At Tech Entrepreneurs Week, we have invited guest visionary speakers of the tech world to come and share their perspectives and their road to success with our tech entrepreneurs. These speakers will have contributed significantly to changing an industry or creating a new industry category, their perspective and story will be invaluable to the tech entrepreneur.
More speakers will be announced shortly...
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Jimmy Wales
Founder Wikipedia
Head of Jury
A conversation with Jimmy Wales, hosted by Martin Warner
VIP Investor Reception Evening
Date: Thursday 8th December
Time: 7.30 - 8.30pm
Ranked by Forbes Magazine as a “Web Celeb”, Jimmy Donal Wales is a U.S. Internet entrepreneur and wiki pioneer who is best known as the founder of Wikipedia, an international collaborative free content encyclopaedia on the Internet, and the Wikimedia Foundation. He is founder of Wikia, a privately owned free web hosting service he set up in 2004. |
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Alex Macpherson
Head of Ventures Team
Octopus Ventures
How can entrepreneurs win the hearts and minds of venture capitalists?
Day 3 Keynote
Date: Wednesday 7th December
Time: 4.30 - 5.30pm
Alex heads up the Octopus Ventures team. He also has particular responsibility within the team for evaluating and assessing potential investee companies, deal structuring and negotiation and portfolio management with a view to maximizing the returns that are generated.
He has extensive experience of investing into smaller companies. Prior to joining Octopus, he worked for ten years at SG Warburg as a trade and risk manager in equity derivatives, and later founded a growth consultancy for small businesses, assisting a number of small businesses with their financing requirements prior to taking up his current position.
Alex represents Octopus on the boards of Calastone, Future Route and Fractal Edge. |
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Robin Klein
Venture Partner
Index Ventures
Looking through the lens at the UK technology and venture capital landscape.
- An interview hosted by Martin Warner.
Day 2 Keynote
Date: Tuesday 6th December
Time: 4.30 - 5.30pm
Robin joined the London office of Index Ventures in April 2010 as a Venture Partner. He is a founding partner of The Accelerator Group a seed investment company specialising in e-commerce, digital media and Internet services.
He is currently Chairman of Quickbridge (Wonga), Moo and MyBuilder and sits on the boards of Bill Monitor, Fizzback, FreeAgent, Skimlinks, EDITD, OneFineStay, Stylistpick, LevelBusiness and Zoopla. Robin is a governor of Rhyl primary school and a past Chairman of Great Ormond Street hospital's funding company.
Robin has 25 years of operating experience, 20 years of which as entrepreneur and 12 years of investing experience and he has been on the boards of three publicly quoted companies. In his last operating role as Chairman and CEO of Innovations, he conducted the very first UK ecommerce transaction in May 1995.
Since starting his investment career in earnest in 1998 by co-founding The Accelerator Group (TAG) with his son, Saul, they have made over sixty investments. Some of TAG's ten exits include Agent Provocateur (3i) where Robin was Chairman for five years, Sit Up TV (Virgin Media), board member for 4 years, Lastminute (IPO), Last.fm (CBS), Dopplr (Nokia), Lovefilm (Amazon) and Tweetdeck (Twitter).
Robin is passionate about helping to build the European technology start-up ecosystem and actively supports Saul in the promotion of Seedcamp and OpenCoffee. He has a Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering and an MSc in Industrial Engineering. |
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Sherry Coutu
Angel Investor, Serial Entrepreneur & Non-Executive Director
Working with great angels & mentors
Day 1 Keynote
Date: Monday 5th December
Time: 5.00 - 6.00pm
Sherry Coutu is a former CEO and angel investor who now serves on the boards of companies, charities and universities.
She chairs Artfinder and is a non-executive member of Cambridge University (Finance Board), Cambridge Assessment, Cambridge University Press and NESTA Investments. She also serves on the Advisory Board of Linkedin.com.
As an angel investor, she loves working with great entrepreneurs to solve problems that matter and specialises in consumer internet, information services and education. She has made angel investments in more than 40 companies and holds investments in 2 venture capital firms.
She was voted by TechCrunch as the best CEO mentor / advisor in Europe in Nov 2010. in May 2011, she was voted by Wired magazine as one the top 25 'most influential people in the wired world', and one of the top ten most influential investors and women.
As an entrepreneur, Sherry was founder of two businesses in the financial services industry. The first (acquired by Euromoney plc) has operations in more than 70 countries. The second, which she was CEO and chairman for was responsible for the first e-commerce transaction in the financial services industry in Oct 1995. She floated the company in 2000 (on London and Nasdaq) and was valued at more than $1 billion before being acquired (by AMP plc). It was the most over-subscribed IPO on the history of the market at the time. Prior to this, she had executive roles with Accenture, Coopers & Lybrand Deloitte, and the LEK Partnership.
