Ian is non-voting Chairman of the plc awards Voting Panel. 

Ian is the founder of the plc awards, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. The plc awards has been held annually, in February or March, every year, since formation.

Ian is a Director of Ford Sinclair Ltd, the event organisers.

Roland Arnold, CFA, Director and Portfolio Manager, is a member of the Emerging Companies within the Fundamental Equity Division of BlackRock's Active Equity Group. He has been manager of the BlackRock UK Special Situations Fund since August 2012, Blackrock UK Smaller Companies fund since March 2015, and the Blackrock Smaller Companies Investment Trust since April 2018. Roland has been managing Small & Mid Cap UK Equity Portfolios since 2006. His service with the firm dates back to 2000, including his years with Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (MLIM), which merged with BlackRock in 2006.

Louise is a partner in the Equity Capital Markets team at Squire Patton Boggs. She has a wide range of experience advising public companies on initial public offerings, secondary fundraising transactions, mergers and acquisitions, takeovers, reorganisations and corporate governance.

Her work varies between the UK and cross border and she works closely with executives, in-house legal teams and general counsel both in the UK and globally. She has previously held the position of Group Legal Director at a FTSE 250 company. Louise is a member of the Regional Advisory Group of the London Stock Exchange plc for the North-West.

Georgina Brittain, managing director, is a senior portfolio manager specialising in UK mid and small cap companies within the J.P. Morgan Asset Management International Equity Group, based in London. Georgina joined the firm in 1995. She obtained a MA in Classics from the University of Oxford, and earned a Diploma in Law from City University, London. She is a qualified barrister.

Oliver manages the institutional clients of the business and also leads our research into UK ‘primary’ market opportunities and he is lead manager of the IFSL RC Brown UK Primary Opportunities Fund whilst also heading up RCBIM’s AIM IHT Service. He graduated from Birmingham University with a degree in Money, Banking and Finance, he qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Grant Thornton, where he worked with listed clients in a variety of sectors, specialising in the construction, leisure and IT industries. He joined RCBIM in 2006 and is a former President of The Bristol Junior Chamber of Commerce.

James joined Berenberg in Jan 2018 as Head of UK Sales. He has over 21 years of Equity Sales experience, previously heading UK Mid & Small Cap Sales at Barclays and JPMorgan Cazenove. His institutional clients are a mixture of UK/Pan Euro long only and hedge funds across all market cap ranges. He has a Masters in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Exeter.

Guido is a fund manager at Montanaro Asset Management, which he joined in 2015. Focusing on small and midcap companies, he is the manager of the Montanaro UK Income Fund and co-manager of the Montanaro Global Innovation Fund. He also has research responsibilities for the Technology sector. Prior to joining Montanaro, Guido spent six years at Rothschild & Co, where he advised UK and European clients on mergers and acquisitions, as well as a range of general corporate finance issues. He graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2008 with an MSci in Experimental and Theoretical Physics.

James has been with the Issuer Services team at the London Stock Exchange for over seven years and has spent 22 years working within financial services and capital markets. 
James spends his time helping London Stock Exchange listed companies benefit from the Issuer Services programme including telling their equity story, understanding their data and utilising the services offered by the Marketplace and Spark Live.

Philip Dicken joined Columbia Threadneedle Investments in 2004 and has managed the pan European smaller companies strategy since launch in 2005, and jointly manages the pan European small cap opportunities strategy. He became Head of European Equities in 2012 and Head of International Equities in 2022. He started his career with Merrill Lynch as an analyst in the corporate finance division and holds a first-class degree in Mechanical Engineering with study in Continental Europe from Bristol University. He holds the CFA designation and is a member of the CFA Society of the UK.

Erika Eliasson-Norris is a leading governance expert with over 15 years of experience in FTSE-listed boardrooms, including Low & Bonar, InterContinental Hotels Group, Premier Foods, and KPMG. At 32, she became the youngest person in the industry to assume an executive level role as Group Company Secretary at a FTSE 250 company, highlighting her exceptional leadership.

In 2019, Erika founded Beyond Governance, an award-winning consultancy recognised for its innovative contributions to governance transformation. Her expertise was further validated with her appointment as Governance Assessor to the Chair of the Post Office Horizon IT Public Inquiry, one of the most significant inquiries in UK history.

