Directors

Lord Roger Freeman – Non-Executive Chairman

Lord Freeman's current business interests include Chairmanship of the UK Advisory Panel at PricewaterhouseCoopers, London, Director of Thales SA France and Chairman of Thales UK plc, Chairman of Metalysis (a Cambridge University spin-out), Chairman of CrossCore Optimisation (an Imperial College, London spin-out), Chairman of Cambridge Enterprise Ltd (The Technology Transfer Office).
Previously, Lord Freeman was a Partner and Managing Director of Lehman Brothers in London and New York between 1969 and 1986.
From 1983 until 1997 he was the Member of the UK Parliament for Kettering, Northamptonshire during which time he held a number of senior ministerial appointments including - Minister of State for Public Transport, Minister of State for Defence Procurement, Cabinet Minister for Public Service and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
Lord Freeman was made a life peer in 1997. He has sat on the House of Lords Science and Technology Sub Committee, the Committee on Speakership and the Committee on European Union (Defence, Foreign Affairs and International Development). He also chairs the Select Committee on the European Union Internal Market.

Mike Brooke – Non-Executive Director

Michael Brooke has worked in the computer industry for almost 40 years, predominantly specialising in founding, developing, floating and/or selling companies within the computer software, hardware and services sector.
In 1967, he founded Datasolve, which was acquired by BOC in 1973, and in 1976 he founded Micro Business Systems Plc, which became the largest PC reseller in the UK before floating on the Official List in 1983. In 1986, he co-founded Telephone Information Services Plc, sold to management in 1991, and in 1994 he co-founded CMS Ltd which was sold to Millward Brown Limited in 1998. In 1991, he co-founded Comino Plc, which floated on AIM in 1997 and moved to the Official List in 1999.
Michael is currently a Non-Executive Director of Quester VCT3 plc. He is a member of the Advisory Board for Corporate Finance for PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

James Graham – Non-Executive Director

James spent 16 years in London with Morgan Stanley where he played a significant role in the development of its Equities business becoming Managing Director (Sales/Trading) within the European Equity Division.
He then joined Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette where he helped to establish their European Equity business prior to its sale to Credit Suisse in 2001. James has considerable knowledge and experience of the global capital markets and a comprehensive network of relationships with major international financial institutions. He has been a resident of New Zealand since 2002 where he has acted as an advisor to a number of local businesses.

Greg Barnes – Executive Director

Before joining Imprimatur Capital, Greg was a Vice President at JP MorganChase & Co. working as global portfolio manager and head of the Asia (excluding Japan) investment team. During 8 years with JP Morgan Investment Management he has worked in Singapore and London.
Other roles held by Greg have been Chief Investment Officer of Jardine Fleming Australia, Portfolio Manager of the China Fund, CH Investment Management (a joint venture of Hambros Bank and the China International Trust and Investment Corporation – CITIC) and Australian Equity Portfolio Manager for the NSW State Superannuation Investment Management Corporation.
Greg obtained a B.Sc. from Macquarie University and an MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management.

Andy Bottomley – Executive Director

Andy Bottomley was a main board member of Durlacher plc the UK LSE listed investment bank (now owned by a division of Lazard)  specializing in high growth companies. He was also a non-executive director of a major London based hedge fund advising them on unlisted securities investing.
Andy has been the founder director of numerous early stage high growth companies. By way of example he was one of the founders of KVS Inc, the email archiving vendor which was sold in 2004 for $225m.
Andy has director level experience in companies covering private equity, public company, investment banking, asset management and operational management.

Simon Flood – Executive Director

Simon was until recently the Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer of the Asia Pacific Region for Merrill Lynch Investment Managers - subsequently taken over by Blackrock. His responsibility was for day to day management of MLIM’s business in the region, and was also a member of the Merrill Lynch Asia Pacific Executive Committee. Simon’s geographical remit included Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and China, where the business had a physical presence. During his tenure the business grew its assets under management significantly.
Prior to his move to Asia, Simon was a Managing Director on MLIM’s European Equity Team and had been a member of the Team for more than a decade. As a senior investor he had, at various times, responsibility for the Team’s Continental: Pan European: Eurozone and Emerging European Equity products, as well as responsibility for the Team’s overall business development.
Simon was educated at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch New Zealand and has dual New Zealand and British nationality.

