 3i venture capitalist likes to reassure himself that management teams ‘can control growth as well as possessing salesmanship skills and strategic clarity’.
24. John Spayne, co-founder, Spayne Lyndsay
Winner of M&A Magazine’s Boutique of the Year Award for 2007, Spayne Lyndsay has quickly made a name for itself backing deals such as Darwin Private Equity’s £75 million acquisition of nutrition specialist Maximuscle, and the buy-out by Hermes Private Equity of Symington for approximately £40 million. Perhaps these successes shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise given John Spayne’s pedigree. He’s a seasoned investment banker and was the managing director at the mighty Lehman Brothers. Married with two children, Spayne was the private assistant to the Crown Prince of Ethiopia before embarking on a career in the City.
25. Mark Wignall, chief executive, Matrix Private Equity Partners
Approachable and unflappable, Mark Wignall sees strong activity in the mid-market at the moment, primarily due to sellers wanting to beat the April deadline on changes to capital gains tax. ‘This has brought a lot of opportunities to the market, but it’s still unclear how many [deals will be completed] by April,’ he explains. ‘A number of them will fall down because buyers are beginning to worry about pricing.’ He expects the volatile pricing of businesses to settle as the year goes on. ‘Buyer and seller price expectations will start to level out and we will see some good buying opportunities,’ he says.
26. Oliver Hemsley, chief executive, Numis
Fresh-faced Hemsley, 47, a pig farmer’s son from Rutland, started out in the City at 18 as a photocopier assistant in the Lloyd’s insurance market, an area to which he returned as an aggressive deal-doer after reversing Hemsley & Co, the stock broking firm he started with another broker, Raphael Zorn. Numis (‘coin’ in Greek) is an active participant in AIM and other markets, and operates in sectors ranging from property and insurance to engineering and mining. Once asked what he had learnt at Lloyd’s, Hemsley replied ‘not to drink at lunchtime’.
27. Paul Marson-Smith, chief executive, Gresham Private Equity
Guided by self-dubbed ‘ski-freak’ Paul Marson-Smith, Gresham achieved a number of significant exits, such as the £67 million sale of Penn Pharmaceuticals to LDC, for which the firm achieved 12 times its return on investment. Marson-Smith says Gresham, which has close to £600 million under management, exited over 100 businesses from its portfolio in the past two years. As for 2008, he says it will be ‘a game of two halves. There will be more turbulence until the end of the fourth-quarter reporting season, but the markets should stabilise during the second half’.
28. Patrick McKenna, CEO, Ingenious Media
Under Patrick McKenna’s guidance, Ingenious Media has, since its inception a decade ago, become a formidable investor in the media and technology sectors. McKenna took a more hands-on role last year, assuming the position of CEO, with industry veteran Peter Shawyer becoming chairman. Ingenious rounded off 2007 by launching two new venture capital trusts (VCTs) with a joint fundraising target of £30 million. Ingenious Entertainment VCTs 1 and 2 will primarily back companies creating and marketing live events.
29.Chris Allner, head of private equity, Octopus
Keen sailor Chris Allner has led the private equity team at low to mid-market investor Octopus since 2004. For the past five years, the firm has doubled its funds under management, which now stand at £110 million. Last year, it struck out in new directions, acquiring a controlling stake in early-stage investor Katalyst Ventures and launching an intermediate capital function, focusing on the grey area between debt and equity. ‘We’re already starting to see banks getting tighter with lending,’ Allner states. ‘Mezzanine investors that have raised funds already will find an attractive market.’
30. Bob Morton, chairman, St Peter Port Capital
Inveterate entrepreneur Bob Morton is chairman of numerous AIM companies, such as St Peter Port Capital, which backs small to mid-sized companies. Beyond the public markets, Morton is a busy private equity operator and made a number of profitable disposals during last year, doing ‘extremely well’.
31. Ben Tompkins, partner, Eden Ventures
An investment banker for 20 years, Ben Tompkins decided it was time for a change in 2006. He joined Eden Ventures, a firm of technology entrepreneurs and seed investors. ‘VCs always say they do seed funding, but very few actually do. We are very active with businesses in helping them to grow,’ he states. Eden has already invested £28 million in 11 companies, and made its first exit when mobile network provider Apertio was sold for $210 million (£105 million).
32. Philip Richards, chief executive, RAB Capital
Philip Richards, who heads aggressive fund management group RAB Capital, was already a figure of power in the City, either as a prop or a threat to entrepreneurs on his radar screen, before his strongly performing RAB Special Situations Fund grabbed even wider public notice by briefly becoming the biggest single shareholder in stricken mortgage lender Northern Rock. RAB had built a stake of 7.5 per cent in the bank by the end of last year, while Richards, a soft-spoken evangelical Christian, has been among the most vehement campaigners against a fire sale.
