Our global
Team
The genesis of founding ScaleUp Group was when I realised that my personal activities of being an investor Chairman of early-stage businesses was not limitless, in either my time or my cash, and that there were others in the UK whose experience, expertise and connections could also be invaluable to such companies - and most importantly who would have an interest in helping them grow fast. Their capacity to personally invest alongside a Fund was also an important consideration for me.
I’m now delighted that all of our Partner Members have been engaged with our clients in one form or other such as talking at a CEO Forum about:-
- Their journey, expertise and connections
- Equity based incentives
- Organisation Structures
- Establishing a Customer Success function
- Inducting and rewarding sales executives
- Cash management
Investing to date approx. £2.5m- both in support of a Fund or sometimes as a primer ahead of any Fund; sitting on company boards, including as Chairman; acting as sounding boards for Investor pitches; commentating on strategic alternatives, are all part and parcel of our pro-active support for our entrepreneurial clients.
John O’Connell
Founder and Executive Chairman
Global Team. World Class Results.
Director of the University of Southampton Science Park, and Cantina Goccia and RedLux Ltd. Former director of Redlux and ex-CEO of Xyratex, sold in 2014 for $374 million.
Steve Barber
Co-Founder and former CEO of Blue Prism – leading from a 2-person start-up to an £1bn+ category creating plc.
Alastair Bathgate
Senior Sales Executive at FIS and former Director at RegTech21.
Created Impendium Systems in 2005, acquired by Deutsche Borse in 2014.
Stuart Clark
Executive Coach, Board Director and Investor at IESQUARED Ltd., Non-Executive Director at UoE Knowledge Gateway, Co-Founder and Chair of Global iLabs. Former CxO at BT.
Paul Excell
Mark is a founder and team coach focusing on fast-growing tech businesses.
Mark Farrer-Brown
Partner at the Gorilla Factory, Chairman at Wazoku, Scoro, Blackcurve and Evotix. NED at Essentia Analytics and EyeQuant, Board Member at Bayard. Former CEO at LANSA, a B2B software with 8000 customers in 65 countries.
Martin Fincham
Chairman at ActiveOps and Avvio, portfolio Non-Exec. Managing Partner at Sean Finnan & Associates. Held senior leadership positions at IBM, HP and EDS.
Sean Finnan
Mentor/strategic adviser to entrepreneurs & business leaders in both scale-ups & some of the biggest global tech companies, plus held senior leadership positions with PwC, IBM, KPMG and blue-chip clients across multiple sectors.
Cliff Fitzpatrick
Co-Founder of leading communications and PR agency Brands2Life representing over 50 technology companies. Former Managing Director at Hill+Knowlton.
Giles Fraser
Neal Gandhi
Former Chairman of Board at Fairlsail. Former Chairman of Salesforce.com EMEA, former VP at Siebel and Oracle.
Dr Steve Garnett
Former non-Executive Director at IMMJ Systems and InfoShare, Board Advisor at IonaTech. Former CEO at CGI UK.
Tim Gregory
Venture Partner at Notion Capital, Chairman of Arctic Shores, Board Member at Clue, Orbus Software and E-Days, former non-Executive Director at Unit 4.
Former CEO at Fairsail, sold to Sage in 2017 for £110 million.
Adam Hale
Chairman Of TechMarketView, former Director of Allianz Technology Trust and Regents Partners.
Richard Holway
Senior Technical Director at IRIS Software Group to whom he sold Kashflow and Staffology which he founded. Founder of Supdate acquired by Crowdcube in 2018. Co-Founder of Code 4000 and Patron at The Prince's Trust.
Duane Jackson
Executive Chairman at Cylynt, Former CEO of Irdeto, a Dutch B2B technology media software supplier, and Conga Ltd.
Graham Kill
Partner at Amadeus Capital, Non-Executive Director at Brytlyt, DirectID, XZY Reality and Kingsbury Ventures.
Leader of Software and Internet at 3i, Former Chair of Accumuli exited for £63 million in 2015.
Nick Kingsbury
Chairman of FISCAL Technologies, Managing Director at IFS
Former Executive at Sage, Avaya and Oracle.
Alan Laing
Chartered Accountant; former Vice President of Finance at Oracle Corporation with 30 years of international business experience.
Graeme Mair
Co-founder and Managing Partner of Silverpeak and Chairman of Worksmart.
Former MD Cobalt Corporate Finance and Corporate Capital Structures.
Paddy MccGwire
Co-founder and CEO of Business Systems (UK) Ltd, a leader in enterprise communications solutions, sold to August Equity in 2020.
Richard Mill
Co-Founder and Managing Partner of TechMarketView. Former Board Member of TechUK and former Partner at Arete Research.
Anthony Miller
Founder of ScaleUp Group ; Chairman of ActiveNav; ex Chairman of 12 other software companies inc. ActiveOps (IPO’d in March 2021) and Opta Sports Data acquired by Perform Group ; Founder, Chairman and CEO of Staffware plc acquired by Tibco for $200m.
John O'Connell
Director at Conscient, former CRO and CMO at RealVNC, former CCO at Avanti Comms.
20 years Senior Global Marketing and Sales leadership experience in organisations large and small.
Craig Penfold
Award winning FinTech entrepreneur and experienced Insurance executive. Founder and ex CEO of Fresh sold to the Vantage Group in May 2018.
Lisa Powis
Qualified chartered accountant, author, mentor. Founder of Smith & Williamson’s Entrepreneurial Services Group. Listed in the top 50 movers and shakers in the financial world by Economia.
Guy Rigby
Managing Partner of Alternative Capital Advisors. Raising capital for private equity and venture capital.
David Rose
Managing Partner of Alternative Capital Advisors. Raising capital for private equity and venture capital.
Natascha Scholten
Investor & NED dedicated to guiding entrepreneurs to success. Experience of SaaS and Tech business later acquired. Former senior leader at EY.
Julian Stone
Group CEO of Inchcape, Non-Executive Director at Agilisys and former NED at BiTC.
Advisor to the Valuable 500, former VP and CEO at Fujitsu, MD at Unisys and Director at Hewlett-Packard and Compaq.
Duncan Tait
Founder of Thorp & Partners, Founder Member Firm at Tinzon Group. Partner at The Curzon Partnership.
30 years of experience providing senior executive search to founders, investors and boards.
Malcolm Thorp
Founder of Tobin Ventures, Chairman at EdgeConnex, Audioboom, and multiple other businesses.
Philanthropist, technology Pioneer and author. Former CEO of Telecity, took from £6m- £1.5 billion.
Michael Tobin
Director at Kimmeridge Consulting, former Board Member Staffware plc and former VP Technology at Tibco Software Inc.
Paul Young
Chairman at Six by Nico, VRTuoso, RightIndem, PlayMob and multiple other businesses, Managing Partner at Ningen.
Involved in £600m+ exits and £150m+ fundraising in last 10 years.
Rob Wirszycz
Management Team
Founder of ScaleUp Group ; Chairman of ActiveNav; ex Chairman of 12 other software companies inc. ActiveOps (IPO’d in March 2021) and Opta Sports Data acquired by Perform Group ; Founder, Chairman and CEO of Staffware plc acquired by Tibco for $200m.
John O'Connell
Executive Chairman
Barrister-At-Law with Investment Banking/M&A experience, successfully executed over 25 deals worth in excess of $90bn.
Former VP at MBU Capital and former Strategy Advisor at Accenture.
Shaun Scoon
Investment Director
Chartered Accountant; former Vice President of Finance at Oracle Corporation with 30 years of international business experience.