GUV Powerlist 2018: #11 Alan Aubrey

Alan Aubrey, CEO of IP Group, was awarded Personality of the Year by Global University Venturing in this year’s awards and there was a question of whether there was anything left to conquer after the successes racked up by commercialisation firm over the past decade – culminating in the takeover last year of its peer Touchstone Innovations.

As a business leader who does not seek the limelight, having his own achievements rather than those of his company singled out may not sit comfortably with Aubrey but the protracted battle to take control of its rival commercialisation firm kept IP Group in the headlines for much of last year.

Speaking at the company’s annual results presentation earlier this year, Aubrey said: “The integration of Touchstone with IP Group is proceeding to plan and we are confident for the year ahead and beyond.”

He added that the combination of the two businesses had helped to create a company “better equipped to find, invest and develop businesses based on science and technology”.

The next goal is probably to see further success for its portfolio companies, with market expectations high for a flotation of sequencing technology developer Oxford Nanopore at more than $1bn in valuation. IP Group owned 18.3% of Nanopore, worth £274.1m ($355m), after the spinout’s $140m funding round in March this year.

IP Group in September this year held a roadshow in Asia, including Hong Kong, where portfolio companies, such as Oxford Nanopore, were speaking with an eye to a potential flotation. Oxford Nanopore’s spokeswoman told GUV: “Capital markets in London and Asia are attractive and we are considering them.”

After spending several years as a partner at advisory service KPMG, offering guidance to fast-growing businesses in the technology sector, Aubrey co-founded Techtran in 2002. Techtran was the commercialisation partner to University of Leeds and, in the three years Aubrey was at its helm, oversaw the creation of 13 spinouts.

In 2005, the firm was acquired by IP Group – at the time listed on Aim, London’s alternative investment market, as IP2IPO – and Aubrey joined as a director before being named chief executive at the beginning of 2006. Later that year, the firm joined the main market of the London Stock Exchange, changed its name and launched its first investment vehicle, the £30m IP Venture Fund, with support from the EU-owned European Investment Fund.

In the intervening 12 years, Aubrey and his management team have notched up a number of successes, spanning agreements with institutions such as University of Oxford and University of Bath to successful initial public offerings of several spinouts and purchases of peers, such as Parkwalk Advisors and Fusion IP.

The purchase of Touchstone, however, played out over the course of six months last year. All of this happened as IP Group went on to raise $260m to launch a subsidiary in Australia that will work with Monash University, Australian National University, University of Adelaide, University of Melbourne, University of Queensland, University of Sydney, University of Western Australia, University of New South Wales and University of Auckland.