The Team

The Proactiveinvestors Team:

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  Ian Mclelland - Chief Executive Officer & Contributor

  Ian Mclelland founded Proactiveinvestors in 2006 as a way to channel his own views on companies listed in London and Toronto. What started as a hobby quickly turned into a full time job as the website's readership exploded over the next six months.
  One2One forums were added later in 2006, and within two years the company had expanded its operations into Canada and Australia. In 2009 the company expanded again, into Germany and Hong Kong, and finally in 2010 the company opened an office in New York.
  Proactiveinvestors is now one of the fastest growing global financial media organisations in the world receiving more than one million visitors per month, with investor forums in London, Manchester, New York, Toronto and Sydney held on a regular basis.
  The company produces news and in-depth analysis on thousands of listed companies across the world each year in English, German, Simple and Traditional Mandarin.
  Ian's focus is now focused on the continued development of the business, liaising with his fellow directors in Australia, United States, Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom, and overseeing editorial content globally.

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  Ian Lyall - Editor & Contributor

  Ian moved to Proactive from the Daily Mail, where he was City News Editor and Investment Editor and brings with him a wealth of experience in business and finance. At the Mail Ian directed the coverage of some of the biggest stories ever to emerge from the City as the credit crunch and banking crisis felled some of the nation's biggest financial institutions. In his 15 years as a business reporter and editor Ian has worked for Dow Jones, writing stories for the international news wire and the Wall Street Journal. He also led the London company coverage for AFX News, now part of Reuters. Ian's career began on local newspapers in Kent, before moving to a national news agency. His specialist areas are pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and growth stocks.

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  Craig Ribton - Managing Director, Proactiveinvestors United Kingdom

  Graduated with a BA Honours in 2002 before moving on to become a project manager where he co-ordinated a variety of large scale projects while furthering his knowledge of the stock market. In 2003 Craig began investing in companies with a natural resource focus and in 2005 qualified in advanced web design. With growing experience in the implementation of finance media and a keen interest in investing, Craig is tasked with client communications and development, as well as growing the Proactiveinvestors’s brand, awareness and reach.

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  Sam Kiri - Managing Director, Proactiveinvestors Canada & Contributor

  Sam is in charge of Proactiveinvestors' North American operation and is also one of the analysts of the group. He has over 10 years of capital markets and asset management experience in both North America and the Pacific Rim, with primary focus on Resources and Oil & Gas sectors. He spent three years with Scotia Bank as an International Equity analyst, and was responsible for the management of the Scotia Pacific Rim Mutual Fund. Sam is a CFA Charter Holder, a qualified Management Accountant (ACMA) and has a MBA in Finance. He also has considerable academic experience spanning over 10 years teaching Financial Analysis in England.

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  Andrew McCrea - Managing Director, Proactiveinvestors Australia & Contributor

  Andrew McCrea is an emerging companies specialist and small company analyst – with a focus on emerging resources producer's listed on the ASX. Andrew has worked for Citigroup in New York & London and in Hong Kong and Malaysia as a top rated securities analyst. He has been a share market columnist and contributing writer for national newspapers and magazines in Australia and Asia – most recently for Virgin Blue magazine. Andrew has also been extensively involved in corporate finance, progressing early stage companies to IPO in Australia and North America. He is a director of U3 Capital – a stock broking/dealer specialising in small cap stocks on the ASX.

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  Ed Borrelli - Managing Director, Proactiveinvestors USA

  Edward Borrelli has over two decades of financial transaction experience, and has raised in excess of $500 million for an extensive list of clients. Ed spent several years as a senior registered broker at RAS Securities in New York and was Director, Investment Banking/ European Institutional Sales at Leeb Brokerage Services, and Senior Partner- Director of International Sales at Brookehill Equities, both in New York.

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  Carrie Howes - Director of Operations, Proactivinvestors Germany

  Event management is overseen by Carrie Howes, who runs her own Investor Relations business which offers extensive European Road shows. FSA regulated, with past experience as a broker with Union Securities, Carrie advises, assist and manages our One2One Forums in London and also offers all of our sponsors European road show options.

