Juan has extensive experience in the interactive entertainment business having managed some of the most successful and dynamic video games operations in Europe over the last fifteen years.
Juan joined Sony as Vice President of Software Development in 1994 to prepare for its launch of PlayStation in Europe. He set up its software organisation, managing the software portfolio from both Sony and its 3rd party publishers, whilst also creating and managing Sony's European software development studios.
After six years at Sony, Juan was appointed VP of Technology and Content at Motorola, working with many of Europe's leading operators whilst successfully establishing its wireless applications and content publishing business.
JAMDAT Mobile, acquired by Electronic Arts for $680m in 2005, had brought Juan in as its European Managing Director three years earlier, setting up and managing its European publishing business including a vigorous and profitable sales and marketing organization; Juan took JAMDAT into all the major channels of mobile distribution in Europe prior to its IPO on NASDAQ in 2004.
Juan has a degree in Engineering from the University of Madrid and has a BSc in Computer Science, gained in England after moving from Spain more than 30 years ago. He now has a portfolio of media interests.
Francis, a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer, is the Chief Executive and founder of Antix. During his career he has raised almost $100m in capital investment, is an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year semi-finalist and is the former Chairman of the Open Contents Platform Association, headquartered in Tokyo.
Prior to forming Antix, Francis was the co-founder, Chairman & Chief Executive of Tao Group, the pioneer of binary portable, high performance multimedia software. Francis has consulted to numerous blue chips including Dow Jones and IBM and was also the Head of the Trading Systems Business Unit at the London Stock Exchange successfully launching and deploying the world's first digital front office trading system.
Francis began his career as a software engineer at Hoskyns (now Cap Gemini) after completing a degree in Political Science.
Francis is also a board director of Baillie Gifford Shin Nippon plc, a Japan-focused investment fund.
Mike advises the company on market services and the mobile market in general. He offers a wealth of experience in strategic innovation and successfully taking ground breaking solutions to market.
Mike joined Sony International in January 2000 as Head of Business Development before moving to Sony Ericsson as Head of Music, Movies and DRM to create the Walkman phone strategy: delivering over 4 Billion Euro in revenues to the business by 2005. He became the youngest member of the Sony Ericsson Joint Venture and Turn Around team ahead of a move to Voice Signal Inc.
As VP of Business Development, Moghaddas was instrumental in establishing Voice Signal as the market leader in voice recognition technology, embedded in over 200M mobile phones with continued growth. The company was acquired in August 2007 by Nuance Corp (for $300M) and is now part of a global organization.
Mr. Moghaddas is Managing Partner at management consultant Neeroo Consulting and a serial entrepreneur holding a number of selective, non-executive positions.
Colin has 14 years of venture capital experience. He founded Hotspur Capital Partners in November 2007 which has quickly and quietly become one of the most active private investor groups in the UK.
Prior to founding Hotspur, he set up the Rising Stars Growth Fund in which he completed 37 early stage investments, and led two successful funding rounds with institutions. He joined Rising Stars after starting his venture capital career at 3i where he achieved average investment returns of 42% IRR over 5 years.
This followed roles with Accenture as a senior consultant (graded in the top 5% of the UK practice peer group). Colin completed an MBA at Warwick where he was graded by an independent head-hunter to be in the top 10% of the UK MBA intake.
Colin currently serves on the board of directors of Antix Labs, Caspian Learning, Cogenta Systems, Illumix, Medalytix and RouteTrader for Hotspur. Previously, Colin has been involved with companies that have floated or were acquired by large UK or US corporations.
Alasdair is an Investment Manager at NorthStar Equity Investors Ltd, a regional venture capital firm located in the North East of England. At NorthStar Alasdair is responsible for the venture firm's technology investments, with a primary focus on mobile applications, enterprise software and data storage.
Prior to joining NorthStar, Alasdair spent four years with The Cambridge Gateway Fund, an early stage technology and life sciences fund, based in Cambridge, UK.
Before moving into the venture capital market, Alasdair spent nine years in risk management, primarily in the Investment Banking industry, culminating in a position managing the Emerging Markets Credit Risk function at CIBC World Markets Plc.
Alasdair holds an MBA from Ashridge and a BA (Hons) from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh.