Malcolm Gloak - Fund Management, Catalyst
When I left Oxford University with a Classics Degree in 1974, the move into the business world seemed a rather daunting leap into the unknown! I joined 3i (or ICFC as it was then known) as a trainee, I thought for probably three years to learn about the financial and commercial sectors. In the end I stayed for 28 years, as ICFC developed from a regional UK backer of small businesses into the international quoted private equity institution that 3i has become. Initially as investor, then team leader, and ultimately senior director, I built up considerable experience in all types of venture capital and private equity transactions, ranging from MBO’s, MBI’s and Development Capital to Technology investments and Start Ups.
In my time at 3i I worked for, with, and mentored many of the individuals who populate the UK Venture Capital industry today. Indeed 3i became known as the University of the Venture Capital Industry. Where ICFC once had the UK market pretty much to itself, the industry has now developed into a highly competitive, successful and influential sector.
Throughout the 1990’s, I was a member of 3i’s UK Management Committee, responsible for the strategy and tactics of the UK business – an overhead if you wanted to be rude! In my last 3 years there, however, I was able to re-engage with investee companies themselves, operating as a Non Executive Director on the boards of some of 3i’s more significant and institutionally owned companies, the most well known of which would be MORI, the market research and opinion pollster.
On leaving 3i in 2003, I embarked on what I think they call a portfolio career as an Independent Director on the boards of both private and public companies. The most interesting and challenging role to date was first as NXD, then Non Exec Chairman, and finally Executive Chairman of the quoted Systems Integration company Diagonal plc. As Exec Chairman over the summer of 2004, I piloted the £50m plus successful sale of the company to another quoted company Morse plc.
Since the spring of 2005, I have been assisting Rod on a part time basis in the management of a number of Catalyst’s investments form its first fund, ultimately with the objective of securing successful realizations of those investments as the fund draws to the end of its life. The opportunity to work with Rod on the new fund, targeted at the Social Business Sector, is an exciting one. I hope my broad experience as venture capitalist and board director will add value, both to the fund itself as it invests and to the investee companies themselves as they seek to develop in this growing sector.