Time

Title and Speaker

10.00am

Show me the Money
Alastair Wilson, Director - Photonics KTN

Henry Hyde Thomson – Chairman, Anglo Scientific

Henry Hyde-Thomson is the Chairman of Anglo Scientific, a private equity firm specialising in start-ups. Henry is Chairman of two Anglo Scientific companies: 21Net, the Broadband to Trains service provider, and Phasor Solutions, developers of ASICs for lower cost high performance phased arrays and is a director of L3 Technology, a medical diagnostics technology business and MMIC Solutions, which is developing very high frequency multi-chip modules. Previously Henry was the founder and Chairman of Speech Machines, the developer of Internet based speech recognition systems acquired by Philips in April 2001. Henry has 5 patents and over 30 years experience of high technology business. He graduated from Oxford University with first-class honours in Physics, and after two years research in astrophysics then qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Peat Marwick Mitchell in London.

Ron Petersen – Co-founder, Longbow

Ron Petersen is a co-founder of Longbow and is responsible for identifying new business opportunities and assisting their corporate development. Initially, Ron spent over 20 years with Armstrong World Industries, managing global businesses from a London base. In 1992, Ron began to specialise in turning underperforming or early stage companies into profitable and valued concerns. Companies he has been involved in this area include Insituform Group, Bridon, Brunel Holdings, and Oystertec. He is currently acting CEO of CyDen Ltd, a company for which Longbow arranged the equity finance.

Richard Atkinson - Second Mile

Richard Atkinson leads Second Mile, a specialist in early-stage technology businesses. Second Mile manages a portfolio of angel and VC-funded businesses, providing key strategic skills, fund-raising experience and operational management to these technology start-up companies. Richard has extensive experience early-stage businesses in the defence, communications and software sectors. He has first hand experience of leading companies through angel and VC investment rounds. He began his career in the automotive industry as a development engineer at Ford, where he worked in the UK , Germany , Spain and Latin America . He has a detailed knowledge of the processes of new technology product development, cost and risk management, and the disciplines of bringing innovations through to volume production. Richard also has substantial team leadership experience within an expedition context, having held leadership responsibility on a large scale expedition where he held responsibility for a staff team of over 50, and has successfully planned and executed extremely demanding solo expedition work.

Talk Summary
The talk will highlight key issues vital to the successful protection of intellectual property.  Topics to be addressed include: agreements between parties to IP creation; managing your IP portfolio and monitoring your competitors; mechanisms for generating income from IP; and what you can do if your IP is infringed.  Examples of situations that have arisen in ‘real life’ will be given.

Mark Yeadon – Senior Associate, Harrison Goddard Foote

Mark Yeadon’s practice spans the areas of engineering, physics and materials science. He handles a range of subject matter including materials science, advanced electronics and telecommunications, mechanical and structural engineering, nanotechnology, scientific equipment and computer software. Mark holds both a degree in Engineering Science and a doctorate in Metallurgy and Materials. He has worked in University and Government research laboratories in both the United States and South East Asia and spent four years as Senior Scientist at the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE), having a joint appointment with the National University of Singapore. He headed a team of scientists developing novel materials for semiconductor and optoelectronic devices, and novel nanomaterials including nanoscale cages, particles and wires. Mark gained extensive experience in the design and development of scientific equipment and served as scientific advisor to two Singapore-based companies. Mark’s practice includes advising multinational and SME clients in both the UK and overseas and he is a regular visitor to Asia. He works with a number of UK Universities and start-up companies, having first-hand experience of the academic and Government research environments and the development of spin-out technology.

12.10pm

Point Source Case Study
Simon Davies - Grant Thornton and David Pointer – Point Source

Simon Davies – Corporate Finance Partner, Grant Thornton UK LLP

Simon leads the Corporate Finance team in Southampton, specialising in disposals of owner -managed businesses, MBOs and MBIs. He has also previously held board positions, providing strategic advice to enable companies to grow and develop. Simon joined Grant Thornton in January 2007 and previously worked for Bank of Scotland in a structured finance role before establishing the Thames Valley corporate finance team for PW in Windsor. He left there to set up DHD Corporate Finance in 1997, an independent boutique which he subsequently sold to Tenon in 2001 where he stayed until joining Grant Thornton, Southampton. With 17 years of experience, Simon has seen deals from all sides, acting as investor with Bank of Scotland, and then in a start-up and subsequent disposal of his own owner-managed business. Simon has specific expertise in specialist manufacturing and instrumentation markets.

RDA Funding Opportunities
Richard Hanson - Advantage West Midlands

Michael Knight – Specialist Manufacturing Advisor, MAS West Midlands