Katie Potts is the Managing Director and also the lead fund manager for HIML which she established in December 1993 to manage HIT. Previously she was part of S.G. Warburg Securities' UK electronics research team, from 1988 to 1993, which was consistently voted top team in the Extel survey of analysts in the sector, and she was voted top analyst by finance directors of electronics companies canvassed by the Treasurer magazine. She read Engineering Science at Oxford University, where she had a GKN Scholarship, and before joining Barings Investment Management Ltd she worked as a production engineer on the welding line manufacturing truck wheels at GKN Sankey Ltd. In addition Katie was a founding shareholder of City Financial Communications Limited, now Incisive Media plc, and acted as a non-executive director between 1994 and 2000, a year before the company's IPO. Katie has in excess of twenty years' experience in the sector.

Venture Capital Executive Team

Taymour Ezzat joined HIML in November 2004 having previously spent a year appraising a number of venture capital opportunities for E.D. Capital Partners. Prior to that, Taymour had spent six years at Northcliffe Newspapers, the regional newspapers division of Daily Mail & General Trust (DMGT), latterly as Finance Director of its electronics publishing arm. Beforehand, Taymour worked for Reuters in London and Eastern Europe for four years. He qualified as an accountant with Price Waterhouse, and studied Economic History at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Tom Hayward joined HIML in July 2001 from Pilotbird Limited, where he made and managed early stage venture capital investments in the telecoms and technology sector. Previously Tom worked at Schroders in its Communications Investment Banking team, where he concentrated on the European telecoms market advising a number of European operators on corporate finance initiatives. Tom qualified as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG in 1998 where he worked in the audit and corporate finance departments, latterly advising the public and private sectors on Private Finance Initiative projects. He graduated from Cambridge University with a degree in Natural Sciences and has a Masters degree in Computer Science from Imperial College, London.

Consultants to the Herald Ventures funds

John Booth spent sixteen years working in the City, latterly with Bankers Trust International plc where he was Managing Director of the international equities business. In 1996 he established Capital Growth (Europe) Limited, a company which has raised money for a significant number of small European and US companies, particularly in the media and technology sectors. Through a number of successful personal investments John has gained hands-on experience in developing early stage technology, telecoms and media companies, amongst these NetBenefit plc, which he chaired until its flotation in June 1999, Luther Pendragon and Maintel Holdings which he currently chairs. He also acts as Executive Chairman of Link Asset and Securities Company. His extra-curricular activities include sitting on the Council of Merton College, Oxford, the General Synod of the Church of England and on the Finance Committee of the Archbishop's Council.

Richard Cunningham joined Project Telecommunications Ltd as Joint Managing Director in 1991 shortly after its formation and was responsible for finance, technology and operations. Project Telecommunications Ltd became a wholly owned subsidiary of Project Telecom plc which was floated on the LSE in 2000. Richard became the Group Finance Director. He was central to the growth of the company from its embryonic stage through its flotation in 2000 to its eventual sale in 2003. The company was acquired in September 2003 for £162m in cash by Vodafone plc. He left the company upon completion of its sale choosing to spend a significant proportion of his working month as a consultant to HIML on Herald Ventures II. Previously Richard was Vice President of Citicorp Investment Bank, specialising in European electronics and telecommunications having had experience of equity analysis and corporate finance at Citicorp Scrimgeour Vickers.

Aidan Paul is the founder and CEO of Vtesse Networks Limited, a specialist provider of very high capacity optical networks. Aidan was formerly UK Managing Director for Alliant Partners, the technology M&A subsidiary of Silicon Valley Bank. Prior to that he was Director of Corporate Finance for Technology and Telecommunications at Robert Fleming. He held previous positions at the PA Consulting Group, BICC and GEC in consulting, product planning and design, in communications, optical and medical electronics. He is a Chartered Engineer and a Chartered Management Accountant.