Colin is Chief Executive and founder of Crescent Capital and has been an active venture capital investor in the local high tech sector for the past thirty years. His team of investment professionals have completed investments in around forty companies in Northern Ireland.
Crescent has raised over £80m to date from government, private and institutional investors; its investments include several which are widely regarded as being among the most promising locally owned businesses, including Lagan Technologies, APT, Omiino, Maildistiller, Nisoft, Speechstorm, Analytics Engines, Humain, Right Revenue and Andor Technology plc.
Colin has achieved a number of successful trade sales and three flotations, including Trafficmaster plc which he was instrumental in floating on the London Stock Exchange in 1994 when working at Hambros plc. Colin was a director and subsequently chairman of Trafficmaster until 2009. He invested in Andor in 1997 and was instrumental in achieving its flotation on AIM in 2004. Andor grew to become a world leader in the field of scientific imaging cameras with revenues of almost £60m per annum and over 400 employees. Colin was chairman of Andor until its sale in early 2014 to Oxford Instruments Plc for £176m. In 2017 Colin was instrumental in the flotation of Fusion Antibodies PLC.
He is currently chairman of Regen Waste Holdings Limited and Replify Limited and also holds directorships at Fusion Antibodies PLC, Right Revenue Limited, and Humain Limited.
Colin completed a two year term as CBI chair for Northern Ireland and served for five years on the UK board of Barnardos. More recently, he served for five years on the board of Ulster Garden Villages, the local philanthropy organisation In 2019 he was awarded an MBE in recognition of his services to business. Having served on the boards of many local companies and been chairman of several, he has first-hand experience of the various challenges facing the business sector within Northern Ireland.