Ian Watson – Executive Director

Ian Watson's professional background is in corporate finance law ultimately as an equity partner in a City of London law firm.
In 1996, Ian was a founder director of a successful e-commerce retailer which was sold to a major UK plc in 1999.  Between 1999 and 2002, he was also the founder of two other successful technology start-ups, one in the area of digital distribution and corporate communications, and the other in the field of web radio and advertising.  Both are now listed on AIM.
Ian has private and public company board level operational and advisory experience including fundraisings, listings and M&A transactions.

Dr Ben Ferrari – Managing Director –IP Management

Ben has worked with a wide range of knowledge and technology transfer programmes in the UK higher education sector. Before joining Imprimatur, he was the Director of UniSdirect, the technology transfer and research support division of the University of Surrey. Previous to that he served as Head of Research and Enterprise at Royal Holloway, University of London and was a Director of Research and Enterprise at the University of St Andrews.
Ben has played a leading role in development of two of the largest UK higher education knowledge transfer partnerships; WestFocus and the SETsquared partnership. Between them, these two partnerships have won £24m of funding from Government through the Higher Education Innovation Fund. Ben was responsible for the creation and management of incubation space and, with colleagues from partner institutions, has raised capital to support establishment of early stage investment funds. He has been involved in a wide range of European research programmes and has represented the United Kingdom as an expert at both the EC and Council of Europe.
Ben is responsible for the establishment and management of relationships with partner institutions through delivery of high quality technology transfer support and associated services.

Charles Scott – Managing Director

Charles Scott's most recent role was UK Chief Operating Officer at Morgan Stanley in London. Prior to this he held various roles at Morgan Stanley including Head of European Research and Head of Equity Sales (Europe). Before joining Morgan Stanley in 1985, Charles worked in corporate finance for Wood Gundy in Toronto and London. Charles has a degree in Jurisprudence from Brasenose College, Oxford.

Richard Wendland – Managing Director – Transaction Management

Over the last 10 years, Richard has worked in a variety of technology analysis and strategic consulting roles. He has worked for and on behalf of many European technology companies at various stages of development advising them on strategic and financial matters. In the European Venture Capital market he has worked on the conception, creation, funding, growth and development of new businesses.
Before joining Imprimatur, Richard worked at a multi-million pound government backed fund, commercialising Intellectual Property and commissioning technology development.
Richard holds a BEng in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Loughborough University.
Richard’s core responsibility at Imprimatur is transactional and investment management.

Dr Christopher Ball – Director

Chris joins Imprimatur from Johnson & Johnson, where he held a European strategic marketing position with LifeScan, the diabetes diagnostics franchise. Prior to this, he was a founder director of a medical publishing company, spun out of the Centre for Evidence-based Medicine at the University of Oxford and worked as a doctor in the UK National Health Service for 5 years.
Chris holds an MBA from the Wharton School of Business, where he was a Fulbright Scholar and a Palmer Scholar, a medical degree from Oxford University, and a bachelor’s degree in pathology from Cambridge University. He is a member of the Royal College of Physicians of London.
Chris evaluates opportunities Imprimatur is considering in the healthcare and medical technologies sectors and supports portfolio companies to build value.

Michael Burychka – Director – Capital Markets

Michael Burychka brings over 12 years of international public and private market financing experience, primarily focused on emerging growth companies across the US, Europe and Asia. Michael joins Imprimatur from Lehman Brothers International where he was an Executive Director heading the firm's International Private Placement business and was responsible for the origination, structuring and distribution of a broad range of debt and equity securities.
Prior to Lehman Brothers, Michael spent over 5 years at Barclays Capital in London where worked in the telecoms and media financing group in addition to helping establish a market leading European debt private financing business.
From 1994 through 1997, Michael was employed within the corporate finance department of Pennsylvania Merchant Group, Ltd in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where he specialised in technology Nasdaq public offerings, private placements, fairness opinions, and mergers and acquisitions advisory work for emerging-growth companies. Prior to this, Michael was an analyst with the merchant banking fund at Wasserstein Perrella & Co in New York.
Michael Burychka holds a BSBA degree in accounting from Bucknell University and an MBA from the London Business School where also completed coursework at the Chinese Europe International Business School in Shanghai, PRC. He has also lived and worked in South Korea through an academic program sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania.
Mike’s focus is on developing and financing Imprimatur Capital’s portfolio companies and in supporting university partnerships.

