Institutional Venture & Growth Forum

Jonathan Crook is the Deputy Head of the Venture Capital Unit within the Office for Investment. The Venture Capital Unit works to assist a small selection of UK Venture Capital firms conduct engagement with international Limited Partners, supports around 50 prioritised UK technology companies and provides bespoke assistance to international Venture Funds.

Puneet leads SME Funds at London Treasury under the banner of Funding London and is responsible for all direct and fund investments in the high-growth, early-stage space.

He brings extensive expertise in direct investing as a fund manager, as well as of creating and managing funds as an active limited partner. He has been involved in over 200 investments through their full lifecycle of origination, diligence, negotiation, and legals to post investment board level support and exits. He has also managed a portfolio of SME investment funds focused on high-growth businesses, creating economic as well as social impact. Previously Puneet worked for Partnerships UK, Deutsche Bank, DB Ventures and EY.

Ant leads on the investment, portfolio management & performance for Venture Capital investments. He is also has overall responsibility for the groups Corporate Venture Capital programme (Aviva Ventures).

Petros Krappas is a Managing Director at Cambridge Associates.
He is based in our London office and is a member of the Private Equity and Venture Capital Research Team. His responsibilities
include identifying and monitoring investment firms and their portfolio companies, as well as carrying out due diligence.
Additionally, Petros is responsible for analysing market conditions and tracking the private equity and venture capital industry
trends.
Prior to joining Cambridge Associates, Petros worked at a private market investor, Pathway Capital Management, where he
was a Vice President with a focus on European private equity primary investments and co-investments. Before that, he was a
member of the investment team at VenCap International, a UK-based venture capital investor.
Petros received a MSc in International Money, Finance, and Investments from Durham University and a BSc in Statistics from
University of Piraeus. He is a CFA® charterholder

I lead the Investor Ecosystem team; our mission is to increase private capital into UK innovation. We inspire UK and foreign investors by showcasing opportunities to invest in the UK businesses that are leading our future economy, while also understanding the challenges. Through our curated events, we can facilitate connections and encourage syndication. We invite more investors – of all types – to partner with Innovate UK and provide guidance on the programmes and support that exist to de-risk their investment.

Previously I have spent over a decade supporting UK businesses to raise equity and grant funding, and am particularly passionate about ensuring that the most innovative entrepreneurs are able to source the capital they need to take great ideas to fruition, and change the world for the better.

Beverley is Founder and Managing Partner of Clean Growth Investment Management, a venture capital fund manager that  invests in the UK’s most promising early stage cleantech companies that have the potential to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. She is also CEO of Carbon Limiting Technologies (2006), a cleantech consultancy for corporates, financiers, government officials and SMEs. Prior she was she was a founder and Vice President, Shell Technology Ventures. 

Beverley is a thought leader in early stage cleantech investments and commercialisation with over 40 years’ experience in the international energy sector. She specialises in accelerating innovation to market and scaling companies by providing strategic insights, developing industry partnerships and identifying novel ways to overcome barriers to entry. Her ambition is to create a better, sustainable world and she firmly believes that this will be achieved through climatetech innovation playing a transformative role in the global economy. In 2023, Beverley was awarded an OBE by His Majesty King Charles III for services to Net Zero innovation. She is a NED and Chair of Investment Committee at Great British Energy and previously an independent member of the UK’s cross-government Net Zero Innovation Board chaired by the chief science advisor, Dame Angela McLean. Beverley is a Fellow of the Energy Institute. She holds a BSc in Mining Geology from University College Cardiff.

Zoe is an entrepreneur and deep tech fund manager focusing on step change technologies for a sustainable planet. She heads the venture capital strategy at Octopus Energy Generation, who is one of Europe’s largest investors in green energy. Previously, Zoe has managed and launched venture funds for the University of Oxford, Imperial College, Development Bank of Wales and Octopus Capital. A volcanologist and atmospheric modeller by background, Zoe focuses on financing and growing companies that will have a meaningful impact on achieving net zero by 2050.

Joanne is Head of Manager Selection at Future Growth Capital, responsible for external manager investments and leading the manager selection team. Joanne’s background is in principal investing, with experience across public and private markets gained at the Wellcome Trust, a leading global endowment.

Joanne has previously served in a range of non-executive roles, including Trustee Director of the Wellcome Trust Pension plan and Trustee and Chair of the Investment Committee of the Varrier-Jones Foundation. Joanne chairs the Investment Advisory Committee at Hertford College, University of Oxford and is a member of the City Guild of Investment Managers. Joanne holds a PhD in life sciences from University College London and a Masters of Biochemistry from the University of Oxford. She is a CFA charter holder and holds the Private Markets and Alternative Investments Certificate from the CFA Institute.

Paul leads the Schroders Capital’s UK Institutional Team, where he has a particular focus working with Local Authority Pension Pools and underlying Partner Funds.  

Prior to joining Schroders in April 2021, Paul worked at BMO Global Asset Management, Nordea Investment Management and Amundi Asset Management over the previous 20 years, where he was again responsible for the UK Institutional Business with a focus on LGPS and  UK Corporates. Paul has been involved in LGPS industry groups including the Investment Management Association LGPS Pool working group. 

