NESTA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT - Key Persons
Alex Hook - Chief Investment Officer
Job Titles:
- Investment Director
- Member of the Rest of the Team
- Board Director for Nesta Investments Symetrica
- Senior Investment Director in
Alex is Senior Investment Director in Nesta's investment team, with a focus on backing investments that align to the Sustainable Future mission. Alex also manages Nesta's technology venture investment portfolio.
Alex has worked in venture capital for 20 years making and managing investments into early stage businesses, from seed stage ideas to larger rounds into more established companies (Series A/B). Prior to Nesta, he worked as an investment manager at Foursome Investments, the direct investment vehicle for a high net worth family, which is now called Frog Capital. Alex started his career in the design & marketing industry, working as an account manager for Conran Design Group and others.
Alex is a Board Director for Nesta Investments Symetrica and Crowdfunder as well as holding Observer roles on the Boards of five further portfolio companies including Featurespace.
Outside of work, Alex can be found apologising to his teammates during 5 aside football, trying to convince his sons to lend a hand in the garden and walking up hills.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Member of the Rest of the Team
Barnaby is is a member of Nesta's Impact Investment Committee. He is Managing Partner of Sussex Place Ventures and leads its activities in the Software & IT Services market. Prior to this he spent 18 years at Elderstreet and 3i during which time he co-founded the best performing 1999 VC fund in Western Europe and invested in some of Europe's most successful technology businesses including Content Technologies, acquired by Baltimore for $1b. Prior to his career as a technology VC he worked in enterprise sales in the data communications industry. Barnaby has considerable NXD and angel experience and was Chairman of Kimble Applications Ltd, an Accel-KKR backed cloud ERP business up until its merger with Mavenlink.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Member of the Rest of the Team
- Executive Chair, Impact Investment Committee
- Member of Nesta 's Impact Investment Committee
Chris is a member of Nesta's Impact Investment Committee. He is a partner of Downing LLP where he chairs the investment committee. Chris has nearly 40 years of venture capital and private equity experience, most recently as head of private equity at Octopus Investments. Prior to this, he was a Director at Beringea and Bridgepoint with previous experience at 3i and Charterhouse. Chris has transacted over 50 investments and has sat on the boards of a number of unquoted and quoted portfolio companies across a variety of commercial sectors. Current board roles include Firefly Education Ltd and FundingXchange Ltd, and he is a non-executive director of Downing One and Downing Four VCTs .
Job Titles:
- Member of the Rest of the Team
- Operations Manager
- Operations Manager for Nesta 's Impact Investment Team
Emma is the Operations Manager for Nesta's Impact Investment Team. Emma has previously held several roles within Nesta and was a Client Services Analyst at Blackfriars Asset Management. Prior to that Emma worked for 15 years in social research and evaluation.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Rest of the Team
- Compliance Officer, Impact Investments
- Industry Advisor for Fairfield Enterprise
As Compliance Officer, Hannah oversees the Nesta Investment Team's obligations to the Financial Conduct Authority.
Hannah is responsible for the internal systems and controls that ensure we are compliant with the rules and regulations that apply to Nesta's regulated investment activity, both in venture investing and the Arts & Culture Finance programme. Hannah is an experienced compliance professional with over 20 years experience in regulation. Prior to joining Nesta, she worked as a Compliance Consultant with a variety of financial services providers, primarily asset managers, but also advisors/placement agents, investment research houses and family wealth offices. She has also worked at the Financial Conduct Authority as a Firm Supervisor and in-house at Asset Management Firms.
Hannah is an Industry Advisor for Fairfield Enterprise, which aims to assist students from low income backgrounds to enter financial services professions.
Job Titles:
- Executive Assistant
- Member of the Rest of the Team
- Executive Assistant to the Nesta Impact Investment Team
Joanne is the Executive Assistant to the Nesta Impact Investment Team and has been at Nesta since 2014. Joanne has, for over 10 years, been supporting busy executives in the investment sector.
John Loder - Chief Investment Officer
Job Titles:
- Investment Director
- Member of the Rest of the Team
John is an Investment Director in Nesta's Impact Investment Team, leading our work to back ventures that align with A Healthy Life Mission.
John started his investment career at Merrill Lynch, before moving to become a founding partner at the investment fund Corin Capital. After a decade in the City, John moved to The Young Foundation, working on supporting and catalyzing innovation in healthcare. He then moved to Nesta where, before joining the impact investment team he led on Digital Health strategy, as well as contributing to a variety of programmes supporting innovators and influencing thinking and policy in Health.
