Vince Robert Smith

Vince Smith is an entrepreneur and private equity investor with over 20 years experience in developing smaller companies.
In 1992 he founded Cairnsford, a private equity firm investing in smaller UK companies.
Cairnsford helped to develop a number of market leading businesses including Acis, a provider of intelligent transport systems, Antenna Audio, the world leader in audio and audio-visual interpretation to the culture and leisure sectors, and the themutual.net, a provider of online marketing services.
He acted as Chairman of all three Companies, leading them through their formative years and to successful exits.
Other Cairnsford investments within the largely realised portfolio included Ted Baker and Carluccio's.
Between 1989 and 1992 he was with HIT Investments plc, the corporate venture capital subsidiary of Hillsdown Holdings plc, which provided venture capital to public and private companies specialising in turnaround situations which required an active approach to investing.
Vince qualified as a chartered accountant, and from 1985 to 1989 worked at PriceWaterhouse in the business advisory and corporate finance function.