Team
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Robert Hook
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Robert Hook
Bob founded Prelude Ventures in 1984 and led that business through its merger with Cazenove Private Equity in 2006. He is now chairman of DFJ Esprit.
Bob was a founding member of the European Venture Capital Association High Tech Committee, and also a past member of the British Venture Capital Association High Tech Committee.
With a portfolio largely in the physical sciences sector, Bob has played an instrumental role in the formation of a number of companies and serves as a director of ZBD Displays, m-spatial and Polatis. Bob also manages DFJ Esprit's exclusive seed fund relationship with CCL. His past successes have included Cambridge Positioning Systems (sold to CSR Plc), FillFactory (sold to Cypress Semiconductor), Vocalis (IPO on LSE) and Xaar (IPO on LSE).
An electronic and communications engineer by training, Bob spent much of his early career with Cambridge Consultants Limited (CCL) and has recently been instrumental in the formation of a seed fund which will see DFJ Esprit and CCL co-invest in CCL’s spin out activity going forward.
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Simon Cook
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Simon Cook
Simon is the CEO of DFJ Esprit and has been involved with the UK venture capital industry since 1995. In 2006 he led the merger of Cazenove Private Equity with Prelude Ventures and in 2007 he completed the next stage of Esprit’s expansion plan, negotiating the partnership with DFJ to form DFJ Esprit. Previously Simon was a partner with Elderstreet Investments and a Director at 3i in Cambridge.
He has been involved with a number of Europe’s most successful technology start-ups. His past successes include Cambridge Silicon Radio, Virata, nCipher and KVS. Simon is now responsible for DFJ Esprit’s investment in LOVEFiLM. Prior to venture capital, Simon worked as a strategy and IT consultant at KPMG (where he established the Internet practice) and as a computer games developer.
Simon is a graduate of University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST).
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Nic Brisbourne
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Nic Brisbourne
Nic has been in venture capital since 2000. In that time he has worked in London, Europe and Silicon Valley. His main areas of focus have been software and media. Prior to DFJ Esprit he was with Reuters Venture Capital.
Nic's investment experience includes buy.at (sold to AOL for $125m) and UltraDNS (acquired by Neustar - NYSE NSR). He currently manages DFJ Esprit's investments in Zeus, WAYN and Tribold.
Prior to joining Reuters Nic worked for Operis, a software and services start-up, and Cap Gemini. Nic also authors a blog commenting on the European technology and venture capital markets. Please see www.theequitykicker.com
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Stuart Chapman
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Stuart Chapman
Prior to joining Esprit in Febuary 2005 Stuart was a Partner of 3i Ventures. He was also a founding partner of 3i US, based in Menlo Park, CA.
Stuart had 13 years of venture capital experience with 3i in Europe and the USA. While he was at 3i US he was responsible for 3i's investments in Still Secure, CollegeNet, Appshop and Digital 5. Following his return from the US in October 2003 he was responsible for 3i’s investments in The Cloud and Searchspace, the IPO of Pixology and the sale of Magic 4 to Openwave. Stuart is responsible for DFJ Esprit’s investments in Road Angel, Lagan Technology, WAYN.com and Connectivity.
Stuart is a member of the British Venture Capital Association High Tech Committee. Prior to 3i, Stuart was involved in software and systems implementations in the Banking sector. He is a graduate of Loughborough University.
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Alan Duncan
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Alan Duncan
Alan has been in the venture capital industry for more than twenty years, initially through establishing a corporate venturing fund for Ferranti and then with Foreign & Colonial Ventures and Newmarket Venture Capital. He joined Prelude Ventures in 1996.
Alan is responsible for a portfolio of DFJEsprit’s electronics investments including Phyworks, Xanadu Wireless, Lime Microsystems, SiConnect, XMOS and DisplayLink. His previous investments have included Alphamosaic (sold to Broadcom) and nCipher (IPO on LSE).
Alan has an electronic engineering background and gained his industrial experience in computer systems with Ferranti plc.Alan is a past member of the European Venture Capital Association High Tech Committee and lectures regularly on EVCA’s venture capital professional training courses.
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Robert James
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Robert James
Rob James manages DFJEsprit’s portfolio of healthcare and medical technology investments. Since joining Prelude Ventures in 1998, he has been involved in a number of successful transactions including the exits from Oxford Biomedica and DNA Research Innovations.
Rob manages DFJEsprit’s investments in Sciona, Oxford Immunotec, KiadisPharma and De Novo Pharmaceuticals.
Prior to his time in venture capital, Robert worked for seven years commercialising cancer therapeutics and diagnostics arising from the research conducted by Cancer Research UK. He was responsible for licensing Temodal to Schering Plough (generating annual sales in excess of $600m) and Trovax to Oxford Biomedica.
Rob graduated with a genetics degree from Sheffield University and a biochemistry PhD from the University of London. He has also served on the BVCA Technology Committee for four years.
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Paul Murray
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Paul Murray
Paul has been involved in European venture capital since 1995. He was previously a Director of 3i’s UK technology business where he was responsible for over twenty investments at 3i. His past successes include Bookham Technology (NASDAQ: BKHM), Oxford Glycosciences (acquired by Celltech plc), Microcosm (acquired by Conexant) and Neos Networks (acquired by Scottish & Southern).
Paul is responsible for DFJ Esprit’s investments in Imagine Communications, Tagsys RFID, The Listening Company, PacketExchange and Intense Photonics. He also led the sale of Blackspider to SurfControl in July 2006.
Paul is a graduate of St Anne’s College, Oxford University with a degree in Mathematics.
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Cedric Latessa
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Cedric Latessa
Cedric has been involved in venture capital since 2000 and joined DFJ Esprit in 2007 as an Investment Manager. Prior to this Cedric worked for BIP, a private equity fund investing in high tech companies, where he invested in companies such as TiGenix (IPO), Cima Nanotech and 21Net. He also led a number of venture capital fund investments including Life Science Partners, Carlyle and Vertex. He has held internships at Mangrove (Luxembourg), Milenio Capital (Madrid), FCJE (Paris) and also worked at the EIF.
Cedric holds three masters’ degrees in Business, Corporate Finance and European Politics from Sciences-Po Paris and is fluent in English and Spanish, in addition to his native French.
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Graham Redman
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Graham Redman
Graham joined the Esprit team in November 2006 and is responsible for the financial and IT systems of the firm. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers working primarily with SMEs before moving into industry. After leaving PwC Graham became the Senior Accounting Manager for INC Research, a US Research Triangle based CRO before taking a Controllership position at Unitive Electronics, a venture-backed semi-conductor packaging company based in the US.
Graham holds an MA in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University where he studied at Sidney Sussex College.
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William Reeve
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William Reeve
William Reeve joined DFJ Esprit as a Venture Partner in 2008. A serial entrepreneur and early-stage investor, William’s primary focus areas are e-commerce and business services.
William co-founded, Fletcher Research, which became the UK’s leading internet research firm before Forrester Research (NASDAQ: FORR) bought it in 1999. William’s second business, now trading as LOVEFiLM.com, has grown organically and by acquisition to become the leading international online DVD rental business. At LOVEFiLM.com, which DFJ Esprit has backed since 2004, William served in a variety of roles including President, Managing Director, acting CEO and COO; he left the business after helping to manage the acquisition of Amazon’s DVD rental business early in 2008. William serves as Non-Executive Director with several other UK-based high-growth companies. A former McKinsey consultant, William has a first class Masters degree from Oxford University.