Dr Peter Curley – Director

Peter has both strong scientific and strong commercial backgrounds. He undertook his PhD research in optical physics at Southampton and Strathclyde Universities sponsored by the National Physical Laboratory. Peter's post doctoral work was funded by the Royal Society and the European Union at the Technical University of Vienna and the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris. During this period Peter produced 25 publications in specialist scientific journals.
Peter also has eight years of industry and commercial experience in both technical and sales roles in a range of high value engineering sectors working in both SMEs and large organisations such as Thales and Invensys.
Peter holds an MBA from Cranfield University, the Chartered Institute of Marketing postgraduate diploma, and is a member of IEE and CIM.
Peter directs Imprimatur Capital’s investment activity in the area of physical sciences and engineering where his core role is in the evaluation of investment opportunities and in working alongside investee businesses to build value.

Rosana Di Giorgio – Director -Brazil

Before joining Imprimatur Capital, Rosana served as Intellectual Property (IP) & Partnership Development Director at Inova Unicamp, the Technology Licencing Office of the State University of Campinas, Sao Paulo, Brazil. With a focus on innovation, she was responsible for business development between the university and private or public institutions. In 3 years of operation, she signed more than 200 technology transfer agreements and was directly involved in both IP development and licensing. Rosana was also responsible for the definition of policies, processes, legal affairs, team build and management of the university’s IP portfolio.
Previously, Rosana was an Executive Director at facTI, a private foundation operating in Information Technology and was Corporate Business Development Manager and Semiconductor Division Manager at CPqD, the biggest research and development center for telecommunications and IT in Latin America.
Rosana has a Master’s degree in electrical engineering (MSEE) from Unicamp and an MBA from by FGV (Fundação Getúlio Vargas) and Ohio University.
Rosana is responsible for running the Brazil regional office and all of its activities.

Toby Moore – Director – Baltic Sea Region

As a banker with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), for the past 12 years Toby Moore has been originating, structuring and implementing equity and debt transactions in a variety of sectors in Central and Eastern Europe, primarily in the Baltic States and Russia. In addition to a number of direct equity investments and board positions, Toby's main focus has been on private equity funds where he represented EBRD as a core investor and was active on a number of fund boards and investment committees.
Based in Riga for eight years he headed EBRD's operations in Latvia for more than three years. He was one of the founders of the Latvian Venture Capital Association and has assisted the Latvian government in developing their innovation and venture capital policies. He has a BSc in biochemistry from Adelaide University (Australia) and an MBA from Durham University (UK).
Toby is responsible for developing the business and managing Imprimatur’s investment activities in the Baltic States, Nordic Countries and St. Petersburg.

Andrew Petriwsky – Director – Central & Eastern Europe

For 5 years Andrew was an Investment Officer with the Western NIS Enterprise Fund, the leading private equity fund in Ukraine. He was responsible for managing the full project cycle of Private Equity Investments, including originating, and closing new investments, as well as executing successful exits.
Prior to working in Ukraine, Andrew was a founder executive of Chipotle Mexican Grill in the United States. In his role as Director of Finance, he was instrumental in developing and growing the concept from 1 to 30 restaurants; and led the Company through three rounds of private financing, including the sale of a minority stake to McDonald's in 1998. Today, Chipotle has over 500 locations nationwide, and is a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange.
Andrew holds a BSc degree in Pharmacy from the University of Colorado and a MBA from the University of San Francisco.
Andrew’s core responsibility is for the management of all activities in Ukraine and Hungary.

Dr James Sun – Director

James has a professional background in the fuel cells business. He was educated at The California Institute of Technology and completed his PhD in Chemical Engineering at Imperial College, London. His doctoral research was sponsored by ICI and focused on methanol synthesis catalytic systems and reaction engineering. Subsequently James gained further international experience working with the Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences in Taipei.
Most recently James was a Design Scientist for a leading global chemicals company where he led project teams across their international fuel cells business. Areas of commercial research have included polymer electrolyte fuel cell components, hydrogen generation and fuel cell system design.
James directs Imprimatur Capital's new energy technologies research where his core role is the evaluation of investment opportunities and in working alongside investee businesses to build value.

Steve Hughes – Associate Director –IP Management

Steve has spent 10 years in business support and knowledge transfer roles, predominantly in Higher Education, most recently as Head of Business Development at the University of Reading. During this time Steve has been heavily engaged in: developing a more robust infrastructure for the commercialisation of University expertise, supporting the development of inter-university knowledge transfer consortia such as PARK and WestFocus; the management of incubation and business support services related to business start-ups such as the SEEDA ‘Enterprise Hub’ programme; the development of entrepreneurship training for academics and students; and the client management of research and development relationships with commercial partners across the world.

