Directors

Sara Williams – Executive Chairman

Sara founded Vitesse Media Plc in 1997. Her role includes developing the growth strategy, both organic and by acquisition. Sara is a well-known business author. Over two million copies of her book, The FT Guide to Business Start Up (formerly the Lloyds TSB Small Business Guide) have been published. She holds an investment advice certificate and an MSc in accounting and finance from the London School of Economics.

Leslie Koht Copeland – Chief Executive Officer

Leslie has worked in the media sector for over 12 years in an array of roles, including journalist, analyst, editor and executive director. He joined Vitesse in 1997 as a journalist on Growth Company Investor, ascending to the role of editorial director of Vitesse Media Plc by 2000, with responsibility for the delivery of Vitesse’s products across all platforms – online, events and print. Since mid-2006 Vitesse Media Plc has doubled in size, and Leslie has played a significant part in the integration of What Investment (purchased by the company in December 2006) and Information Age (purchased in December 2007). He was appointed to the role of chief operating officer in March 2008 and to the role of chief executive officer in July 2009.

Niki Baker – Chief Operating Officer

Niki joined Vitesse Media in 2006 as head of the group's expanding events division and has been appointed as chief operating officer in July 2009. She manages a team of over 40 staff, having full budget reponsibility for all the group's activities. Prior to joining Vitesse Media, she worked her way up to group show director for DMG World Media on events such as the Daily Mail Ski and Snowboard Show and the Daily Mail Ideal Home Show, visited by half a million people.

Andrew Brode – Non-Executive Director

Andrew, a chartered accountant, is a former chief executive of Wolters Kluwer (UK) Plc, one of the UK’s largest business-to-business information groups, between 1978 and 1990. In 1990, he led the management buy-out of the Eclipse Group, which was sold to Reed Elsevier in 2000. In 1995, he led the management buy-in of RWS Group Plc, the UK's largest technical translations group, and now a listed AIM company. He is also a non-executive director of a number of private equity-financed media companies.

Keith Willey – Non-Executive Director

Keith Willey has interests in a number of private businesses and combines that with a post at London Business School. He is Adjunct Associate Professor of Strategic and International Management and Entrepreneurship with expertise is in the areas of entrepreneurship, venture capital, managing growth, technology ventures and organisation development. Keith's previous career experience includes a degree in Chemical Engineering and various management roles with BAT plc.  He was a director of a consulting practice associated with major corporate restructuring initiatives during the '90s and was founding CEO of the Centre for Scientific Enterprise. Following this he was for five years COO and acting FD at Sussex Place Ventures.

Key members of the management team

Darren Griffin – Deputy Managing Director (Investment)

Darren is Deputy Managing Director for the company’s investment products. This includes the award-winning Growth Company Investor and What Investment brands. He has recently been awarded the highly respected PPA accredited Diploma in Publishing. Prior to joining Vitesse, Darren worked for the Daily Mail Group and Charterhouse Communications

Jonathan Sumner – Deputy Managing Director (Business) & Online Publisher

Jonathan is the company's online publisher. He has responsibility for delivering the revenue figures for all online activities and is the driving force behind new developments for existing websites and for ideas for new websites. Jonathan has been with Vitesse Media since 2003 and has a degree in marketing from Bournemouth University.

Marc Barber – Deputy Managing Director (Business) & Editor, Business XL

Marc is managing editor of all print and web titles at Vitesse Media, and is also editor of Business XL. Before joining the company in October 2006, he spent three years as editor of The Accountant and International Accounting Bulletin. During that time he also commissioned a number of reports in the financial services sector and co-wrote a report on what the collapse of Arthur Andersen meant for the global accountancy profession.

Michael Beech – Commercial Director, Infomation Age

Michael joined Infoconomy in June 2007 as commercial manager to lead the sales and commercial aspects of the Information Age portfolio. His responsibilities are to lead the sale team to generate revenues online, offline and through the Information Age events programme. Michael started his career in media sales in 1995, and over the years has worked and sold in b2b, consumer, and international markets.

Ben Brougham – Head of Event Sales

Ben is head of event sales across the Vitesse Media portfolio of events. He has over 12 years' experience in the global publishing and events industries. Before joining Vitesse Media in February 2008 he worked as business development manager at Caspian Publishing and group publisher at Euromoney Institutional Investor.

Pete Swabey – Editor, Information Age

Pete Swabey is editor of Information Age magazine and editor of www.Information-Age.com. He has worked on the title for over four years, covering almost every aspect of modern IT, from virtualisation and software-as-a-service to ITIL and outsourcing. Pete has a degree in psychology from University College London.

James Crux – Editor, Growth Company Investor

James Crux is editor of Growth Company Investor and GrowthCompany.co.uk. He covers a wide range of small-cap companies on both AIM and the Full List. He has been with the team for more than seven years.

Robert Tyerman – News Editor, Growth Company Investor

Robert specialises in mining and insurance stocks. He is the former assistant city editor of the Sunday Telegraph and has been researching small-cap companies for 30 years.

Cathy Humphrey – Financial Controller

Cathy is a qualified chartered management accountant. Her previous experience includes ten years as the finance director of a leading specialist recruitment agency and two years as the finance director of a contract caterer, including facilities management. For the past three years she has worked as the financial controller of Infoconomy, now Information Age Media Ltd. She took over the post as group financial controller in March 2008.

Jenna Parker – Events Manager

Jenna's introduction to the media world was working for a marketing company when traveling in Australia. She joined Vitesse Media in July 2005 as an events and marketing assistant and she now manages the events department, covering the operations for all Vitesse Media events.

 Neill Purvis – Head of Design & Production

Neill originally trained at commercial typesetting group Progress Graphics, gaining the City and Guilds in pre-printing processes. After this, Neill worked for publishing group Gee Publishing and Lloyd's Register of Shipping. Neill has now been with Vitesse Media for nine years.