About us

Nick is co-founder and director of Green Angel Syndicate, the first business angel syndicate in the UK to specialise in investments in energy and water sectors. Nick is a marketing and sales specialist with over ten years' experience building up a new applied research institute in the eco and environmental arena: International Resources and Recycling Institute (IRRI).  

Nick has been asked to speak at numerous conferences around the UK and Europe on matters concerning sustainable resources, and has been invited to assess innovation competitions in the UK run by the Technology Strategy Board (now Innovate UK) and Scottish Government. He has also served on charitable Boards for the Big Issue Scotland, and Dundee Cyrenians, as well as many commercial Boards ranging from sectors as varied as Denholm Ship Management and Drambuie Liqueur Company. 

He founded GAS in order to use the knowledge gained from the research world to help to commercialise resource use innovations effectively and successfully, for the greater benefit of the green economy. Nick is married, has three children, and lives in Edinburgh.

Nick co-Directs Green Angel Syndicate with Simon.

Michael graduated in Law from Cambridge University and spent 5 years in the City of London as a financial commodities trader. He then became an entrepreneur buying and managing a business specialising in printing on plastics for 9 years and selling it to an Irish conglomerate.  He has had experience of chairing, advising, raising finance for and managing many small companies, and for 25 years he has invested successfully as a business angel in the UK. He is the co-author of ‘Successful Business Plans’, trustee of 2 charities and on the investment committee of the Angel CoFund.

​Simon Acland has spent 30 years investing in young technology businesses. Much of his venture capital career he spent at Quester, which he helped to build into one of the UK’s most active early stage technology investors. Seven of the companies that he has backed achieved public listings on the London Stock Exchange, AIM, Nasdaq or Easdaq, including two companies which reached the FTSE 250; many others have been successfully sold.

​Since Quester’s sale in 2007, Simon has been an active business angel investor and currently chairs two start-ups including Powervault, a leader in the emerging domestic energy storage market. He sits on the board of two Triple Point VCTs which invest primarily in renewable energy and is a member of the investment committee of the British Business Bank’s Angel CoFund. He is also a Trustee of Plantlife, the UK’s main wild plant conservation charity.

His book Angels, Dragons and Vultures – how to tame your investors…and not lose your company is regarded as one of the most helpful guides for entrepreneurs to the venture capital world.

Simon co-Directs Green Angel Syndicate with Nick.

Derek Eltringham is an experienced management consultant with over 45 years of industrial and consulting experience. He is a specialist in the formulation of competitive business strategies and in helping clients implement sustainable change to effect the implementation of strategy and the improvement of operational performance. He has experience of working in many countries, on five continents, in consulting and interim roles at executive and Board levels, in a wide range of industry sectors including oil and gas, maritime and land transport, manufacturing and pharmaceuticals. Derek has a keen interest in assisting businesses that are starting in the green economy to survive and thrive by being effective and efficient in all elements of their value chain.

Since 2001 John has been an investor in and advisor to numerous early stage businesses, normally coupled with a role as NXD or Chairman. He has also undertaken strategic evaluation and due diligence assignments with Advent International, Charterhouse, J.P.Morgan and 3i. He was an associate of the Beer and Partners angel network from 2006 to 2009. Previous to 2001 he worked for major corporations – Bowater, BP, Unilever, ICI, for the last 15 years as Chairman/Chief Executive of international businesses with scenarios including rapid organic growth, complex restructuring and multiple acquisitions and disposals. John is Chairman of the Green Angel Syndicate board.

Federico Castelli has extensive international experience in the energy and industrial sectors. He has worked across all segments of the power, gas and oil value chains as well as for global industrial companies. He has completed commercial, strategic, financial, M&A and operational assignments, while managing P&L, and leading multi-cultural and multi-functional departments and organisations. He has a nuclear engineering background complemented with business administration degree from Yale University. His most recent experience is in the renewable sector (wind, solar, biomass, biogas, biofuel) with roles such as country manager (for a Danish infrastructure fund), head of international sales, head of finance and strategy (for a major Danish Utility). He is currently working as global director for product management and commercial excellence at a leading global industrial company. 

Antoine has more than 15 years of experience in equity research, specialising in the telecom sector, hence he has in-depth knowledge of the worlds of telecoms and investment. He was an executive director and partner with Exane BNP Paribas, based in Paris initially and in London since 2005. In 2015, he turned to angel investing, with a particular focus on cleantech and clean energy, smart cities, robotics and ed-tech. He is passionate about companies applying innovative technologies to help make the world a more sustainable place. He has attended Ecole Polytechnique and Telecom Paris Tech where he studied studied economics and finance as well as tech and telecoms. Antoine manages the research, analysis and writing required for the blog post and articles published by Green Angel Syndicate.

Bekir Sami Acar has a background in energy and telecom utilities including C-suite and Board positions. He has intimate knowledge on grids, retail, trading, renewables and has been involved in numerous greenfield, M&A and restructuring projects. He is providing investment management and advisory services out of London as well as pursuing investments into cleantech and renewable space. He holds an Executive MBA degree from Columbia Business School and London Business School.