Steve holds a first degree in Economics and a Master’s degree in European Economics and finance from Loughborough University.

Steve’s focus is on the establishment and management of relationships with partner institutions.

Janis Janevics – Associate Director – Baltic Sea Region

Prior to joining Imprimatur, Janis was part of the executive management team of Eko Investors, an early stage venture capital company in Latvia. Janis was CFO and a member of the board taking part in the investment evaluation and decision making process. Janis also acted as chairman of the board and a member of the board of a number of investee companies where he had a significant role in the business development process including financing, budgets, recruitment and marketing. Earlier, Janis worked for Suprema, a leading pan-Baltic investment bank where he specialized in corporate finance advisory working on M&A deals. He also worked in financial product origination and sales for Hansabank Markets, the capital markets arm of Hansabank, the leading banking group in the Baltics.
Janis holds a B.Sc. degree in economics and business administration from the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga and an MSc in finance from the Stockholm School of Economics in Stockholm.
Janis is involved in strengthening relationships with university partners in the Baltic Sea region and in structuring and implementing equity investments in technology companies emanating from those universities and other local sources.

Ong Siu Leng – Associate Director – Asia Pacific

Siu Leng has over nine years experience in making private equity investments having worked with a number of key Singaporean financial organizations including Temasek, Transpac and DBS Bank.  She has been involved in deal sourcing and origination, negotiation and structuring of deals, evaluation and researching deals, post-investment monitoring and reporting, and investment.
Prior to joining Imprimatur, Siu Leng was an Assistant Vice President in OCBC Bank, one of the big 3 Singapore banks, working in the corporate finance department.  In that role, she helped companies to list and advised listed companies on post-listing activities such as share placement, rights issue, privatization and corporate restructuring.  Siu Leng holds a Bachelor in Business Administration from the National University of Singapore. 
Siu Leng’s core responsibility at Imprimatur is transactional and investment management.

Dr Maurizio Pilu – Associate Director

Maurizio Pilu has spent his career combining innovation, technology strategy and business.  His most recent background was as a senior scientist at the Hewlett Packard Laboratories.  Maurizio had direct involvement at all stages of the technology lifecycle from conception, strategic planning, development and productization. Maurizio’s areas of technology focus are across imaging, multimedia and consumer electronics.  At HP Labs, Maurizio was also a member of the IP strategy panel.  Prior to HP, Maurizio was with the Strategic Consumer Technology Group at ST Microelectronics in Milan.  Maurizio is the inventor in over 50 patent applications (10 granted) and co-author of over 30 scientific publications in journals and conferences. Maurizio has a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Edinburgh and an Executive MBA from the Bath School of Management. Maurizio directs research and business development around Imprimatur Capital’s investment in ICT where his core role is in the evaluation of investment opportunities and in working alongside investee businesses to build value.

Ligia Cardoso – Associate – Capital Markets

Ligia is originally from Brazil and came to the UK in 2003 to complete a further degree in Business Studies. With a business and commercial background coupled to cultural and linguistic fluency, Ligia focuses on the development and financing of Imprimatur Capital’s portfolio companies and is also responsible for supporting the growth of Imprimatur’s activity in Brazil and South America.

Darius Craton – Associate – Human Capital

Darius Craton was previously an analyst at Eden Ventures, an early stage venture capital investor.  At Eden, Darius was responsible for assessing submitted business plans and evaluating the viability of the investment proposal.  Darius was also involved in conducting market analysis due diligence for prospective investments. 
Darius obtained a B.S.E. in Operations Research and Financial Engineering, with a Certificate in Finance, from the Princeton University School of Engineering and Applied Science.
Darius’s role is in the identification and recruitment of commercial leadership and advisors for Imprimatur investee businesses.

Tanya Mackenzie – Associate

Tanya is Russian by birth and since moving to the UK has performed various senior administrative and accounting roles. Tanya has a degree in Economics from the Belarusian State University of Information Science and Radio Electronics and is a qualified ACCA Accounting Technician. Tanya is fluent in English and Russian and her role covers office management, technology and systems support, general accounting and working with colleagues in liaising with Imprimatur's partners and contacts across the world.

