Ian is non-voting Chairman of the Voting Panel. Throughout his career, Ian has been involved in the quoted growth companies sector. 

Ian is the founder of the AIM Awards programme, and a Director of Ford Sinclair Ltd. 

Peter has been a longstanding member of the AIM Awards Voting Panel, witnessing the development of the AIM market since its launch in 1995. He is an equity research analyst, adviser and ambassador, focused on growth companies, having covered both the Main Market and AIM for over 35 years. 

Peter has worked previously for a number of stockbroking firms including Shore Capital following its acquisition of Stockdale Securities. Previously he worked for Charles Stanley Securities,Teather & Greenwood, Albert E Sharp, Citicorp Scrimgeour Vickers and SG Warburg among others specialising in smaller companies.

Sam is a Senior Investment Director – UK Smaller Companies, having joined TrinityBridge (formerly Close Asset Management) Limited in September 2008 from Unicorn Asset Management. He runs the Smaller Companies team at Close Brothers, managing AIM-quoted IHT, EIS and segregated portfolios. Sam has extensive experience in managing smaller company funds and is a holder of both the Investment Management Certificate and the CISI Diploma.

Tom Ferns is a partner in the Corporate Practice Group in the London office of Haynes Boone.

His practice includes representing companies (public and private), shareholders and investors in a variety of business transactions across a broad range of industries with a concentration on mergers and acquisitions, private equity and venture capital-backed equity transactions and joint ventures.

Tom's other practice areas include AIM market IPOs, fundraising and placings (representing issuers and brokers).

With more than 30 years of experience, Tom has represented public and private companies, corporate finance advisers, brokers, family offices and entrepreneurs in a variety of corporate matters.

Tom is a trusted adviser of, and the "go-to" lawyer for, many of his clients.

Selected Client Representations

• Mergers and Acquisitions: Acted for public and private companies on buy and build strategies in the UK and internationally. He also a great deal of experience advising stakeholders, owner managers and entrepreneurs on the sale side.
• AIM Capital Market and Securities: Acted for a number of issuers, nominated advisers and brokers across a number of different sectors.
• Private Equity: Acted for sellers, management teams and PE houses and has developed a focus in advising management teams on PE backed transactions.
• Investment and Emerging Markets: Represented entrepreneurs, start-ups, early-stage companies, and emerging growth companies in all aspects of their early business cycle including entity formation, structuring and funding strategies.

Jenni is the Managing Partner at Emperor, the UK's largest employee-owned strategic and creative communications consultancy. With over 20 years of experience in corporate communications, Jenni has collaborated with numerous listed organisations to enhance their investor engagement, reporting, and corporate communications. Her expertise spans multiple sectors, from large-cap multinationals through to growth companies new to listed life. Jenni leads the Emperor teams across London, Birmingham and Manchester and is passionate about pushing the agenda for clearer, more relevant and connected stakeholder communications.

Jo is a senior partner at BDO LLP. She acts as Relationship Partner for many of BDO’s largest FTSE, AIM and other listed clients, bringing together all non-audit services including tax, corporate finance, digital and risk advisory services, valuations and restructuring services. For those companies with a significant international footprint, Jo coordinates the work of BDO’s strong international network covering 164 countries. Jo believes a trusted adviser relationship is key in the provision of services to Public Interest Entities and Other Entities of Public Interest, based on a strong understanding of clients’ business objectives and a key focus on regulation, governance and reputation. Together, Jo and her colleagues leverage the power of BDO’s UK specialist teams and strong international network of over 115,000 people across 166 countries and territories.