33. Guy Naggar, chairman, Dawnay, Day & Co
In the early 1980s, French merchant banker Guy Naggar bought an empty shell company from Rothschild Investment Trust called Dawnay, Day & Co. He’s created an investment empire with current gross assets in excess of £2 billion and a net worth of more than £750 million. Recent developments include the launch of a fund management arm, with three funds floated on AIM to invest in European property and hotels.
34. Andrew Monk, founder, Blue Oar Securities
Monk has overhauled investment bank and broker Blue Oar (number eight in Business XL’s Rising Stars) since grabbing the chief executive’s reins earlier this year. Some of the “golf club” brokers have been given the boot and new people and a new culture now rule. Monk, who was previously one of the luminaries at Oriel Securities, has a large base of hedge fund and fund management acolytes. He has already overseen a 44 per cent surge in underlying first-half pre-tax profits to £2 million.
35. Tim Ross, non-executive chairman, May Gurney
Market tumult aside, 2007 was a successful year for the companies within the corporate stable of Tim Ross, the former George Wimpey man who commands respect within construction industry circles. Ross carries boardroom clout at two companies with big order books. These are Hargreaves (of which he is chairman), a provider of transport services to the energy and waste sectors, and infrastructure maintenance star May Gurney. Finding time to hold non-exec roles at both Ennstone and Lavendon on the main board, his biggest quoted company interest is the thriving social housing concern Connaught, where he fills the deputy chair.
36. David Norwood, director of special projects, IP Group
Former foreign exchange trader David Norwood set up investment bank Beeson Gregory’s landmark (in the UK at least) partnership with Oxford University. This set him on a course that has seen him become the sage of university spin-outs after he then founded and floated IP2IPO (now IP Group). It’s been the catalyst behind a number of innovative listed and private companies built around university research projects, such as Summit Corporation and Oxford Advanced Surfaces.
37. Ross Marshall, chief executive, Dunedin Capital
Mid-market private equity house Dunedin was named British Venture Capital Association Private Equity House of the Year for 2007. With £500 million under management, the firm’s largest investment in 2007 was a £49 million MBO of bridging systems designer WFEL Holdings. Under the guidance of chief executive Ross Marshall, Dunedin exited corporate travel play Portman Travel for £41 million, and Trafficlink, which provides updates for radio, for £16.5 million.
38. Rob Donaldson, head of private equity and M&A, Baker Tilly
Focusing on mid-market transactions between £10 million and £250 million, Rob Donaldson has overseen deals in sectors as diverse as manufacturing and information technology. A qualified chartered accountant and a member of the Securities & Investment Institute, he says the firm has been busy on the deal front, closing three in the week before Christmas. Donaldson expects a boom for turnaround specialists: ‘I think the distressed M&A guys have prepared themselves for years and I think their time is coming. There isn’t a lot of financial difficulty yet but I think the expectation is that it isn’t far away.’
39. Alex Connock, co-founder and chief executive, Ten Alps
While his co-founder Sir Bob Geldof captures the easy headlines, it’s chief executive Alex Connock who is the driving force behind factual media star Ten Alps. The acquisitive company has developed into a pioneering media business with sales of more than £75 million, offering content across the web, TV, events and B2B print. Before co-founding Ten Alps with Geldof in 1999, Connock, an Oxford and Columbia University graduate, worked as a factual entertainment programmes producer for Granada, the BBC and Planet 24. Recent TV highlights from Ten Alps (Planet spelt backwards) include The Last Days of Tony Blair and a number of investigative Dispatches for Channel 4.
40. Simon Collins, chief executive, KPMG Corporate Finance
Simon Collins’ expertise in the debt capital markets is particularly useful in economically volatile times such as these. Collins joined KPMG Corporate Finance from NatWest Markets, where he was a managing director and head of the global debt structuring and private placement group. The division saw its revenue rise 16 per cent to £131 million for year-end 2007.
41. Philip Secrett, partner and head of capital markets, Grant Thornton
Grant Thornton is the seventh-largest nominated adviser on AIM and, following its acquisition of RSM Robson Rhodes, the undisputed lead accountancy practice on the junior market, with 232 clients. Never one to mince his words, Philip Secrett recently declared that the government’s proposed changes to AIM capital gains tax were ‘not a good step for the market’.