Angie Wong – Associate – Business Development

Prior to joining Imprimatur, Angie Wong worked for 7 years at the City University of Hong Kong; most recently as the Administration and Operations Manager for the Applied Research Centre, an organization established to assist companies test and develop products and concepts for commercial application. Angie’s experience includes product analysis, and compliance testing for recognition under the different quality assurance codes that are recognized in Hong Kong, including ISO and HOKLAS. She has also been involved in industrial problem solving and laboratory start-ups for the unit’s clients both in Hong Kong as well as mainland China. In addition Angie has had experience in technology transfer collaborations between the university and industry, and has also been involved with consultation for regulatory reform. With respect to the latter, Angie recently represented the Centre on a working group established to legislate on tightening China’s laws on green manufacturing.    

Judith Tsai – Associate – Business Development

Judith has a degree in Electrical Engineering and prior to joining Imprimatur was working for the APEC Center for Technology Transfer in Suzhou, Jiangzhu Province in the People’s Republic of China. At APEC Judith’s main responsibility was to establish a working network for collaboration on technology transfer and to foster good relations with its international partners and local government agencies. Judith is fluent in English and Chinese.At Imprimatur, Judith will be responsible for the management of the Group’s first representative office in the People’s Republic of China and will focus initially on the development of its University and Research Institute network in the Greater Shanghai region. 

Dr Juan Matthews – Senior Consultant Russia and Japan

After a career as a materials physicist and research manager, Juan was Asia Pacific Regional Director for AEA Technology plc based in Tokyo for 5 years. During this period he was involved in technology transfer (including the successful introduction of the lithium-ion and lithium-polymer batteries) as well as setting up operations and management of R&D services in the region. From 1999 to 2001 he was component leader for R&D institutions on the TACIS programme “Innovation Centres and Scientific Cities” in Russia. This programme greatly influenced Russian technology commercialisation policy and systems, and established a number of successful innovation centres and the Russian Technology Transfer Network. From 2001 to 2007 he was the DTI international Technology Promoter for Russia as part of the Global Watch Service.
As well as supporting Imprimatur Capital in developing its activities in Russia and Japan, Juan also works on the UK Trade and Investment R&D and High Growth Market Programmes.  Juan is an Honorary Research Fellow of the Department of Physics and Astronomy of University College London.

Gala E Shaposhnikova

Following a career as a research fellow at the Center for International Research and Modern History at Tomsk State University, Gala joined the Tomsk Innovation Support Center (TISC) which she now manages. TISC was established in 1998 to promote innovation and since then has greatly influenced the technology commercialization policy and systems in the Tomsk region. TISC is an active member of the Russian Technology Transfer Network and is one of the largest and most highly regarded consulting companies in Western Siberia. 
In 2003 Gala founded the first Russian business angel network aimed at supporting innovation projects. Gala also works as a Strategic Management tutor at the MBA Centre at Tomsk Polytechnic University and is a member of the Russian Association of International Research.

Advisory Board

George Cautherley

George Cautherley has spent all his professional life working in Hong Kong and China and has built a first-rate reputation and a deep understanding of the business environment in these regions.  Mr. Cautherley has held and still holds a number of senior executive and advisory roles in the medical products industry.  His principle business activity has been in marketing and distributing pharmaceuticals and medical products in Hong Kong and in Mainland China.  More recently he has expanded his business activities to include manufacturing with the establishment of a diagnostic reagent manufacturing company in Shenzhen, as well as additional investments in companies manufacturing diagnostic reagents also in Shenzhen and in Shanghai. These activities were further enhanced with his participation in the establishment of the Hainan Health Care Laboratories Ltd pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Haikou.  Aside from business, George plays an active role in public policy development in Hong Kong.

Peter Denyer

Peter Denyer currently serves as NED for the ERA Foundation, who contributes to the economic vitality of the UK by supporting activities that help bridge the gap between research and exploitation in electrotechnology.  Additionally, Peter is the NEC and co-Founder of ATEEDA, the semiconductor company providing EDA tools and services for the mixed signal semiconductor industry and winner of the 2007 Scottish Software Award for Best Emerging Software Business.  Peter is also NED and acting Chairman of Keronite, a global technology company with an environmentally-friendly process for the surface treatment of light alloys.Previously, Peter was the founder and CEO of Vision Group plc, the Edinburgh-based creator of CMOS Imager chips used widely in digital cameras. Vision was a successful spin-out from his research at the University of Edinburgh. Peter served as CEO of Vision from its inception in 1990, through its early stages and financing, its UK IPO in 1995, its subsequent growth as a mainstream fabless semiconductor company shipping millions of units, and its eventual sale to ST Microelectronics in 1999. Peter is Executive Chairman of recently listed MicroEmissive Displays Ltd, co-founder and Chairman of Rhetorical Systems and Chairman of Eleksen.

