Julian David is the CEO of techUK. He was appointed as the director-general of Intellect in March 2012 and led its transformation to techUK in November 2013. Julian leads techUK's 60 strong teams in representing more than 950 member companies, including multi-nationals and more than 500 SMEs to ensure that the digital tech industry is at the heart of modern society and economy in Britain.

He is a member of the government and industry Cyber Growth Partnership and Digital Advisory Council. He is also techUK’s representative on the National Trade Association Council of Digital Europe.

CEO of  Tech UK

Julian David

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Russ is an angel and ventures investor and non-executive director of a number of high growth businesses including Dialoga publicly-traded semiconductor company, AIM-listed Cupid plc and Unwire–a Danish, venture-backed mobile commerce business.

He is also a limited partner in Ariadne Capital’s ACE Fund and an investor in and advisor to Amazing Media Group. Russ is also a board member of the Tech City Advisory Group.

Founder of  Tech London Advocates

Russ Shaw

CEO of  UK Business Angels Association  

Jenny Tooth

Jenny is CEO of the UK Business Angels Association, the trade body for angel and early-stage investing, representing over 18,000 investors around the UK.  In 2009, Jenny co-founded Angel Capital Group which incorporates London Business Angels, one of the most established and active angel networks in the UK.

Jenny is an angel investor and in her role at UKBAA, she focuses on building the angel community around the UK, connecting investors to good deal flow and assisting entrepreneurs to attract investors.

Jenny is an experienced speaker on angel investing and entrepreneurship both in the UK and internationally. She was awarded an OBE in 2015 for services to small businesses.

Head of Corporate, London and Technology at Shoosmiths LLP, TLA Advisory Board

James Klein

James is a partner in the London corporate team and the technology sector group, handling a wide spectrum of corporate finance transactions, including domestic and cross-border M&A transactions, corporate restructurings and reorganisations and joint ventures. He also advises on private equity transactions, acting for management teams and institutional houses and has advised on numerous mid-market private equity deals.

Historic and recent key clients include RocketSpace Inc, 500 Startups, Tate & Lyle Plc, Fujitsu-Siemens, etc. James has a particular focus on the technology sector where he has a number of key international and domestic technology clients. He leads to Penningtons Manches’ digital business sector group.

Pietro Strada brings over two decades of experience of investment banking in the technology sector to the Silverpeak management team.

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Having completed more than 60 transactions in his career, Pietro specialises in everything from high-profile trade sales, public takeovers and mergers to financing and divestitures. The majority of his portfolio has been cross-border deals spanning the globe, from Europe and North America to Africa and the UK.

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Formerly a London office Principal at Broadview (now part of Jefferies), Pietro was also Managing Director at Torch Partners, before founding and running his own boutique firm, Centreboard Partners. 

Managing Director at Silverpeak LLP

Pietro Strada

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Hussein is a founding partner of Hoxton Ventures, a European venture capital firm based in London. 

Hussein is also an angel investor in GoCardless, Halo Neuroscience, Popxo and Signpost. He helped Eros International (NYSE: EROS) build its digital strategy and launch ErosNow, its online video platform. Hussein has also occasionally assisted the UK government with technology policy.

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Previously, Hussein was an associate at Accel Partners. He helped invest in OpenGamma, Playfish (acquired by EA) and Dapper (acquired by Yahoo). He also helped put together Safe-View (acquired by L-3), worked at Radiance Technologies (acquired by Comcast) and Studio Verso (acquired by KPMG).

Hussein Kanji

Partner of Hoxton Ventures

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Andy founded and acted as CTO for his fair share of tech start-ups, including the award-winning JamPot Technologies.

He has been recognised by some of the industry’s biggest players and was welcomed into the fold by Microsoft Ventures, where he founded Microsoft Ventures UK launched in London, helping build successful global start-ups.

The next natural step for Andy was to take all this expertise and start investing in the next global successes, where he has become one of the founding team for Whitespace.

Andrew McCartney

Founding Partner of Whitespace Ventures

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Kiran Fernandes is the Chair of the Operations Management Group and a Fellow of the Wolfson Research Institute. He worked as a sub-systems engineer at the NASA - John C. Stennis Space Centre working for the Late Tom Cobb (Product Director for the Space Shuttle Main Engine Program). 

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Professor Fernandes works with the UK and International companies on modelling complex business domains ranging from operational processes to strategic decisions. He has published widely in the area of operations management and sits on the editorial board of a number of top journals in the area.

Kiran Fernandes

Associate Dean for Internationalisation at Durham University Business School