Building the future

INVESTMENT MANAGER

Khadija joined from Northstar Ventures, where she managed investments into early-stage businesses in the North-East of England covering Artificial Intelligence, Life Sciences and broad range of technology focused companies. Previously, she volunteered with a charity in Ethiopia where, through the use of microfinancing, they supported local entrepreneurs to build sustainable businesses. Khadija holds a BSc in Economics from the University of York and holds the CFA Investment Management Certificate.

CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER

Marion began her investment career in 1997 with 3i plc and has held various roles across the UK including as Regional Director and member of ExCo at BGF, focused on UK venture and growth investments, and as CEO of NorthStar Ventures, a Northeast regional fund supporting local entrepreneurs and university spin-outs. Marion is also currently an independent adviser to the UK Science and Innovation Seed Fund and a Board member at ACF Investors.

COMPANY SECRETARY AND COMPLIANCE OFFICER

Claire is a governance professional with experience supporting corporates and their boards with governance and compliance requirements. Prior to joining Northern Gritstone, Claire worked in professional services leading corporate secretarial service delivery teams including at Eversheds Sutherland, KPMG, and Indigo Independent Governance. She is a Fellow of the Chartered Governance Institute and Chair of the North West Branch of the Institute. Claire is responsible for all compliance procedures, policies and processes at Northern Gritstone, and acts as a trusted advisor to the Board of Directors and its committees.

INDEPENDENT MEMBER OF THE PURPOSE & IMPACT COMMITTEE

Keith is Managing Director of Patron Capital, which he founded in 1999 and manages approximately €5 billion, which is focused on investments in European property related activities. Keith is an active supporter of numerous charities, including the Royal Marine’s Charity and the Prince’s Trust.

CONSULTANT (LEGAL)

Catherine’s career spans more than 3 decades. As a corporate lawyer and most recently C-suite General Counsel, Catherine’s role is to find innovative and collaborative ways to provide the financial support, networks and platforms that allow businesses to grow to their full potential. Catherine has worked at 3i Group plc, Gowling WLG and most recently at BGF, where she operated as General Counsel and was a member of the Executive leadership team.

EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT

Frances joined from New Street Consulting, where she was PA to the company Founder and CEO. Previously, Frances was PA to the Founder and CEO of Pure Gym. She is a graduate of the University of Durham where she studied European Studies with French. She is also Co-Founder of a Yorkshire-based theatre company.

UNIVERSITY APPOINTED NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Professor Luke Georghiou is the University of Manchester’s Deputy President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor where his role includes responsibility for business engagement and commercialisation activities. Luke is also currently a non-executive director of Manchester Science Partnerships and the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust.

INDEPENDENT NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Andrew has over 30 years in senior management roles across financial services and technology businesses. Andrew was previously COO of Blippar, having developed the business from a start up to a global business of over 300 people with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Andrew is currently chairperson and non-executive director of a number of fast-growing businesses in the financial services, gaming, technology and healthcare sectors.

CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER

James is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales and trained with KPMG. He has c.20 years’ experience in the financial services sector gained working for a variety of companies, including Santander and RSA. Most recently he served as Chief Financial & Operating Officer at Savannah, a tech-focused VC fund manager.

UNIVERSITY APPOINTED NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Sue joined the University of Sheffield in January 2020 as Vice-President for Research. She leads on the University’s research activity, including research excellence, the flagship institutes, the Research Excellence Framework (REF), research income and impact. Sue is also the Institutional lead for sustainability. She currently oversees the University’s innovation, partnerships, and commercialisation activities. Sue has served as a trustee of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, as a board member of Natural England, the UK Government’s statutory adviser for the natural environment in England, and as President of the British Ecological Society.

TALENT DIRECTOR, NG INNOVATION SERVICES

Joanne is a talent professional with experience in connecting early-stage businesses with sector-specific entrepreneurs, operating partners and c-suite expertise.