Named Governance Professional of the Year in 2022 by the Chartered Governance Institute UK & Ireland, Erika is also a sought-after speaker and thought leader, contributing to governance best practices and policy development.

David has over 15 years of experience covering small and mid cap UK equities. He joined Jefferies in 2021 to help expand its UK Industrials franchise and prior to that he covered Oil Service and E&Ps at both Credit Suisse and Macquarie. He started off his career on Evolution's Travel & Leisure team having graduated from the University of Birmingham with a degree in Economics and Spanish.

Laura Foll is a Portfolio Manager on the Global Equity Income Team at Janus Henderson Investors, a position she has held since 2014. She also co-manages the UK equity income portfolio of the Law Debenture Corporation plc. Laura joined Henderson in 2009 as part of the graduate scheme. She was subsequently named a global analyst and later an assistant fund manager for the Global Equity Income Team.

Laura graduated with a BSc degree (Hons) in economics and economic history from the London School of Economics. She holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and has 15 years of financial industry experience.

Alex is Head of Sales at Singer Capital Markets, having joined the firm in 2012. He has spent his 23 years in the City supporting and advising growth companies and their interactions with institutional investors including the completion of many successful IPOs and secondary fundraisings.

Dan Harlow is a fund manager at AXA Investment Managers based in London where he deals in UK small-caps using a growth investment style. Dan joined AXA IM in 2010 to manage the UK Smaller Companies fund. He worked alongside Chris St John on the UK Smaller Companies fund from 2010 until Nov 2011. In November 2011 he was appointed co-manager of the AXA Framlington American Growth Fund. Dan returned to the UK Desk as lead portfolio manager of the AXA Framlington UK Smaller Companies fund in June 2016. Prior to this he was a fund manager at Montanaro Asset Management. Dan graduated from the University of Southampton with a degree in History.

Robert is Co-Founder and MD at RMS Partners, a specialist investor relations consultancy.  He has been engaging with investors and advising companies since 2004. He began his City career at Broker Profile culminating in heading up both the investor access and client management functions with a particular focus on the FTSE100 and FTSE250 clients. Robert also established the successful Investor Analytics division. Subsequently he was a Director at Capital Access Group.  Robert has an MA from Economics & Business from Edinburgh University as well as having a Graduate Diploma in Law and completing the Bar Vocational Course. 

Stephen joined the RBC small & mid cap equity sales desk in June 2020 as Director. He has over 20 years’ experience in the City, spent mainly at the smaller end of the market cap spectrum. Stephen started his career on the buy side at Gartmore Investment Management in 2002 before crossing to the sell side in 2006 where he went on to complete terms at institutions including Merrill Lynch and Numis Securities. Stephen holds a BA First-Class Honours Degree in Financial Economics from Kingston University.

Mark qualified as a chartered accountant with Arthur Andersen in 1997, and following this, moved into Investment Banking with James Capel. 

He has subsequently worked for Panmure Gordon and Deutsche Numis. 

He joined Deutsche Numis is 2008 and became Co-Head of Corporate Broking in 2021. 

Henry joined Royal London Asset Management in 2016, as Head of UK Alpha Equities. He is lead fund manager on the RL UK Smaller Companies fund and the RL UK Mid Cap Growth fund. Henry began his investment career in 2005 at AXA Framlington, where he successfully managed the AXA Framlington UK Smaller Companies Fund. He was also responsible for co-managing a variety of segregated UK small & mid-cap mandates. Henry has an MA (Hons) degree in Economics & Geography from Edinburgh University and is a CFA Charterholder.

Anna Macdonald is an experienced private client and institutional fund manager. She began her career at Henderson Global Investors in London, where she co-managed the core UK equity product. After some time living in Kenya, as head of research for Old Mutual Asset Management, she returned to the UK and worked at Threadneedle Investors in London before moving to Edinburgh, to work for Adam & Company, in 2011. There she led research for the PAM-award winning wealth manager, relaunched the IHT portfolio management service, and managed private client portfolios, charities and family OEICs. Anna then spent five years at Amati Global Investors, co-managing their UK Small Cap OEIC, IHT portfolios and Amati AIM VCT before joining Aubrey Capital Management to head up their discretionary fund management service in 2024. Anna contributes frequently to the Today programme, BBC TV, Sky News and Reuters. 

She studied Economics and Philosophy at the London School of Economics and has been a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Charterholder since 2003. 

