Nelson has been a Business Angel investor and Fund Manager for over 25 years and is recognized internationally as a thought leader and public speaker.
Nelson’s extensive experience allows him to blend a practical application of investment and company growth with an understanding of public policy at an international level.
He managed two early stage investment funds responsible for funding 53 SMEs. He acted as the fund manager for Scotland’s leading Business Angel syndicate, established in 1992, is a member of Angel groups in Scotland and the USA and has invested in over 60 companies personally, achieving exits via LSE, AIM and NASDAQ listings and trade sale. He has extensive international experience in supporting Venture Funds, Business Angels, entrepreneurs and government bodies.
Nelson has been a non-executive director and mentor to many high growth companies and continues to provide his wide ranging knowledge and experience to business leaders; coaching and training them to become businesses of scale.
Working with the likes of the European Commission, The World Bank, GIZ and numerous other government agencies he has provided advice to governments and training and mentoring to entrepreneurs and early-stage VC and angel investors in many counties across Europe and further afield, including in South America, India, Australia, Kazakhstan, Vietnam and New Zealand. He has helped build Angel groups and investment funds in the UK, Latvia, Jordan, Russia, Egypt, New Zealand, Georgia and the Caribbean.
Nelson consults extensively on the use of entrepreneurship and early-stage investment to drive economic development, including in low and middle-income countries, and the use of public policy to stimulate entrepreneurial and investment activity (including tax policy and co-investment fund structuring).
Nelson is a former European Angel of the Year and a recipient of the Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion.