IPO Conference

Tim Martin was born on 28th April 1955 and attended 11 schools, including Westlake in Auckland, New  Zealand and  Campbell College in Belfast, before transferring to Nottingham University and graduating in 1977. Tim is a qualified barrister after attending the Inns of Court School of Law in 1978/9. He founded his first Wetherspoon pub in Muswell Hill, London aged 24. Wetherspoon floated on the London Stock Market with 44 pubs in 1992. Today, there are 814* Wetherspoon pubs across the country with 56 of them being hotels. Tim is married to Felicity and has 4 children.

* Number of pubs/hotels as at 9.2.24

Ruth Leas is the CEO of Investec Bank plc, the principal banking division of Investec plc, which houses the Group’s banking operations in the UK and other geographies outside Southern Africa.

The seasoned banking executive has led Investec Bank through a crucial period of transition, simplifying the business and reorganising it around its clients, shifting focus to growth opportunities, existing certain activities and geographies, and increasing collaboration.

Jonathan is Head of Investment Banking at Investec and has over 20 years of Corporate Finance experience. Before joining Investec in 2018, he was previously Manager Director at DC Advisory and Manager at PwC where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant.

Carlton qualified as a Chartered Accountant and joined Investec in early 2008. Now in his fifteenth year at Investec, he is the Head of Corporate Broking & PLC Advisory team. Carlton provides corporate broking, ECM and M&A expertise to public companies of various sizes ranging from UK Small caps and AIM to some of our largest clients in the FTSE 100.

Sandra is part of Investec’s economics team in London, having joined in 2020, and provides macroeconomic analysis and advice to the Investec Group and its clients. She has over 20 years’ experience as a financial markets economist on the buy and sell side as well as in consulting, and is a regular commentator on the economy and financial markets in the press and on TV.

Andy Brough has been with Schroders since 1987, establishing a notable career in investment. He's led the pan-European Small and Mid Cap team since 2016 and was its co-head from 2002. Andy has managed the Schroder Mid 250 Fund since its inception in 1999 and the Schroder UK Mid Cap Fund plc since 2003, becoming its co-manager in 2016. He has over two decades of experience with the Schroder UK Smaller Companies Fund and has co-managed the Schroder Institutional UK Smaller Companies Fund. Andy is also a Chartered Accountant with a BSc in Economics from Manchester University.

Victoria Stevens is a co-manager on the Liontrust Economic Advantage team’s four unit trust funds: the Liontrust Special Situations Fund, Liontrust UK Growth Fund, Liontrust UK Smaller Companies Fund and Liontrust UK Micro Cap Fund. The funds, collectively representing around £6.5bn of assets under management, cover the whole of the UK equity spectrum from the FTSE100 to micro cap stocks. Victoria joined Liontrust in 2015, having previously been Deputy Head of Corporate Broking at stockbroker finnCap.

Richard Watts is co-founder of Chrysalis Investment Partners LLP, the new investment adviser of Chrysalis Investments Limited. Richard has worked at Jupiter Asset Management as Co-Fund Manager of Chrysalis Investments Limited and joint Head of Strategy within the Jupiter UK Small & Mid Cap team. Prior to this, Richard worked at Merian Global Investors (now part of Jupiter) as a UK mid-cap portfolio manager, and as an equity analyst at Orbis Investment Advisory. He has previously also held the role of senior associate in the Investment Management division of PricewaterhouseCoopers. Before beginning his investment career in 1998, Richard attained a degree in Mathematical Sciences from the University of Oxford. He is also IIMR-qualified and is a CFA® charterholder.