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  Andre Lamberti - Sub Editor, Proactiveinvestors United Kingdom

  Andre Lamberti spent ten years as sub-editor at Reuters before joining Proactiveinvestors. Before his time at Reuters, he was a copywriter for Fidelity International and Telecom Finance. Andre speaks fluent German and Dutch, and has a Masters Degree in History and Political Science.

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  Sergei Balashow - Equities Journalist

  Sergei Balashov began his journalistic career in 2001 as an op/ed writer for The North County Times before joining the Los Angeles Times' Moscow Bureau on a part time basis, while still a student at the University of Management of the Moscow Government. After graduating from alma-mater and commencing working on his PhD degree in economics, Sergei served as a senior analyst at Russian-American oil & gas consultancy Russian Petroleum Investor and as a staff writer at the Russia Profile magazine prior to moving to the UK and joining Proactiveinvestors.

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  Jamie Ashcroft - Equities Journalist

  After graduating with first class honours in Economics from Lancaster University 2006, Jamie spent a number of years as a Private Client Equity Dealer gaining front-line experience in the Investment industry during the most fast paced and volatile period in financial history. Having acquired an insight from both professional and individual investors, Jamie joined our growing editorial team in 2009.

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  Karl Loomes - Equities Analyst

  Graduating with a BSc in Economics from the University of Bath, Karl started his career as a Commodity and Equity Derivatives Analyst at Bloomberg, where he worked closely with traders and brokers alike, gaining firsthand knowledge of the financial markets. Following his stint at Bloomberg, Karl worked for a number of years at the newswire Market News International, where as a Commodity and Equity Analyst he provided both intraday and longer term analysis on the financial markets, as well as gaining a broader overview of the Fixed Income, Credit and FX markets. Karl joined Proactive Investors where he predominately covers Canadian and Australian Equities, in addition to writing ‘bigger picture' pieces on the broader markets.

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  Giles Gwinnett - Sub Editor, Proactiveinvestors Germany

  Giles Gwinnett is a qualified journalist and has worked for a number of newspapers and for a press agency. He was formerly a news analyst on the German team at Thomson Financial, now Thomson Reuters. He has a Bachelors degree in English Literature and German and a Masters in Film Studies. He currently manages content on Proactiveinvestors Germany.

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  Jeff Coote - Equities Journalist

  After graduating in Business Management from the University of Brighton in 1994, Jeff spent 10 years in Tokyo learning Japanese, teaching English and working for Bloomberg News as a Multimedia Journalist. On returning to the UK in 2005, he spent a further 3 years at Bloomberg in London before taking a sabbatical year to study for an MBA at London Metropolitan Business School. Jeff has now settled in Sydney and joined Proactiveinvestors as an Investment Writer.

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  Alastair Winter - Chief Economist

  Alastair Winter is political Chief Economist at Daniel Stewart & Company, stockbrokers and investment bankers and a corporate advisor on currency hedging, interest rates and the money markets. Writing in the heart of the City of London he is able to draw on his experience in politics, the public sector, banking and corporate finance and also as an entrepreneur, company chairman, advisor, investor and trader.

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  Deborah Sterescu - Equities Journalist

  Deborah graduated with a Masters in International Journalism from City University in 2008 before moving on to become deputy editor of private equity trade journal unquote" UK. She has written about numerous issues surrounding the private equity market including fundraising in the current economic climate, turnaround and distressed debt investing, and the IPO market in general. Deborah has also completed stints at The Times, The Independent and The Economist. She just recently moved back to her hometown in Toronto, taking on the role of equities journalist at Proactiveinvestors` Toronto office.

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  Robert Waterhouse - Contributor

  Robert is an Advisory Board Member for the global advisory and executive search firm Opus Executive Partners. With an honours degree in science, his senior management career began in 1975 on appointment as head of operational planning and performance appraisal for the British Post Office, where he worked closely with the board to successfully secure profitability at a time of high inflation and great economic difficulty; he was later appointed as head of operational policy for Royal Mail. More recently he was the CEO of Bridgegate, a British manufacturing company supplying the defence, automotive, communications and electronics sectors. Robert has over ten years experience analysing oil and gas companies, and is increasingly focussed upon issues concerning the structure, composition and capability of company boards, an area which is seldom addressed by resource-focussed analysts yet which is central to achieving shareholder value.

