JULIAN FAGANDINI

2017 – date

CONDUIT MEAD VENTURES LIMITED, London, UK
Family office seed and early stage technology investment fund

Chairman and Managing Director

• Executive responsibility for venture investments in early-stage (near-revenue or early-revenue/pre-profit) technology opportunities in target sectors (software, data, information, analytics, workflow, digital, online)
• Current holdings: Northrow (www.northrow.com), Fresh4cast (www.fresh4cast.com), Powered Now (www.powerednow.com), Kudos Innovations (www.growkudos.com), Rotageek (www.rotageek.com), Gophr (uk.gophr.com), Celixir (www.celixir.com), 360Learning (www.360learning.com) and CommerceIQ (www.commerceiq.ai)
• Exited holdings: Versarien (www.versarien.com), Farmvet Systems (www.farmvetsystems.com), Desktop Genetics (www.deskgen.com), Looop Online (www.looop.co) and E-Fundamentals (www.efundamentals.com)
• Failed holdings: User Replay (www.userreplay.com) and Repositive (www.repositive.io)

2004 – date

FAGANDINI ASSOCIATES, London, UK
Strategy, business planning and corporate development consultancy to the media, publishing and information industries

Owner and Consulting Director

• Investigated the extent of control exercised by, and of cooperation between, the three largest UK estate agency groups in the provision of related services to the property transaction value chain (Landmark Information Group)
• Advised the management team of a regional media group on the most attractive, innovative and differentiated service development opportunities for their online recruitment business based on a strong evidence base including the results of bespoke primary research via online survey (Archant)
• Conducted a deep analysis on two million complex data records for a specialised information business to extract potential correlations that could underpin innovative performance metrics for the road traffic management sector (ELGIN)
• Created the business plan and built the financial model for the owner-entrepreneur of a start-up consumer online business to exploit newly-acquired book publishing assets (Percival Media)
• Reviewed the market potential and developed the business plan for a leading UK consumer property portal to launch a major new service delivery platform with the capability to significantly broaden its customer relationships and to access substantially greater revenue opportunities (The Digital Property Group)
• Reviewed the activities of the German subsidiary of an information publishing business and recommended fundamental changes to the marketing and sales focus (Inframation)
• Reviewed the market opportunities for a "lean" management development product and recommended both detailed marketing and sales management improvements in the current business and priority target segments for winning new business (NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement)
• Worked with the senior management of a leading UK consumer property portal to develop and implement a strategic threats and opportunities methodology enabling a focus on key delivery priorities (The Digital Property Group)
• Created a five-year strategy and commercial development plan for the UK's leading provider of land- and property-related risk management information and geospatial intelligence (Landmark Information Group)
• Assisted an entrepreneur to shape his business proposal to acquire and integrate a number of complementary market research businesses in emerging growth markets (Ravi Chawla)
• Assessed the viability of the business plan for a new consumer online business and recommended practical approaches to improve the probability of business success (The Nod)
• Scaled the market opportunities, created the financial model and wrote the successful funding prospectus for a start-up consumer medical multimedia publishing business (Medikidz)
• Built and won Executive and Main Board approval for the business plan to launch a premium video service targeted at healthcare professionals for a medical publisher (BMJ Publishing)
• As Managing Director, Service Delivery, UK Custom, led the development of recommendations and the change plan for organisation and processes to implement a fundamentally new approach to the delivery of market research projects and had overall supervisory control of all UK field and operations activities (£35m budget, 220 staff) (TNS)
• Drove a rigorous appraisal of market sector attractiveness and fit, selecting investment priorities and developing strategic plans for an education business (Edexcel)
• Conducted a deep business analysis for the owners of an education business and compelled management to produce 30% improved budget projections and significantly increase the potential disposal value of the business (Study Group)
• Assessed market opportunities, identified acquisition targets and initiated discussions with preferred candidates in the healthcare information sector for a business-to-business information publisher (DMG Information)
• Identified, prioritised and presented defined sales opportunities in innovative distribution channels for the Chief Executive of a start-up venture (KYP Systems)
• Persuaded the Managing Director of an online classified business of a mission-critical need for project management resource to rescue a failing IT project (Fish4)
• Created business unit review methodology and produced resulting Main Board presentation for the Chief Executive of a major diversified media company (DMGT)

2000 – 2004

TSO LIMITED, London, UK

Provider of information management services to clients, principally in the public sector. (T/O £80m)

