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.
Founder and former CEO of Blue Prism Group plc – leading from a 2-person start-up to a £1bn+ global, category creating plc.
Alastair Bathgate
Founder and CEO of Evotix. Sold for a nine figure exit to private equity.
Matthew Elson
Board Chair/Advisor, Tech Investor, Accredited Executive Coach, Chair AI for Charities (AI4C), Former CIO/CTO & SVP Global at BT.
Paul Excell
Mark is a business builder, value creation expert, NED and executive coach and mentor.
Mark Farrer-Brown
Chairman at Scoro Software and Switchee. Former NED / Chair of multiple venture-backed start-up and scale-up software businesses. Former CEO at LANSA Corp, a B2B software vendor with 8000 customers in 65 countries. Founded first software company aged 23 (exited to a Silicon Valley acquirer).
Martin Fincham
Chairman at ActiveOps, portfolio Non-Exec. Managing Partner at Sean Finnan & Associates. Former Chairman at Avvio, having led a successful exit. Held senior leadership positions at IBM, HP and EDS.
Sean Finnan
Co-Founder of leading communications and PR agency, Brands2Life, representing over 100 tech and health companies in Europe and the US. Sold to Paritee in December 2023.
Giles Fraser
Following the sale of her management consultancy and software platform business Innecto in 2019 to AIM-listed Personal Group Holdings, a digital platform and insurance business, Deborah was appointed Group CEO, retiring end 2023.
Deborah Frost
Former Chairman of Board at Fairlsail. Former Chairman of Salesforce.com EMEA, former VP at Siebel and Oracle.
Dr Steve Garnett
Chairman of Clue Software & Arctic Shores. Board advisor at Orbus Software, e-Days and Boardwave, former non-Executive Director at Unit 4. Former CEO at Fairsail, sold to Sage in 2017 for £115 million.
Adam Hale
‘The UK’s oldest IT analyst’. Currently UK tech investor and Patron of King’s Trust and Eikon, former Chairman and Co-Founder of TechMarketView, experienced NED and board adviser.
Richard Holway
With over 20 years of experience driving transformative growth in digital commerce, Terry is a dynamic e-commerce leader and advisor celebrated for his ability to unlock potential and create value. Currently serving as a board advisor at Lily AI and a strategic advisor at Astound Commerce, where he excelled as Chief Revenue Officer and CEO.
Founder, coach and former CEO of international technology enabled services business.
James Hyde
Duane founded KashFlow, the first SaaS accounting platform, and later founded Staffology, the first UK Payroll software with a comprehensive API. Both resulted in successful exits. As well as co-founding of Code 4000, a charity that helps prisoners learn to code, he is also a Patron and Enterprise Fellow of The Prince's Trust where he is actively involved.
Duane Jackson
Chair and NED (Chartered Director) for start-ups, scale ups and charities following global scale-up as CEO.
Graham Kill
Chairman of FISCAL Technologies, Managing Director at IFS
Former Executive at Sage, Avaya and Oracle.
Alan Laing
Serial entrepreneur, investor and advisor to growth companies with a focus on B2B SaaS. Recently exited citrus HR; Chairman at Milestone Publishing.
David Lester
Chartered Accountant; former Vice President of Finance at Oracle Corporation with 30 years of international business experience.
Graeme Mair
Founder of Genuine Solutions Group – a company he started as a young entrepreneur in 2005 and sold in 2022. Today it serves over 1000 customers across 51 countries. Chris is renowned as a Mentor and Strategic Advisor to Entrepreneurs.
Christian McBride
Co-founder and Managing Partner of Silverpeak with over 30 years’ experience of representing European growth technology businesses on M&A and financing.
Paddy MccGwire
Investor in early stage IT companies.
Richard Mill
Founder of ScaleUp Group; Chairman of ActiveNav; ex Chairman of 12 other software companies inc. ActiveOps (IPO’d in March 2021); Avvio acquired in 2023; Founder, Chairman and CEO of Staffware plc, FTSE listed and one of the first Unicorns, acquired by Tibco in 2004.
John O'Connell
COO and co-founder at Conscient, a technology marketing agency. Former CRO and CMO at RealVNC, former CMO EMEA at Level 3 Communications. 20 years Senior Global Marketing and Sales leadership experience in organisations large and small. Highly experienced in growing, selling and acquiring technology businesses.
Craig Penfold
Award winning FinTech entrepreneur and experienced Insurance expert. Founder and ex CEO of Fresh Insurance Group which was sold successfully in May 2018.
Lisa Powis
Born in Limerick, Ireland in 1977, Frank co-founded Avvio.com and served as its CEO until it was acquired by the US tech firm SHR Group. Frank was an early pioneer for the adoption of AI in the travel industry and founded Allora.ai (2017-2022).
Frank Reeves
Qualified chartered accountant, author, mentor. Founder of Evelyn Partners' (formerly Smith & Williamson) Entrepreneurial Services Group. Listed in the top 50 movers and shakers in the financial world by Economia.
Guy Rigby
Former Finance Director, Founder, Qualified Accountant and FCCA. David’s more than 30 years’ experience encompasses small, start-up operations as well as Board positions working for large multinationals, mostly in the IT/software industry,
David Rose
Director of Alternative Capital Advisors.
Natascha Scholten
Investor/Chair/ NED dedicated to guiding technology entrepreneurs to success, based on multiple exits.
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 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
Chairman at Six by Nico, ARuVR, BLOK, and Bluesource. Advisor to P3P, Kallikor and Essence SmartCare. Past Master of Worshipful Company of Information Technologists. Involved in £600m+ exits and £150m+ fundraising in last 15 years.
Rob Wirszycz
Director at Kimmeridge Consulting, former Board Member Staffware plc and former VP Technology at Tibco Software Inc.
Paul Young
Management Team
Founder of ScaleUp Group; Chairman of ActiveNav; ex Chairman of 12 other software companies inc. ActiveOps (IPO’d in March 2021); Avvio acquired in 2023; Founder, Chairman and CEO of Staffware plc, FTSE listed and one of the first Unicorns, acquired by Tibco in 2004.
John O'Connell
Executive Chairman
Investment professional with a track record in originating, evaluating and executing early/growth stage and buyout investments.
Shaun Scoon
Investment Director
An accomplished B2B marketing lead with extensive experience in the SaaS and tech sectors. Andrea is a data-driven, demand generation, and marketing automation enthusiast and has held key roles at Wazoku, Perkbox, BrightTALK (by TechTarget), and NICE Satmetrix.
Andrea Goodkind
Marketing Executive
Chartered Accountant; former Vice President of Finance at Oracle Corporation with 30 years of international business experience.