Ireland
Leslie Maliepaard, Venture Partner at Fortrino and an angel investor, has been appointed as Senator to the Grand Assembly of the World Business Angels Investment Forum. Senator Maliepaard represents Ireland in the Global Woman Leaders Committee of the Grand Assembly.
Leslie.Maliepaard@wbaforum.org
As Venture Partner at Fortrino and an angel investor, Leslie Maliepaard is focused on supporting innovation and growth strategy for high-potential startups. Leslie has expertise in lean startup, commercialisation and fund-raising with a background of financial management, business development and investor relations. Fuelled by her 15 years experience in the startup world, her professional goals now include tackling important challenges in Circular Economy and Bioeconomy. By creating international collaborations with Industry, Academia and Government, Leslie’s ambition is to create opportunities for innovative companies who need or have a solution to unmet needs, but face difficulties finding them or bringing the innovation to market. Leslie leads a small team of entrepreneurs and investors who help bring these projects to life by streamlining systems, processes and business development, to position startups for growth and scaling up. Leslie holds a business degree from University of Pretoria, South Africa; and studied Entrepreneurship and Strategy Specialisation at Maryland University and Virginia Darwin School of Business, respectively. She is an active member of HBAN, LBAN and Newable, business angel networks in Europe & UK. She is an Advisory Board Member at Crypta Labs U.K (Quantum Security). Invested in eCommerce, ICT, SaaS, Quantum Security and Connected Transport. Previous experience: CFO, Board member, Business angel and mentor in early-stage startups. She is also a member of ASTP-Proton, Knowledge and Technology Transfer Europe.