Imants Freibergs (Baltic Sea Region)

Imants Freibergs is the president of the Latvian Information and Communication Technologies Association; a member of the UNESCO International Communications Council and of the UNESCO National Commission of Latvia. He represents Latvia on IT issues through various academic, governmental and non-governmental committees and on an international basis at the World Bank and the UN. Imants was educated in Canada and spent his early career at IBM. He has successfully managed a senior academic career in IT with a commercial career in software development for large financial institutions and in the civil engineering sector. Professor Freibergs has held professorships at McGill University in Montreal, the University of Quebec, the University of Montpellier, and Oxford University. Since 2000 he has been closely involved with the University of Latvia.

Advokat Helge Kringstad (Baltic Sea Region)

Helge Kringstad has held high office in law, international banking, politics and business across Scandinavia, the UK and the Baltics. Mr Kringstad has been a Member of the Board of the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) and was the General Manager of Den Norske Bank with offices in Oslo, London and Riga. He also held the office of Secretary of State of the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Kringstad now runs a commercial legal practice with a specific interest and focus on helping develop commercial activities and international business relationships in Central and Eastern Europe.

Paul Kristensen

Paul Kristensen is the owner and Executive Chairman of Capital Technologies Pty Ltd, a seed capital firm he established in 1986.Between 1968 and 1978, he was involved as project manager in major nuclear and particle physics research projects at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland and CERN in Geneva and has co-published papers with leading physicists and engineers.  For five years he operated his own consulting business in Geneva, involved in R&D management and international licensing.In 1983 he moved to Perth, Western Australia, where he has been a founding director and investor of a number of technology companies, including ERG Limited, Arbortech Pty Ltd and Kinetic Limited, the Xenotech group, Structural Monitoring Systems and Add Venture Capital Ltd.  Paul remains a director of IQ Investments Pty Ltd, Lumitex Ltd and Corporate Venturing Pty Ltd.  He is Chairman of DDD Group Plc, listed on AIM of the London Stock Exchange, and most of the DDD Group companies in North America and Australia.

Otto Lin (Asia)

Professor Otto Lin was President of the Industrial Technology Research Institute between 1988 and 1994, the largest applied R&D institute in Taiwan. During his tenure, ITRI developed and transferred technologies including VLSI, the notebook PC, and polymer composites which have all contributed to form the base of many hi-tech industries in Taiwan.
Professor Lin served at the National Tsing Hua University (Hsin-chu) as Dean of Engineering, Professor of Polymer Science, and Professor of IEEM. He was a visiting Professor at the National University of Singapore (1996-97) and is presently Adjunct Professor of Public Policy and Management at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
Otto Lin has degrees from the National Taiwan University, Columbia University and Harvard University. He has received many honours including the Award in Technology of the Third World Academy of Sciences (Trieste) and the Outstanding Achievement Award CIE (USA). He is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, the Asia Pacific Academy of Materials, and the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering Sciences.
Professor Lin has 17 years industrial experience with the EI Du Pont Company (1967-83) in many R&D management capacities and at the Westlake Group as Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer (1995-96).
Professor Lin joined HKUST as Vice President for Research and Development and Professor of IEEM in Spring 1997. At HKUST, Professor Lin focused on establishing research infrastructure, technology entrepreneurship and university-industry collaborations. He led university efforts in building the Nansha Information Technology Park (Guangzhou) to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in the greater Hong Kong Pearl River Delta region.

Marcus Regueira (Brazil)

Marcus Regueira is the Founding Partner of FIR Capital, a Brazilian venture capital organization, and has over 20 years of international capital markets experience.
After earning his MBA from the Wharton Graduate School of Business, Mr. Regueira served as an officer of Unibanco, one of the largest commercial banks in Brazil.  At Unibanco, he was responsible for the largest project finance portfolio in Latin America.  Mr. Regueira moved to New York where he served as a Director and Vice President of the investment banking, underwriting and capital markets groups of the Bank of America and First Chicago.  During the Brazilian external debt moratorium, he was a member of the negotiating committee. 
Over the course of his career, Mr. Regueira was the lead manager on over $1 billion in syndicated transactions, and represented various multinational and Brazilian corporations in M&A transactions, and technology joint-ventures in Brazil.
Mr. Regueira is a current board member and was previously the President of ABVCAP, the Brazilian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association.  He is also a founder and board member of Instituto Harmann Regueira, a not-for-profit organization focused on social entrepreneurship in Brazil. 