Anna is a trustee of the independent think tank Reform Scotland and a Non Executive Director of Landbay Partners Limited.

Chris is Deputy Head of the Octopus Investments Quoted Companies Team. He works across all desk portfolios and is lead manager on the FP Octopus UK Multi Cap Income Fund, and a co-manager on the FP Octopus UK Micro Cap Growth & FP Octopus UK Future Generation Funds. He has been a specialist within the quoted UK Smaller Company market for over 20 years. In 2016, he joined Octopus from Citigroup where he led the UK Small and Mid-Cap Equity research team focusing across a variety of sectors. Prior to this he spent almost seven years on the Smaller Companies team at Gartmore Investment Management as an analyst and investment manager. He graduated from the University of Aberdeen.

James joined Citi in September 2024 to lead the UK Commercial Bank (CCB).  CCB provides full scale banking products and services to mid-size companies across the globe delivering tailored solutions to this exciting and fast-growing client base. Commercial clients represent a significant global growth opportunity as their needs closely align with Citi’s core value proposition that enables clients to grow cross-border by leveraging sophisticated platforms and solutions. James is responsible for driving the growth strategy to capture the mid-market opportunity with an emphasis on talent investment, digital transformation, and expansion into the unique Citi global network.  The UK business is organized by Industry sectors and is well placed to offer the full capabilities of Citi.  

James is also a member of both the UK ExCo and CCB Global ExCo.

Prior to Citi, James spent 25 years at Barclays.  He joined the British lender as a graduate trainee in 1999 and qualified as a Charted Management Accountant in 2002.  His early career was spent in Strategy & Planning before moving to client coverage within Corporate & Investment banking.  James spent several years as a Relationship Director covering FTSE 100 multinational corporates before advancing to leadership roles in Corporate banking.  Over the past c.12 years James has led different businesses of increasing scale focusing on Asian multinationals, FIG Insurance businesses and Global Business & Professional Services firms.  His primary focus has been on delivering sustainable growth and scaling businesses up through the economic cycle.  James is also very passionate about developing people.

James was awarded the kindness in leadership award in 2020 which is given in recognition of the top 50 Leaders across Industry for their contribution to leadership and nurturing talent in their respective business area.  James is also a mental health ambassador and active well-being champion. 

James graduated from Loughborough University with a Bachelor’s degree in Management Sciences and spent a year working for the Coca-Cola company as part of his undergraduate study.  He has also spent time at Harvard Business School, as a postgraduate, studying various areas of leadership. 

George is a contributing analyst at Progressive Research covering UK technology plcs for UK, mainland European and US investors. A City technology analyst since the late 1990s and working at investment banks such as Panmure Gordon, Albert E Sharp and Stifel, George completed 13 technology IPOs, has been Reuters and Starmine rated and was twice voted Analyst of the Year. Prior to his City career, George spent a decade as an IT industry analyst working for public and private sector organisations and technology companies spanning the globe. George is a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists. For up-to-date views follow George's substack: 'The long and the short of IT'.

Catherine has more than 20 years’ experience in the banking industry. Catherine joined JP Morgan nearly five years ago after having worked at Citi in various roles including Investment Banking TMT, Leveraged Finance as well as heading various Corporate banking teams.

Catherine graduated from the London School of Economics as well as the EDHEC Graduate School of Management. 

Jean is a UK small and mid-cap fund manager at Schroders since 2016.

She joined the City on the Morgan Stanley graduate programme in 1999, earned the CFA designation and became an award-winning sell-side equity analyst. She has also worked for the UK Government, including HM Treasury. Jean is a mathematician by training and speaks fluent French. She was appointed to the Code Committee of the UK’s Takeover Panel in 2024.

We are delighted to welcome Josh to the voting panel and further details will be available in due course.  

Alex is Senior Fund Manager of the JOHCM UK Dynamic Strategy. He joined JOHCM in March 2003 as Assistant Fund Manager of the JOHCM UK Growth Strategy, working together with Mark Costar (Lead Fund Manager). Alex developed and launched UK Dynamic in June 2008, in doing so becoming the first internally developed Fund Manager to launch a new and 'home grown' investment process at JOHCM, as well as the first to be backed by seed capital solely from JOHCM's own balance sheet. Prior to joining JOHCM, Alex spent his early investment career at three independent UK stockbroking firms, starting his career as a Research Associate at Astaire & Partners before moving into corporate and non-corporate sales roles at Teather & Greenwood and Numis Securities. Alex is a Fellow of the Securities Institute and holds the Securities Institute Diploma. He also holds a BA (Hons) in Politics from the University of Nottingham.

