Judges and Advisors
These are the alumni who sit on the Downing Enterprise Board and will judge all the competition entries. They will also act as mentors to shortlisted teams. Advisors are also listed at the bottom.
Judges
Chris Bartram (1968, Land Economy)
Chairman, Orchard Street Investment Management LLP
Chris
Bartram graduated from Downing with a degree in Land Economy, and went
into the chartered surveying profession in London. Intially in private
practice, he moved rapidly into property investment management. He
founded Jones Lang Wootton's Department in Investment Management, and
in 1995 became CEO of the Dutch property investment company Haslemere
NV. Chris now chairs his own firm which gives property investment
advice to major UK pension funds. He is also Chairman of the Bank of
England Property Forum, and a past President of the British Property
Federation.
Julian Childs (1969, Oriental Studies)
Executive Vice President, Dow Jones Telerate
Julian
Childs read Oriental Studies at Downing from 1969-72. He then paid his
£5 and achieved an MA. Julian was Captain of Boats in his final year at
Downing. With his career starting in money broking and then electronic
financial information, he ended up as Executive Vice President of Dow
Jones Telerate in New York. He grew up in the Middle East but went to
boarding school in England. Having worked in the UK, Asia-Pacific and
America, he is now officially retired but still involved in some
consultancy work, as an investor in start-ups and has built a small
property portfolio.
Eric Coutts (1980, Law)
Managing Director, Investment Banking Division, Citi
After reading law at Downing, Eric spent a year as an Assistant
Lecturer in Law at Paris University II and subsequently qualified as a
solicitor and worked on M&A and corporate finance transactions with
Slaughter and May. He moved to Goldman Sachs in 1993 and has advised
clients on range of M&A transactions in London and in Paris and was
Co-Head of the bank's European Restructuring Group. He joined Citi in
2007 to run M&A execution in Paris. He is a Governor of the British
School of Paris and an active member of Amnesty International.
Dr Peter Duffet-Smith
Dean, Downing College
Peter was elected a Fellow of Downing College in 1980 and is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. He is a lecturer in physics, his research is in the field of radio astronomy, and
he is a member of staff at the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory at the
Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge. He has written many papers in astronomy and is the
inventor of the CURSOR radio positioning system.
Charlie Green (1983, Law / Management Studies)
Paul Hatfield (1980, Economics)
CIO and Head of US Operations, Alcentra
Paul was Captain of Boats at Downing and left in 1983 to join Arthur Andersen's audit division. After three years, unable to bear the excitement a moment longer, he moved into banking, working in leveraged loans and mezzanine finance, most recently at Deutsche Bank (which acquired Morgan Grenfell where Paul was part of the LBO team) and Intermediate Capital Group, who were the leading provider of mezzanine finance in Europe at the time.
Paul was part of the team which set up Alcentra in 2003, a buy-out from Barclay's Capital. Bank of New York Mellon took an 80% stake in the company in 2006. Paul is married with three children and, in addition to supporting DCBC, works closely with two charities, Rwanda Aid and Saint Michael's Hospice.
Jonathan Lander (1986, Law)
CEO, Dawnay, Day Lander Ltd.
Jonathan
read Law at Downing, graduating in 1989. He is the founder and Chief
Executive Officer of Dawnay, Day Lander Ltd. (DDL) a technology venture
capital and advisory firm. DDL manages a venture capital fund that
invests principally in early-stage Internet companies. He was voted one
of the UK's top ten most influential Internet investors in a recent
poll.
He is also the Chief Executive of Volvere plc, an investment company listed on AIM, chaired by the Dixons founder, Lord Kalms of Edgware. Prior to founding DDL, Jonathan spent five years at Credit Suisse First Boston and S.G.Warburg, before co-founding the Nomura Technology Group in London.
Nicholas Lewis (1974, Economics)
Chairman, Downing Corporate Finance
Nicholas
Lewis is the Managing Director of Downing Corporoate Finance Ltd, a
company which he founded in 1986. Prior to that he was with NatWest
Ventures Ltd, and before that, with Apax Partners and Co. He is also a
director of a number of Venture Capital Trusts.
Dr Susan Lintott (1972, English)
Bursar, Downing College
Educated
at Girton, Dr Lintott taught English for four years at Tufts University
in the US while completing her doctorate. After studying at the New
York University Stern School of Business, she joined The Chase
Manhattan Bank in New York in 1983 becoming a Managing Director in
Corporate Finance in 1989.
After a career break prompted by maternity leave, she became Bursar of Downing College in October 1997. She was a member of the University's watchdog the Board of Scrutiny from 1998-2002, serving as its Chairman from 2000 to 2001. She is at present the University's representative on the board of Christ's Hospital Foundation and is Chairman of the Cambridge Colleges' Bursars' Committee. She is married with two children.
Robert Markwick (1979, History)
Managing Director Goldman Sachs International
Robert Markwick has been Managing Director of Goldman Sachs International since 1994 and Goldman Sachs MD Principal Strategic Investments since March 2008. He is also on the Advisory Board of Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO) London.
Mike Starkie (1968, Social and Political Sciences)
Chief Accountant, BP
Mike Starkie has been Chief Accountant at BP for 11 years and prior to this did a variety of mainly financial BP jobs in the UK, Germany and Belgium. He qualified with Price Waterhouse.
Graham Virgo (1984, Law)
Senior Tutor, Downing College
Graham Virgo is Senior Tutor of Downing College and Director of Studies in Law. He is a Reader in English law in the Faculty of Law and a door tenant of 24 Old Buildings, Lincolns' Inn. He researches in the fields of the law of Restitution, Equity and Criminal Law.
Advisors
Michael Downing (1988, Natural Sciences)
Partner, Fry Heath Spence, Chartered Trademark and Patent Attorneys
Michael has worked in intellectual property since 1991, joining Fry Heath Spence in 1994. He
qualified as both a UK Chartered Patent Attorney and as a European Patent
Attorney in 1995, and became a partner in 1996. In 1998, the Chartered Institute
of Patent Attorneys awarded Michael one of the first Patent Litigator
Certificates, enabling him to bring cases in the High Court on behalf of
clients.
As a Patent Attorney, Michael focuses on the implementation of IP rights. He specialises in general mechanical electrical/electronic and metallurgical inventions; litigation; trade marks and designs.
For more information about Fry Heath Spence go to http://www.fhs.co.uk/
Simon Walker (1975, Law)
Partner and Head of Venture Capital (UK), Taylor Wessing
Simon is a partner in the Corporate Department of Taylor Wessing and specialises in advising those involved in the technology, cleantech and life sciences sectors. He has advised on many venture capital investments, both for funds and companies and on various acquisitions, including a number for US companies.
Simon regularly speaks at conferences in the United Kingdom and is co-author of "Tolley's Start-Ups: Law and Business Handbook" (2002). He is a member of the British Venture Capital Association's Technology Committee and is based in the firm's London and Cambridge offices, the latter of which he is the head.
For more information about Taylor Wessing go to http://www.taylorwessing.com/