Simon Acland

He spent most of his venture capital career at London-based Quester. He specialised in backing early-stage technology businesses.[3][4][5] Two of these, Surfcontrol plc and Orchestream plc, became members of the FTSE 250.[6][7] Quester was acquired in 2007 by Spark Ventures.[8]

Acland has been a director of some thirty companies, public and private. [9] He was a Trustee and Vice-Chair of the wild flora conservation charity Plantlife.[10] In 2017 he co-founded Green Angel Ventures, now the reference early stage investor for UK climate innovation [11] and currently acts as Chair. He sits on the Board of the Satellite Applications Catapult [12] and of Smart Battery company Powervault.[13]

In June 2010 Acland's first novel, The Waste Land, was published by Charlwood Books.[14][15] A sequel, The Flowers of Evil, followed in July 2011.[16] These are historical novels set in the First Crusade which draw for their material on some of the myths and legends about the Holy Grail, the Assassins, and the Templars.[17][18] They were republished by Lume Books in 2021.[19]

In October 2010 Nicholas Brealey Publishing published Acland's Angels, Dragons and Vultures : How to tame your investors...and not lose your company, a guide for entrepreneurs to raising finance and managing investors based on his experience of the venture capital world.[20][21] In 2012 Elliot and Thompson published Elite - The Secret to Exceptional Leadership and Performance, which he wrote jointly with ex-SAS officer Floyd Woodrow.[22]

Acland was elected as a member of the London Borough of Lambeth in 1982 for Princes Ward in Kennington. He became Leader of the SDP/Liberal Alliance Group on Lambeth Council in 1984 and was re-elected to the Council for a second four-year term in 1986. In June 1987 he stood unsuccessfully for Parliament in the Vauxhall Constituency.[23]