EISA Committees

David Brookes is a tax partner and managing partner at BDO’s Reading and Bristol offices, overseeing a team of over 30 partners and 500 staff in the Thames Valley and South West regions. David’s role involves ensuring exceptional client service and managing audit, tax, and advisory services.

David works with various clients, including those with international operations, especially in the US. With over 30 years of experience, David specializes in corporate tax, focusing on tax planning related to growth, employee benefits, shareholder exits, reorganizations, MBO/MBIs, flotations, and capital gains tax.

He also works with private equity and venture capital-backed groups in the UK and internationally.

Sue Crawford has over 35 years of guiding media and technology businesses through complex corporate tax scenarios. She possesses a broad range of expertise in advising both corporations and entrepreneurs on various tax matters, including VAT, stamp duty, gaming duty, corporation tax, PAYE/national insurance, and withholding tax.

Her particular emphasis is on assisting entrepreneurs and their investors, ensuring tax-efficient strategies from startup to exit. Sue focuses on motivating employees through share schemes and equity awards.

Known for her creative solutions to tax challenges in mergers and acquisitions, restructuring, and venture capital deals of more established businesses, Sue is adept at resolving issues and presenting her solutions in a clear, jargon-free manner, always keeping the commercial context in view.

Philip Hare is a Chartered Accountant and Chartered Tax Adviser. He spent 25 years with PwC, fifteen as a senior tax manager. From 2006 to 2014, he led PwC’s team providing services to Venture Capital Trusts, Enterprise Investment Scheme and Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme companies, investment fund managers and investors. For each of those eight years, members of the EIS Association voted Philip and his team Best EIS Tax Adviser.

Neil is Senior Tax Partner and one of four Partners on the Executive Committee of CT (formerly Chiene + Tait). He established the firm’s Entrepreneurial Tax Team helping high-growth companies and investors, with advice provided in over 200 SEIS, EIS and VCT investments annually, as well as providing advice in share schemes, tax credit claims and M&A advisory services.

In addition to his roles within CT, Neil also leads the tax service of a leading law firm and sits as a Board Director of AGN International, an association of 200 accounting & tax advisory firms globally.

CT’s Entrepreneurial Tax Team have been five times Highly Commended and once Winner of the EIS Association Best EIS Tax Advisor Award, as well as three years running winners of Best Tax Advisor in the Scottish Accountancy Awards. Neil was also awarded by EISA for the Best Result in the EIS Diploma.

Claire has over 10 years’ experience of M&A, corporate and commercial law having practiced at Macfarlanes, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Withers. She gained an MSci in Physics from Imperial College, London with 1st Class Honours before converting to Law and was called to the Bar in 2005.

Jonathon Quick is currently the EIS Finance & Operations Director at Molten Ventures. Jonathon has over 20 years of experience in finance and operations, with a focus on the technology sector. Prior to joining Molten Ventures, they were the Director of Finance & Operations at Oxford Capital, where they oversaw all aspects of financial and administrative management for the Sierra Leone programme. Jonathon has also held senior finance positions at ValueClick Europe and ValueClick. Quick is a certified public accountant and began their career as an audit manager at Friend LLP.

Jonathon Quick attended the University of Birmingham, where they earned a Bachelor of Science in Psychology. Jonathon also attended Lawrence Sheriff School.

Christiana Stewart-Lockhart is the Director General of the Enterprise Investment Scheme Association (EISA). She previously spent more than a decade working in Westminster including ten years at the Institute of Economic Affairs. She also founded EPICENTER, a Brussels based network of some of the most respected think tanks from across Europe.

Christiana holds a BA in Politics from the University of York. She is a member of TISA’s Young People’s Financial Education Policy Council and also sits on the Advisory Board for the All Party Parliamentary Group for Entrepreneurship.

Hugo, a fund manager at Guinness Ventures Team, joined the team in 2012. Before Guinness, he worked at Sand Aire Wealth Management, focusing on macro-economic analysis. Hugo also completed internships in Investment and Corporate Finance during his university years. He holds an MSc in Finance and Investment from the University of Bristol and a BA in Economics from Exeter.

Tom is a partner and head of the tax department at Shoosmiths, specializing in the firm’s EIS and VCT tax practice. He is an expert in the UK, advising on investments, reorganisations, and exits within the EIS and VCT frameworks.

Annually, Tom oversees over 150 VCT and EIS investments for clients including Octopus Investments and Downing LLP.

Shoosmiths has been a finalist and received commendations in the EISA Awards since 2017.

Tom provides tax advice to companies and individuals, sets up share option schemes, and negotiates with HMRC. He is a Chartered Tax Adviser, a member of several tax-related committees, and collaborates with HMRC Policy through the VCTA Advisers working group.

James is Legal Director in the firm’s Financial Services Group. He advises clients on the full spectrum of financial services and FCA-related matters, including on authorisation applications, perimeter and supervisory issues, enforcement investigations and cases before the Regulatory Decisions Committee and Upper Tribunal.

James has a detailed understanding of the regulatory regime applying to firms and senior individuals under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, Payment Services Regulations 2017, Electronic Money Regulations 2011 and Money Laundering Regulations 2017.

James joined Kingsley Napley in 2022 from the FCA where he spent seven years in the Enforcement division, giving him a unique insight into the approach and working of the regulator.

Whilst at the FCA James built the framework, and led the dedicated team responsible, for taking assertive supervisory intervention action against firms through the imposition of requirements, freezing of assets, banning of financial promotions and variations of permissions. This gave James a keen interest, and specialism, in the FCA’s use of supervisory intervention powers. In addition, his work while at the regulator within the crypto sector gave him particularly valuable insight into this sector.

James also has significant experience of advising on FCA criminal and regulatory enforcement investigations into firms and individuals and conducting related litigation, including in relation to conduct issues, systems and controls failings, conflicts of interest and compliance with anti-money laundering legislation and cases involving sexual misconduct in the workplace. James also has extensive experience in advising on contested authorisations cases for firms, senior individuals and in respect of changes in control.

Before joining the FCA James worked as an investigative lawyer in the Proceeds of Crime Department of the Serious Fraud Office, where he conducted restraint and confiscation litigation in cases of serious complex fraud and bribery and was the prosecutor on international criminal money laundering investigations.

James is ranked as a Leading Associate in Legal 500.

Andrew is a Chartered Accountant with extensive corporate finance and corporate restructuring experience. Andrew began his career in the audit practice and then management consultancy practice of Touche Ross (now Deloitte), before several years in investment banking, gaining broad-based experience in transactional corporate finance advisory work.  Andrew serves on various boards and industry bodies and has an MA in Jurisprudence from Oxford University.

Robert Irvine is a senior consultant in Bovill Newgate’s Funds team. He provides advice and support to asset managers and investment advisors. He has assisted firms with the implementation of new regulations on a wide variety of topics including SMCR, MiFID II and Market Abuse. Robert started his career reviewing upcoming financial services and insurance regulations in a law firm. Before Bovill Newgate he had been a regulatory consultant for 5 years.

Vanessa has worked in financial services regulation for over 30 years in a wide range of roles, including 5 years at an investment manager specialising in EIS. Vanessa has spent 15 years as a regulatory consultant and is currently head of compliance strategy at threesixty services LLP. As part of her role, she chairs the Compliance Strategy Team which takes a view on contentious regulatory issues or where the regulatory position is unclear. She works closely with adviser firms, discretionary managers, fund managers and platforms in implementing key regulatory initiatives such as Consumer Duty, IFPR, Product Governance, and oversees threesixty’s approach to a wide range of regulatory matters.

Gillian is a regulatory consultant specialising in the venture finance sector.  She works with EIS fund and portfolio managers as well as capital raisers, promoters, researchers and crowdfunding platforms. Gillian is known for providing expert and pragmatic solutions to the industry.  In addition to her experience working with many EISA members, she is an active advocate of EIS. 

Gillian chairs our regulatory committee and is a member of the EISA board. Beyond EIS, Gillian also advises social impact investment firms, private equity firms and FinTech companies such as peer to peer lenders.

Rachel Stansfield is the Head of Compliance & MLRO at Puma Capital Group, responsible for compliance and financial crime.

A CFA Charterholder and EISA Committee member, she holds a BSc in Economics from University College London (2010). Stansfield started at the Financial Conduct Authority, then joined Man Group in 2014, playing a key role in compliance and setting up the business post-Brexit. In 2020, she moved to Puma, significantly developing the Compliance Framework, enhancing policies, procedures, and implementing vital compliance systems.

