It has just been announced by the European Business Angel Network that the European Business Angel of the Year for 2008 is Nelson Gray. This very prestigious award was decided by an international panel fron Germany, Netherlands, Italy and Belgium. Read more here…

Nelson Gray has been nominated for business Angels of the Year at the 2008 European Business Angel Network congress to be held in Arnhem in April.

The Business Angel of the Year award is presented to an individual who:
• Has made at least one investment in the last 12 months in a very performing start-up
• Is recognised by his/her peers as a experienced business mentor
• Is recognised by the entrepreneurs as bringing a real value added to the enterprise – impact is measurable
• Promotes his/her activity so as to bring new investors to the market

Formed in 1999, EBAN is the European Trade Association for Business Angels and Early Stage Investors, an independent and non-profit association representing the interests of business angels networks, early stage venture capital funds and other entities involved in bridging the equity gap in Europe.

The event will host 150-200 international investors from across Europe and over 800 members of the Spanish Financial Community. It will see 21 pitches from high growth companies in four key sectors: ICT; Media; Clean-Tech; Med-tech.

The Conference aims to bring together various groups of stakeholders involved in different aspects of the financing-cum-investment process to share experiences, identify trends and propose policy approaches to create better conditions for the financing of innovative activities, with a particular emphasis on the implications for countries with economies in transition.

To this effect, it will address key policy-relevant issues such as:

• The importance of overall framework conditions in creating entrepreneurial opportunities and facilitating appropriate financing;

• The role of specialised financial intermediaries, such as business angels and venture capital investors, and the links between them;

• Corporate venture capital as a source of finance and technological dynamism;

• The relations between research institutions and financial intermediaries and its impact on the commercialization of research;

• Capacity-building programmes to enhance the investment readiness of new enterprises and the skills of investors;

• The international dimension of venture capital investing (formal and informal) and the initiatives to remove barriers to cross-border investment;

• The emerging opportunities in countries with economies in transition and the progress in developing a local venture capital industry;