Nov. 2001 – Jan. 2004

Director, Corporate Development – Board Director

• Promoted under a new Chief Executive as part of an extensive management reorganisation to group-wide responsibility for strategy, mergers, acquisitions, disposals and corporate partnerships
• Played a key role in creating TSO’s vision and in developing the strategy to support its achievement
• Initiated negotiations and successfully acquired UKOP, a key content asset to support the Chief Executive's vision for the company, within tight cost parameters
• Negotiated and signed commercial partnerships with leading technology tool vendors, consulting firms, systems integrators and other prime contractors
• Turned around negotiation and drove through agreement on landmark £7m five-year IT outsourcing contract with German software and services provider
• Drove the formulation of, and achieved agreement for, a new service structure with clear selling propositions enabling sales teams to win new client business
• Outlined an acquisition strategy and identified a number of specific targets for 2004 and beyond

Apr. 2000 – Nov. 2001

Managing Director, TSO Enterprises – Board Director

• Headhunted by the Chief Executive to create a new division (at its peak of around 50 staff with a £10m annual cost budget) to exploit e-business opportunities leveraging TSO’s assets, brand, customers, intellectual property and skills
• Filtered prospective project portfolio, established project and later management teams, supervised and supported entrepreneurial new business launches in a controlled investment environment
• Supervised creation of new business entities which generated more than £2m of revenue and more than £1m of gross margin in their first 12 months of trading
• Following a change in group strategy, rationalised business units involving reorganisation, closures and disposals (including maximising the value of TSO's investment in bettercaring.co.uk by arranging the sale of the business in a dead market for a mixture of £500k cash plus a share of future revenues)

1998 – 2000

THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY LIMITED, London, UK

Global media group - international television division. (T/O >£1bn)

Director, Business Development

• Tasked with identifying, assessing, negotiating and implementing new business opportunities, specifically in broadcast television, interactive services, electronic commerce and other new media
• Negotiated and managed relationships with video-on-demand operators, involving non-exclusive content distribution deals (worth >£10m) couple with equity option deals (worth £5-10m) and innovative interactive content development deals (worth £2m)
• Headed projects to assess and initiate negotiations with broadcasting platforms for the launch of new premium channels in three territories (Poland, Portugal and South Africa)
• Created ESPN.com European market entry strategy

1994 – 1998

DAILY MAIL AND GENERAL TRUST PLC, London, UK

Publishing, broadcasting and media group. (T/O >£1bn)

Head of New Media

• Advised the Board of Directors on new media issues and opportunities and coordinated approaches to new media development across five divisions, reporting directly to the Group Chief Executive
• Consulted across the group, synthesised views and drew together relevant external evidence to create a strategic platform upon which DMGT was able to move quickly to develop a string of successful new media ventures, including AdHunter, This Is…, UKPlus and other website businesses
• Headed an investigation team to assess the benefits and risk of investment in a European competitor to AOL and enabled DMGT to turn down the opportunity without affecting an important corporate relationship and to avoid multi-million pound losses and involvement in a high-profile bankruptcy
• Co-created and co-led the development of a joint venture proposition involving all the major regional newspaper groups in the AdHunter consortium to launch the first multi-category (jobs, property, cars) UK-wide online classified advertising venture
• Represented the Group on national and international bodies and prepared Group responses to proposals from UK, European and international governmental and regulatory authorities
• Acted as Chief Financial Officer of Entertainment Online Limited (Feb-Oct 1997) and as Director of Greenland Interactive Limited (Jan-Aug 1998)

1993 – 1994

ARTHUR D. LITTLE LTD., London, UK

International management and technology consultancy. (T/O >£20m in UK, >£250m worldwide)

Senior Consultant (1994); Consultant (1993)

1991 – 1993

FT INFORMATION SERVICES, Sunbury-on-Thames, UK

Provider of electronic information services to the business and finance communities. (T/O £10-20m)

Business Development Manager (1992-1993); Manager, Development Projects (1991)

1987 – 1990

ARTHUR D. LITTLE LTD., London, UK

International management and technology consultancy. (T/O >£20m in UK, >£250m worldwide)

Consultant (1990); Business Analyst (1987-1990)

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EDUCATION

1990 – 1991 INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France - MBA with distinction

1983 – 1987 IMPERIAL COLLEGE, London, UK - MEng with 1st Class Hons

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LANGUAGES

English                Mother tongue

French                Basic knowledge

Spanish               Basic knowledge

Italian                 Basic knowledge

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OTHER EXPERIENCE

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (Fellow)

Association of MBAs (Member)

PERSONAL DETAILS AND INTERESTS

Date of birth: 18 September 1965 (age: 57)

Marital status: Married (28 yrs) with one son (21 yrs old)

Nationality: British

Family, dogs, cinema, theatre, wine, books, travel, art, cosmology