Management Team
Since the last and final fund is now in run-off, Crescent’s management has reduced.
Since the last and final fund is now in run-off, Crescent’s management has reduced.
Colin is Chief Executive and founder of Crescent Capital and has been an active venture capital investor in the local high tech sector for the past twenty years. He leads a team of investment professionals who have completed investments in over thirty companies in Northern Ireland.
Crescent has raised over £60m to date from government, private and institutional investors; its investments include several which are widely regarded as being among the most promising locally owned businesses, including Lagan Technologies, APT, Omiino, Maildistiller, Nisoft, Speechstorm and Andor Technology plc.
Colin has achieved a number of successful trade sales and two flotations, including Trafficmaster plc which he was instrumental in floating on the London Stock Exchange in 1994 when working at Hambros plc. Colin was a director and subsequently chairman of Trafficmaster until 2009. He invested in Andor in 1997 and was instrumental in achieving its flotation on AIM in 2004. Andor grew to become a world leader in the field of scientific imaging cameras with revenues of almost £60m per annum and over 400 employees. Colin was chairman of Andor until its sale in early 2014 to Oxford Instruments Plc for £176m.
He currently holds directorships at Fusion Antibodies PLC, Replify Limited, Right Revenue Limited, Modern Democracy Limited, and Humain Limited. He previously held directorships for Crescent at NiSoft Holdings Limited, Belfast Power Limited and B9 Developments Ltd.
Colin completed a two year term as CBI chair for Northern Ireland and is also the trustee for NI on the UK board of Barnardos. Having served on the boards of several local companies and been chairman of many, he has first-hand experience of the various challenges facing the business sector within Northern Ireland.
He has considerable experience of business strategy and governance issues, mentoring senior management plus the restructuring, growth and development of companies across many sectors.
Ed Finnegan is a seasoned professional with wide ranging expertise in Financial Direction. He specialises in financial management and control functions, development of management information and accounting processes for high growth business. Ed manages all aspects of accounting for Crescent and its two Limited Partnerships.
He has extensive experience of working with investee companies to guide financial and planning processes. On a day to day basis Ed fulfils systems project management roles, oversight and skills coaching for portfolio companies backed by Crescent. Ed has been instrumental in the successful exit of investee companies and in the investment readiness process for others.
Ed has held senior finance roles at board level including finance director, company secretary of UP Holdings and as company secretary to a NI division of a RoI plc, Unidare. He has held advisory roles for Andor Technologies plc (acquired by Oxford Instruments Inc) and Maildistiller Ltd (acquired by Proofpoint Inc).
The Board of Directors consists of executive director Colin Walsh and non-executive directors Alex Hambro and Tom Keenan.
Chairman of the Board of Directors, Alex Hambro, has been in the private equity industry for 27 years during which time he has acted as a principal investor, manager and sponsor of private equity and venture capital management teams. Alex managed the venture capital and private equity fund investment portfolio for Hambros plc, prior to its sale to Société Générale in 1998.
Alex is an independent consultant for a number of private equity and venture capital fund management groups and family office investors advising his clients on the establishment of alternative investment funds and investment strategies. Alternative investment fund managers that he has advised include Star Capital, Craigmore funds, Sand Aire Private Equity and Prospect Investment Management Limited.
In addition to his private equity activities, Alex is Chairman of Judges Scientific plc and a non-executive director of Octopus Apollo VCT plc, Whitley Asset Management Ltd and BACIT (UK) Ltd.
Tom joined Crescent’s board as a non-executive director after the first closing of Crescent Capital III LP. Tom has over 25 years corporate finance experience and in that period has advised on many high profile acquisitions and disposals and been appointed to some of Northern Ireland’s largest insolvency cases.
Tom is principal of Keenan, an independent advisory firm that he founded in 2008, offering services around transactions, restructurings and investigations to 2008 Tom was a partner in Deloitte LLP for 13 years and headed up its corporate finance services in Northern Ireland.
Tom is a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland, is a Licensed Insolvency Practitioner, and is non-executive Chairman of Union Street (Lurgan) Limited, an international textile business.