David Roche

David Roche is a world renowned strategist on the movement of global markets and economies. He is a Founder of Independent Strategy where his research informs the activities of many of the worlds best regarded investors. Until 1994, David Roche was Head of Research and Global Strategist at Morgan Stanley. David holds an MA from Trinity College Dublin and an MBA with the highest distinction from INSEAD. He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst. David contributes regularly to the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal and other top financial publications. He is also a regular commentator on the BBC, CNN and CNBC television networks.

Neil Speakman

Neil Speakman has a background in investment banking, venture capital and accountancy. After graduating from the University of Melbourne and qualifying as a Chartered Accountant with Price Waterhouse, he worked with Morgan Grenfell and Co. in London and Ord Minett in Hong Kong before establishing an accountancy practice in Hong Kong representing many international clients. Neil has subsequently played a pivotal role in the establishment of a number of new technology companies. During the course of his career he has been involved with a number of public companies as Chairman of Dynamic Digital Depth Inc., a founder Director of AMR Technologies Inc., Turbo Genset Inc., Compact Power Holdings Limited and also as a Director of FAS International Holdings Limited and CORAC Group Plc.More recently Neil was Chairman of Vividas Group Plc. before returning to Australia where he has continued advising a wide range of international corporations.

Sergey Tsyganov (Russia)

Professor Sergey Tsyganov is the head of the Innovation Division of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR) and also heads the Innovation Agency for the Russian National Academy of Sciences (NAS). The NAS is the collection of specialist research institutes throughout the Russian Federation. Most of the country's top research scientists work here.
The RFBR receives 6% of all funds allocated for science in the budget of the Russian Federation. The main portion of the funds available to the Foundation (over 70%) is directed to provide funding to research projects which may have commercial potential. The competitions (which Professor Tsyganov administers and manages) to decide how these funds are allocated, are one of the central planks of Russian science commercialization and utilize an extensive expert network of pre-eminent Russian scientists to determine which projects go forward.
As a scientist he has spent 46 years in fundamental and applied research at the Institute of Chemical Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences and twelve years at the Russian Foundation for Basic Research. Professor Tsyganov has lectured for the past 20 years at the Moscow Physico-Technical Institute. Professor Tsyganov has published more than 250 scientific and technical papers and has filed 20 inventions and patents.

Mike Walker

Mike Walker is the Group Research and Development Director for the Vodafone Group, with responsibility for the Group's R&D activities world-wide. The role provides technical leadership for Group's long-term business strategy and leadership for the company's work in international technical standards. Since 1996 Mike has been a professor at the University of London, holding the part-time Vodafone Chair in Telecommunications at Royal Holloway. He is also a visiting Professor at the University of Surrey. Mike is vice-chairman of the Mobile VCE, a group of companies and UK universities researching future mobile communications and was recently appointed to the UK Government's Technology Strategy Board. Before joining Vodafone, Mike was Head of Mathematics at Racal Research and prior to that he was an academic at the University of Tuebingen in Germany.

Scientific & Technical Advisory Board

Communications & Networking

Alain Fiocco

Alain Fiocco is Director of the Technology and Marketing organisation at Cisco Systems, responsible for Europe and all emerging markets. His team comprises the most experienced and skilled Technical Consulting Engineers at Cisco. In this position, he leads the technical community at Cisco, setting technology direction and strategies for the Europe, Middle-East, Africa and Latin America region. Alain joined Cisco in 1995 and has been involved in some of the largest European Service Provider Internet backbone design projects, which have included access, edge and IP core technologies and products. He also actively participates in the definition, specification and deployment of innovative services and underlying technologies.

Professor Joe McGeehan

Joe McGeehan is the Professor of Communications Engineering at the University of Bristol. He has pioneered many of the technologies adopted by industry for the next generation of mobile phones as well as other areas of wireless communication; most notably this has been at Securicor where his design was subsequently manufactured by Mobira-Oy (now Nokia) and became the basis of the Company's first civil mobile phone. Joe straddles the public and private sectors combining research at the university with his work as Managing Director for Toshiba Research Europe Ltd. His most recent honour was for services to the communications industry in the 2004 Queen's Birthday Honours List. He was recently placed sixth on a list of global technology leaders by the highly respected technology publication Silicon.com.

