Serial Technology Entrepreneur: Inma Martinez, ESCAPE VELOCITY
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Inma Martinez, Founder, ESCAPE VELOCITY Advisor, EU TECHNOLOGY COMMISSION
A Serial Technology Entrepreneur In Telecoms, Digital Media, Internet (TMI) as well as emerging technologies (BioTech, Neurosciences) at the nexus of innovation and the practicalities of how corporations are changing their processes around these new technologies driving their businesses. After holding executive positions in financial institutions (Goldman,Sachs) and the telecommunications sector (Cable & Wireless), Inma left the corporate world to found in 2000 one of the first UK entrepreneurial ventures of the dot.com era. Escape Velocity, funded by 3i, became one of the first providers of personalisation software to international mobile operators and handsets manufacturers.
Inma continued founding and leading at the helm two other companies, the latter one in Finland, Visual Radio, who later sold to NOKIA and whose software can be found in every multimedia handset of the Finnish mobile giant. In 2006 she founded Stradbroke Advisors, a corporate advisory and fund-raising firm in the Telecoms, Media, Internet (TMI) and emerging technologies (BioTech, Neurosciences). She is an advisor to the EU Technology Commission, the UKTI China Mission and a Freeman and Liveryman of the Information Technologists Company, where she is the Chair of the Digital Media Panel. |
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Partner's Eye View Of Transformational IT
Melanie Farquharson, Consultant,
3KITES
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A Partner with a passionate belief in the power of technology to bring about transformation, even in a profession which is notoriously attached to established ways of working is notable, Melanie puts into practice a belief that market forces – in the form of clients - will increasingly force lawyers to change, by punishing inefficiency and rewarding innovation.
Melanie joined 3Kites Consulting in 2007 from Simmons & Simmons where she had been a partner since 1994. From 2001, after more than 14 years of fee-earning experience she moved into a central role in the firm with responsibility for knowledge management. During the following six years, Melanie became increasingly aware of the potential for technology to change the way that lawyers work, by dramatically improving both efficiency and client service. At Simmons & Simmons she was involved in a number of technology related projects, including the implementation of PMS and CRM systems, workflow and document management, as well as the more traditional knowledge management tools. This has given her a wealth of experience of specifying, purchasing and implementing technology in the professional services environment. She also brings experience of knowledge services for clients, both from her responsibility for Simmons & Simmons' online legal resource, elexica and from the firm's involvement in the ground breaking Banking Legal Technology (BLT) portal.
Having practised law in a major international firm and been involved in its management, Melanie sees her role as a consultant at 3Kites as helping to bridge the communication gap and assist firms in implementing solutions that lawyers can readily work with. This means not only finding and implementing the right technology but also identifying how working practices need to change so that the firm gets value from its investment and persuading lawyers to embrace that change. |
Founder Partnership Practitioners: David Furst
Partner
HOWATH CLARK WHITEHILL |
David is a partner in the firm's Professional Practices Group and Chairman of Horwath Clark Whitehill. He is also a member of the Board of Crowe Horwath International. Until April 2004 he was the firm’s Chief Executive and before that Finance Partner. He was a founding committee member of The Association of Partnership Practitioners and currently a member of its Multi-Disciplinary Practice subcommittee.
David’s background is in tax but his client work is now focused on the provision of strategic and management advice for professional clients. He has provided practical advice to firms moving to LLP status and looks forward to assisting firms on the opportunities that will be afforded by the Legal Services Reforms.
David is immediate past-President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales where he had overall responsibility for the Institute’s newly formed Advisory Boards.
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Cyber Security Expert:
Hagai M. Segal,
Analyst and Consultant on Online Terrorism,
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY IN LONDON |
The leading expert on cyber security and the impact on corporations. Hagai M. Segal is an award winning academic, consultant and analyst, specialising in the Middle East and Asia, radical Islamism/modern terrorism, and geo-strategic and economic risk. Segal has a long track record as a consultant, analyst and advisor to numerous banks, finance/investment houses, international corporations, business groups, security and police agencies and politicians across the globe.