Philanthropically, she helped found the Prince's Trust Technology Leadership Group, is a member of the venture board of Cancer Research UK and serves on the Harvard Business School European Advisory Council. 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 |
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Sharon Vosmek
Chief Executive Officer
Astia
Creating a sustainable culture of innovation
Day 2
Date: Tuesday 6th December
Time: 1.00 - 2.00pm
Sharon Vosmek has been CEO of Astia since 2007, previously joining as COO in 2004. As CEO of Astia, Sharon has an unwavering passion and a uniquely well-suited background to drive forward the organization’s mission of propelling women’s full participation as entrepreneurs and leaders in high-growth businesses, fueling innovation and driving economic. Under her guidance, the Astia community of investors, entrepreneurs, and industry leaders has grown ten-fold and now spans North America, Europe and India. Also as a result of her leadership, this fall the organization received a half a million-dollar investment from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the largest foundation for entrepreneurship globally.
Previously, Sharon founded SJ Vosmek & Associates and held management positions at American Express and in the office of U.S. Senator Dennis DeConcini. Ms. Vosmek currently serves as founder and lead of the We Own It Collaboration, an effort of over 65 organizations globally committed to exploring women’s participation in high growth businesses and identifying solutions to move us forward. She also serves on the Steering Committee for the Cherie Blair Foundation, the Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst Experts Advisor Group, Illuminate Ventures Advisory Board, and the City of San Francisco Mayor’s Commission on Biotech (MayBAC). In September 2011, Sharon served as a U.S. delegate to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Women and the Economy Summit (WES), the first-ever such meeting held by the premier economic organization in the region, focusing on finding ways to increase women’s economic participation in the region. She was also invited to participate in The White House Women’s Entrepreneurship Conference and The Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship led by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In January 2011, Astia was chosen to join the White House’s StartUP America initiative, developed to celebrate, inspire, and accelerate high-growth entrepreneurship throughout the nation. Astia is the only organization included that focuses on women-led start-ups.
Sharon has a master’s in public policy and administration from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and a bachelor’s in political science from Arizona State University.
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Rich Martell
Founder and CEO, Floxx Media Group
The future of Social Networking...
Day 3
Date: Wednesday 7th December
Time: 9.00am - 10.00am
Rich Martell is a 22-year-old British internet entrepreneur who is currently Founder and CEO Floxx Media Group. Following the success of his student flirting website, FitFinder, which was created whilst he was studying Computer Science at University College London, Rich decided to launch Floxx.
Founded in January this year, Floxx is a mobile development lab that aims to build mobile social networks which are based around location. To date over 350,000 people have used applications on Floxx's platform which include their student based flirting site, FitFinder to the recently launched discovery app, Spottd which allows users to share interesting things they have seen around them.
Rich has raised around $500,000 of seed investment for Floxx from Canada Square Capital, UK angel investor Doug Richard and US super angel Kevin Wall to develop and launch in the UK. Prior to founding Floxx, Rich worked for Nomura, Oxford Capital Partners and Goldman Sachs. |
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Alex Caccia
President
Marmalade
Day 3
Date: Wednesday 7th December
Time: 1.00 - 2.00pm
Alex has founded two companies, Atomic Interactive, a games software business, and WaterRower Limited, a sports-equipment business that remains a profitable world-wide operation. He joined Sportal in 1999 where he was head of the Applications Development team, responsible for developing leading-edge internet technology.
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Efe Cakarel
Founder and CEO
MUBI
Why the web and movie convergence are transforming the film industry.
Day 1
Date: Monday 5th December
Time: 1.00pm - 2.00pm
Efe founded MUBI, a video on demand platform, after he discovered that he couldn't watch 'In the Mood for Love' in a café in Tokyo. Previously, Efe was with Goldman Sachs in London and New York, where he worked on IPOs, mergers and acquisitions, and private equity investments. He earned his B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT, and MBA from Stanford. Founded in 2007, MUBI is the exclusive partner of Sony PlayStation, SONY Bravia, DOLBY, and The World Cinema Foundation. MUBI is headquartered in Palo Alto with offices in Paris, London, and Buenos Aires. http://mubi.com |
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Marc Young
Director, Corporate Finance
finnCap
AIM - supporting growth technology companies
Day 4
Date: Thursday 8th December
Time: 9.00am - 10.00am
Marc leads the technology practice at finnCap. finnCap is the leading AIM Broker to the technology sector representing 25 listed technology companies ranging in market capitalisation from £5m to £550m and also advises private companies on fundraisings and M&A. Marc has recently led the disposal of ClearStream Technologies to CR Bard for £45m and successful capital raisings of £15m for Redstone. Marc advises technology companies on a range of corporate and strategic matters. |
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Glyn Britton
Strategy Partner,
Albion
Day 4
Date: Thursday 8th December
Time: 12.15pm - 1.15pm
Glyn joined Albion in early 2006. He oversees the agency’s strategic offer, is responsible for innovation, and is a partner. He has led work for clients like Skype, Betfair, BlackBerry and Air New Zealand. He also led the team that incubated ‘corporate startup’ giffgaff for O2, and has advised startups including Gumtree, Fon, JustGiving, Soluto and Wonga.com.