Glen has worked in tax and financial services for over 25 years and joined Committed Capital in 2015 where he heads up the Business Development team. He has 15 years’ experience raising capital for companies using tax efficient investment wrappers such as EIS and VCT.

Earlier in his career, Glen spent a decade with Coopers & Lybrand, PwC, and Deloitte, where he qualified as a tax adviser specialising in High Net Worth, Expat tax, and cross-border advisory services. He later co-founded an accountancy and tax consultancy firm based in Sussex.

Christiana Stewart-Lockhart is the Director General of the Enterprise Investment Scheme Association (EISA). She previously spent more than a decade working in Westminster including ten years at the Institute of Economic Affairs. She also founded EPICENTER, a Brussels based network of some of the most respected think tanks from across Europe.

Christiana holds a BA in Politics from the University of York. She is a member of TISA’s Young People’s Financial Education Policy Council and also sits on the Advisory Board for the All Party Parliamentary Group for Entrepreneurship.

Faye has been apart of the tax efficient industry for over 10 years, supporting financial advisers and paraplanners with their planning needs across EIS, VCT and Business Relief solutions. Faye has worked in distribution at Octopus Investments, TIME Investments and most recently Love Ventures.

Richard Angus is the Head of Business Development at Hardman & Co.

He has more than 30 years of City experience. His primary area of focus has been US equity capital markets, and he has been involved predominantly in the development of growth companies. Richard has experience on both the buy and sell sides. Having worked for M&G as a fund manager, Richard then worked for US investment banks Alex Brown & Sons and Furman Selz. Latterly, Richard was Managing Director and Head of Institutional Sales for Europe at FBR & Co. Besides being involved in many public flotations, Richard’s experience includes pre-IPO capital raises.

Richard joined Hardman & Co in September 2014. He holds a BA (Hons) in Economics from the University of Liverpool and is a Chartered Accountant.

Luke Barnett is Head of Tax-Advantaged Investments at St James’s Place, overseeing the selection, monitoring and distribution of products across the EIS, VCT and BR panels. He Joined SJP in 2021, and previously worked at MJ Hudson (Allenbridge), having been covering this market since 2017. Before that Luke has held various research roles across differing asset classes in the financial services sector. Originally from South Africa, Luke studied economics at the University of Cape Town.

Steve joined GrowthInvest in September 2020 after a 25-year career at Goldman Sachs, starting from Loughborough University. He began in back-office futures contract reconciliations, then moved to the Equity Derivatives desk as an assistant, progressing to full trading. Steve led the Securitised Derivatives business spinoff, evolving from vanilla to structured flow derivative products across multiple assets.

His roles included automated options market making, overseeing equity algo flow, and equity execution for Goldman Sachs’ private clients. His final position involved trading ETFs, index swap flow, and managing on-exchange equity execution. At Goldman Sachs, Steve’s expertise spanned various equity market aspects, including working with exchanges on pricing strategies. Now, he focuses on EIS and VCT investments, leveraging technology to innovate traditional processes.

Jessica heads up the Octopus Investments team that manages investment products across the organisation’s tax-efficient and institutional investments, including venture capital trusts and investments that qualify for Business Relief. She joined Octopus in 2014 and is a qualified tax adviser.

Since exiting his first business Sanjeev has consulted and mentored a wide range of start-ups. Working with micro businesses through to businesses that have grown globally, Sanjeev has supported operational and commercial development.

This experience coupled with his time in financial services working with private capital markets for a bank of family office clients has led him to work in deep-tech investing over the last 4 years. Sanjeev holds an executive MBA from CASS business school.

Stephen Jones founded Clear Solutions Wealth and Tax Planning in 2005. He has built a career in expert financial planning, and attracted to him a team of some of the most expert financial planning and investment professionals in the UK. Now Managing Director, Stephen has featured regularly on BBC Radio and on national television as an expert financial planning specialist.

Christiana Stewart-Lockhart is the Director General of the Enterprise Investment Scheme Association (EISA). She previously spent more than a decade working in Westminster including ten years at the Institute of Economic Affairs. She also founded EPICENTER, a Brussels based network of some of the most respected think tanks from across Europe.