Paul was awarded an MA in Economics and Politics from Aberdeen University, holds the Investment Management Certificate and is an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers.

Mark has extensive investment and scale-up experience. Since co-founding Mercia, he has led the sales of Hybrid Systems Ltd (to Myotec) to create PsiOxus Therapeutics Ltd, Warwick Effect Polymers Ltd (to Polytherics Ltd) to create Abzena plc, Oxford Genetics Ltd (sold to WuXi AppTec) and led the founding investment in Allinea Software Ltd (sold to ARM). Prior to Mercia, Mark played a leading role within Oxford University Innovation (“OUI”), the technology transfer operation of the University of Oxford, spinning out BioAnalab Ltd (sold to Millipore), Oxford Immunotec Ltd (listed on NASDAQ), Oxitec Ltd (sold to Intrexon) and Natural Motion Ltd (sold to Zynga). Following his time at OUI, Mark was the vice president of corporate development at Oxxon Therapeutics Inc, prior to its sale to Oxford BioMedica plc.

Mark gained his PhD jointly between the University of Oxford and the University of London (King’s College). Mark also has an MBA from the University of Warwick, is a Sainsbury Management Fellow for Life Sciences and was awarded the 2015 EY Entrepreneur of the Year (regional and national).

Tricia joined the Redington team in June 2021 as a Director in Manager Research, with responsibility for leading the private credit team to source, select and deliver best-in-class investment solutions to Redington’s institutional and wealth management client base.  

Tricia most recently gained experience in the Public Sector at Greater Manchester Pension Fund, developing the private credit, private equity and infrastructure programmes, alongside helping to build the ESG framework for private markets. 

Tricia launched her career on the Graduate Programme at Goldman Sachs over 20 years ago, where she also qualified as a Chartered Accountant, an ideal foundation before moving into a credit hedge fund.   In 2008 Tricia joined Absolute Return Partners, an alternatives investment management boutique, as a credit and ILS analyst.  In 2010 she was made Partner and built out the investment research and management teams for private markets, with a continued focus on private credit.  Tricia also took on responsibility for key advisory relationships with pension funds and Family Offices clients supporting strategy education, fund selection, implementation and monitoring of managers.

James is a Workplace Investment Director looking after FutureWise Target Dated Fund Strategy and a number of key strategic IO clients since February 2023. He comes with 13 years DC Investment industry experience from Aon, where he was Head of DC Investments for 8 Years and is qualified as a Regulated Financial Planner, with a specialism in DC investment strategy design, sustainability, less liquid asset integration and provider market knowledge. His responsibilities included working on the Bank of England’s Productive Working Finance Group, governing the Aon DC Product (including the Aon Master Trust), reviewing the investment and bundled proposition of pension providers and advising Employers and Trusts on their workplace investment strategy.

She is a Partner and Head of Investment leading the Master trust market for Hymans in developing thought leadership in this space from an investment and governance perspective. Passionate about Responsible Investment, she works as part of the Hymans Responsible Investment team and is part of the Influence workstream of the Investment Consultants Sustainability Working Group working with regulatory bodies such as TPR and FCA to develop policy thinking and change.

Umang is a Director in the Private Markets team at bfinance, with a focus on Private Debt. He has over 11 years of experience advising institutional investors, with a particular specialism in private markets and alternative investments.

Prior to joining bfinance, Umang held a senior role at Barnett Waddingham as an investment consultant and Head of Alternative Research, leading research and strategy across private markets and supporting client delivery. Earlier in his career, he worked at Willis Towers Watson, supporting institutional clients on funding and investment strategy, having begun his career at OCBC, where he contributed to regulatory oversight and risk monitoring.

Umang is a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation, and has completed the CFA Certificate in Private Markets and Alternative Investments.

Alex van Someren FREng FIET is an Operating Partner and Advisory Board member in the growth equity strategy of Octopus Energy Generation. Octopus Energy Generation is the $9bn clean energy asset manager of Octopus Energy, targeting market leading returns with impact for UK pension and institutional investors. The growth equity strategy invests into de-risked climate tech, critical for the expansion and acceleration of the clean energy value chain. 

A British engineer and cybersecurity expert, Alex has been a key figure in the UK’s technology sector, in venture capital and in national security. His career began at Acorn Computer in the 1980s, where he contributed to developing the BBC Microcomputer and the Acorn Electron. He then co-founded several technology companies, two of which became public through IPOs on the London Stock Exchange, ANT Software plc (AIM:ANTP) and nCipher plc (LSE:NCH), both later acquired.

Alex served as a Managing Partner at venture capital firm Amadeus Capital Partners from 2010 to 2021, focusing on deep technology investments across the UK and Europe.

In 2021, he was appointed as the UK’s Chief Scientific Adviser for National Security, providing independent scientific advice to the UK Intelligence Agencies and to wider UK government. During this period, he also served as a consultant to the €1 Billion NATO Innovation Fund.  Alex is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology and an Honorary Professor of Computer Science at the University of Manchester. He was previously the Clore Innovation Professor at the Royal College of Art.