The judges comprise of a distinguished panel of senior industry practitioners. These individuals are involved in shaping the FTSE 350 landscape and are in a strong position to set the criteria and judge the applications.
Peter AshworthPeter joined Charles Stanley in October 2002 from Teather & Greenwood, where he was head of smaller companies research. He has specialised in smaller companies for 23 years, having worked for Albert E Sharp, Brown Shipley Stockbroking, SG Warburg and Citicorp Scrimgeour Vickers. Teather & Greenwood won the AIM Best Research award in 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001. Leslie CopelandLeslie is the editor of Growth Company Investor and the editorial director of Vitesse Media. He won the London Stock Exchange¹s AIM Journalist of the Year Award (Business Category) in 2004 and 2005 for his work in Business XL. Giles HargreaveGiles Hargreave is the chief executive of Hargreave Hale Limited. He commenced his career in 1969 with James Capel as a trainee analyst. In 1974 he joined Management Agency And Music Plc as a private fund manager. In 1986 he founded Hargreave Investment Management, which was merged in 1988 with Hargreave Hale & Co, a provincial stockbroking firm controlled by other members of his family. Since then Giles’ reputation within the industry has grown and with the help of his team, his performance with the Marlborough Special Situations Fund has been exceptional. Jenny LittleJenny is editor of the ‘enterprise’ page of the Financial Mail on Sunday, addressing the news and issues that affect small and medium-sized businesses, a group that forms a core part of the paper’s readership. Jenny also has responsibility for three other pages in the Financial Mail: ‘franchising’ offers advice to those looking to invest in the franchise sector; ‘opportunities’ tackles training and work-related topics such as the impact of employment legislation on the workplace; and ‘students’ focuses on financial and welfare matters affecting those in further and higher education. Tom PriceTom has advised companies in the UK small- and mid-cap equity capital markets since 1990. He has been involved in a wide range of transactions for companies on the Official List, TechMARK and AIM as well as for private companies, in a variety of sectors. He has particular experience of IPOs, secondary fundraisings, public bids, acquisitions and disposals. Philip SecrettPhilip is a corporate finance partner at Grant Thornton UK. He is a chartered accountant and an authorised nominated adviser and sponsor, with extensive experience in providing advice on a wide range of quoted public company transactions including company flotations on AIM and the Official List, acquisitions and disposals, reverse takeovers and public company takeovers. In 2000, he returned from an 18-month secondment to the London Stock Exchange at which he worked with both the equity markets group advising companies quoted on the Official List and the AIM market team, where he advised and regulated AIM companies and market professionals. Philip is now a member of the London Stock Exchange AIM Advisory Group and chairman of the Quoted Companies Alliance Nominated Adviser Committee. Graham ShoreGraham is the group managing director of investment banking group Shore Capital. He was previously a management consultancy partner of Touche Ross (now Deloitte & Touche). After a degree in politics, philosophy and economics from Oxford and a master’s degree in economics from the London School of Economics, he worked for the Government as an economic adviser. He is responsible for Shore Capital’s corporate finance department and is heavily involved in managing Shore Capital’s Puma VCTs and St Peter Port Capital, the AIM listed pre-IPO fund. Sara WilliamsSara is CEO of AIM-listed Vitesse Media, the publishing company she started in 1997. A former investment analyst with Kleinwort Benson, Sara is the author of The FT Guide to Business Start Up (over one million copies of this acclaimed guide have been sold). She has written for several national newspapers and appears regularly in broadcasts on TV and radio. Judith McKenzieJudith joined Electra Quoted Management in March 2007. Previously, she worked with Aberdeen Asset Management as a senior investment manager and had key responsibility within the growth capital division for AIM and technology investments in the four core Aberdeen venture capital trusts. She developed her experience from positions at Bell Lawrie Brewin Dolphin, Stirling Hendry and Allied Provincial. Simon HayesSimon is chief executive of KBC Peel Hunt. Previously head of corporate finance, Simon has over 11 years’ experience advising quoted companies on all aspects of corporate finance. KBC Peel Hunt is a leading adviser and broker to smaller companies and won the AIM Adviser of the Year award in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007. Miles NolanMiles joined Unicorn Asset Management in October from private client broker and fund management group MD Barnard. He was formerly the award-winning smaller companies editor at the Investors Chronicle, where he held the post for five years. Miles has a wealth of experience in smaller companies and has spent a great deal of time meeting and researching investment opportunities. As a fund manager at Unicorn he is focused on VCT and special situation investments. He is an associate member of the Securities and Investment Institute. Dan NikolsDaniel joined the mid and smaller companies team at Old Mutual Asset Managers in December 2001 and has been lead manager of the Old Mutual UK Select Smaller Companies Fund since January 2004. He has spent nearly 12 years working in UK small-cap markets – initially as a specialist smaller companies salesman with Albert E Sharp in Birmingham and then as a fund manager with Gerrard. Richard PowerRichard has 13 years’ experience of smaller company investing. He joined Octopus Investments in 2004, having previously worked at Close Brothers and Duncan Lawrie Ltd, at which he managed an award-winning smaller companies fund. At Octopus Investments, Richard manages a range of specialist AIM portfolios, AIM VCTs and the CF Octopus Opportunities Fund. Emma KaneEmma is the founder and chief executive of Redleaf Communications, a top-ten financial PR and investor relations agency specialising in small- to mid-cap companies. Redleaf (www.redleafpr.com) was founded in January 2000 and acts for over 90 companies, both listed and unlisted, across a wide range of sectors. Emma has over 20 years’ experience in media and investor relations, targeting both the retail and institutional investor. John WestJohn became chief executive of Tavistock, a leading provider of financial public relations and investor relations services, in September 2007. He has 11 years’ industry experience and has worked across a broad range of sectors, including many IPOs, M&A transactions and fundraisings for small and large companies. John has an MA in modern and medieval languages from Magdalene College, Cambridge, and is a fluent German speaker. He is also a director of City Insights, Tavistock’s investor relations subsidiary. |
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Stephen Hazell Smith |
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