Board of Directors

Michael is the Chief Executive of the Company.  Michael’s career began with his long established family packaging business. Brentwood Sack and Bag Co. Limited.  He took over responsibility for sales and production in the mid-1970’s and changed the emphasis of the company’s business from jute products to polythene packaging, introducing the then innovative high density and medium density polythene bags into the UK market in 1975.  He was appointed Managing director of Brentapac UK Plc, which formerly owned the Tuffy trademark in 1985, with continuing responsibility for national and international sales.  He co-founded Symphony Plastics in 1995.

Michael Stephen is an Executive Director and Deputy Chairman of the Plc, and Chairman of its subsidiary companies. He qualified as a Solicitor with Distinction in Company Law. He was called to the Bar, and practised from chambers in London for many years, dealing with civil cases in the High Court and Court of Appeal. He was a member of the UK Parliament 1992-97 and was a member of the Trade and Industry Select Committee and the Environment Select Committee of the House of Commons. He served in Government as Parliamentary Private Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture. He held a Harkness Fellowship in law at Stanford and Harvard Universities in the USA and was Deputy Legal Adviser to the British Ambassador to the United Nations for the 25th General Assembly.

Ian was in private practice for seven years, qualifying as a certified accountant in 1992. In 1994, he joined Brentapac UK Plc which was sold later the same year.  He went on to co-found Symphony Plastics in 1995.

Nicolas Clavel started his career in international banking in the mid-seventies and his area of expertise has been structured trade finance and equity investments with a particular focus on Emerging Markets. He is Chief Investment Officer of Scipion Capital Ltd., (the Investment Manager of Scipion African Opportunities Fund SPC) and is personally CF 1, 3, 11 and CF30 approved by the UK Financial Services Authority. Nicolas is Swiss, and is based in London and Geneva. He is fluent in English, French, Italian and German.

Committees:

Audit Committee  – Chairman

Remuneration Committee – Member

Shaun Robinson has over 25 years corporate finance, restructuring and active asset management experience and over 10 years experience as a company director. A chartered certified accountant, Shaun Robinson joined Somerston Capital in 2004 as CFO and was appointed CEO and company director in 2014. Shaun was also executive director of Richmount Management Limited, Somerston Healthcare, Somerston Hotels and St James’s Hotels. Shaun joined the Symphony board as non-executive in December 2014. Shaun retired from the Somerston Group in December 2018 and lives in Andorra focusing on his own private investments and his non-executive role with Symphony.

Committees:

Remuneration Committee – Chairman

Audit Committee – Member

Bob is Chairman of UK Finance, Secure Broadcast Ltd, Vesta Global Holdings Ltd, Bink Ltd and Accloud Ltd.  He is Non-Executive Director of Nordengine Capital Ltd and the Qatar Finance Centre Authority.  From 2004-2009 he was Chairman of Merrill Lynch EMEA.  He is a former member of the Court of the Bank of England and a former NED of Royal Mail Group.  In 2009 he chaired the Green Investment Bank commission for the then Chancellor of the Exchequer.  He is an Honorary Fellow of Judge Business School, Cambridge University and a Visiting Fellow of Oxford University’s Saïd Business School.

The Founder and CEO of Brennan & Partners, Alexander has two decades’ experience of delivering growth for businesses, both as a principal and as an advisor. He is a Non-Executive Director of Big Technologies PLC. Prior to founding Brennan & Partners in 2016, he was the CEO of a global infrastructure investment business, with investors drawn from Europe, the Middle East and Asia. This role built upon five years of international sales and business development experience with De La Rue PLC, working firstly in Europe and then the Americas. He began his career at Slaughter and May, where he practised as a corporate lawyer in London for several years.