A Club run by members, for members

SAIC is not a business, it is a Club run by members, for members and it therefore relies on everyone to take a part in some of the process and administration required. Currently the members taking a lead on the mechanics of the Club as well as investing themselves are: 

Tony Carter  

Tony is joint President of Southern Angel Investors Club (SAIC) and was President of Surrey Investors Club (SIC) since 2012.

Previously an Independent Consultant / Interim Manager specialising in management of major business change programmes and projects; an Executive Consultant in the Major Programme Management team of CGEY / Ernst & Young and a Senior Programme Manager at Barclays.

25+ years in the field of IT and Business Consulting; in the UK, Europe, North America, Russia and Asia. Bachelor of Technology (Honours) degree (2.1)

Since becoming a business angel he is / has been a non executive director of two early stage companies. He has led the Surrey Investors Club for a number of years developing  closer working relationships with neighbouring clubs and eventually merging with the A5K Network to form SAIC.

Chris Hall 

Chris began investing in startups and early-stage businesses in 2018 following the sale of his own businesses in 2016. With a degree in electrical engineering he has spent over 40 years in technology related businesses having worked across electronic test equipment, personal computing, software sales and licensing and most recently ecommerce and mobile software development where he founded and grew a startup focussed on ecommerce applications to exit, partly through a trade sale and partly through a management buy-in.

Chris now works part time and retains three non-executive director positions one of which being the Investor Director for one of the companies that secured a significant investment from the SAIC angel community.

He recently joined the SAIC Leadership team, has invested in 15 early-stage companies to date and enjoys helping enthusiastic and focussed founders achieve their goals.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrishalluk/

Ian Robertson  

After 40+ years in the IT industry I now enjoy being an advisor and investor in early-stage businesses.

As an investor, my main interests are in businesses whose technologies and services can make a social / environmental impact and have the potential to disrupt traditional industries.

One of the attractions to me is to see the wide diversity of such businesses in which this is happening; everything from agriculture to medical and from electric mobility to water conservation.

Financial returns may be the long-term goal but, like many fellow angel investors, I enjoy seeing (and helping) companies turn great ideas into growing and successful businesses.  If I’ve learned anything in five years it is about the uniquely valuable part we play in providing much needed capital at an early stage to emerging businesses.

Richard Bednarek  

Richard has been a member of the leadership team since Southern Angel Investors Club was formed in January 2021. He was a member of both predecessor clubs, having joined Angels 5k in 2011. In the team he has a focus on the follow up process after a company has pitched successfully to Members.

He spent over 20 years as a management consultant, working at board and top executive levels in FTSE 100 companies and their equivalents in other countries. His areas of expertise included value creation, company valuation, executive incentives and corporate governance. For 10 years he was a member of the holding company board of the $400m global consultancy in which he was a shareholder.

After leaving employment in 2009 Richard began making angel investments while for a number of years continuing consultancy work. He has invested in many early-stage companies and has acted as Chairman, Investor Director or Investor Observer in a number of them.

Charles Findlay  

After a career in Engineering and Management Consulting, I started investing in early-stage companies in 2007. There have been some spectacular successes, also (far too) many less than happy outcomes. But I remain committed to helping fund and support entrepreneurs and have been an active member of Angels5k, now part of SAIC, for the last ten years. For two years, I was a mentor/coach on the Ignite programme and has supported the CyberASAP and the UCL entrepreneurship programmes.

I manage the application, shortlisting and selection of the businesses that are chosen to present to the club.

Deborah McKee

Deborah set-up her first business when she was 24 and subsequently has been part of two MBOs, created three other businesses and served as a NED.

The first MBO was Richmond Events (taken out of EMAP plc) in 1992 with the backing of a VC. Within 7 years it scaled from £5-35m turnover. The second – Future Foundation was funded by the team (out of Experian) in 2009, where she was an NED and advised on marketing.

Deborah founded BishBoshBash, a content creation event agency in 2003 that is engaged in anything from running small, high level strategy days to large corporate change events. It also helps organisations to get clarity on their point of view and difference and to develop content (events, reports, white papers, books) which amplifies that.

She joined SAIC as an angel investor in January 2021 and the leadership team in April 2022. Over the past 2 years she has invested in 9 early-stage businesses (3 through SAIC).