Cam Ross co-founded, jointly ran and raised 2 rounds of Business Angel funding for a contact centre payments business, with an exit by sale to AIM-listed Eckoh plc. Cam is currently Director of Payments Strategy for Eckoh. He focuses on new and inventive security and payments products for the contact centre industry. Cam is an Aeronautical Engineer by training, and has experience in creating, commercialising and patenting new technology. He has 5 granted patents in the fields of telecommunications, payments and customer authentication. He has a practical ability to analyse and improve complex processes, from manufacturing to software systems. Cam is managing Technical Due Diligence for Green Angel Syndicate.

James Heath is an Oxford educated engineer, who has had a wide & varied career, working in R & D for process engineering control, power engineering in the third world, manufacturing process improvement and latterly software & hardware engineering in the payments sector, with a track record of innovating and three patents to his name. He has a broad understanding of a wide range of engineering fields, and grasps new engineering concepts rapidly. He has experience of the roles of Business Angels from both sides, as the co-founder of a start-up, and as an investor in another.

David Sheridan’s background is in international marketing and communications including senior management and C-Suite experience with Publicis, BAT, Showtime Middle East (a resident of Dubai for 7 years) and WPP. He has been a founder partner in three digital businesses one of which was sold to Publicis in 2011. An active private investor since 1986, David’s portfolio has diversified in recent years to include start-up and early stage businesses. He is a founder member of RESOC, a fund specialising in early stage resource companies and is now playing a more active role (whilst adding a ‘greener’ tint to his portfolio) with Green Angel Syndicate, in which David takes responsibility for marketing and sales management.

Caroline Halliday has 20 years of technical, commercial and management experience, with a background in Chemical Engineering with British Gas and BP and later becoming a derivatives and Crude Oil Trader with BP. Following a move back to Scotland, Caroline gained a further Masters in Environmental Management and joined The Scottish Environment Protection Agency. Here, Caroline specialised in projects focussing on resource efficiency and waste management, later joining the Senior Operations Management Team. Caroline has been a Business Angel for several years, with a portfolio of investments in both private and social enterprise companies and has a strong interest in energy and resource efficiency. In addition, she is a Chair and Trustee of two charities. 

Roger Simpson is a seasoned strategist with over 48 years’ industrial and consulting experience. He is a specialist in applying techniques such as scenario planning, advanced economic modeling and game theory to strategic investment and due diligence. He has worked in some 25 countries on five continents, covering the entire value chains in the oil and gas, utilities (water and energy) and pharmaceuticals sectors, acting or advising at C-suite and Board levels. He has a keen interest in green economics, especially in the water and energy sectors, which he is promoting through participation in GAS. Roger was an Honorary British Consul in West Africa, is a "Chevalier d’Honneur" in "l’Ordre Congolais du Mérite", and received Du Pont's "Environmental Respect Award". Roger is Chairman of the new Advisory Group.

Tim Revill is a "retired" chartered accountant with a background in financial services and property development. Tim founded and was CEO of a cross-border financial services business, STM Group Plc, undertaking an IPO on the AIM market in 2007. He also played a leading role in listing European Wealth Management Group on AIM in 2014, through a reverse takeover. Since "retirement" in 2010, Tim has built a portfolio of angel investments in the renewable energy sector and is particularly interested in solar PV. Tim was resident in Spain for over 30 years and relocated to Guernsey, Channel Islands, two years ago. Tim acts as NED or Non Executive Chairman for several companies and has experience of chairing audit committees for public companies. Tim has invested in over 12 early stage companies and continues to learn the tricks of the trade.  

Tony started working life in Automotive Engineering with worldwide travel to all major automobile manufacturers to assist in component specification. He was Resident Engineer in a South African subsidiary followed by a similar role as technical manager in a Parisian subsidiary. He joined a specialist engineering company as Technical Sales Manager, helped grow sales 10 fold, before forming part of a successful MBO team. He continued to help significantly grow the business as Marketing director before helping set up a successful trade sale to a large American company in 2013. Since 2014 has become involved in investing in mainly technical based EIS opportunities. Qualifications include MBA and MSc.

John Waters is an investor in, and advisor to, start-up companies/early stage ventures, drawing on his experience of leading high growth, privately held businesses, serving multi-national clients, and successfully driving innovation to grow new business. For a number of these companies, he advises or mentors the CEO and senior leadership team, and provides strategic input on sales and operational issues. He was previously with ERM, the world's leading sustainability consultancy, retiring in late 2016 after almost 20 years with the company. He served in a range of executive leadership roles, serving multinational clients needs, tailoring ERM services to respond to these evolving needs, and driving growth in ERM's capabilities to meet the growing demand for these services. His ERM roles included EMEA Commercial Director, Global Managing Partner and member of the ERM Global Executive Team.