Judith is a Partner at Downing, having joined the business in 2009 and founding Downing Fund Managers in 2010.

Previously, she was a Partner at Acuity Capital, managing AIM-quoted VCT and IHT investments and a small-cap activist fund. Prior to this, Judith spent nine years as a senior investment manager with Aberdeen Asset Management Growth Capital as Co-Fund Manager of the five Aberdeen VCTs, focusing on technology and media investments in both the public and private markets.

Judith has managed the Downing AIM Estate Planning Service since 2012. Since inception, the Service has returned 196.03% versus 15.69% delivered by the FTSE AIM All Share TR.* The strategy employs a value-based style that favours a deep-dive approach to investing in public markets.

*As at 30 June 2025

Founded in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1912, Grainger plc, a FTSE 250 business, is the UK's largest listed residential landlord, a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) and leader in the fast-growing build-to-rent sector, providing c.11,100 rental homes to over 25,000 customers. With a pipeline of secured build-to-rent development projects totalling c.4,500 homes and £1.3bn, Grainger is creating thousands more rental homes by investing in cities across the UK.

Grainger works in partnership with a large number of public sector organisations to deliver new homes to local communities, including Transport for London, Network Rail, the Ministry of Defence, Lewisham Borough Council and the Local Pensions Partnership.

Grainger's build-to-rent developments provide a range of customer benefits from professional on-site resident services teams, resident amenities including gyms, residents' lounges, roof terraces, meeting rooms and co-working space for those working from home, and superfast 250MB fibre optic broadband.

Grainger takes a leading approach to sustainability and Environmental and Social issues (ESG), recognised as a FTSE4Good business, the National Equality Standard and ranked a Top 50 employer by Best Companies in the Large Company category.

PCI Pal is a global leader in secure payment and data protection solutions for business communications, including contact centres, conversational AI, voice, and digital channels. Delivered via a global cloud-native platform, PCI Pal enables organisations to take payments securely, ensuring compliance and reducing data risk.

The Company operates a partner-first sales strategy, with an extensive reseller network of global Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS) providers including Genesys, Zoom, Amazon, Talkdesk, and 8x8.  These partnerships give PCI Pal access to c.75% of the global contact centre communications market, with 75–80% of sales generated via this partner ecosystem.

Today around 75-80% of PCI Pal sales are generated via its partner ecosystem. PCI Pal’s customer base spans over 700 customers covering breadth of market from the very largest contact centre environments to SMB.  Key customer segments include retail, insurance, government, pharmaceuticals, and healthcare. Core products (Key2Pay, Click2Pay, Speak2Pay) and new fraud management solutions expand the platform’s value, with the aim being to drive future growth via a combination of net new business as well as cross-sell and upsell.

PCI Pal serves over 700 customers worldwide, from enterprise customers to SMB.  Customers include DHL, HMRC, Cox, Easyjet, Ikea, and Lululemon, with strong representation across retail, insurance, government, healthcare, and travel. Its core solutions of Key2Pay, Click2Pay, and Speak2Pay are being expanded with a new fraud management suite, alongside further adjacent products on its roadmap, creating opportunities for both net new business and deeper cross-sell growth.

PCI Pal is one of the fastest growing company on AIM, with ARR in FY25 increased by 25% organically and compound annual revenue growth for the last 5 years of 37%

James Barham, Chief Executive Officer

James was one of the founding members of the team that created PCI Pal.  Prior to taking on the role of CEO at PCI Pal, he was instrumental in establishing and leading the business’ sales, marketing, and operations functions. In 2018 he and his family relocated to the US temporarily to set up the company’s North American operation. Later that year he became Group CEO. He leads the continued development of the Group following a career spent almost entirely in the technology space.  James has a BSc (Honours) in Business Management & Communications.

Ryan Murray, Chief Financial Officer

Ryan has over 20 years’ finance experience in both public practice and industry, including in the technology sector. He joined PCI Pal from AIM quoted FD Technologies plc where he held a number of senior finance roles over the last 14 years. He was most recently Head of Corporate Finance at FD Technologies Plc, with previous roles including CFO of KX (FD Technologies software division) and Group Financial Controller.

He is a qualified Chartered Accountant, having worked at EY in the audit and corporate tax departments.

BASH is an acronym for Buy, Avoid, Sell and Hold a share in a company to be discussed during each panel.