Team & partners

Sue Summers, Chief Executive Officer
Sue has over twenty years experience of the financial services industry.  An extensive knowledge of financial products and services both in Europe and the US.  Prior to joining Investbx Sue was Managing Director of The Exchange, Europe’s largest independent trading platform for Financial Advisers, and Deputy Managing Director of a FTSE 250 company. Sue lives in Warwickshire.

Pauline Davey, Office Manager
With a career spanning more than 10 years in the financial services industry, Pauline brings valuable knowledge and experience to Investbx. Pauline lives in Stourbridge.

Andy Povey, Client Relationship Manager    Andy joined Investbx from KBC Bank. He has over a quarter of a century of experience in financial services, having worked for 20 years at NatWest Bank and spending the last eight years with two international banks based in Birmingham. In all, he has spent 20 years in corporate relationship banking including periods in head office credit departments where strong financial analysis skills were developed.

Ruth Gifford, Project Manager/Compliance    Ruth Gifford, formerly with Orange Corporate Finance, was once a private client adviser with a Birmingham stockbroker. More recently, her experience has included a period with a regionally based corporate finance advisory firm, advising small companies on raising equity funding, and six years ago, she led the team which opened a Birmingham corporate office for a Manchester stockbroker, advising on AIM admissions.

John Crabtree
Chairman of Metalrax Group plc, Claimar Group Plc, Birmingham Hippodrome, TruckEast and SLR Holdings. Chair of Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander’s Midlands advisory board. John is Director of Staffline Group Plc and Advantage West Midlands, the regional development authority. John is the former senior partner of Wragge & Co LLP – a post he held for eleven years. In 2003 Legal Business awarded him Lawyer of the Year for “his integral role in the transformation of Wragge & Co from a provincial Birmingham firm into a top national practice with an enviable FTSE 100 client base.” Birmingham Law Society awarded him a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002. John lives in Crowle, Worcestershire.

Paul Bassi
Paul is Chief Executive of Real Estate Investors plc, Chairman of Bond Wolfe and Bigwood Chartered Surveyors and Midlands Chairman of Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander. He was awarded the Price Waterhouse Asian Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2003 and received the Lloyds TSB Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005. He is Vice President of Birmingham Chamber of Commerce. Paul is a West Midlands Ambassador for Advantage West Midlands, Deputy Lieutenant for the West Midlands and lives in Hagley, Birmingham.

John Handley
John is a seasoned Private Equity executive and a former Senior Director of LDC, which he left in 2005.  He is currently Chairman/Non Executive Director of a number of businesses as well as running a training business on Private Equity with clients in the UK and abroad.

Norman Price, OBE
Chair of the Enterprise Board, Regional Finance Forum, and Birmingham Science City partnership Board in the West Midlands. Chairman of Ecologic and ASIP, a Quinetiq joint venture. Non executive Director of BSI, the international standards organisation and Alta Innovations. Member of Birmingham University Council, Advisory Board of Mercia Venture Capital, West Midlands Innovation and Technology Council. Norman lives in Worcestershire.

Advantage West Midlands (AWM), the Regional Development Agency (RDA) for the West Midlands, is the regional leader for developing economic prosperity. Working with a range of public sector partners, voluntary and community organisations and the private sector, AWM develops strategies and supports projects that will help transform the West Midlands’ economy.

Access to finance is seen to be a major barrier to growth for SMEs by Advantage West Midlands, whose remit is to promote innovation, entrepreneurship and business growth.

Advantage West Midlands established the Regional Finance Forum to identify any gaps in the supply of finance. The forum, informed by numerous government and academic analyses, confirmed that a market failure existed for SMEs wishing to raise between £0.5 million and £5 million, with the most severe constraint being up to £2 million.

Advantage West Midlands has been instrumental in setting up Investbx and has provided £3m of secure funding over a 5 year period.