About us

A founder of Braveheart, Geoffrey is a highly experienced and well known business angel and deal maker. He is a recognised authority on SME investing, having written extensively for national newspapers, and regularly speaks at business events. He is a director of NESTech - the challenge fund of the universities of St Andrews, Dundee, and Aberdeen, and is on the advisory board of EPSRC, a steering body for innovation in UK Biotechnology.

Carolyn oversees Braveheart’s investment operations. She has an honours degree in accountancy from the University of Stirling and is a Chartered Secretary. She spent five years working in insolvency, before moving to business development and investment. After five years working in private equity with LINC Scotland, the national association for business angels in Scotland, she joined Braveheart in 2000.

In addition to overseeing Braveheart’s finance function, Colin serves as Company Secretary for the Group. He joined Braveheart in 2008 from Digital Bridges Ltd, a leading global provider of mobile entertainment software applications to the mobile telecommunications industry. At Digital Bridges Colin was Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary, and before that Chief Operating Officer. Prior to his role at Digital Bridges, Colin worked as Finance Director at Vision Group plc, a LSE listed Edinburgh University technology spin-out which pioneered CMOS imaging.

Richard is responsible for implementing Braveheart’s marketing strategy. Richard spent his early career with BZW training as a Fund manager. He subsequently joined the Army in 1974 and retired from the Black Watch in 1991. Following this he returned to fund management, starting at Brown Shipley Stockbrokers and going on to become a Director at Mercury Asset Management and Cazenove. He joined Braveheart in 2008 from Kaupthing Singer and Friedlander, where he served as a Director since 2006.

Andrew is the first point of contact for both existing and new clients. Following an early training in commercial banking, he spent some 22 years working in the merchant banking sector in Scotland. His initial focus was with money market operations, but he subsequently moved into corporate lending. A career change took Andrew into stockbroking, where for ten years he managed clients advisory and discretionary portfolios. He subsequently joined Braveheart in November 2003.

Judy oversees the monitoring and assessing of Braveheart’s portfolio. Prior to joining Braveheart in April 2008 she was part of 3i’s Small and Medium Sized Investment Team where she worked successfully with management teams and non-executive directors in order to drive change while enhancing and crystallising value. She has many years experience of working with companies in a wide range of sectors and of dealing with the many issues arising from minority equity positions.

Stephen provides in-house legal services for all aspects of our investment portfolio. He has been a member of the Braveheart team since April 2008. Stephen studied for his law degree and master's degree in European & International trade law at the University of Leicester and trained with Maclay Murray & Spens in London qualifying as an English solicitor in September 2001. He became an associate with Maclays in Edinburgh in 2007, practicing a wide variety of corporate work with particular expertise in private equity, joint ventures, funds and partnerships.

Lesley has a PhD in biomedical research and a BSc (Hons) in biochemistry from the University of Dundee. She has worked in post-doctoral research at Harvard University, Boston and at the Western General Hospital, Edinburgh. After leaving academia she spent three years in the Innovation Grants Unit at the Scottish Executive before joining Braveheart in 2006.

Jennifer deals with the day to day financial administration of Braveheart’s business. She has an honours degree from the University of Abertay, Dundee and qualified as a member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants in July 2002. She spent two years working for Scottish Courage Ltd as a commercial accountant in their Perth office, then moved to their Edinburgh site as a management accountant for a further two years before joining Braveheart in 2005.

Nicola assists with the day to day financial administration of Braveheart's business. She has an HND in Accounts from Perth College UHI and has many years experience in account management in a number of sectors both public and private. Her most recent experience was as Accounts Executive for 3 years with Williams Lea (Corporate Business Solutions) before joining Braveheart in January 2011.

In addition to supporting Geoffrey, Shona is responsible for co-ordinating corporate communications. She has extensive administrative and secretarial experience within both the private and public sector, having worked for 8 years with NCR, Dundee as a Director's PA and Supply Line Management Administrator, and then as a Research Contracts Assistant with the Scottish Crop Research Institute, Dundee for two years before joining Braveheart in February 2011.

Lynn manages Braveheart's day to day office administration, as well as providing PA support to Carolyn. Lynn graduated from The Robert Gordon University in 2002 with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art. After graduating, Lynn spent three years with the Bank of Scotland and a year with Norwich Union building her skills within office administration roles.