Team

Martin is an experienced software architect and visionary with over 18 years experience of architecture, design and development of complex, robust enterprise software systems. During his time at BT, Martin worked for BT’s Chief Network Architect within the 21CN core architects group, where he was the principal architect of a major, strategic transformational programme within BT aimed at revolutionising the process of bringing new services to market, and successfully led a globally distributed team in the development of the system. Prior to BT, Martin served as the Chief Architect at Nexagent, working for the venture-funded company from its infancy until its acquisition by EDS in 2008. He envisioned, architected and designed the company’s flagship system that enables end-to-end application performance to be managed across multiple intranets. Martin graduated from Cambridge University with a first-class degree in Mathematics in 1992, and subsequently joined AEA Technology, a diversified high-tech company, developing novel algorithms and parallelised, scalable software for the space and defence industries.

Adam has 11 years experience of technology commercialization. In his current position at Queen Mary Innovation, the Technology Transfer Office (TTO) of Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), he is the Senior Technology Transfer Manager for the Department of Science and Engineering. In the last 2 ½ years in this role he has assisted in setting up 4 QMUL spin-out companies: Actual Experience Ltd; DegraSense Ltd; Vision Semantics Ltd and Emdot Ltd. In addition to Actual Experience, he is currently a non-executive Director for three other companies: Emdot Ltd; Vision Semantics Ltd and Apriorie Ltd, two of which are software companies. Prior to QMI he spent 3 years at NHS Innovations London Ltd, the TTO representing NHS Trusts in the London region, and between 2002-2004 was Intellectual Property Manager at Weston Medical Group Plc, a medical devices company. From 1996 to 2002 he worked as a Project Manager and then a Business Group Manager at Qinetiq Group Plc.

Mark Reilly is an Investment Manager at IP Group Plc, the UK's leading university intellectual property commercialisation company and an investor in Actual Experience. He is an accomplished entrepreneur and passionate leader with a proven ability to drive growth in technology businesses. Prior to joining IP Group, Mark was the founder and Managing Director of Remarkable Innovation, a successful Singapore-based technical due diligence company with a prestigious international client-list. Mark has been a board advisor to several technology companies and charities, a guest speaker and entrepreneur-in-residence for various leading organisations, and in 2009 was nominated for the “Spirit of Enterprise” Award, the foremost recognition for small business entrepreneurs in Singapore. Mark has extensive experience in the ICT sector, working with a broad spectrum of organisations from blue chip multinationals and NGOs to early stage startups. He trained in entrepreneurship at the Judge Business School and holds a PhD in Engineering from the University of Cambridge.

In 1981 Nigel was a co-founder of Chase de Vere Investments plc holding a number of strategic and operational roles over 20 years. He became CEO in 1999 and following the acquisition of Chase de Vere by the Bank of Ireland Group in 2000, remained as CEO establishing and delivering an ambitious growth strategy. Under his leadership Chase de Vere was widely recognised with many Financial Services Awards, including IFA of the Year 2000, and was ranked 29th in the Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For 2001. Since 2003 Nigel has worked on various start up ventures with a technology and environmental bias. He is a founder shareholder and non executive Director of the clean energy company 2OC and a non executive Director of Blue-ng, a joint venture with National Grid.

Chris Gare has spent nearly forty years in the forefront of technology industries participating in the microprocessor, personal computer and Internet revolutions, while working for companies such as ICL, Texas Instruments, Motorola Semiconductors, Microsoft and Cable and Wireless. In 2000, he was a co-founder of venture-funded Nexagent, a network services company, which was sold to EDS in 2008. For the last decade, Chris has been actively involved in helping small companies achieve success through angel investments and active on the ground involvement. Chris has an honours degree in Physical Electronics and became a Fellow of the IET in 1986.