Founder & CEO
Hamish Stevenson - Founder and CEO
Hamish owns and runs Fast Track which he founded in 1997 after securing cornerstone sponsorship from Richard Branson. He and his team have built Fast Track into the UK's leading networking events company focusing on top-performing private companies and entrepreneurs, and ranking them in league tables published with The Sunday Times.
He works with sponsors, media partners and leading entrepreneurs to try to ensure that their expectations of Fast Track are exceeded, and that they remain engaged with our alumni network.
He is an associate fellow at Green Templeton College, Oxford University, where he completed his doctorate and held the Virgin research fellowship in entrepreneurship.
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Current cont'd: With media partner The Sunday Times, Hamish publishes seven league table programmes, ranging from the fastest-growing to the biggest private companies. He hosts seven national awards events and over 25 dinners a year for the owners and directors of companies on the league tables to network and to meet our sponsors, including Virgin, PwC, Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Bank and UBS Wealth Management.
Past: Originally from South Africa, Hamish graduated from the University of North Carolina on a British Morehead Scholarship, and completed a masters and doctorate in management studies at Oxford University. He then bought into, turned-around and successfully sold his stake in Venture Capital Report after four years, which was subsequently bought by Pi Capital. He returned to Oxford to establish and be appointed the Virgin research fellow in entrepreneurship at Templeton College and launched Fast Track.
Extra curricular: He has helped Virgin Unite charity raise over £1.8m from Fast Track entrepreneurs for underprivileged students at the Branson School of Entrepreneurship in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is a 'country expert' for the Europe 500 fastest-growing job creators. He was involved as an Ambassador to Team 2012, helping secure support from entrepreneurs for British athletes for the London 2012 Olympics. He collaborated on entrepreneurial cases with Stanford Graduate School of Business for the World Economic Forum (WEF), and in 2011 he was invited to participate in the WEF's 'Summer Davos' for growth champions in Dalian, China.
Related links:
- Selling the best of British abroad
- The changing face of Britain's tech economy
- Interview about starting-up Fast Track
- 2011 WEF Report (including 4 Fast Track companies)
- Interview about traits of successful Fast Track companies
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Past: Originally from South Africa, Hamish graduated from the University of North Carolina on a British Morehead Scholarship, and completed a masters and doctorate in management studies at Oxford University. He then bought into, turned-around and successfully sold his stake in Venture Capital Report after four years, which was subsequently bought by Pi Capital. He returned to Oxford to establish and be appointed the Virgin research fellow in entrepreneurship at Templeton College and launched Fast Track.
Extra curricular: He has helped Virgin Unite charity raise over £1.8m from Fast Track entrepreneurs for underprivileged students at the Branson School of Entrepreneurship in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is a 'country expert' for the Europe 500 fastest-growing job creators. He was involved as an Ambassador to Team 2012, helping secure support from entrepreneurs for British athletes for the London 2012 Olympics. He collaborated on entrepreneurial cases with Stanford Graduate School of Business for the World Economic Forum (WEF), and in 2011 he was invited to participate in the WEF's 'Summer Davos' for growth champions in Dalian, China.
Related links:
- Selling the best of British abroad
- The changing face of Britain's tech economy
- Interview about starting-up Fast Track
- 2011 WEF Report (including 4 Fast Track companies)
- Interview about traits of successful Fast Track companies
Hide
Support
Faye Preston-Smith - EA and office managerFaye is executive assistant to Hamish Stevenson and office manager; and she also helps with business development. She previously worked for a successful entrepreneur and has extensive experience in banking and private equity, including as head of research for Skillcapital. Prior to this she worked for Vision Capital and Goldman Sachs. She has a masters in chemistry from Bristol University.
Individual staff can be contacted using the following email format: firstname.lastname@fasttrack.co.uk
| Fast Track Angel Court 81 St Clements Street Oxford OX4 1AW Tel: 01865 297100 Fax: 01865 297001 info@fasttrack.co.uk |
| Events team |
| Research team |
| Freelance research team |
| Advisory Board & Brains Bank |