ABOUT
I’ve led growing technology companies based on cutting-edge science for more than 20 years. My key career achievements have been:
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Founded three pioneering technology companies that helped / are helping revolutionize their respective industries;
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IPO’d, lead a transformative acquisition and ran a public company for close to 10 years (valued at some $500 million);
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Raised $100’s million and built a loyal shareholder base that included some of the most respected institutional investors in the City of London.
I’m currently the President and CEO of New Growth Brands - a start-up that I co-founded in 2022 that's pioneering a whole new consumer market.
Prior to that, I co-founded a biotechnology company, Creo, with a leading professor of bioengineering, to pioneer the production of cannabinoids using microorganisms. Before that, I took Oxford Catalysts from a 2½ person start-up with 3 patent applications based out of the chemistry labs at the University of Oxford, through an IPO, growth and the subsequent acquisition of US-based Velocys—creating a real business, with a clear vision and a commercial offering on the cusp of major rollout. In the process, I made millionaires out of the 2 academic founders, recycled significant funds back to the university and netted the original VCs 65 times their money.
I started my career at Goldman Sachs in London, but soon realized that there were two types of people there: those who were present to make money; and those who were there because they were doing what they were put on earth to. Having concluded that I was not in the second group, I left to discover and pursue my dreams.
This led me to founding Infonic that became Europe’s leading Internet Research agency, helping clients measure and manage corporate reputation online. We developed a cutting-edge artificial intelligence software that understood sentiment in language (before most people even heard of AI), based on some algorithms developed at Cornell University for NASA. Our clients included many blue-chip companies like Coca-Cola, P&G, Shell, Sony, Unilever, Merck etc.
One of the foundations that set me up to chart new paths with perseverance and courage was my education – for which I have my grandmother to thank; she gave me my “inheritance” whilst she was still alive in the form of schooling. I was then fortunate enough to attend Trinity College at Cambridge University.
On the personal front, I’m very proud of my four wonderful children who are already outdoing me in every way, and am forever in awe of, and grateful to, my extraordinary wife who is the water to my fire.