42. Andrew Carruthers, chief executive, Spark Ventures
Spark Ventures, formerly New Media Spark, has started 2008 well after a £15 million exit from Nomad Payments, a provider of prepaid and debit card processing and licensed software. Andrew Carruthers fully expects to build on last year’s highlights, such as the $40 million (£20 million) capital fundraising for clinical diagnostics outfit Oxford Immunotec and the £4 million acquisition of Quester. Despite posting a loss before taxation of £10.2 million in 2007, Carruthers is upbeat about 2008, especially given the ongoing talks with a potential Asian investor to inject capital into Spark. ‘The balance of power economically is shifting eastward,’ he says. ‘So whether it’s India or China or any emerging economy, their sovereign wealth funds are looking to buy. They’re taking a long-term view about migrating economies up from typically low-cost manufacturing to more IP-rich industries.’
43. Dr Johnny Hon, chairman, Global Group
Hong Kong entrepreneur Hon, a Cambridge University psychiatry graduate and financial adviser, built Global Group from scratch into an international conglomerate with interests including banking, education, gaming, mining and biotechnology. Amid the smaller company throng, he chairs the (still loss-making) Global Education Group, as well as Global Entertainment Group, both listed on PLUS and yet to deliver for investors. Nevertheless, Hon has undoubted connections and has used his high profile in China and his City contacts to help numerous companies raise funds in the UK.
44. Peter Webb, investment manager, Unicorn Asset Management
Peter Webb, head of Unicorn Asset Management, is not known for modesty. His self-confidence is buttressed by the performance of the £93 million small companies backer, Eaglet Investment Trust, which he has run for 14 years. While he continues as Unicorn’s investment manager, he stood down from Eaglet’s board recently to resist proposals from key shareholders that he felt would lead to the trust’s liquidation, accusing his rivals of seeking ‘back-door control’.
45. Doug Richard, chairman, Library House
Former Dragons’ Den investor Doug Richard has been keeping busy since leaving the series. He’s chairman of research specialist Library House, and co-founder of free instant messaging service Trutap, which last year received venture capital funding of $6.5 million (£3.3 million). He’s also dabbled in politics, chairing a Conservative Party think-tank that has suggested much of the government’s programme of support for small business has been ineffective.
46. Derek Mapp, non-executive chairman, Staffline
Serial entrepreneur Mapp, who made a turn selling pub chain Tom Cobleigh and nursery business Leapfrog for princely sums, is a newcomer to our top 50 following an eventful year at two ventures at which he wields an influence as chairman – blue-collar recruiter Staffline and in-store music supplier Imagesound. Mapp has directorial involvement at publishing group Informa, chairs Sport England and has a number of private family businesses in farming and property development.
47. Simon Walker, chief executive, British Venture Capital Association
In the world of PR, Simon Walker is royalty. He was PR to the Queen before he joined Reuters as in 2003. Now he’s tasked with improving private equity’s image – it’s not quite the toughest job he’s taken on (that was working for Number 10 in 1996) but it comes close. ‘It’s about getting across to the public that private equity is about the interests of the overwhelming bulk of people. It’s not about fat cats, it’s about pension funds,’ he says.
48. Stephen Hazell-Smith, non-executive chairman, PLUS Markets
The ever-genial Hazell-Smith observes the market as chairman of exchange operator PLUS Markets and of Conduit PR. He is philosophical about the aborted attempt to merge PLUS with Project Turquoise, the planned equities trading platform being designed by seven major investment banks: ‘The banks wanted to use their preferred dealing system, rather than the one PLUS has crafted. It was like diners at a Gordon Ramsay restaurant telling him how to run the kitchen.’
49. Jonathan Kestenbaum, chief executive, NESTA
Under chief executive Jonathan Kestenbaum, the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts made nine new investments in 2007, completed one exit and raised a new fund of £50 million. Kestenbaum says: ‘We are in a field that isn’t exposed to the credit crunch because traditional lines of credit have never been interested in it anyway. So the picture for the coming year is a good one and we’re encouraged by a pipeline full of opportunity.’
50. Tim Levett, investment director, NVM
A former officer in the Royal Navy, Tim Levett had senior positions at corporate giants such as Shell UK and International Paints before joining NVM in the mid-1980s. Last year, the firm made a handsome return for investors on a number of exits, not least the £14.25 million trade sale of Ithaca Business Media to United Business Media’s UK-based business information division, CMP Information.
The Business XL Power Top 50 is a completely independent ranking of investors, serial entrepreneurs and advisers to public and private growing businesses, compiled using expertise of knowledgeable industry insiders and statistical analysis into transaction activity.
Some of the statistics used in the compiling of the Power Top 50 originate from the following sources:
The AIM Guide The essential information on 1,688 AIM companies
New Issues on AIM 2007/08 A comprehensive assessment of London’s new issue market
The AIM Guide and AIM research reports are available to purchase from Vitesse Media in PDF format, so order your copy by calling 020 7250 7039 or click here to email.
Contributors
Marc Barber, Nick Britton, James Crux, Oliver Haill, Robert Tyerman and Adam Wayland