Solving the World’s Challenges, Profitably

Paul took up the Chief Executive Officer role at Charles Stanley, in December 2014. A graduate of Keble College, Oxford; Paul joined Charles Stanley as Chief Investment Officer-designate in June 2014.

Prior to this appointment Paul was the interim Chief Executive Officer of Aviva Investors Holdings Ltd and Aviva Investors Global Services Ltd, and a member of the Aviva Group Executive Committee, leading a series of strategic re-alignments with Aviva Investors Holdings Ltd where he’d worked since 2008.

Prior to Aviva Investors, Paul spent eight years at ABN AMRO Asset Management as Chief Investment Officer for the company’s Fixed Income and Investment Solutions Division as well as being Chairman of the company’s London Board and a member of the Global Executive Management Team.

Professor Jerome Engel is an internationally recognized expert on innovation, entrepreneurship, and venture capital, lecturing and advising business and government leaders around the world. Most recently he has focused on lean innovation entrepreneurship and developing innovation ecosystems globally. He is also active in energy and water desalination policy and investing. After a successful business career, Professor Engel joined the faculty of the University of California at Berkeley in 1991 to found the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, where he currently serves as Senior Fellow and Founding Executive Director Emeritus.

At Berkeley he fostered the creation of an internationally distinguished program that provides entrepreneurship education across the University and its constituent community. He was the Founding National Faculty Director of the National Science Foundations’ I-Corps, a US government program that develops entrepreneurial technology commercialization teams at leading universities across the United States. Jerry served in this position for five years. He is an Adjunct Professor Emeritus at the Haas School of Business, Faculty Director of UC Berkeley’s Venture Capital Executive Program, and instructs in both the School’s MBA and Executive Education programs, specializing in Entrepreneurship, Corporate Innovation, New Venture Finance, and Venture Capital.

He serves on the Boards of Directors and Advisory Boards of several entrepreneurial ventures, venture capital firms, universities and innovation centers around the world. An accomplished author and advisor on building Clusters of innovation, Jerry has also been cited in the Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio and other global media.

Professor Engel’s awards and recognitions include the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance Lifetime Educational Achievement Award, the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers Award for Outstanding Contributions to Advance the Discipline of Entrepreneurship, among others.

Priya is Venture Partner at Merian Ventures, a Venture Capital firm investing in women-led innovation, a NED at Reach PLC, UK Research & Innovation, the Digital Catapult & GB Badminton, an Advisor to Kheiron Medical Technologies and Gallos and Adjunct Faculty at the Hult Ashridge Business School.

She was previously Ecosystem General Manager for RocketSpace, a San Francisco HQ-ed company helping high-growth tech startups and corporate innovators bring the future to market, launching their UK operations. Prior to RocketSpace, Priya was a career diplomat for the UK Government posted as British Consul General to San Francisco and previously in India and Spain.

Priya sits on the Royal Academy of Engineering International Committee and Leaders in Innovation Fellowship Steering Committee, Durham University Business School International Advisory Board, Althea Foundation Board, Tech London Advocates and Global Tech Advocates Advisory Boards. She is also a Trustee of Tech She Can, a not-for-profit charity focussed on ensuring women play an equal role in creating and developing technology businesses.

Priya was awarded an MBE in 2021 for services to international trade and women in innovation. She was recently named in the 2022 Inspiring Fifty Top Fifty Women in European Tech. She speaks Spanish and Italian.