Medical Research

Professor Salvador Moncada

Salvador Moncada MD obtained his PhD at The Royal College of Surgeons in London. In 1975 he joined the Wellcome Research Laboratories and held the post of Director of Research from 1986 until 1995 reporting ultimately to the main board at Glaxo. In 1996 he moved to University College London to direct The Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research, an institute for strategic medical research. The Wolfson Institute is recognized as having gone further than most technology transfer departments in terms of taking IP towards commercialization.
Professor Moncada has published more than 700 scientific papers in the areas of inflammation and cardiovascular research and has written and edited several books on these topics. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Royal College of Physicians, as well as a foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences of the U.S.A. He has a number of honorary degrees from distinguished universities throughout the world and his many awards include the Prince of Asturias Prize for Science and Technology (Spain), The Amsterdam Prize for Medicine and The Royal Medal of the Royal Society.

Professor Paul Vanhoutte

Professor Paul M Vanhoutte is currently the Head of the Department of Pharmacology, and Director of the BioPharmaceutical Centre, at the University of Hong Kong.  He is Honorary Professor at the Peking Union College (Beijing), the Institute of Materia Medica of Beijing, the Ocean University of Qingdao, the Second Military Medical University in Shanghai and the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica.
Born in Belgium, Professor Vanhoutte obtained his degrees and training at the Universities of Ghent and Antwerp (Belgium) and the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN, USA).
From 1992 to 2002, Dr. Vanhoutte was Vice-President R&D, and Director of Discovery Research at the Institut de Recherches Internationales Servier, in Courbevoie (Paris, France). During his tenure as Director of Discovery Research at Servier, he supervised the discovery and preclinical development of drugs designed for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, obesity, central nervous system disorders, cancer and osteoarthritis.

Optics and Photonics

Professor Theodor Hänsch

Theodor Hänsch was one of the recipients of the Nobel Prize in physics in 2005 for his work in advancing the precision of optic technology. His early academic career was in the US at Stanford University, initially as a NATO postdoctoral fellow and ultimately as a full professor of physics, a position he held for 11 years. He currently holds the position of Professor of Physics and Chair of Experimental Physics at The Ludwig Maximilian University and is The Director of the prestigious Max-Planck-Institute in Munich.

Professor Volodymyr Kovalenko

Professor Volodymyr Kovalenko is the Director of the Laser Technology Research Institute of the National Technical University of Ukraine, Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and is a world renowned expert in laser technology and non-conventional methods of material processing.

Professor Kovalenko began his engineering career in industry in 1962; he received a PhD in laser technology in 1968 from KPI and his DSc from Tula Polytechnic Institute (Russia) in 1980. He has conducted research at Birmingham University (UK), Osaka University and Okayama University (Japan), and McMaster University (Canada). From 1980 - 2000 he was the Dean of Engineering at KPI; during 1992 he was a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Ohio State University (USA).  Professor Kovalenko is a Fellow of Laser Institute of America; a Member of CIRP (the International Academy for Production Engineering); an Academician-Founder and Vice-President of the Academy of Engineering Sciences of Ukraine and was the Vice-Chairman of The Laser Association of the former USSR.

Functional Foods & Neutraceuticals

Professor David Richardson

David Richardson spent 20 years at Nestlé UK Ltd, ultimately becoming Group Chief Scientist. He began his career at the University of London and was later appointed Industrial Research Fellow in the Department of Food Science and Nutrition at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He currently holds visiting professorships at the Universities of Newcastle and Reading.
Between 1985 and 2000, Professor Richardson was a member of the UK Committee on Medical Aspects of Food Policy (COMA). In 2003, he chaired an EU Concerted Action Programme Group (PASSCLAIM) to develop a process for the scientific substantiation of health claims, and he was formerly on the Council of the UK Joint Health Claims Initiative (JHCI).  From 1999 to 2003, Professor Richardson was an industry observer on the UK Food Standards Agency Expert Group on Vitamins and Minerals. He is Chairman of the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) Europe Consumer Science Expert Group on Consumer Understanding of Health Claims, a member of several industrial scientific advisory boards and a participant in the EU Food Quality and Safety project.