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  Jon Mainwaring - Contributor

  A former engineer, Jon has written about the technology sector since the mid-1990s. His career includes time spent as an analyst for Durlacher investment bank, where he researched technology companies quoted on London's Alternative Investment Market. Since 2003 he has freelanced, writing for a wide range of publications that include UK national newspapers, US technology magazines and specialist financial publications. In 2005, he was named AIM Journalist of the Year – a prestigious award conferred upon him by the London Stock Exchange.

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  Wendy Durham - Contributor

  Wendy Durham has spent the best part of 35 years scribbling busily, having been editor of several business to business magazines and PR manager for a variety of companies, including two well-known exhibition organisers. In recent years, working from home has aided and abetted an investing habit which - whilst having a patchy success record to begin with - has led to a good knowledge of the natural resource sector, where she focuses on precious and base metals.

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  Harry Norman - Contributor & Interviewer

  Harry contributes ideas, research, articles, audio interviews, and argues with Ian about big issues like strategy, the next big thing ... and the use of commas. He comes from a psychology and writing background, so he also coaches writers. Harry believes you can’t get enough gold, copper, oil, wheat etc - or enough good management!

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  Jeremy Naylor - Equities and Market Reporte

  Jeremy was a news anchor and show presenter on Bloomberg Television for 14-years, is currently with the BBC. Having had a wide range of experience in breaking news headlines, Jeremy has had the privilege of interviewing some of the biggest names in global business. Prior to joining Bloomberg Jeremy had freelance contracts with LBC, IRN and British Forces Broadcasting. He has a Law and Industrial Relations Degree, from University of Kent.

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  Nigel Stevenson - Equities and Market Reporter

  Nigel is contracted to EuroBusiness Media having spent 12 years at Bloomberg as one of the main TV anchors. He interviewed most of the Chief Executives within the FTSE-100 on a regular basis along with many European and American business leaders. Nigel also presented the Money & Politics and Emerging Markets shows. Before Bloomberg Nigel worked in local radio at BBC Radio Stoke and spent 9 months at the BBC World Service. Nigel has a degree in French from Oxford University plus a Postgraduate Diploma in Broadcast Journalism from City University.

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  Rachel Vaughn - Events Co-ordinator

  Rachel is Events Co-ordinator for Proactiveinvestors’s fortnightly forums in London and monthly events in Toronto. She ensures the smooth running of each event from initial organization, sending out invitations to attendees and liaising with the venue beforehand and during the evening. Her organizational skills and knowledge gained from her degree in Marketing Management are instrumental for her position at Proactiveinvestors.

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  Lorren de lucia - Communications Manager Australia

  Lorren joined Proactive Investors Australia's team as the Communications Manager and Events Coordinator in November 2009. She has a background in events management, guest relations and client liaison. Having previously coordinated an international leadership network, and been part of the logistic oversight team of a yearly conference for 20,000+ attendees, she is a little (too) passionate about effective organisation and customer service. Lorren is also currently studying an MBA via correspondence.

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  Catherine Keo - Client Communications & Support Manager

  Catherine thrives on fast paced work environments and loves a challenge. Most recently, Catherine worked for Ernst & Young in Strategic Growth Markets & Deloitte in Consulting & Financial Services. Catherine is now in charge of Client Communications and Accounts in our Sydney office.

• Jackie Steinitz - Contributor

  An economist by background Jackie Steinitz has worked in the fields of economics, statistics, market research and strategic planning in the transport and mining sectors. Previous employers have included Charter Consolidated/Anglo American and De Beers, where, inter alia, she was involved in forecasting short- and long-term trends, and she organised and analysed research projects in 20+ countries. She now works as a journalist and consultant.

• Oliver Haill - Contributor

  Oliver Haill is the former head of research at business and investment publisher Vitesse Media Plc, where he mined and analysed data on small cap stocks. As a senior staff writer for Growth Company Investor magazine and its associated website, Oliver wrote about hundreds of fast-growing companies, across the whole range of industrial sectors.