Christiana holds a BA in Politics from the University of York. She is a member of TISA’s Young People’s Financial Education Policy Council and also sits on the Advisory Board for the All Party Parliamentary Group for Entrepreneurship.

Henry leads Beauhurst’s consultancy team, and is an expert on equity finance and high-growth business. He has worked on briefs for clients including Barclays, Syndicate Room, Innovate UK, Smith & Williamson and the British Business Bank. Henry regularly gives presentations on finance and market trends at events around the country. Henry studied Classics at the University of Oxford.

Susie is Head of Business Development at Parkwalk Advisors, having joined in 2019. She has spent most of her career marketing tax-advantaged products, with her current role focused solely on EIS. Susie graduated from Columbia University in New York City where she studied Psychology and Archaeology.

Dr Paul Mattick heads the Sales and Investor Relations team for the Mercia EIS Funds. He works directly with private clients and advisers to build the EIS fund raising capacity of Mercia. Paul oversees the administration and development of the EIS funds, and ensures that investors receive a high level of service, much of which is delivered through Mercia’s award-winning Investor Centre.

Paul has a variety of experience in early-stage businesses (including being a founder), and formerly worked at another leading EIS fund manager, where he built close relationships with top tier clients, and significantly grew both fund and single company assets under management. Paul has a PhD and Post-Doctorate from the University of Oxford and a 1st Class Bachelor of Science from the University of Leeds.

MQ, the lead analyst in the tax-advantaged team at St James’s Place,  joined the team in 2020. Before SJP, MQ worked in private banking and wealth management at HSBC and Barclays. She holds a MPhil in Economics from Cambridge University, and a BSC in Economics from LSE.

Andrew is a growth specialist, with two decades of experience helping companies develop their brand reputation, deliver financial results and develop sales & marketing functions, within heavily regulated environments. Andrew has worked with numerous companies, across multiple industries, but has predominantly focused on professional and financial services, and has been working with financial professionals throughout his career.

Jessica is an accomplished individual within the alternative investment space. Starting her career at an Oxford-based VC, Jessica went on to work at an investment platform that manages relations with 50+ funds, supporting their fundraising activities and startups. She then headed up the Marketing and Investor Relations at Built Ventures. Jessica’s core focus remains developing relationships with investors.

Mark has over twenty five years’ experience in Financial services most recently as Director General of the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) Association, the trade body for the EIS industry. Previous to that, he spent 10 years as Head of Research and Development at Mazars, a leading UK financial planning firm. Mark is highly qualified being a Certified Financial Planner, Chartered Financial Planner, Chartered Wealth Manager and Fellow of the Personal Finance Society and previously sat on the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investments.

Fuchsia manages Deepbridge’s private client marketing, including Deepbridge Syndicate – the online capital raising platform of Deepbridge Capital. With a degree in Financial and Business Economics from the Newcastle University, prior to joining Deepbridge Fuchsia was Client Relationship and Business Development Manager at AngelNews, a leading venture capital focussed news service and national events company for private investors and the companies they invest in.

With a wealth of experience in the venture capital sector, Fuchsia was also a co-founder and inaugural committee member of Greenshoots, the junior branch of the Enterprise Investment Scheme Association (EISA).

Emer works on a broad range of corporate and commercial transactions including advising on commercial contracts and shareholder agreements, corporate governance, company restructuring, asset and share acquisitions, VC investments and listings on junior stock markets.

Emer qualified in 2014 specialising in charity and education law advising on governance and commercial matters, before joining Kingsley Napley to focus on wider corporate and commercial work.

Passionate about the incubation of investment funds and start-up companies, Ben is responsible for the management of venture capital and property funds. He specialises in due diligence, applying an analytical mindset from his engineering background to ensure quality and consistency in all he does. Ben has entrepreneurial experience having co-founded an e-commerce business during Covid-19.

Mary has acted as the EIS Association’s Membership Manager for several years. She works closely with members new and existing to ensure that they receive maximum value from their membership of the association and is closely involved with the delivery of EISA’s varied annual calendar of events.

Mary developed her administrative, organisational and financial skills through various administrative positions in healthcare, education and the financial and enterprise sector. She studied languages at Galway University, subsequently taking a Post Graduate Certificate in Education.