John is a Board Director for Nesta investments Third Space Learning and Oomph, and Observer for Skin Analytics and ProFinda. He is a Trustee of the Swaziland Charitable Trust, and oversees a small hill farm in the borders of Scotland.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Member of the Rest of the Team
- Member of Nesta 's Impact Investment Committee
Julia Groves is a member of Nesta's Impact Investment Committee. She is the Managing Director for Sustainability at the British Business Bank. She has been working on building a more sustainable economy for over 20 years. This has included funding renewable energy generation, making finance more democratic and creating sustainable investment products. Most recently she was a Partner and executive committee member at a UK private equity firm, where she led their transition to becoming a Responsible Investor. Prior to this Julia was the Founding Chair of the UK Crowdfunding Association, a founder and director of a number of start-ups, and she remains an active angel investor in early-stage sustainable businesses.
Job Titles:
- Investment Manager
- Member of the Rest of the Team
- Investment Manager in Nesta 's Impact Investment Team
Leo is an Investment Manager in Nesta's Impact Investment Team. He works on transactions across Nesta's impact missions with a focus on A Sustainable Future.
Prior to joining Nesta in 2019, Leo worked with PwC, CDC Group and the Department for International Development to help to grow the impact investing market in Africa and South Asia through market building projects and investment vehicles. He has hands-on experience of working in a mission-driven startup business as well as consultancy for financial institutions.
Leo is a Board Observer for Nesta investments GetMyFirstJob and BibliU. He is a Trustee of the Intelligent Foundation set up to support the more efficient delivery of donations to charitable causes and is involved with several other organisations including Shaper Impact Capital, as a fellow of On Deck, Terra.Do and a NextGen Ambassador for Human Rights Watch. He is an active musician (producer, rapper/singer, violinist) and has previously performed with groups such as the Roundhouse Music Collective and Clean Bandit.
Job Titles:
- Board Director
- Member of the Rest of the Team
- Executive Director of Investments With Responsibility
Lisa is Nesta's Executive Director of Investments with responsibility for Nesta's direct impact investment activity, supporting transformational technology ventures. She works across Nesta's impact sectors: A Fairer Start, A Healthy Life and A Sustainable Future.
Lisa has worked in impact investment since 2004, both as an investor and advisor. Prior to joining Nesta in 2019, Lisa was COO at Social Finance where she also led on developing Social Impact Bonds to improve outcomes for vulnerable children and young people. As an investor at Bridges Fund Management, she backed high-growth businesses in deprived areas of the UK and previously co-founded a startup. Lisa started her career as a political and policy advisor in Government and strategy consultant.
Lisa is a Board Director for Nesta investment BibliU where she chairs the Audit Committee and is a school Governor.
Job Titles:
- Investment Analyst
- Member of the Rest of the Team
Meera joined the team in November 2022 as an Investment Analyst. She previously worked in Nesta's Centre for Collective Intelligence Design as Operations Manager. Prior to joining Nesta, Meera worked to deliver technology transformation programmes at Deloitte. As part of her role there, she worked with the climate studio ventures team on projects and research propositions around sustainability.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Rest of the Team
- Executive Chair of Nesta 's Impact Investment Committee
- Executive Chair, Impact Investment Committee
Nathan is Executive Chair of Nesta's Impact Investment Committee that oversees direct investments made by Nesta in our Ventures, Impact and Program Related investment activities, alongside supporting Nesta's self-built commercial subsidiaries. Nathan has worked with Nesta for 7 years and previously managed the investment team as Nesta's CIO. Before working at Nesta Nathan was active in the impact investment field more widely, helping Social Finance and Emerge Education set up their investment activities, alongside being an active angel investor, particularly in ed-tech. Prior to this Nathan helped establish three successful start-ups and worked as a partner in a venture capital fund since the late 90s. Nathan is an engineer and accountant by training.
Job Titles:
- Investment Manager
- Member of the Rest of the Team
- Investment Manager in Nesta 's Impact Investment Team
Tolly is an Investment Manager in Nesta's Impact Investment Team. He works on transactions across Nesta's impact missions. Prior to joining Nesta in January 2022, Tolly spent 6 years at ClearlySo, an impact investment bank in London working with impactful companies and funds to raise capital. He focused on transactions for companies across the financial inclusion and renewable energy sectors in both Europe and Africa. Tolly also specialised in capital raises for impact VC/PE funds with a variety of strategies, including fintech, healthcare, climate technology, foodtech and agriculture. Tolly is a Board Observer for Nesta Investments at MEL Science. When not working, Tolly spends his time studying geopolitics and diplomacy at SOAS, running around London, and swinging a racquet.