Ritz has more than 17 years business experience, having conducted strategy, business change, process re-engineering, offshore development, outsourcing and leading-edge technology implementation projects for some of the world's largest companies in the retail; media; high-tech; telecommunications; government; financial services; software; utilities; automotive; and petrochemicals industries.

Prior to founding Abacus Partners, Ritz spent four years as a strategic technology integration and management consultant with IBM Global Business Services. In this role he was focused on the delivery of large scale strategic change and technology implementation programmes larger than £50m in size, for global blue-chip corporations and government organisations.

Prior to joining IBM, Ritz spent 12 years as a management consultant with Accenture, where he was instrumental in the successful implementation of some of the world's most ambitious transformational outsourcing programmes, the development of bleeding-edge technology platforms and the delivery of some of the largest business and IT change programmes in Europe. Ritz holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Computer Science from Stellenbosch University and an Executive MBA with Distinction from London Business School.

Chris is a qualified Chartered Accountant with significant experience in the IT sector. He graduated from Cambridge University in 1976 and qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Arthur Andersen in 1979. He worked for a variety of businesses before joining Unipalm Group plc (now UUNET) as group finance director in 1993, where he was involved in its flotation on the London Stock Exchange. Following the acquisition of UUNET by WorldCom, he became international development director.

Chris is currently Chairman of Eckoh plc. He was CFO of Searchspace until 2005 and is currently a non executive director of SDL plc, Iomart Group plc, Office2Office plc, DRS Group plc, Betfair Group Limited and The Risk Advisory Group. Chris has also served on the boards of Staffware plc, DBS Management plc and The Invesco Techmark Enterprise Trust plc.

Craig is an early venture capital investor, notable for his role in the founding Burr, Egan, Deleage & Co. (BEDCO) in 1979. BEDCO invested in information technology, communications, and healthcare / biotechnology companies.

Craig served on the Board of Directors of the New England Venture Capital Association. He also serves on the boards of several private companies and non-profit organizations, as well as a limited partner of a number of emerging venture capital firms. Craig received his BA, cum laude, from Harvard College and his MBA from Harvard Business School.

Andrew was previously a Vice President at Goldman Sachs, the world's premier investment bank, where he advised gold producers, end-users, central banks & investors across the Asian region as to appropriate commodity derivative hedging strategies. He cut his teeth in this sector at Societe Generale in Tokyo and Sydney.

Along with Robin Tombs, he was a seed financier of IDM Limited, which was eventually sold to Gameplay plc in 1999. He moved on from Goldman Sachs in order to pursue further angel investments and to manage his own portfolio, and in 2001 he co-founded ARC InterCapital Ltd. Andrew graduated from Aberystwyth University in Wales in 1991 with a degree in International Politics, and holds an MBA from London Business School.

Bill is founder and General Partner of Alta Communications and Marion Equity Partners LLC, Massachusetts-based venture capital firms. He founded Alta's predecessor firm, Burr, Egan, Deleage & Co. in 1979, and has identified and backed several of America's leading growth companies in the information technology, life sciences, and communications industries. Prior to founding Burr, Egan, Deleage & Co., Bill was a Partner at TA Associates. He began his career as a Manager of Venture Capital for New England Enterprise Capital Corporation.

He is past President and Chairman of the National Venture Capital Association, a former Trustee of Fairfield University, a member of the Board of Overseers of The Wharton School and a Trustee of the University of Pennsylvania. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Cephalon, Inc., CRH plc, and a number of privately held companies. Bill is also a trustee of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and the Duniry Foundation. Bill received a degree in Economics from Fairfield University and an MBA from The Wharton School.

Rob co-founded and ran a US-based venture capital backed company in the 1980s. Since the successful sale of the company, he has been an active investor in a number of private companies in the US and the UK.

Rob is a partner in Dublin-based Delta Partners, serves on the Advisory Board of Palamon Capital Partners in London, and is Visiting Professor at IESE Business School in Barcelona, where he teaches a course on venture capital.

Frank founded Delta Partners in 1994, having previously worked in the venture capital industry with Burr, Egan, Deleage & Co. in Boston from 1983 to 1993. He was on the Board of many private technology companies in the U.S.A. and was on two NASDAQ Boards, Abacus Direct Corporation and Vivid Technologies Inc. from 1989 to 1999.