Before this he worked at Ingram, a start-up brand and communications strategy consultancy. Working with Leslie Butterfield, he forged strategies for brands like Mercedes-Benz, Universal Pictures and British Airways.
Previously he spent 6 years at Interbrand, in a variety of roles - firstly as a jobbing brand consultant then with the dawn of the dotcom boom, founding Interbrand Interactive and helping to create brands like Ocado. He then founded Innocence, a new branding agency within Omnicom dedicated to long-term client relationships, winning and leading relationships with Orange, The National Lottery and the Co-op.
He started his career at British Airways, where he was part of the team of three who started ba.com, and was responsible for implementing the infamous ‘ethnic tailfins’ identity in digital channels.
Glyn studied Industrial Design at Brunel University, so by rights should be designing kettles. |
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Karima Serageldin
Co-Founder & Partner, Ariadne Capital Entrepreneurs (ACE) Fund
Director, Ariadne Capital
Day 2
Date: Tuesday 6th December
Time: 11.00am - 12.30pm
Karima Serageldin joined Ariadne Capital in 2008 and is co-founder and Partner of the Ariadne Capital Entrepreneurs (ACE) Fund, investing in early stage venture capital. She is also a Director in the corporate advisory business where she has been advised a range of digital media, mobile, and technology companies such as Monitise (AIM listed), Slicethepie/SoundOut, EGS, SpinVox (sold to Nuance).
Karima has over 12 years digital TMT experience, with specific expertise in global product management, strategy and innovation, and venture investment and advisory. Prior to joining Ariadne Capital, Karima worked at MCI Inc. (sold to Verizon Communications, Inc.), where she launched pan-European products, global partnerships with start-up and Fortune 100 companies; and (during a secondment to the CEO) held an observation role on the EMEA Board. She was then appointed to manage the Pipex Communication plc's Internet, Wireless radio, and VPN product portfolio representing circa 80% of Pipex Corporate division revenues, before becoming Assistant Director in Pipex's M&A and advisory arm (“Oakley Capital Limited”) where she was instrumental in securing seed funding from Intel Capital (a division of Intel Corporation) for a WiMAX joint venture with Pipex (now “Freedom 4 Group plc”) and executing Pipex's customer-based £36m acquisition of Cable and Wireless plc arm (“Bulldog”) and IDT Corporation (“Toucan”).
Since the sale of Pipex in 2007, Karima has worked in venture capital (funds and advisory), including a non-executive role to a digital media start-up, turnaround strategy for Wavetrend Limited, and led a direct venture investment in DezineForce Limited in a venture fund as well as performing due diligence on other venture capital investments in the digital media space. |
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Martin Warner
Founder, Tech Entrepreneurs Week
Jury Coordination
Welcome Keynote
Interview with Robin Klein, Venture Partner, Index Ventures
Day 2
Date: Tuesday 6th December
Time: 4.30 - 5.30pm
A conversation with Jimmy Wales, hosted by Martin Warner
VIP Investor Reception Evening
Date: Thursday 8th December
Time: 7.30 - 8.30pm
Martin Warner is a technology CEO, film & documentary producer, investor and philanthropist. He is currently Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Talkbiznow.com, a ‘web-based business community’ platform designed to enable small businesses and business professionals to expand their network and manage their online business life using everyday business services. Talkbiznow is driving the ‘free service’ movement for small business online. He is also founder and chairman of Cabo Films, a film equity and financing partnership and independent film production company, where he also is active himself in film producing and documentary film-making. Cabo Films produces motion pictures and documentary features across many genre’s, in the US & UK markets for global distribution.
Martin recently founded Tech Entrepreneurs Week with the goal of making investment funding available to every tech entrepreneur in the UK. Being a strong vocal advocate for entrepreneurism and technology innovation both here in the UK and US, he is currently lobbying the UK government to make London – a technology centre for global excellence. |
