Braveheart Investment Group

People

Braveheart Ventures Ltd has a Board of six directors:

• Garry Watson OBE CA - Chairman. Formerly a Managing Director of Hill Samuel Bank (head of Investment Finance), Legal Services Ombudsman for Scotland and a Governor and Deputy Chairman of the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute in Aberdeen. Currently a Director and Chairman of the Audit Committee of Places for People Group, the largest UK provider of mixed tenure housing.
• Geoffrey Thomson- Chief Executive Officer. One of the founders of Braveheart, Geoffrey is well known as a deal maker and business angel. He has run his own venture capital backed group of companies and spent five years working as a company doctor specialising in restructuring and refinancing of SMEs. Geoffrey writes columns on investment for various national broadsheets and regularly speaks at business events in Scotland.
• Carolyn Smith ACIS - Investment Director. Carolyn has an honours degree in accountancy from the University of Stirling and is a Chartered Secretary. She spent five years working in insolvency before moving to business development and investment. After five years working in private equity she joined Braveheart in 2000.
• Edward Cunningham CBE - Non-executive director. Edward has UK and international industry experience. Latterly, he was Director, Industry and Enterprise Development with the Scottish Development Agency. More recently, he has been chairman of a number of 3i-invested companies as well as other companies including the SECC. He has also been a Director of TSB Bank Scotland and Watson & Philip. He is currently chairman of two companies and has his own consultancy business.
• Donald Turner CA - Non-executive director. Donald was Managing Partner-Regions and Managing Partner for Scotland and Northern Ireland for Ernst and Young and retired from that firm as Regional Chairman Scotland in 2001. He is a past Chairman and Board Member of Scottish Council for Development and Industry and was a Non-Executive Director of Young Enterprise Scotland. He is a former Council Member of the Institute of Directors and a past Chairman Scotland of The Princess Royal Trust for Carers. He is currently Convenor of the Audit and Risk Management Committee of The National Trust for Scotland.
• Shonaig Macpherson CBE FRSE - Non-executive director. Shonaig joined the board of Braveheart Ventures as of 1 October 2005. She has recently retired as senior partner of McGrigors, one of Scotland’s leading legal firms. Shonaig is currently Chairman of the Scottish Council for Development and Industry, Chairman of ITI Scotland Ltd, a Non-executive Director of the Scottish Executive’s management board, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and Chairman elect of The National Trust for Scotland.