Meet Our People

Seonaid Mackenzie, is the Founder of award winning Sturgeon Ventures as of 1998 which began as a single family office, incubating companies and firms from that day – known as the Venture Catalyst. Sturgeon Ventures moved into the specialty of incubating Financial Services firms as well as individuals and in 2001 pioneered “Regulatory Incubation” for the first time as individuals became approved persons, under the Financial Services Authority migrating from The SFA and IMRO now the Financial Conduct Authority.

Seonaid is a Portfolio Manager, is on the Investment Committees and is on the Finance and Management Committee.

Seonaid’s career in financial services started in 1983 spanning the early years as a US Equity Institutional Stockbroker at well-known firms to launching the first paid independent research product in the UK in 1995, which was paid out of CSA to a corporate finance advisor, pre and post Sturgeon leading a number of transactions.

Seonaid has advised and managed numerous family office portfolios personally and has been involved in numerous investment committees to date, whilst also being a member of Fund Boards on and offshore.

Seonaid is a genuine out of the box thinker. Outside of her busy work schedule, she mentors and is a frequent speaker in schools on subjects including the journey of a female entrepreneur and looks after Sandy, the family Spaniel.

Partner, member of the Finance and the Management Committee of Sturgeon Ventures. Andrew Haggard has been working with Sturgeon Ventures for 14 years, and became acquainted with the firm when Peter Crowther merged his business with Haggards. Andrew’s background was as an entrepreneur and now as an Accountant for entrepreneurs

Sarah is a Designated Member of the Partnership, a member of the Compliance and Risk Committee, Internal Counsel and Compliance Officer for Sturgeon Ventures, and together with Seonaid Mackenzie sits as a member of the Management Committee and in most closed ended fund committees. Following an English degree at Oxford, Sarah qualified as a solicitor, joining Clifford Chance’s investment funds department, her time there including a year in Man Group’s derivative funds team in Switzerland. Sarah then spent eleven years at ING Group, first as a trading floor lawyer, then in the capital markets team, becoming head of debt capital markets for Russia and the CIS. Before joining Sturgeon in 2016, Sarah worked for five years at the Pemberton funds group as an inhouse legal and compliance advisor.

Kirsten Bedford is an Executive Assistant to Seonaid as well as being responsible for managing all internal Senior Management and Committee meetings, and supporting Seonaid on internal projects.

Kirsten has over 15 years’ experience, having supported a number of UHNWIs in all aspects of their personal and professional lives, across a range of industries with interests spanning Politics, PR, Fashion, Retail, Philanthropy, Real Estate and Finance. Kirsten joins Sturgeon from an UHNW Single Family Office, where she was the Executive Assistant to the Principal.

Stephen joined the team in 2017 and is responsible for the risk monitoring of the liquid investment portfolios managed by Sturgeon. Having gained over 20 years of experience on both the buy and sell sides of the market, working within some of the largest banks and systematic hedge funds in London. He has held senior positions within both trading teams, portfolio risk and operational risk committees during his career.

Alex Brown, Senior Marketing Associate, is the longest standing member of the current team, having joined Sturgeon in 2008 as Seonaid’s Executive PA. Alex came to Sturgeon from Goldman Sachs, where she was the Assistant to two Senior Partners. She has had many roles throughout her tenure at Sturgeon, embracing our marketing role five years ago. Her activities include the co-ordination of new enquiries, liaising with the Sturgeon on-boarding team, through to the approvals of all new approved persons as they become fully embedded into the Sturgeon incubation journey. Alongside this, Alex also runs Seonaid’s busy work schedule.

Alex loves a challenge and spearheads Sturgeon’s volunteering and charity events, most recently, a 26 mile sponsored walk and Ride the Night.

Paul is a Non-Executive Advisor to Sturgeon Ventures; sitting on our Executive Management Committee. A PwC qualified accountant; Paul has over 30 years investment experience working primarily in the funds industry with Rothschild and Fidelity Investments, where Paul was a Managing Director From 1987-90. In 1991, Paul founded the Forsyth Partners Group, a multi-manager research and investment firm that managed almost USD 2 billion of assets which was sold in 2013. Paul has regularly chaired and presented papers at investment conferences around the world and has featured as a commentator on BBC World and CNBC.