Simon Cook, the head of Dublin-listed venture capital company Draper Esprit, is moving to the role of chief investment officer at the firm.
He will be replaced in the role of CEO by Martin Davis, who joins the group from investment management business Kames Capital, where he had been chief executive.
Mr Davis has more than 20 years’ experience in financial services and technology, including eight years at Zurich Insurance, where he ran the International and Global Emerging Markets life businesses.
He was also CEO of Zurich’s joint venture, Openwork, a network of financial advice firms.
Commenting on the announcement, Mr Davis said: “With companies staying private for longer, our role in helping to democratise venture capital and provide our shareholders with access to high growth technology companies is more important now than ever before.
Generating value for our shareholders while helping the very best entrepreneurs to secure the right capital to grow their businesses is central to this approach.”
Elsewhere, the company anticipates that its gross portfolio value will have increased 93pc year-on-year to approximately £683m (€791m) when it releases a trading update covering the six months to 30 September.
The increase in the value of the portfolio reflects further investments made during the six month period of £42m (€48.6m).
The core portfolio is anticipated to consist of 18 companies, which in aggregate represent 70pc of the fair value of the total portfolio.
Draper Esprit will release interim results on 26 November.
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