Joanne joined from BGF’s Talent Network Team where she supported the creation of effective boards introducing BGF portfolio businesses to a network of non-executive board directors and chairs.

RELATIONSHIP MANAGER, NG INNOVATION SERVICES

Rosie has a background in the professional services sector with her previous role as Business Development Executive at CMSPI. In addition to graduating from Florida Institute of Technology with a degree in Global Management and Finance, Rosie represented both Florida Tech and Great Britain women’s basketball team during her time at University.

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

From 2011-2021 Duncan was the Head of Caledonia Private Capital, the private capital arm of Caledonia Investments plc, a FTSE 250 listed investment trust. Prior to leading Caledonia Private Capital, Duncan was a founding partner at RJD Partners having started his investment career at Royal Bank Development Capital. He initially trained as a chartered accountant with the insolvency arm of PwC. Duncan holds non-executive directorships with Northern Trust (Guernsey) Limited and Sackville Capital.

INVESTMENT MANAGER

Tom joined from Anticus Partners where he analysed early-stage companies for investment through the Finance Yorkshire regional investment funds. His investment background includes technology-focused businesses across the Yorkshire and Humber region. Tom is a graduate in Accounting and Finance from the University of Leicester, holds a CFA Level 4 Certificate in Investment Management (IMC), and is working towards the ACCA chartered accounting qualification.

INVESTMENT ADVISOR

Immediately prior to working with Northern Gritstone, Juliet has been involved in CMS Ventures, with a focus on Seed/Series A Stage biotechnology, particularly pre-clinical stage therapeutics companies. Juliet has worked for Oxford Biotherapeutics Ltd as UK Director of Corporate Development and also was co-founder of Cambridge Gene Therapy, a spinout company established to further commercial development of the CAM-GM2 therapy.

INVESTMENT DIRECTOR

Gareth is a University of Sheffield alumnus, graduating with a 1st Class masters degree in mechanical engineering. Gareth moved into early-stage technology investing with Grosvenor Food & AgTech, an evergreen investment group with a global mandate to invest in businesses and technologies delivering efficiency gains in all elements of the food supply chain. More recently Gareth has taken on operational roles in several portfolio companies, recently taking on the COO role in a data analytics business he co-founded.

INDEPENDENT NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Alex is a venture capitalist with over 25 years experience of investing in technology businesses. He is a venture partner at Isomer Capital accessing European technology investments through limited partner investments in funds as well as direct company investments. He is also a member of the investment committee at DeepTech Labs, a deeptech accelerator based in Cambridge. Previously, Alex co-founded the venture capital business that became Octopus Ventures in 2007. He led the business as CEO until 2017 and subsequently as chairperson until 2019.

UNIVERSITY APPOINTED NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Jane is the CFO of the University of Leeds, having joined as Finance Director in 2009. Prior to joining the University, Jane worked for 15 years in senior finance roles within international retail and consumer goods businesses, including: ASDA Walmart; Campbell Soup Company; and PPR. Jane held and currently holds a range of non-executive roles which include: being a member of the Audit and Risk Committee of UK Research and Innovation (2018-22); chairperson of the CBI Council for Yorkshire and the Humber; non-Executive Director of Global Health Education Group and board member and chair of the Audit Committee of West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board.

INDEPENDENT MEMBER OF THE INVESTMENT COMMITTEE

Fiona is a biotechnology entrepreneur with a track-record of starting up and managing the growth of businesses. Her early career was in business management for Celltech plc and CRUK and in investment for the Rothschild Bioscience Unit and J&J Development Corporation. Fiona currently applies her skills as Royal Society Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Reading, Non Exec Chair and CEO of Erebagen Limited, adviser to the seed fund UKI2S and Non-Executive Director for Alder Hey NHS Foundation Trust.

