The EIS Association Chairman’s Annual Reception was held on Thursday 12th February at the House of Lords. The event, presided over by Chairman, Lord Flight, brought together all EISA members to discuss developments in the EIS industry and issues serving to inhibit further growth. In her welcome speech, Baroness O’Cathain, OBE, highlighted the problem of youth unemployment and asked each EIS Association member to consider employing just one young person in a bid to tackle it. Also touching on the UK’s socio-economic challenges, guest speaker, Mark Garnier, Member of the Treasury Select Committee, spoke about the continuing difficulty of small businesses in raising equity investment, and reiterated the negative effect of ongoing southeast centric investment.  He congratulated the EISA on its work helping to channel funds into the enterprise arena, and also for its work with other industry groups.

The Chairman’s Reception served too as a forum to announce the EISA’s annual EIS industry awards.  We are very pleased to congratulate our client, JustInvesting (see News story from 19/09/13, Dragon’s Den Meets The X-Factor for Thompson Taraz’s Latest Fund Role) for winning third place in the category for Best EIS Newcomer 2014. Our sponsored category, Best EIS Legal Advisor, was won by Howard Kennedy FSi.

We thank Lord Flight and the EISA for a very enjoyable evening.