Simon Robeson
Prior to forming CoreTec, Simon was an Associate Director in the corporate finance department of the European investment bank Beeson Gregory. Whilst at Beeson Gregory, Simon formed its private equity franchise and its private investor network. He focused on the development of non-quoted technology companies and was instrumental in raising $300million for 42 such companies at varying stages of their development from spinout to pre-flotation. Simon raised this finance from sources including venture capitalists, industrial companies, business angels and institutional funds. A number of these non quoted companies subsequently achieved stock market flotations or trade sales including Arc International, Pixel Fusion and Wolfson Microelectronics. Simon brings considerable investment banking and venture capital networks and experience of the processes and participants involved in the financing of nascent technologies from spin-out to scale-up to IPO/trade sale. His principle role at CoreTec is to provide relevant strategic advice to client companies and further, to introduce them to his sector specialist networks. These networks include key participants in the investment community.
John Grealish
John is an investment professional with over 20 years of experience spanning private equity investing, growth capital, corporate finance and strategic advisory. He has worked alongside founders, management teams, boards and investors across the full investment lifecycle, from transaction origination and execution through to value creation and exit. John was an Associate Partner in Bain & Company’s Private Equity Group and McKinsey & Company’s Private Equity Practice, leading commercial due diligence, value creation and strategic transformation programmes for global private equity and venture capital. He has held investment roles with a family office and a number of institutional funds, including Partners Group, Vision Capital and Unilever Ventures, executing transactions across a broad range of sectors and business models. John combines direct investing experience with strategic advisory expertise, bringing a commercially grounded perspective to investment evaluation, governance, capital allocation and business growth. He holds a BA (Hons) in Modern History from the University of Oxford.
Phil Doran
Phil is an economist by training and a pre-eminent Fuel Cell (“FC”) / H2 market analyst who spent the majority of his banking career with UBS Warburg in Frankfurt, where he was Global Head of FC research between 1999 and 2001 Phil established ITM Power PLC’s German subsidiary in 2011 where his work included making the wider German H 2 FC market aware of ITM’s electrolyser capabilities. In the second phase he was instrumental in winning the Thüga group of utilities 300kW PEM electrolyser project. This project represented the world’s first injection of electrolytic H2 into a distribution network. Subsequent successful tenders included RWE’s tender for a 200Kw P2G system, where the electrolyser was designed with heat recovery. Phil’s final project of note, was winning a 1MW electrolyser system, tendered by the Heilbronn utility, ZEAG, on behalf of the German Aerospace Centre, Lampoldshausen, where the ESA rocket testing facility is located. Phil is a founding member of FCs Europe which included amongst its members a number of leading players in the global FC industry. He is also a member of: the EU Finance & Bus Dev Panel; the UK Technology Strategy Board’s panel to award management of its “Energy Generation and Supply Knowledge Transfer Network”. Further, he was awarded Expert Evaluator status by the EC in the field of H2FCs and has presented his work to the EC and the UK Gov FC Advisory Panel, and is regularly invited to speak at fuel cell conferences and seminars across Europe. Phil’s political, regulatory and industry contacts are second to none and his commercial insights on FC & H2 companies are unerringly on-point!
David Livesley
David joined CoreTec in 2013 to expand our expertise across the life sciences and manufacturing sectors. David is a highly experienced venture capitalist having led or participated in over 40 primary transactions and realised numerous exits through trade sale or flotation. With a combined honours degree in Biophysics and Genetics, David joined Arthur D. Little’s Cambridge Consultants Limited in 1985, ultimately leading CCL’s natural sciences team to provide strategic consultancy and “hands on” product and process development to both SME and multinational companies across a variety of industries. He also held sales & marketing roles operating in Europe, America and the Far East. In 1999 David joined the YFM Group as a Venture Capital Investment Manager where in addition to direct investment activity David consulted with a number of other fund managers, providing either technical due diligence support, or serving on their investment committees. Since leaving YFM in 2012 David continues to serve as a Non-Executive Director for a number of privately owned high growth companies.
Mahmut Sinoplu
With an Industrial Engineering background, Mahmut’s international career journeys 35 years through contracting, computerised management information systems, business consultancy, energy and aviation project management, risk management and insurance, international trade, finance and investments. Mahmut has been a Venture Partner of TransTech Capital LLP since 2012, an UK based venture capital advisory and fund management company focusing on intellectual property based technology transfer and development in Turkey and the region, leading to breakthrough high value-added products.
Kirsty Swan
As evidenced by her many Chairmanship and Trustee roles in the Voluntary sector (British Red Cross, schools, charitable fairs etc) Kirsty is skilled in marketing strategy, event planning, media relations and people management. At CoreTec, her primary role is to support the team in event planning, the editing of promotional material and wise counsel on our business strategy.