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Latest - Business Sector: Financial and legal services

Andy Phillipps

Andy Phillipps was co-founder of Active Hotels in 1999, a start-up which became the largest online booking company in Europe.  Since then, he has become an angel investor, with many successful ventures and exits and has taught at Insead, the London Business School and Stanford.

Originally a material scientist with a PhD, and evidently formidably bright, Andy shares insights in a modest and charming style, addressing how to select investment opportunities, what CEO’s need from their angels and the difference between making decisions in science and business.

Gary Turner

It was the “catastrophic” failure of his parents’ business in Glasgow when he was just leaving school that triggered Gary Turner’s lifelong drive and passion for helping small enterprises succeed. Forced to abandon his university aspirations, he had always wanted to work in computing, and a sympathetic recruitment consultant helped him get his first job.

Gary’s ability to empathise with customer problems helped him rise through the IT industry to senior positions at Pegasus, Microsoft and Systems Union. Then, in 2009, he took a step which he says “must have looked crazy”, becoming co-founder of Xero, a three-person accounting software start-up.

It proved an excellent move. As Xero’s UK managing director, Gary grew the business to a turnover of £110M by 2020, with more than 600,000 UK customers. He has also served as a mentor at TechStars London and is a seed investor in early-stage start-ups across the UK and Europe.

Richard Little

Richard Little is a serial angel investor who learned to be an entrepreneur by watching his father and trained for a life in technology by studying languages.  Richard built and successfully exited his own business in the 1980’s and 90’s, applying cheaper new technology in financial services.  His first big idea failed but the second one worked, and he says that is not a bad formula for building a business.

In the 21st century he has turned his hand to helping others’ companies grow by leveraging investment with his acquired expertise.  Richard believes that helping small companies grow is good for the economy and society, as well as being a rewarding occupation.  His current portfolio includes Cloud, AI and EdTech.

Colin Knight

Colin Knight learned the value of failsafe technology early in his career, developing algorithms for the release of munitions from RAF “V Bombers”. This focus on non-stop reliability has remained his priority through a wide-ranging career spanning financial trading in the City post Big Bang, the revolution in mobile communications, predictive modelling of networks and risk management. Colin has worked extensively across Europe, Asia Pacific and the US, including a spell in Moscow during the height of the Cold War. Given his time again, he says he would favour roles at US-based companies because they are more innovative, entrepreneurial and financially rewarding.

Colin is a past Master of the Information Technologists Livery Company. But his proudest achievement has been his charitable activities deploying IT to improve the lives of sick and disabled children and their families. Work must be fun, he insists — you will never get a successful team with unhappy members.

Portrait photograph of a man in a suit jacket and tie wearing glasses

Tom Ilube CBE

Tom Ilube CBE is a serial entrepreneur, philanthropist and was named as the most influential British person of African-Caribbean origin by the Powerlist 2017.  After working for big consultancy companies, he was CIO of the innovative Internet bank Egg and founded a series of companies in personal identity and cybersecurity. In 2005 Tom launched a project to found the Hammersmith Academy, focusing on tech and creative skills, and he is the founder of the African Gifted Foundation, a UK education charity focused on science and technology in Africa.

Professor Michael Mainelli

Professor Michael Mainelli’s life story is a fascinating journey from 1958 Seattle to Alderman and Sheriff of the City of London.  His Irish mother and Italian father came from lines of engineers and his experience spans computer scientist, accountant, and management consultant.  His education reflects expansive interests, including a Doctorate as a mature student, alongside his busy professional assignments. 

He established City think tank and venture firm Z/Yen in 1994 and Michael has advised on and managed a host of challenging projects, for a multitude of clients from the first complete digital map of the world; to the UK Ministry of Defence commercialising its £100M technology business; and setting up City indices. He recommends small teams to solve big problems and his mass of publications includes bestselling books.

Paul Fullagar

Paul Fullagar says he has been a user of IT rather than a developer of IT but he has written applications and run companies developing and selling packages mostly in the financial sector. He qualified in business studies and as a chartered management accountant. He has written applications in Algol and Fortran IV. He has helped several ailing software package companies to recover through looking at their overall position with helicopter vision. He is a business angel in many software and healthcare companies.

Lisa Powis

Lisa Powis was enthralled by IT when at 11 she saw her father use an early computer in his insurance business. Since then she has been an advocate of the use of IT in business. She has tried to use IT in all of her roles in the insurance sector, sometimes asking IT to do more than it could given her enthusiasm. Powis is one of the users of IT who have pushed IT’s boundaries and challenged IT suppliers to give business what it needs. She is now launching a crowd-funded investment platform for companies developing IT of the insurance sector.

Dr Stephen Castell

Dr Stephen Castell has worked in all four corners of the IT industry.  He was worked on the computing side and in telecommunications.   He has worked as a user implementing complex systems and as a vendor of information products and services.  He spent years advising UK venture capitalists on what were and what were not the best companies to invest in.  Finally he has spent decades as an expert witness in numerous legal disputes between vendors and users when the IT system supplied did not fit the expectations of the buyers.  This gives him a unique insight into the failures of IT.