The UK Investment Climate

Speakers

Christina Liaos, Regional Director Europe North & Foreign Direct Investment Lead Europe at the Department for International Trade (DIT)

Christina Schiøtt Liaos is responsible for the leadership, strategic alignment and coordination of the UK’s inward investment activities in Europe. She leads a team of 90 investment professionals operating on the ground across 25 European markets.

In parallel, Christina is also Regional Director for the DIT Europe North region, leading the 8 trade and investment teams in the Nordic and Baltic region, focusing on deliver of trade services to over 5,000 UK companies and assistance to over 100 Nordic and Baltic companies establishing a UK business platform for global growth per year.

Currently, Christina and her teams support businesses to continue to trade and invest despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, and to ensure that British and European companies are well equipped to continue trading during implementation of the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement.

Christina has been with the Department for International Trade for over a decade, holding positions as Director for Denmark and Director for the Nordic Region. Prior to this, she has many years of business development experience within international trade and investment organisations, including Schneider, PowerPlant, Invest in Denmark and the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She holds a Master of Public Policy and a Master of Business Administration. Additionally, Christina is actively supporting local business as mentor for local founders and through her work at a variety of advisory boards.

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Nikolaj Juhl Hansen, Partner, Co-Head of Corporate M&A at Magnusson

Nikolaj Juhl Hansen is a partner in Nordic/Baltic law firm Magnusson cross-border M&A team that is ranked by Legal 500 and Leaders League. Nikolaj has vast experience with handling cross-border transactions and projects.

Nikolaj is also part of the cross-border team at Magnusson that deals with foreign direct investment issues and is an expert on the new Danish FDI regime. Nikolaj has lectured on the new Danish FDI regime more than 20 times.

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Paolo Palmigiano, Head of the Competition, Trade and Foreign Investment Practice at Taylor Wessing

Paolo Palmigiano is the head of the Competition, Trade and Foreign Investment practice at Taylor Wessing LLP in the UK and a member of our European competition law team that operates from our Brussels office.

Qualified in England & Wales and in Italy, Paolo has over two decades of experience advising on EU and UK competition law, both in private practice and in house, in regulated sectors such as telecommunications and media, financial services and payment systems, as well as in the tech and life sciences sectors.

Paolo has had an extensive career in house. He was head of competition at British Telecoms for 10 years and at Lloyds Bank for 5years and before joining Taylor Wessing he was the General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer EMEA for Sumitomo Electric Industries.

Paolo's extensive experience extends to all areas of competition law including cartels, abuse of dominance, investigations, mergers, state aid and follow-on damages claims.

He has advised on vertical agreements and information exchanges. He has created and implemented antitrust compliance programmes and handled dawn raids situations as well as possessing deep experience in competition litigation. He has often represented clients in front of the Competition Appeals Tribunal and the European Court of Justice.

Paolo is a non-governmental advisor to the UK competition authority, a member of the Competition Appeals Tribunal’s users’ group and a vice chair of the competition committee at BIAC, the voice of the business community at the OECD. Paolo created and chaired for 15 years an association of in-house competition lawyers with 450 members in 20 jurisdictions.

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Camilla C. Collet, Partner at Gorrissen Federspiel

Camilla C. Collet assists Danish and international companies with M&A transactions, commercial contracts, reorganisations, foreign direct investments and other transactions – often of an international nature, and where the understanding of commercial principles is paramount.
Camilla has particular expertise in the life sciences segment, where she has assisted with numerous acquisitions, sales and investments in life sciences companies. She advises pharmaceutical companies, biotech companies and manufacturers of medical devices on a current basis.
As head of Gorrissen Federspiel’s Compliance & CSR cross-practice group, Camilla also advises on anti-corruption, export control, sanctions, ESG, sustainability and business ethics.
After obtaining her Master of Laws degree from Copenhagen University, Camilla went to Yale University to study for an LL.M. She joined Gorrissen Federspiel in 1997, and became a partner in 2008. In 2001-2002, Camilla worked in New York as a foreign associate with Davis Polk & Wardwell.

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Shantanu Bhagwat, Senior Advisor to the growth capital team at Department for International Trade (DIT)

Shantanu is presently a Sr Advisor (VC Funds & Deeptech) to the growth capital team at Department for International Trade in UK.

He has 21+ years of experience in venture capital & impact investing, across sectors & geographies and was previously a Venture Partner at Impact Ventures UK and at Nesta Impact Investments.

Prior to that Shantanu spent several years as Principal Director at Accion's Frontier Investments Group and as Partner(Asia) at Amadeus Capital Partners where he started his career in early-stage tech investing in 2001.

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Emma Davies, co-CEO at Octopus Ventures

Emma joined Octopus Ventures as joint CEO in 2021, bringing with her a wealth of experience, expertise and networks from a range of world class investment houses including J.P. Morgan, Perry Capital, Big Society Capital (where she was the Chief Investment Officer) and The Wellcome Trust.

Most recently she has spent 5 years as a partner at Marylebone Partners, building and leading their direct investing capability. She has an acute understanding of growing and managing teams whilst solving for investment returns, and has a particular interest in ESG/Impact considerations. She has an MA from Oxford University and an MSc from LSE and lives in London with her husband and two daughters.

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Matt Cross, Director at DIT Investment Services Team, EY

Matt is an established FDI professional with 20 years’ experience delivering FDI services at an international, national and regional level in the UK. He is currently a director in EY’s Investment Services Team contract team with the Department of International Trade.
Matt leads a team that supports DIT’s vast overseas network in the early stages of engaging investors, ensuring they are fully supported from the UK. He is also a key part of shaping the future of delivery of UK based FDI services, as part of DIT’s FDI transformation strategy.

Prior to IST Matt developed and ran the highly regarded FDI service for Bristol and Bath and was FDI lead for London across the East Coast of North America.

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Philip Shepherd, Corporate Partner and Sustainability Partner at Taylor Wessing

Philip advises on mergers and acquisitions, international expansion and private fundraisings. He acts for clients across a broad range of sectors but has a particular focus on the technology, life sciences and specialised manufacturing industries.

Philip's clients include many fast growing venture capital backed and publicly traded companies. He supports US, Canadian, European and other international clients on M&A and on expansion to, and growth in, the UK, Europe and beyond. Philip supports clients on buy-side and sell-side transactions often involving US, Canadian, European and other international parties.

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