Abstract

Commercialisation of an innovative process or product developed in a university or corporate lab can be rewarding both for the researcher doing the work and for his/her employer but someone has to judge whether it is worth commercialising and to back this with hard cash. Venture capital funds (and the people who manage them) do precisely that and require, among others, people with expertise in the technologies in which they invest. This expertise is useful both in evaluating proposals for funding and in supporting projects already funded. Stephen was an undergraduate and graduate student in the Department from 1979 to 1985, working on the dynamics of heterogeneous catalysis with Dr C.N. Kenney, and was awarded the Danckwerts-Pergamon Prize for 1985. He subsequently worked in London for an engineering consultancy and a bank. He is now a partner in a small venture capital fund management firm in Athens, specialising in technology investments in South-eastern Europe.