HEADLINE SPONSOR: 

Come and join us at The VCT & EIS Investor Forum

Uncover:

The best opportunities in 2012

Meet:

All the VCT and EIS fund managers that matter

 AND

Get the inside edge:

By questioning the people who manage your money 

Network:

With other like minded investors

 Learn:

 What the government plans to do to help investors and enterprise

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:

Lord Young of Graffham:

The Forum’s organiser has just announced that The Rt Hon the Lord Young of Graffham PC DL will be give a keynote address on 21^st November. 

After a distinguished career in business and politics, including as President of the Board of Trade in the 1980s, in the 1990s Lord Young started investing personally alongside his co-founders in a wide range of communications, IT, hardware, software, computer services and internet businesses.  Young Associates continues to invest between £500,000 and £2m in companies based in the UK, Western Europe and Israel.

Joining Lord Young as a speaker will be Kathryn Robertson, the Senior Policy and Technical Advisor to the HMRC. As an advisor to the government and the HMRC for VCT and EIS, she is perfectly placed to share her expertise about the new rules and regulations relating to the sector to business angels and the other investors.

Michael Fallon, Minister of State for Business & Enterprise:

Michael Fallon was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party in September 2010 and was recently awarded the title of Minister of State for Business & Enterprise in 2012.  He has been MP for Sevenoaks since 1997.

Michael is married with two sons, and lives in Sundridge, Kent. 

He is a graduate of St Andrews University (MA Honours) and began his political career as MP for Darlington from 1983-1992.  He was Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Rt.Hon. Cecil Parkinson, Secretary of State for Energy from 1987 to 1988 when he became a Government Whip.  In 1990 he joined Margaret Thatcher’s Government as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Schools Minister), and continued to serve under John Major.

Between 1992 and 1997 he developed his business career as a director of three companies founded by Dragons Den star Duncan Bannatyne before returning to Parliament in 1997.  He served as a shadow Treasury Minister under William Hague before joining the Treasury Select Committee of which he was deputy chairman from 2001 until 2010.

Simon Chamberlain, Founder of St James's Place Capital:

Simon Chamberlain joined the Financial Services Industry directly from university, and in his early career held senior positions in both Merchant Investors and Royal Life.

In 1992, Simon took his team from Royal Life and became a founding partner of J. Rothchild Assurance (now known as St. James's Place Capital) and became their number one partner in 1993 and 1995. The company was floated on the stock market in 1997 for approximately £365m and is today one of the top 200 companies in the U.K.

After the flotation, Simon became the National Development Director for the Zurich Advice Network, which was an amalgamation of all the financial services companies owned by Zurich in the U.K. These included Eagle Star, Allied Dunbar and Abbey Life. The main role of the Development Director was to move 5,000 individual advisors into a structured business practice model, creating firm business, succession and exit plans for the practices going forward.

In 2003, following legislation changes occurring within financial services - particularly the depolarisation of the whole industry - Simon took the opportunity to launch Thinc. This was a new kind of financial services proposition that incorporated all kinds of financial advisors, whether they were corporate, mortgage or IFA's. This new approach created a one-stop shop and became known as a multi-distribution platform. Over a four year period, the Thinc Group (now known as BlueFin) grew to approximately 900 advisors over all disciplines, £75m of estimated turnover, £3bn of funds under management, placing £4bn in mortgages and was eventually sold to the French giant AXA in a deal worth £100m in 2006.

In July 2007, Simon left BlueFin to pursue other opportunities. He has now formed his own consultancy business. Simon is currently the acting Non-Exec Chairman of the Tamar Science Park and has a host of other Non-Executive appointments including Defaqto, Goss Interactive and an International PR company called Loco Comms, and ICO3; a Plymouth based E-commerce business.

Simon is also a Board member of the Plymouth Growth Acceleration and Investment Network (GAIN), a board member of the Plymouth Growth Board and an adviser to the University of Plymouth Business School.

In November 2008, Simon formed a new Wealth Management consolidation business called Succession Advisory Services, which was funded by an Australian VC called Committed Capital and the Guernsey based Discretionary Fund Manager - Spearpoint. Succession now has 32 Member firms that control over £5bn of assets and has a target of 50 Member firms and £7bn assets by 2013. He is also a board member of the Tax Incentive and Savings Association (TISA).

Alex Saint, CEO of Secret Escapes:

Agenda now announced!

Our Chair of the Day is Roger Blears, CEO of RW Blears LLP.

Roger has over twenty years experience as an adviser to alternative investment fund managers and fast-growing companies and is undoubtedly one of the top names in the Venture Capital Trust and Enterprise Investment Scheme industries.