INVESTMENT MANAGER

Alison has both corporate VC experience and life sciences insight. In addition to graduating from the University of Oxford with a BA in Biological Sciences, Alison has worked with 50+ investee companies across the full deal cycle during her previous role as Investment Manager at Deepbridge Capital. Whilst at Deepbridge, Alison was the recipient of an internal award identifying her as an emerging leader in the space.

INVESTMENT DIRECTOR

Jess joined from Octopus Ventures where she worked as Principal specialising in Health Tech and B2B SaaS. Prior to Octopus, she was Investment Director at L&G, investing in Health Tech, Clean Tech and Infrastructure scale Clean Energy.

Jess has a 1st class BA (Hons) in International Business from the University of Strathclyde.

INVESTMENT DIRECTOR

Andrew was previously CEO of Nottingham Technology Ventures Ltd, a company that manages the University of Nottingham’s spin-out portfolio and associated investment funds. Prior to this, Andrew has over 17 years’ experience growing technology businesses as an investor, advisor, CEO and Non-Executive Director. Andrew holds a first-class honours degree and PhD in Physics from the University of Nottingham.

CHAIRPERSON

Lord O’Neill was created a life peer in 2015, serves as a crossbench member of the House of Lords and is Chair of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership. He was previously, inter alia: Goldman Sachs’ chief economist and chairperson of its asset management division; chair of the City Growth Commission; chair of the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance; Commercial Secretary to the Treasury; and chair of Chatham House. He is also a board member, and one of the founding trustees of the educational charity SHINE.

PORTFOLIO ANALYST

Following his graduation from the University of Edinburgh with a MA(Hons) in Accounting and Finance, Alan trained as a chartered accountant through ICAS in the audit and data assurance practices of PwC, specialising in asset and wealth management businesses. Alan also has experience in corporate accounting with Amazon UK prior to joining Northern Gritstone.

NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Niranjan is Global Head of M&G’s Catalyst team and sits on the Investment Committee. Previously he led the European team at Catalyst responsible for originating and executing early-stage equity and private debt transactions. Niranjan has led transactions in diverse sectors including biotech, fintech, clean energy and micro finance, and sits on the board of several of Catalyst’s portfolio companies. Prior to joining Catalyst, Niranjan served in a number of varied roles at M&G and Prudential, including Associate Director at PruCap and executive business manager to the CEO of Prudential plc.

HEAD OF COMMUNICATIONS & MARKETING

Kate is a communications and marketing professional with a background in financial services and climate technology. At BNP Paribas’ Corporate and Institutional Bank, she led the division’s marketing communications for sustainable finance. Kate previously worked for the Silicon-Valley headquartered tech start-up Turntide Technologies, where she led communications for the transport electrification division, and for JP Morgan in pensions strategy roles in London and New York.

INVESTMENT DIRECTOR

Mark has 20+ years of venture capital experience. Immediately prior to joining Northern Gritstone Mark worked on regionally focused funds at Mercia Asset Management, based in the North of England, where he was also part of Mercia’s Responsible Investment Committee. Early in his career Mark worked at Merlin, where he was part of the teams who worked on the original business plans for Biovex (Acq by Amgen for $1bn) and Vectura (Mkt Cap > £650m). Mark has delivered 5 more public companies, with a combined mkt cap in excess of £250m, creating significant value and cash returns for investors.

MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTANT

Magda joined Northern Gritstone from FOD Mobility Group. She has a professional background in accountancy and finance, and holds the CIMA Diploma in Management Accounting.

INVESTMENT ADVISOR

Jessica is the founder and CEO of Capitalex, an online platform that helps UK based businesses to raise funding. She is a Goldman Sachs alumna and was part of the investment team that took BGF from startup to the UK’s leading growth capital investor, where she invested £60m into UK based SMEs. She is a Non Executive and consultant to a number of SMEs, supporting them in business plan development, governance and fundraising. Jessica has a BEng First in Civil Engineering from University College London and an MSc in Finance with Distinction from the London School of Economics.