A founder of EISA over 25 years ago and formerly Head of Tax Efficient Solutions at Smith & Williamson and Co-Principal of Enterprise Investment Partners, Martin has extensive experience of fund-raising and fund management in the tax-efficient market and is a long-standing champion of the EIS. He is also a highly experienced non executive director/chairman with over 30 years of board leadership experience across a broad range of sectors, including Renewable Energy, Leisure, Healthcare and Tech. He is Chairman of the Membership & Events Committee of EISA.

Olivia is the Community Development Manager at EISA. She is passionate and experienced in the professional community space; Olivia previously spent years growing and managing a large finance leader community.

She has also spoken at many live events about contemporary issues affecting the finance industry. Olivia holds a BA from the University of Kent, and spent part of her degree living and studying at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

Christiana Stewart-Lockhart is the Director General of the Enterprise Investment Scheme Association (EISA). She previously spent more than a decade working in Westminster including ten years at the Institute of Economic Affairs. She also founded EPICENTER, a Brussels based network of some of the most respected think tanks from across Europe.

Christiana holds a BA in Politics from the University of York. She is a member of TISA’s Young People’s Financial Education Policy Council and also sits on the Advisory Board for the All Party Parliamentary Group for Entrepreneurship.

Jessica is an accomplished individual within the alternative investment space. Starting her career at an Oxford-based VC, Jessica went on to work at an investment platform managing relations with 50+ funds, supporting their fundraising activities and startups. Since then her career developed into heading up the Marketing and Investor Relations at Built Ventures and she now bridges the gap between the sales and investment team at Symvan Capital as Client & Partnerships manager. Jessica’s core focus remains on delivering projects and developing internal initiatives to benefit internal and external stakeholders. 

Bronagh is passionate about helping early-stage companies get access to investment that can help them grow. Bronagh works with various companies and funds, but has a particular interest in ESG and female-led companies.

Bronagh helps companies prepare for investment and growth through the Venture Capital Tax schemes – SEIS,  EIS, SITR and VCT. Bronagh also assists with Sapphire’s compliance. Prior to joining Sapphire, Bronagh held financial service roles in a range of businesses from finance, accounting and investment analysis.

Olly has been working in Venture Capital for 4 years, currently part of the Operations team at Octopus Ventures and previously helping raise money from private clients whilst at Oxford Capital. Olly holds a BA in Politics and International Relations from Loughborough University.

In his spare time, Olly can likely be found watching or playing sport, either pounding London’s asphalt, sitting in the Bedser Stand at the Oval, or watching his beloved Chelsea play at Stamford Bridge.

Christiana Stewart-Lockhart is the Director General of the Enterprise Investment Scheme Association (EISA). She previously spent more than a decade working in Westminster including ten years at the Institute of Economic Affairs. She also founded EPICENTER, a Brussels based network of some of the most respected think tanks from across Europe.

Christiana holds a BA in Politics from the University of York. She is a member of TISA’s Young People’s Financial Education Policy Council and also sits on the Advisory Board for the All Party Parliamentary Group for Entrepreneurship.

Claire has a background in finance and marketing, having honed her skills through targeted internships in marketing analytics, business development, and investor relations before joining Par Equity in 2019.

Claire is now an Investment Manager at Par, where her keen insight and strategic approach have guided the management of both new and existing investments.

Founder & Chartered Financial Planner at Finova Money.

Finova Money was setup with a simple mission: to help individuals and business owners live for today, knowing they have planned for tomorrow.

Mary has acted as the EIS Association’s Membership Manager for several years. She works closely with members new and existing to ensure that they receive maximum value from their membership of the association and is closely involved with the delivery of EISA’s varied annual calendar of events.

Mary developed her administrative, organisational and financial skills through various administrative positions in healthcare, education and the financial and enterprise sector. She studied languages at Galway University, subsequently taking a Post Graduate Certificate in Education.

Olivia is the Community Development Manager at EISA. She is passionate and experienced in the professional community space; Olivia previously spent years growing and managing a large finance leader community.

She has also spoken at many live events about contemporary issues affecting the finance industry. Olivia holds a BA from the University of Kent, and spent part of her degree living and studying at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.