Staff Services Student Enterprise

Meet the OCC team

OCC Management Team

OCC activities are managed day to day by a supportive team of early stage investment specialists, with extensive hands-on experience working with ambitious, high growth, companies. The team is part of EI, and works closely with colleagues across EI and the broader University to further strength the University’s startup ecosystem.

Andrea Young CFA

Head of Investment

Andrea has led OCC since its founding in 2011. She has more than 30 years of investment and venture capital experience, and before joining OCC held director positions at Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank Of Scotland and Scottish Enterprise. Andrea provides additional strategic insight as an EI Board Director, and member of the University’s OCC General Governance Committee.

Simon Durrant CA

Investment Director

Simon joined the team in May 2019. Simon is a qualified Chartered Accountant (ICAS) with varied commercial experience, having founded his own company and worked with a wide range of others as part of roles in strategy consultancy, accounting, finance and early-stage investment. Simon holds a BA in Economics and Management from the University of Cambridge.

Dougal Adamson

Investment Manager

Dougal joined the team in December 2021 from Atlantic Bridge, a Dublin-based venture capital firm, and was previously a fellow at M Ventures. Dougal has additional experience in corporate strategy and market research. He holds an MPhil from the University of Cambridge and a BSc from the University of St Andrews.​

Katharine Fox PhD

Investment Manager

Kate joined Old College Capital in March 2020, from her previous role supporting academic founders to create spinouts from the University of Edinburgh. Kate brings extensive prior experience in business development and market research, and holds a PhD from Imperial College London and MBA from the University of Edinburgh.

Ellasaid Woodhouse

Investment Manager

Ellasaid joined OCC from Ufi Ventures in August 2024. She brings significant institutional investment experience, with a strong impact lens, as well as startup operator experience, from the supply chain space. Ellasaid holds a BA in Modern History from the University of Oxford, Jesus College.

Hannah Dent

Investment Executive

Hannah joined the team in July 2023. She has most recently worked as a director for Social Enterprise Scotland, supporting growth with private sector investment and partnerships. She also has a broad range of commercial experience in strategy consultancy, corporate strategy, and digital transformation. She holds an MA in Economic and Social History from the University of Edinburgh.

Ross McLennan

Investment Executive

Ross joined OCC in September 2024 as a secondee from the Student Enterprise team at Edinburgh Innovations. An “unsung hero of the Scottish startup scene,” Ross has worked with innovative startups for over 15 years, helping hundreds of founders secure millions in funding, delivering numerous impactful, commercially successful businesses. Ross was the Director of Marketing for Scottish Orienteering for 5 years and has an MEng from the University of Strathclyde.

Emily Thompson

Investment Executive

Emily joined Old College Capital in August 2024 as a secondee from the Technology Transfer team at Edinburgh Innovations. She worked with academics in the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine to help translate their research into positive societal impact by protecting and licensing their research outputs. Emily holds a PhD in Clinical Immunology, which she completed in the Centre of Inflammation Research at the University of Edinburgh in 2022.

OCC Investment Committee

All Old College Capital investment opportunities are considered by an external investment committee, made up of sector and early stage experts.

Professor Simon Best

Life-Sciences Entrepreneur

Simon has 25 years of experience in HealthTech research and commercialization, having held founder, CEO and Chairman roles in entrepreneurial companies around the world. Simon is also an experienced Angel, Venture Capital and Private Equity investor.

Dr Sandy McKinnon

Partner at Pentech Ventures

Sandy has been a Pentech partner since 2001. His areas of interest include security technology, the applications of machine learning and artificial intelligence, and new infrastructure technologies such as blockchain and microservices.

Hamish Mair

Managing Director, Head of Private Equity, BMO Global Asset Management (EMEA)

Hamish joined BMO Global Asset Management in June 2005 and has 30+ years of investment experience. Hamish is head of the PE team, with overall responsibility for the performance of the BMO PE Trust and the limited partnership funds. Hamish is based in BMO’s Edinburgh office.

Dr Catherine Martin

Vice-Principal Corporate Services, University of Edinburgh

Catherine leads the Corporate Services Group at the University of Edinburgh, with more than 2,000 staff. Catherine holds a PhD in French Literature and Language, is a chartered accountant and fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She has held numerous non-exec roles and is currently on the board of Edinburgh University Press and the Scotland Advisory Group for Parkinson's UK.

Varun Nair
Varun Nair

Tech Entrepreneur

Varun has 15+ years of experience building technologies, products, and teams in the UK and Silicon Valley. He founded Two Big Ears, an Edinburgh startup acquired by Meta, where he spent 5 years building teams and technologies that served billions of users. Currently, Varun is an angel investor, mentor, and co-founder/CTO of That Works, an AI-powered team collaboration platform.

Jane Reoch

Executive Director, SNIB

Jane is a highly experienced venture capital investor with 15 years’ operating in the UK SME market. She has worked in funds including Panoramic Growth Equity, Cass Entrepreneurship Fund and Mobeus Equity Partners, which have provided exceptional returns to investors. Jane has consistently taken businesses from start up to successful exit.

Ian Ritchie

Computer Science Entrepreneur

Ian has 40 years' experience as an entrepreneur, chairperson and angel investor. Ian has a computer science background having founded Office Workstations Limited (OWL), the first and largest supplier of Hypertext/Hypermedia authoring tools (forerunner to the worldwide web). The company was subsequently sold to Panasonic.

OCC General Governance Committee

The OCC Governance Committee provides oversight and governance to OCC’s decisions and activities. It has representation from across the University and is Chaired by Ashley Shannon, Director of Operations.

Venture Partners

Dr Sandy McKinnon


Sandy has been a Pentech partner since 2001. His areas of interest include security technology, the applications of machine learning and artificial intelligence, and new infrastructure technologies such as blockchain and microservices.

Andrew Coleman


Andrew is an investor and advisor in new science and technology ventures, with 30 years’ experience in IT, business development, strategy and partnerships. His most recent venture was sold to Capita plc in 2015. Andrew’s current portfolio of early-stage investments includes Mocean Energy, OGI Bio and Carbogenics. He is also Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Bayes Centre, and a mentor for Edinburgh Innovation Ltd.

Nicola Broughton


Nicola is a highly accomplished business leader, entrepreneur and investor. She has more than 20 years’ experience in sourcing, starting and growing life science businesses, predominantly from the University sector. Nicola was recognised as one of the ‘Top 50 Movers and Shakers in Biotechnology’ in 2019 for her contribution to the life science industry in the UK. 

Bill Yost


Bill has spent more than 25 years helping to bring new materials and early-stage technologies to market. He was Founding-CEO of Electrolytic Ozone and GelSight Inc, a spin out of MIT. For the past five years, Bill has been an active investor as part of the UK venture capital community. He has worked with many of the UK's leading research universities, gaining extensive experience in founding spin-out companies with a particular interest in hardware and cleantech enterprises.

Venture Investment

Old College Capital is the University of Edinburgh’s venture investment fund. We support the most exciting ideas and technologies emerging from the University.