Meet Our Team

With an extensive background in chemical manufacturing and processing, James’ career spans both sides of the Atlantic. He worked for Dow Corning (now Dow) for more than 16 years in the UK and United States, where he became global product manager for its electronics and advanced materials business.

He also led an internal start-up for the development of silicon nanoparticle-based inks for printed electronics. Since then, he was the general manager/managing director for Polyone Corporation (now Avient) and the vice president, Global Business Development, at Carlisle Fluid Technologies.

In 2020, he joined Promethean Particles as CEO. He holds an M. Eng in chemical engineering from Swansea University, an MBA from Manchester Business School, and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

Marina is part of Mercia’s VCT investment team and is involved in identifying new investment opportunities, completing transactions and supporting Mercia’s portfolio companies.

Marina joined Mercia in February 2022. Before then, she worked at Oxford University Innovation, where she helped create spinouts, raised investment for these companies and supported them through Board roles. After 8 years in the world of science and tech transfer, Marina has experience in commercialising technologies from various disciplines such as biotech, renewable fuels, energy storage, materials, software, and drug development, among others. She holds a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Nottingham.

Since 2023, Lisa is an investor at the corporate venture capital group of Aramco – Aramco Ventures. She works for the strategic sustainability fund with focus on European climate tech deals targeting industrial decarbonisation and lower carbon fuels.

Before joining Aramco Ventures, Lisa was portfolio manager at Chemovator, BASF’s inhouse (pre-)seed investor and company builder, which she contributed to set up as incubation operations manager in a small team back in 2018.

The passion for (early-stage) company building, venture capital and deep-tech sparked in previous positions at BASF, Novo Nordisk, and her co-founder role at a university edtech startup.

She holds a MSc. degree in Innovation Management, a B.Sc. in International Management and has international working experience in Hong Kong, Denmark, Canada, Germany, and the UK.

Mike is co-founder and chief investment officer at TSP Ventures, an early-stage environmental and climate tech venture firm. Mike cares deeply about playing his part in successfully navigating the green transition and believes new technology is a crucial piece of the puzzle.

Before founding TSP Ventures, Mike was a member of the Strategic Investments Group at BGC Partners where he acquired, integrated and helped manage over a dozen businesses. Mike has also successfully raised money for a number of start-ups.

Mike is a graduate of the London School of Economics and a CFA Charterholder.