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 has 25 years of experience in Equity Research, covering both UK and continental European companies across a wide range of healthcare subsectors including healthcare services, biotechnology and digital health. She joined Panmure Gordon in November 2015 from Canaccord Genuity. She was No.1 Extel rated 2018 and rated Analyst of the Year 2022 by the Small Cap Network Awards. She is also a panel member for NIHR i4i (invention for innovation), assessing early-stage medical technologies. Julie has a PhD in Microbiology from University of Kent.

Alice Squires is a Partner, co-head of Investor Advisory at Rothschild and Co. She also sits on the Board of Redburn Atlantic, the equities boutique owned by Rothschild and Co. She specialises in M&A support, activist defence, ESG issues and all aspects of shareholder engagement for Clients including Perception Studies, Messaging, Board engagement, remuneration support, retaining and finding new long-term buyers. Alice holds an MA (Hons) Economics and Politics from Edinburgh University and a Post Graduate Dip in Integrative Counselling and Psychotherapy.

Richard Staveley is the fund manager of Rockwood Strategic Plc, managed by Harwood Capital LLP, where he is a Partner. Both a qualified Chartered Accountant (PwC) and Chartered Financial Analyst, Richard has over 23 years of active lead fund manager responsibility in UK small cap equities. He was a co-Founder of River & Mercantile Plc and Head of Small Companies at both Société Générale Asset Management and Majedie Asset Management. Richard is a NED at Pressure Technologies Plc.

Victoria has been CEO of Emperor since June 2022. With over two decades of experience in corporate communications, she has led business development and marketing to build reputations in both small boutique and large network agencies including Black Sun, SAS and MSLGROUP, part of Publicis Groupe.  

We are delighted to welcome Leighton to the voting panel and further details will be available in due course.  

Robert is Head of Active Equities having joined LGIM in 2018. His fund management responsibilities cover both Global and UK funds. Prior to this he was an Assistant Fund Manager at Mirabaud Asset Management and before that he worked at PWC in their Transaction Services division. He read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Pembroke College, Oxford and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Stuart Widdowson is the Managing Partner of Odyssean Capital, which he founded in 2017. He has spent the last 23 years investing in public and private UK small and mid-size companies and a further two years providing investment advice in the same field. Odyssean follows a highly concentrated, engaged investment strategy investing in smaller quoted companies, which Stuart has executed for 15 years. In 2018 he led the IPO of Odyssean Investment Trust plc, a closed ended fund managed by Odyssean.

Prior to founding Odyssean, Stuart became lead fund manager of Strategic Equity Capital plc in 2009 and was instrumental in driving a turnaround in the performance and fortunes of this closed ended fund over the following 7 years. He began his career as a strategy consultant undertaking commercial due diligence and strategy projects for private equity and corporate clients. In 2001 he joined HgCapital and spent five years executing small and mid-cap leveraged buyouts in the UK and Germany, including working on a number of public to private transactions of UK quoted companies. Alongside his role at Odyssean, Stuart is also a Non-Executive Director of Xaar plc, a specialist digital printing technology company.
 

Gervais Williams is Head of Equities at Premier Miton Investors and manages a number of funds and trusts that aggregate to over £1.5bn, he joined the group in 2011. His fund management career extends over 30 years including 17 years at Gartmore Group Ltd, where he was Head of UK Small Companies investing in UK smaller companies and Irish equities. Gervais is a member of the AIM Advisory Council, and President of the Quoted Companies Alliance. He was a member of the Patient Capital Review panel with the Chancellor of the Exchequer six years ago where the recommendations were put into legislation in the subsequent budget. Gervais Williams has published three books, 'Slow Finance' in the autumn of 2011 (Bloomsbury), 'The Future is Small' published in November 2014 (Harriman House) and 'The Retreat of Globalisation' published in December 2016 (Harriman House).

James has 39 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). He is also a member of the AiM Awards Judging Panel as well as the LSE AIM Advisory Group. He joined Winterflood Securities in November 2015.