Laurence started his career at Gresham House in 2015, around the time of its inception, and worked on a number of outperforming equity products. At the point of his resignation, he had co-managed or deputised on a number of equity funds; namely Gresham House Strategic plc (now called Rockwood Strategic plc), Strategic Public Equity Fund LP and Gresham House Smaller Companies Fund. He was awarded both AAA and AA-ratings by Citywire during this time and two of these co-managed funds achieved FE ‘5-crown’ ratings while he was part of the team working on them. He resigned in 2022 to found Onward Opportunities, which is now a market-leading Investment trust in the UK Smaller Companies sector as one of the fastest growing and best performing UK Smaller Company funds and was awarded the 2023 IPO of the Year. It remains one of very few investment funds to have successfully launched in the UK since the pandemic. 

As an investor, Laurence strongly believes in creating value through change; whether that be strategic, operational or personnel within a business – particularly in small and micro-cap companies where the impacts of these changes tend to be most tangible. He prides himself on working actively with the Boards and Exec teams of investments to drive shareholder value through the investment cycle. He holds a truly active approach to investment management by applying private equity techniques to publicly listed companies. His enthusiasm and drive have allowed him to successfully garner a track record of outperformance and close industry network throughout his career in the City. 

James joined Berenberg in October 2016, and sits as part of the UK Equity Sales Desk. In that time, Berenberg’s UK business has grown materially, and has executed a number of AIM fundraises and IPOs. The corporate list is now at 65 listed clients, of which around half are AIM listed, with 9 AIM-listed companies added to the client list since the start of 2024. 

Pardip is a Private Equity Investment Director and is responsible for sourcing and supporting Private Equity transactions across a range of sectors. Pardip has a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting and Finance from the University of Manchester and qualified as a UK Chartered Accountant with KPMG.

Pardip has delivered a number of deals in both the public and private equity arena generating strong returns and has supported business as a Non-executive Director on a number of Boards. Previously Pardip worked at LDC, the Private Equity arm of Lloyds Banking Group and Gresham House.

Judith is Partner, member of the Executive Committee of Downing LLP,  and Head of Downing Fund Managers, the boutique asset management division of Downing LLP. Judith manages over £250m in micro-cap and small cap mandates. Judith has c. 30 years track record in smaller company fund management, and was previously a partner at Acuity Capital, a buy-out from Electra Private Equity, where she managed small company assets with an activist strategy. Prior to this, Judith spent nine years with Aberdeen Asset Management Growth Capital as Co-Fund Manager of five Aberdeen VCTs, where she focused on technology and media investments in both the public and private arenas. Judith has held a number of public and private company directorships and is currently Chair of the Quoted Companies Alliance.

Julian is CEO of Cavendish the full service, UK investment bank trusted to provide a range of expert financial advisory and capital raising services to ambitious growth companies in both public and private markets, across all major sectors. Formed from the merger of Cenkos and finnCap the company has over 200 corporate clients, a strong balance sheet and offices in London, Edinburgh, Manchester and Birmingham. Julian has over 30 years’ experience in the City in management, sales and as an analyst. He has led and worked on 100’s of transactions in his career and was previously CEO of Cenkos and a Director at Beeson Gregory and Evolution Securities.

Richard is Head of the Quoted Smaller Companies team at Octopus, having joined in 2004. He has over 25 years’ experience of managing UK smaller companies funds and is in charge of managing the FP Octopus UK Micro-Cap Growth Fund. Richard has also worked at Close Brothers and Duncan Lawrie.

Philip is the Founder of Raynar Portfolio Management and Portfolio Manager of the WS Raynar UK Smaller Companies fund alongside his Raynar Flagship Strategy. Philip is a multi-award-winning investor specialising in UK equities. He was named Investment Week UK Smaller Companies Fund Manager of the Year 2010 and 2011 during his tenure at Investec Asset Management and the Financial Express UK Smaller Companies Alpha Fund Manager 2016 during his tenure at R&M Asset Management where he also created and managed the winner of What Investment Trust’s UK Smaller Companies Investment Trust of the Year 2017. Awarded the prestigious cross-asset accolade of Morningstar Outstanding Rising Talent 2012, Philip has two decades of experience investing in the UK market, with a particular focus on AiM listed firms. 

We are delighted to welcome Stuart to the Voting Panel and further details will be available in due course.  

Eustace is a graduate of Harvard University and joined the investment team in 2013. He has worked as both an analyst and fund manager and has over 20 years’ experience on the buy-side. Eustace is the Co-Manager of the Marlborough Special Situations Fund, the Marlborough UK Micro-Cap Growth Fund and Marlborough Nano-Cap Growth Fund

Neil has been at Edison for the last 20 years leading the analyst teams as Director of Content & Strategy and establishing the firm as the leading issuer sponsored research firm. He has also led the firm’s thought leadership on the equity research market.

Neil is a qualified accountant (PwC) with nine years’ experience as an equities analyst at Goldman Sachs. As Goldman’s building and materials analyst in London, he was ranked second by both Institutional Investor and Reuters. He left Goldman Sachs to help set up the specialist trading hedge fund, Tusker Capital.

Julie joined Panmure Liberum in November 2015 from Canaccord Genuity. She has 25+ years’ experience in life sciences research, covering both UK and continental European companies across a wide range of healthcare subsectors. Julie has a PhD in Microbiology from the University of Kent and experience in industry in both Europe and the US. She is also Chair of the NIHR Invention for Innovation (i4i) Connect a translational research funding panel for medical devices, diagnostics and digital health technologies.

Nina founded Addidat in 2022. She has extensive experience in C-suite roles, Non-Executive Director (NED) positions, and independent board advisory roles.  

Nina is an experienced consulting and fintech executive, having spent 15 years at then-AIM-listed Alpha Financial Markets Consulting, a leading global provider of specialist consultancy services. This included the roles of Global Chief Operating Officer and Chief Executive of Alpha Data Solutions (now Aiviq).

Nina currently holds NED positions at 4most – a specialist consultancy, Wilton & Bain – an executive search firm, CBRE Investment Management – a real estate investment manager and Hatch – a digital skills provider. 

Paul heads up the BGF Quoted team which has £400m invested in small UK listed businesses. The BGF Quoted team forms part of BGF’s larger £3bn balance sheet investment business, all of which is focused on providing long-term support to smaller companies in the UK and Ireland. Paul has 20 years’ experience investing in quoted companies. Paul is also a member of BGF’s Investment Committee.

Victoria has worked on the Economic Advantage team at Liontrust for nine years as a Partner and Fund Manager. She is a CFA charterholder and co-manager of the team’s four unit trust funds: the Liontrust Special Situations Fund, Liontrust UK Smaller Companies Fund, Liontrust UK Micro Cap Fund and Liontrust UK Growth Fund.

Victoria previously worked at the growth company specialist broking and advisory firm finnCap Ltd, latterly as Deputy Head of Corporate Broking.

Marcus is Head of AIM and has responsibility for Primary Markets in the UK across both AIM and the Main Market. He is responsible for the management and development of AIM, London Stock Exchange’s international growth market for small and medium sized enterprises.

He is a regular speaker on growth and business funding issues and sits on a number of industry and policy advisory bodies and has played a leading role in key policy changes such as making AIM shares eligible for inclusion in ISAs, the abolition of stamp duty on the trading of shares admitted to Recognised Growth Markets such as AIM and the approval of AIM as the leading European SME Growth Market, a categorisation created in MiFID II. 

James has almost 40 years’ experience in the City, initially joining the Asset Management department of Montagu Loebl Stanley (part of the Robert Fleming Group) in 1986 before going on to work at Greig Middleton, Seymour Pierce Butterfield and Henry Cooke Lumsden, followed by 16 years in corporate broking and institutional sales (latterly as Director of Equities at Charles Stanley Securities). James is a member of both the PLC Awards jury panel and the LSE AIM Advisory Group. He joined Winterflood Securities in November 2015.

We are delighted to welcome Ken to the Voting Panel and further details will be available in due course.