[/popup_trigger]
David Harper
Co-Founder & CTO
David has twenty years’ experience in the healthcare construction industry with a background in construction project management. His specific expertise is in Information Communication Technologies and Software Systems Integration.
He has acquired expertise and know-how across a broad range of capacities from subcontractor roles for specialist building technology packages to Client Representative on behalf of multi-national stakeholders. As a result, David has developed a unique insight into the construction value chain from the minutiae of the job site and the strategic needs of stakeholders to the overarching global trends within the sector.
David was a Project Director with Siemens in their Building Technologies sector leading a consortium responsible for delivering a US$200 million technology package at the US$7.9 billion Sidra Medical & Research Centre. David went on to act as Client Representative for Qatar Foundation at Sidra.
Other projects include the 1,200 bed Queen Elizabeth Hospital in the UK, the University College Hospital (UCLH), Tunbridge Wells Hospital, Southmead, and the Prince Charles Hospital in Wales.
David has a solid reputation for developing exceptional client and partner relationships ensuring stakeholder cooperation and timely delivery of large-scale, high profile commercial construction projects.
Maha Harper
Co-Founder & CEO
Maha has twenty-five years’ experience as a corporate lawyer in private practice and in-house roles specialising in cross-border real-estate and commercial transactions. Following ten years in private practice with Norton Rose Fulbright in their Washington DC, Hong Kong and London offices, Maha moved in-house as Chief Legal Officer for a Norwegian Multi-National Oil & Gas company.
Maha then moved to the Middle East as Chief Legal Officer & Executive Committee Member for a large publicly-listed holding company in Qatar, where she oversaw several high value real estate acquisitions for the company including an entire New York City block and its attached hotel for US$700 million.
Maha has particular experience working with European and Middle Eastern based clients involving cross-border transactions, and the representation of multi-national clients in overseas business activities. She has established a solid reputation leading complex international corporate and commercial deals across multiple jurisdictions, and her work has been commended in leading industry publications.
Rob Bruce
Non-Executive Director
Rob is a seasoned business leader and entrepreneur, with extensive skills across the full spectrum of business issues and corporate lifecycle. Rob has spent much of his 30-year career in senior executive roles successfully growing, acquiring, merging, integrating, and selling technology-oriented organisations. He has a particular flair for managing the many complex, and often contradictory, realities of people, process, structure and strategy.
A key aspect of Rob’s skillset and experience is the strategy and execution of large and complex B2B technology and software sales, allowing the organisations he has led to achieve rapid organic growth.
Rob has held senior roles at a number of venture capital backed, mid-market businesses including Fastnet Systems, acquired by Redstone in 2001, Axell Wireless sold to Cobham in 2013 and Syniti, acquired by Bridge Growth Partners in 2017.
In 2016, Rob set up Hurricane Associates and now works with a number of early-stage technology businesses, providing his knowledge and experience to help them to achieve their growth potential.
Advisory Board
Paul Barker
Director of Cybersecurity & Technology Risk
Paul is Director of Cybersecurity & Technology Risk at one of the world’s biggest fund management companies. When hired, Paul was tasked with creating a dedicated security team capable of protecting the personal data of the company’s shareholders and associates, its intellectual property and its business services from the growing threat of cybercrime. Paul now leads a team of 130 staff, and by combining artificial intelligence with big-data analytics, automation and machine learning, he has built a world-class technology and cybersecurity capability.
Previously, and on completion of his M.Sc., Paul was hired by Bankers Trust in 1987 where he led the development of Eurobonds futures and options trading systems. He then joined Mercury Asset Management (MAM) in 1990. He was quickly promoted to IT Director and over the course of the next 11 years drove the strategy and delivery of technology platforms across the investment, trading, back-office, sales and marketing functions. When Merrill Lynch acquired MAM in 1997 Paul played a major role in the merging of the IT departments. In 2001 he left Merrill Lynch to join UBS in Zurich where he had global responsibility for supporting all the share-save and options schemes offered by UBS to its 70,000 employees, associate to board member.
Ashley Prime
Director at KARMA
Ashley Prime is a former British diplomat and Managing Director of Navigator (UK). Ashley worked at the Foreign Office until 2014, and until 2019, headed the London office of Navigator, Canada’s premier crisis management and reputation rebuild company. He also ran a project for No.10 during David Cameron’s Premiership bringing Chinese UHNW investment to the UK.
Until 2013 Ashley was Consul in Toronto, with overall responsibility for UK’s trade with Canada as well as being part of the initial discussions between the EU and Canada’s Trade Agreement, CETA. Whilst with the Foreign Office, he headed up the US team over 9/11, Tiananmen Square in 1989 and in Haiti during the coup in 1985. Ashley opened the British Consulate in Guangzhou, serving as the first Consul there in over 50 years. He also served in Bonn, Kingston, Beijing, Rome (twice) and Milan. Ashley studied Chinese at SOAS, London and speaks French, German, Italian and Mandarin.
Ashley is currently a Director of Intelligent Mobile, Fintech company Karma, a Trustee of the antibullying charity, Roots of Empathy as well as a Fellow of the Canadian Royal Geographical Society.
Ashley is a regular TV and Radio contributor on UK Politics on CBC, CTV Canada. He grew up in London, Paris and Munich, and his interests include the history of London, travelling, skiing, music and public speaking. Ashley can invariably be found every other Saturday at Chelsea with his family when there is no lockdown.
Tugba Unkan
Tugba is an entrepreneurial business leader with an exceptional track record in stakeholder value creation via building and growing disruptive businesses. She has accompanied several high potential early stage start-ups through exceptional growth.
Tugba often works as a strategic operating partner, accelerating business development by focusing on helping to build the necessary infrastructure for organisations getting them investment ready. As such, she has successfully assisted shareholders and owners-managers in creating superior capital returns in various settings. She has led fundraising, financial management, operations and the delivery of strategic plans most recently in Founder, CFO and COO roles.
Tugba’s previous roles include co-founding and growing fashion businesses from zero to $300m in turnover; reorganising a fashion advertising group, providing an exit to shareholders with over 30% IRR; building the initial European infrastructure of a Hong Kong listed company, which later grew to over $1bn in turnover.
Tugba thrives in fluid and dynamic work environments, having lived and worked in Asia, Europe and the USA, and currently serves on two other Boards.
Gerhard Zank
Consultant, ‘The Halo Trust’
A former British Army Officer, Gerhard has twenty years’ experience in the aid and development sector – managing large scale humanitarian mine clearance projects in post-conflict countries. Working with ‘The HALO Trust’ Gerhard had wide ranging responsibilities for strategic planning, host-government and donor relations with financial oversight and operational deployment of up to 2,000 staff.
Major donors and institutions which Gerhard has particular experience with include: The United Nations (various offices), The European Union (various offices), and the Governments’ of the United States (DoS, DoD), United Kingdom (FCO, DFID), Japan (MOFA), Norway (MOFA), and Switzerland (SFDFA) although he says that other lesser known, and small donors, often make the critical difference.
Being integral with the safety of demining operations, Gerhard has also been involved with the medical aspects of his programmes including: the design, procurement and export/import of ambulances, procurement of medical trauma & first aid equipment, training of medical personnel, and the evaluation of casualty evacuation facilities.
Prior to his experience in the aid and development sector, Gerhard served five years as a British Army Officer.