John Tidmarsh

John Tidmarsh is passionate about innovation and growing businesses, especially across cultural divides. He was amongst the first to identify the cleantech investment opportunity and firmly believes that the future will see longer term sustainable practice become mainstream in finance and industry.

He has an unusual combination of both industrial and finance experience. John started his career working for the FTSE100 company De La Rue working in five European countries, variously as European and then Global Marketing Manager and Director of De La Rue Cash Systems Italia. He created a global self service banking business and was instrumental in acquisitions including the successful purchase of a leading Portuguese ATM manufacturer.

After returning to Cambridge to study for his MBA, John worked in investment banking as Vice President of Swicorp based in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. He interim managed the Egyptian branch office, and was engaged in private equity and investment banking mandates across the Middle East and North Africa region.

Most recently, John lead the creation of a 100m Euro (target) venture capital fund in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA). He has served on the Boards of a number of early stage companies and is actively involved in the European innovation investment community advising companies, speaking at events and participating in working groups for investment industry associations.

John serves as a member of the Cambridge Judge Business School Alumni Advisory Board. In his spare time he enjoys skiing and mountain hiking and actively supports the European cafe culture.

He has a BA (Hons), MA and an MBA from the University of Cambridge. He is fluent in English French and Italian.