Judges

Judges
Sync the City has brought together a panel of experienced and esteemed judges with significant startup and investment experiemce. They are waiting to see what Norwich can do!

John Bradford : Managing Director, Techstars


Jon is the Managing Director of TechStars in London. Previously Jon was the co-founder and CEO of Springboard. Jon loves to help start-ups and their founders achieve their true potential. Over the last 2 years, Jon acted as an advisor to many other multi-company accelerators from Montreal to Moscow. Since launching Europe’s first bootcamp accelerator in 2009 - The Difference Engine – he helped to launch Springboard now based in Cambridge and London. In addition, he has also founded ignite100, a re-invention of the Difference Engine, that combines a 13 week accelerator with follow on funding of up to £100k per team and Startup Wise Guys in Estonia, Eleven in Bulgaria and TexDrive in Moscow. In a previous life, Jon trained as an accountant with Arthur Andersen, and subsequently has worked in various start-ups and turnarounds. He has worked in London, throughout Europe, Australia and also the United States.

James Duez : Serial Entrepreneur turned Angel Investor
James is a Serial Entrepreneur turned Angel Investor with a track record in business and technology innovation spanning over 20 years. He is highly experienced, working with international blue-chip organisations and governments. He is drawn to disruptive technology and highly scaleable business models, helping start-ups focusing on both the development and commercialisation of their new technology. Over the past 18 months, James has made investments in a number of early-stage technology businesses including Proxama (proximity mobile), Rainbird (artificial intelligence), Optalysys (high-speed computing) and Cuju Media (viral gaming). James currently holds five board positions, two as Chairman. He is known for being results-driven with a focus on growth and sustainability. He is an evangelist for Norwich's technology scene and a complete Jazz freak.

Anastasia Emmanuel : Indiegogo and Presenter, Tech City News
Anastasia Emmanuel is the UK Marketing & Community Manager at Indiegogo. Anastasia is also a technology reporter and presenter, hosting a weekly tech news video roundup on leading UK technology website, Tech City News. Graduating from The University of Nottingham, Anastasia has worked in new media and technology for several years, specialising in startup content production and marketing. She has been entrenched in the UK startup scene for the past 5 years, having managed London based video production company, Newspepper.

Tim O'Shea : Investor
Following studying Engineering at Oxford, Tim embarked on a short career in adventure travel and humanitarian aid before returning to the UK to start a series of internet businesses in 2000. The most successful of these was Blurtit, a Q&A Social Network he founded in 2006. Tim’s interest in investment sparked in 2008 after he read the Intelligent Investor, seeing the light he learnt than owning a stock is just like owning your own business with one key difference - you can choose the ones with the best management and economics. Since 2008 his portfolio has significantly outperformed the FTSE 100 and the S&P 500 (and in fact the majority of funds). Tim now manages funds for clients.

Tom Wood : Co-founder, Foolproof
Tom is a co-founder of Foolproof, Europe’s biggest specialist in user experience design. He’s spent twelve years building Foolproof from two people in a Portakabin into a business of 90 people with clients like Sony, Thomas Cook, Shell and the BBC. Before that had a career in brand and advertising at places like Ogilvy and Virgin Money. Tom is deeply committed to the Norwich scene for digital creativity. He is one of the instigators/organisers of the Hot Source meet-up group and has spent years making connections and creating opportunities for start-ups and small businesses in the area. Tom’s professional passion is for customer research and data, particularly for weaving an understanding of people into delightful products and services which in turn create business value.

Emma Swift : Tech City
Emma is Manager of Entrepreneur Relations at Tech City, where she is building programmes to support the growth of tech clusters across the UK. She previously worked for Teneo Strategy in New York, advising the CEO office of Fortune 500 companies on strategic communications and government affairs, and supported the company’s move to London in 2012. In addition she held positions within the Northern Ireland Assembly and the US House of Representatives. She holds a masters from the University of St Andrews and lives in South London.

Neil Garner : CEO, Proxama
Neil founded Proxama in 2005 (then called Glue4 Technologies). The business focused on creating services that link people and brands using consumer technologies. In 2008, the company was rebranded as Proxama with a focus on the applications of mobile, smartcard and NFC technologies. Neil passionately believes in using emerging technologies to create valuable services for people. Prior to founding Proxama, Neil ran a division of a niche consultancy, Consult Hyperion, where he led the systems implementation teams for a number of ground breaking products including Vodafone’s m-Pesa, MasterCard’s PayPass, Sky and Barclaycard’s SkyCard and American Express Blue card. Neil has a MEng and DPhil from York University and is a Chartered Engineer. Any precious time at home is split between renovating an old property and enjoying life with his wife and three young children.