Frank currently serves on a number of private Boards, including Advanced Surgical Concepts, Qumas, Neoss, WeShop and Dublin Aerospace. He also serves on the Board of AGI Therapeutics Ltd. Frank holds a B. Comm. and M. Econ. Sc. from University College Dublin and an MBA from University of Chicago.

Bryan is an entrepreneur and investor in the natural products industry. He was formerly the founder and CEO of Fresh & Wild, the leading retailer of organic and natural foods in the U.K. The company was founded in 1999 and acquired in 2004 by Whole Foods Markets. After the sale of Fresh & Wild, Bryan set up venture-capital firm Greenmont Capital, dedicated to funding innovative green projects. He is the founder of Nude Skincare, which has become a celebrated British brand, synonymous with high performance, results driven skincare and sustainable, ethical values.

Previously, he was Managing Director of Roundstone Investments, a private investment fund. Prior to that, Bryan was a Senior Manager in Sales and Marketing at Guinness (now Diageo). He currently serves on the Board of TBE Southern, a property investment company, and Nude Skincare. Bryan also represents Greenmont I on the Boards of Little Dish and Mary’s Gone Crackers. He holds a B.A. degree in Economics from Trinity College Dublin and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. 

Maurice is an investor, entrepreneur and former part-time professor at London Business School. Over the course of his career, he has invested in a number of new and developing businesses, both in the US and Europe. He co-founded Sea Containers with James Sherwood in 1965. He co-led the buy-out of SDX Business Systems, a telephone equipment business, and was its chairman when it floated in 1996 and eventually sold to Lucent in 1998.

Maurice tried with some limited success to revive the fortunes of traditional UK men's hat-maker Christy's, which was sold to an external management team in 2007. He is a prolific angel investor in the UK, and was the only investor in Innocent, the well known UK maker of smoothies and is one of Innocent's major shareholders. Maurice currently serves on the board of the English National Ballet and is Chairman of Ballet Black. He received his undergraduate degree in economics from Yale University and an MBA with Distinction from Harvard Business School.

Mike spent his career as a registered natural scientist, marketer and manager in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, with global blue-chip organisations such as American Cyanamid, Roussel Uclaf, Hoechst AG and Schering AG. During this time he made frequent business visits overseas and travelled extensively throughout all the countries of Southern Africa, assisting governments with malaria mosquito control, agricultural pest management, animal production and many other biological-related issues.

Mike subsequently founded South Africa's leading biological research business Biocon Research in the 1990's, specialising in contract research for global pharmaceutical and chemical organisations. Biocon was eventually sold to Avimune (a company involved in the manufacture of poultry vaccines) in 2007. He holds a B.Sc. Hon. degree in Entomology and Plant Pathology from Stellenbosch University and a Masters in Business Leadership from UNISA.

Simon was the first person to undertake a funded search in the UK. The fund enabled him to acquire orthotics and prosthetics business Rehabilitation Services Ltd. in 1995. As the CEO of RSL, he grew the business from £3.5m to £30m sales and EBITDA from £0.4m to £2.4m, over a ten year period. He became the chairman of the industry association, representing the industry at a Government level. He successfully sold the business in December 2005, realising an excellent return for investors.

Simon remains entrepreneurial and is committed to building businesses and generating capital growth in either an executive or non-executive capacity, primarily focused on opportunities in the healthcare sector. He is an active angel investor and is the chairman of the British Search Fund Association, which aims to promote the search fund concept in the UK and Europe. Simon holds an MBA from London Business School.

Keith is Adjunct Associate Professor of Strategic and International Management and Entrepreneurship at London Business School and formerly Executive Director of the School's Foundation for Entrepreneurial Management. He leads the Managing the Growing Business and New Technology Ventures courses. His work at London Business School focuses on entrepreneurship, venture capital, managing growth, technology ventures and organisation development. He has served as judge on Ernst & Young’s international programme “Entrepreneur of the Year”, also delivering the annual Masterclass to UK finalists.

Keith’s main activity outside LBS is helping entrepreneurs to build, buy and sell ventures. Previously he was COO and acting FD of Sussex Place Ventures, involved in all aspects of raising and investing venture capital funds in early stage businesses. He served on several Boards of the 30-strong portfolio of businesses which were mainly technology-based. As well as acting as Finance Director, he managed creation of deal flow, assessment of investments, investment process, steering of investee companies and exit. Previously Keith was a director of a boutique consulting practice that grew entrepreneurially during the 90s when it was closely associated with the major corporate restructuring initiatives of the time and was on the general management track at BAT plc, latterly as head of strategy for one of its divisions.