Plus Investors Awards 2008

tuesday 29th april 2008 | the may fair hotel | stratton street | london w1

Headline Sponsors:

JUDGES

Nick Winters, Vantis PLC

Nick is a Partner at Vantis and specialises in providing advice to dynamic growing businesses, particularly in the technology, telecoms and business support services sectors. Nick leads both the Technology & Telecoms and Public Companies groups at Vantis. He is also one of the founders of the entrepreneurs’ club, bigfish. His clients range from start-ups through to large owner-managed businesses and fully listed plc’s.

Nick has advised and helped a broad range of growing businesses to expand and mature and a number of these are now listed. Nick has built on an established reputation in the market and was recently listed as one of the “Top Fifty People to Meet if You Really Want to Make Your Business Big”. He has also served as a judge for the Orange ‘Small Is Beautiful’ Business Awards. Nick qualified as a chartered accountant in 1987 and has spent his career at large and mid-tier firms.

Nick is a member of the Quoted Companies Alliance’s Accounting Standards Committee. He is also the author of “A review of the PLUS market -2007”.

Mark Watson-Mitchell

Having previously worked for four firms of stockbrokers and a fund management business, for the last thirteen years Mark has been increasingly active in the investment research of smaller quoted companies quoted on various markets within the UK. He writes and has written for a number of investment magazines, newsletters and websites covering the main market, AIM and the PLUS markets. He is the owner of SQC Research, which specialises in preparing investment information and comment on smaller quoted companies for investment professionals and provides investor relation services.

Tom Winnifrith

Tom Winnifrith is the Chief Executive of a rapidly growing financial media group - Rivington Street Holdings. Rivington Street owns Bishopsgate Communications, t1ps.com, T1ps Investment Management, Sharecrazy and Lion Capital. He started his career in the City before moving to The Investors Chronicle. He starred in TV's Show Me The Money and was the founder of Red Hot Penny Shares (RHPS) as well as being a contributing editor to Shares Magazine. He has been editing t1ps.com since its launch seven years ago and his average gain per tip is 68%. Away from work, his interests are West Ham United and the Ireland Rugby team.

Graham Beswick

Graham Beswick qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Coopers & Lybrand in 1989 and then spent over five years in international business development for the film industry throughout all continents through Universal & Paramount Pictures. Graham then changed direction in his late twenties from employed accountant to entrepreneur, salesman, marketer and investor.

Referred to by many as a serial entrepreneur, he has participated, and still participates, in the development of many companies in many industries, including internet-based as well as product and service businesses in Europe and Asia. Such breadth of knowledge and 13 years experience has resulted in him successfully assisting two individuals to make a million £ from capital less than £70000 – one as part of the Channel 4 TV programme “Make me a Million” of which his company was the series winner – and the other as part of a successful Management Buy In.

Graham’s knowledge base comes from participating in companies as diverse as a record label, an artificial intelligence consultancy, a shoe designer, product and fashion design label, corporate design and brand consultancy, multi-media animation production, men’s skincare, internet hardware development, internet communities, technology theme bars, a broadband TV station, sound & noise technology, motor sport racing, internet fraud risk management, mobile gaming, a satellite TV news channel, drinks distribution, jewellery design and retail, Swiss- made watches, training for entrepreneurs, interior design, children’s personal care, change management, performance car club and a media buyer – simultaneously running many growing companies at any one time purely through the result of networking and mentoring at the early stage of business development.

Public appointments include being Chairman of the Entrepreneurial Working Party promoting, with high profile business leaders, a new environment for the promotion of entrepreneurship in the UK which includes The Entreprenologists (the UK’s representative body for entrepreneurs); a past associate with the European Small Business Alliance which allows a political voice for entrepreneurs in the European Parliament and representation at the World Trade Organisation; and a business mentor for a number of young entrepreneurs focusing on growth and international development in business.

After the publication of an article in “Accountancy” in 1995 describing the alternative career of an accountant, and through a series of unusual events in response to this article, Graham purchased a national business-to-business introduction service for entrepreneurs from The Daily Telegraph. The positioning of this national organisation resulted in Graham becoming one of the central figures of the business angels market and is still called upon as a spokesman for small business funding.

Appointments, such as being the first Commercial Director of the National Business Angels Network and a founder Director of the Business Angel Networks Association, firmly placed Graham at the centre of the funding industry and enabling him to influence the growth and development of the small business sector. A simultaneous appointment as Marketing Director to Investor Champions plc enabled him to participate in the deal- making process and complete his experience in the funding sector, not just creating leads and effecting introductions but actually getting the deal done!

Graham was born in Cambridgeshire in 1964, is a freeman of the City of London, a qualified member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales (ICAEW) and a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts (RSA).

Miles Nolan

An avid stock-market follower from an early age, Miles Nolan started his career at Investors Chronicle where he held the position of small-companies editor for five years. The role encompassed active research across a wide spectrum of companies.

He is a former winner of the AIM Awards 'Best Research' category and Growth Company Investor journalist award. He is also a runner up for the London Stock Exchange Aim Journalist of the Year. In 2005, he joined fund manager and private-client stockbroker MD Barnard. His focus at MD Barnard was to seek out undervalued opportunities with a focus on value investing. MD Barnard manages the New Century VCT which has proved an impressive performer compared to its peers.

He moved to Unicorn Asset Management as a fund manager to work primarily on its market leading VCT products and to assess special situations.

Miles is currently working in Institutional & Corporate Sales at Hichens, Harrison & Co, founded in 1803 it is the world’s oldest stockbroker and has recently accepted a £55.5m bid from India based investment banking group Religare. The role involves both primary and secondary sales for corporate clients.

Miles has a wide network of contacts and has previously acted as a judge on the Aim Awards, the Investors Chronicle Aim Awards and the Growth Company Awards. He is a member of the Securities Investment Institute.