He specialises in analysis of geo-strategic and economic risk factors – specifically developments in terrorism – increasingly online terrorism, the Middle-East and Asia, and developments in US Foreign Policy – and how these factors affect global and regional security and the global economy. He has additionally participated in top-level Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. www.hagaisegal.com |
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New Outsourcing Research: Tony Hodgson,
Consulting Partner PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS |
Tony is a Partner in PwC’s Consulting practice and he leads this practice across all sectors in the London region. He has over 20 years of Consulting experience, advising clients undergoing significant change and leading consulting teams that provide strategy, process, technology and change management skills to address clients’ needs.
In recent years, Tony and PwC’s Consulting practice have worked increasingly in the legal sector in areas such as Outsourcing Advisory, Transformation of Business Support Services, Procurement, Cost Reduction and IT Strategy & Implementation.
PwC is the largest professional services firm in the UK, providing a range of Assurance, Tax and Advisory services to its clients. The firm is one of the leading advisors to the legal sector and publishes an annual law firm survey which is participated in by many firms, including 80% of the Top 50 firms in 2009. Tony is a member of the survey editorial team.
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Top Legal Leader: Alan Jenkins,
Chairman,
EVERSHEDS |
In addition to chairing the board of Eversheds LLP, he is responsible for Eversheds International strategic development. He was formerly managing partner of Frere Cholmeley Bischoff, before its merger with Eversheds. As a lawyer, he has practised in the fields of commercial litigation, international arbitration and professional negligence and has worked on many high profile cases. He has dealt with various governments agencies and state owned bodies around the world.
He was Head of the Environmental Law Group at Frere Cholmeley Bischoff. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce and the Society of Advanced Legal Studies and he has spoken and written on a variety of topics. He has part written International & Commerce Fraud (published by Sweet & Maxwell - 2001) and “Dossiers - Arbitration, Money Laundering, Corruption and Fraud” published by the ICC Institute of World Business Law (2003). He is Vice Chairman of the boards of trustees of the International Institute for Environment and Development and of the Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development and also a trustee of GAP Activity Projects Ltd. He was educated at New College Oxford. |
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Top Legal Leader: Keith Wood,
CEO,
SJ BERWIN |
Keith Wood has the dubious accolade of having survived more than four decades working in the City. After a brief spell with the Bank of England, he sought the roller coaster excitement of investment banking. Having survived Big Bang, an enforced three day week working by candlelight in the 1970’s, two take-overs, and the first bank to use Chapter 11 as a get out of jail process, not to mention a recession or two, Keith thought he would welcome a change from the kaleidoscopic management practices of investment banking.
In 1990 Keith joined SJ Berwin, anticipating an easier ride and a rest from the relentless and unforgiving pace of the City. Surely lawyers would be easier to manage than a bunch of intellectually arrogant, profit oriented investment bankers? How wrong can one man be? However Keith’s expertise of taking complex management issues, presenting them in straightforward terms and offering simple, practical solutions seemed to engender more debate than decisions with the partnership. Consequently, as a non-lawyer Chief Executive, he adopted guerrilla-style tactics to inveigle his way into this tightly knit group of first-class brains and engage them constructively in the black art of managing a highly profitable business.
Keith has enjoyed a captivating and insightful journey through this dense jungle of a legal partnership in one of the fastest growing City law firms. He believes this experience will benefit him in his next career goal - to manage the Royal Opera House. |
Legal Social Media: Rupert Collins-White, Head of Content, legalsupportnetwork.co.uk
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Rupert is head of content for cutting edge social media community for legal, legalsupportnetwork.co.uk. Legalsupportnetwork.co.uk - LSN - enables anyone working in law firm management, regardless of the size of firm to connect with others in the same sector to share common practical issues, experience and knowledge. The LSN community is made up of thousands of professionals working across a host of business services sectors from firms throughout the UK .
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