Harry Fitzgibbons
Managing Director

Harry was a director of Hambros Bank from 1972 to 1983 with responsibility for United States corporate finance and for Hambros' portfolio of international unquoted investments. He was instrumental in establishing Boston Hambro Capital Company and Hambro International Venture Fund, both of which were venture investors in the United States. He left Hambros for two years to set up the London subsidiary of L.F.Rothschild, Unterberg, Towbin, an American investment bank before returning in 1986. Harry was educated at Harvard College and Trinity College, Oxford and is a graduate of Harvard Law School. After briefly practising law in New York, he served as an officer with the United States Special Forces and with the Department of State, Washington DC. Before joining Hambros in 1972, he was an international banker for four years with Lehman Brothers in New York.

Charles Winward
Investment Manager

Charles joined IP Group in April 2007 to manage investments in Top Technology Ventures, the Group’s venture capital fund management subsidiary. Previously Charles was Vice President Technology Infrastructure at JPMorgan Chase & Co, where he worked in a variety of roles in London, New York and Brussels, and Investment Manager at Axiomlab, an AIM-listed early stage investment specialist. Charles is a CFA charterholder, has an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley and a Bachelors Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Bristol.

Laurent Braun
Investment Manager

Laurent started his career in consulting first for Accenture and then for the Boston Consulting Group where he carried out a broad range of strategy assignments in various sectors.  He was then a VP Strategy and M&A at Bertelsmann, where he worked both in Europe and the US on the disposal of several non core businesses and the merger of BMG with Sony Music Group.  Prior to joining IP Group, he was in charge of early stage fund investments for the European Investment Fund.  Laurent has a Commercial Engineer degree from the Solvay School in Brussels and an MBA from Insead.

Liz Vaughan-Adams
Communications

Liz joined IP Group in 2006 having spent two years as a public relations consultant for a number of companies including Walker, Crips, Weddle, Beck plc (financial services), Libra Natural Resources plc (green fuels), Aspen Clean Energy plc/Shield Capital (green fuels), The Unwins Wine Group Ltd and Network Ltd (advertising). Prior to this, she spent seven years as a financial journalist and has written for newspapers, magazines, websites and newswires as well as contributing to a book on investing. Most recently Liz was at The Independent newspaper where she covered telecoms and technology stocks. She started her career with Pearson plc on its graduate trainee scheme.

Stuart Thompson
Director

Stuart joined IP Group in 2006 to build a captive Executive Search and Talent Management capability to support the Group’s portfolio companies. Prior to this he was a Partner at Whitehead Mann and the head of their Healthcare and Life Sciences practice. Stuart has worked in Executive Search for fifteen years and has advised public and private companies, large and small, on the appointment of Chairmen and Non-Executive Directors as well as Executive Management teams. He has a BSc in Biological Sciences from Birmingham University.

Greg Smith
Group Financial Controller

Greg joined IP Group in 2008 from Tarchon Capital Management, a multi-billion dollar fund of hedge funds business. At Tarchon, Greg had day to day responsibility for building and managing the operations and accounting team as well as covering external operational due diligence on all current and prospective investee hedge funds. Greg moved to Tarchon in early 2005 following over 4 years in KPMG’s Financial Services practice where his major clients included Old Mutual plc and Prudential plc. Greg is a Chartered Accountant and holds a degree in Mathematics from the University of Warwick.

Kashmira Ginwalla
Assistant Financial Controller

Kashmira holds a Masters in Commerce (specialising in law and practice of banking and monetary policy) from the University of Pune. Before joining IP Group, she was with ABN Amro Bank NV for 3 years in the foreign exchange remittances and treasury back office department, having previously worked at a firm of Chartered Accountants where she gained valuable experience in book keeping, income tax rules, regulations and computations as well as internal/statutory audits. While studying for her Bachelors degree in Commerce, she also worked part time as an accounts assistant.
 

Angela Leach
Legal Counsel & Company Secretary

In addition to providing legal services at group level and co-ordinating external legal requirements, Angela also provides ad hoc legal support to IP Group’s portfolio of spin-out companies created amongst its ten university partners. Angela trained and qualified at leading London law firm CMS Cameron McKenna and spent two years post qualification in the corporate department before moving to AIM specialist Memery Crystal where she advised a number of technology companies on their AIM listings. Angela, who joined IP Group in January 2007, specialises in all aspects of corporate and commercial law, along with intellectual property law, having obtained a Postgraduate Diploma in Commercial Intellectual Property Law with distinction from Nottingham Law School in June 2006.

Anita Pulleyn
Group Business Services Support Manager (Leeds)

Anita has worked for IP Group since January 2005 following the acquisition of Techtran Group Ltd. She joined Techtran in April 2004 as the Business Support Manager, assisting the Leeds spin-out companies with financial, company secretarial and administrative support.

Previously, Anita worked for the venture capital group 3i plc, working primarily for the new business team, ensuring that the background administration for new investments was carried out accurately.

Debby Hogben
Business Support Manager (Leeds)

Debby joined the Group in August 2007 as Business Support Manager, assisting the Leeds spin-out companies with financial, company secretarial and administrative support. Previously, Debby worked for blue chip companies such as Siemens A & D, Siemens Business Services and Boots The Chemists and is now bringing her commercial experience to bear in supporting the Leeds spinout companies.

Lorraine Chedzoy
Business Support Manager (London)

Lorraine joined the Group in December 2007 as Business Support Manager, assisting the Southern spin-out companies with financial, company secretarial and administrative support. Prior to this Lorraine worked for one of the UK’s leading firms of property advisors, assisting in the disposal and acquisition of land in London and the South East.  Lorraine also brings her Group Management experience from Allen & Overy, where she co-ordinated all departmental administrative procedures.