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The Portfolio Managers
The Portfolio Managers

“With courage you
will dare to take risks, have the strength to be compassionate, and the wisdom to
be humble. Courage
is the foundation of integrity.”
Keshavan Nair
The Portfolio Managers are all regulated advisors affiliated to Sturgeon Ventures LLP. Sturgeon Ventures LLP is the Portfolio Manager to the Fund.
Seonaid Mackenzie

Seonaid Mackenzie, ASI, CF (47) – Managing Partner of Sturgeon Ventures, leads the firm’s overall investment strategy as a Portfolio Manager and an Investment Manager. Prior to founding Sturgeon Ventures, Seonaid Mackenzie’s career comprise over 15 years spent in global stock broking firms such as Prudential Securities (Prudential-Bache), Natwest Markets and Bear Stearns as an American focused Stockbroker with a few years focused on emerging markets of Latin America at James Capel. As a stockbroker in the American stock markets she took an active interest in the food sector, and each year attended the Consumer Analyst of NY meetings. Seonaid then created Sturgeon Ventures as an American family office wherein Seonaid and her team invested in public and private companies, with Seonaid taking a pro-active role in some of the private companies as a management consultant and raising further funding. Seonaid left the investment world for a short time to be involved with a start up company on the development and implementation of marketing strategies, before spending 6 months in a corporate finance boutique focusing of equity growth financings. Seonaid returned to the financial services industry by setting up her own firm as an incubator for financial services companies for whom she and her team also offered regulatory compliance advice.
Over the last two years she has also served as an investment manager
to a pre-IPO fund based in London, investing in expansion phased companies, with no sector bias.
Seonaid has been an investor privately and on behalf of funds in venture backed companies and also a fundraiser. She has operated private company start-ups and consulted on the marketing strategies and implementation for venture backed companies and shares the experience of the entrepreneurs with whom she works. This has given her the strong analytical and business development background that she uses in these areas of business to achieve a high level of performance. Seonaid is an Associate of The Securities and Investment Institute and the Institute of Chartered Accountants, having in May 2008 been awarded the Corporate Finance Advanced Diploma. Seonaid is also a member of The Worshipful Company of International Bankers, a British Livery Company.
Dr Wang Chong

Dr. Wang Chong MBBS, MBA, ASI (42)
Portfolio Manager of Sturgeon Ventures and Investment Manager.
Prior to joining Sturgeon Ventures, Dr. Wang Chong’s career comprises over 19 years spent in the healthcare industry. He also has significant capital markets experience including raising funds for and listing small to medium size companies in the UK; he has been instrumental in raising over £60 million for small cap companies in the last six years and was previously the Life Sciences Analyst at Canaccord Capital (Europe) Ltd, the multinational investment bank. In the healthcare industry, previous positions include CFO and Commercial Director of Phytopharm plc, a leading botanical pharmaceutical and nutraceutical company, CEO of Osmetech plc, a medical diagnostics company, Leader of UK Healthcare Initiatives at Arthur D. Little Inc, the management consultancy firm, commercial roles at Glaxo Wellcome plc and SmithKline Beecham plc, and an endocrinologist in the National Health Service.
Wang combines his analytical and business development expertise with
his operational and medical background to achieve results. Dr. Chong graduated with a medical degree from King’s College London and an MBA from London Business School. Wang is a Council Member of the Royal Society of Medicine’s Pharmaceutical Medicine & Research Section and an Associate of the Securities and Investment Institute.
Alan Thomas

Alan Thomas C.Dir, MSTA, FSI
Portfolio Manager of Sturgeon Ventures and Investment Manager.
Alan received a BA (Hons) degree in Economics and Statistics from the
University of Wales. Alan’s career started at Unilever in 1959,
following 2 years of military service in the Royal Air Force
(1954-1956). His management training at Unilever was followed by a
distinguished career, in the financial services industry spanning 48
years, so far.
Alan started in the City at James Capel as one of the only two
research analysts in the firm; followed by a number of years (1967-1983) were he was Head of Research and Head of the International Department for UK stockbroker, Sheppards and Chase (previously Roger Mortimer). For the next decade he was an investment manager with leading investment firms such as Fidelity Investments where he managed several funds, with a focus on the mid-small cap companies, predominantly investing in the American market. He left Fidelity when the funds he managed where moved to Fidelity’s HQ in Boston. Alan then
spent 4 years as a regulator with IMRO acting as adviser to the heads
of monitoring and enforcement (IMRO was the regulator of the fund
management before it merged with the FSA). This well rounded
background was the perfect platform for his next career as a
compliance consultant, which has spanned more than a decade. As a
compliance adviser he has worked with well known, investment
management firms who are managing funds of funds, hedge funds, and
other derivative products. Alan has also advised re-insurance brokers,
UK investment banks and corporate finance firms. Alan spent a couple
of years during this latter decade of his career as a fund manager and
member of the investment committee of a UK EIS fund, investing in
venture and growth equity for UK smaller companies, with no sector
focus.
Alan has written extensively for such magazines as The Investors
Chronicle and The Hedge Fund Journal, both on fund management and
traded options. Alan is a Fellow of the Chartered Securities Institute, a Member of the Society of Technical Analysts, is a Regular Member of the CFA Institute and is a Chartered Director at the Institute of Directors.
Alan is also a Member of the Worshipful Company of International
Bankers.