Alex Hambro (born 1962) 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. Fund managers that he has advised include; Sand Aire Private Equity, Crescent Capital and Prospect Investment Management Limited.

Alex has been in the private equity industry for 21 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.

In addition to his private equity activities Alex is non-executive Chairman of Octopus Eclipse VCT 4 PLC, and a non-executive Director of Hazel Renewable Energy VCT2 plc

David Cicurel (born 1949) founded Judges in 2002 having spent much of his career as a turnaround specialist and, subsequently, as an ‘active value’ investor operating with his own funds. He has been responsible for several corporate recovery exercises including two UK public companies, International Media Communications plc (later known as Continental Foods) and International Communication and Data plc.

Ralph Cohen (born 1948) has held various senior executive positions within the Vivendi Universal group between 1981 and 2001, including eight years as Finance Director of a listed subsidiary, followed by positions as Managing Director within that group. He previously spent nine years at Ernst & Young. Latterly he was the founding partner of MC Consultancy Services where he was closely associated with major projects, including electricity supply opportunities in Europe and M&A projects.

Ralph Elman (born 1953) was a former finance director of quoted companies Paramount plc, Delyn plc and International Communication & Data plc and Finance Director of businesses within GUS plc and RR Donnelley. Ralph was Senior Partner of accountancy firm Elman Wall and is non-executive Director of a number of private companies. He is chairman of the Judges audit committee.

Glynn Reece (born 1958) is a graduate of Oxford University and a qualified solicitor. Since 1987, he has specialised in providing Corporate Finance deal origination and advisory services, working for (inter alia) Coopers & Lybrand, Arthur Andersen and CLB, a specialist AIM firm. He is currently a director and co-owner of Nathan Alexander Limited, a company that acts as a corporate stockbroker and an arranger of pre-flotation finance for small fast-growing companies.

Sean Gregory (born 1972) has a degree in Chemistry and Energy Studies and an MBA.  On completion of a Ph.D in Fire Safety Science in 1998, he joined FTT, becoming its Sales Director and, on 1 January 2009, its Managing Director.  His Ph.D focused on fire calorimeter instrumentation and modelling which is the core technology upon which much of FTT’s business is based.  He has continued instrument design and applied research studies in this area since joining FTT much of which has been done collaboratively with industry groups and leading European fire research institutes.  He works extensively in national, European and international standardisation committees dealing with fire safety.

Ian Mackenzie (born 1949) was the cofounder of the fiber optics division of PerkinElmer Inc in 1985. In 2003, PerkinElmer Ltd was awarded a Queens Award for Enterprise in the category of Innovation and a second Queens Award for International Trade. It was the only company in that year to win Awards in both categories. In 2005, backed by Judges, Ian led a management buy out of the division which now trades as PE. fiberoptics Limited.

Ian has a BSc in Chemistry and a Ph.D in Physics from the University of Bristol.

Lee Howell (born 1978) has a degree in Business Management and an MBA from Brighton University. He was the European Sales Engineer for the Kurt J Lesker Company, a global supplier of vacuum science products, where he received a thorough grounding in vacuum components, systems and applications. In 1999 he joined UHV Design Limited as Sales & Marketing Manager and was promoted to the position of Managing Director in October 2006.

Gary Edwards (born 1966) studied electronics at Anglia Ruskin University while working for Lintech Instruments in Cambridge. In 1988 Gary joined Stan Davidson at Deben Research where together they developed the company with a range of products for the SEM accessory market. In 1996 Gary set up Deben UK to manufacture and market Deben Research products, growing the business from £600K turnover in 1996 to £2 million in 2010.