RICHARD FARLEIGH was born in Australia in 1960. Despite a difficult start in life, he went on to win a scholarship to study economics and econometrics at New South Wales University, and graduated with first class honours.

Farleigh worked briefly in the Research Department at Australia's central bank, the Reserve Bank of Australia, working on economic modelling. At 23, he joined a leading investment bank, Bankers Trust Australia, where he worked in designing and managing swaps and other derivatives. During this period he demonstrated a strong ability at trading financial markets, and was then appointed head of the bank's proprietary trading desk, which achieved spectacular results by predicting big picture trends and by using a trading model he developed.

In 1992 he was hired as head of a private hedge fund in Bermuda. He was able to retire at the age of 34, and moved to live in Monte Carlo. From there he began investing in small companies which were mostly situated in the UK.

Over the years, he has invested in over fifty start-ups, many of which have floated or been acquired. Despite his early retirement and being affected by the tech wreck in the year 2000, Farleigh was named as one of the top ten entrepreneurs in Europe.

Apart from being keen on tennis, skiing and boating, Richard is an internationally ranked chess player, and has represented Bermuda and Monaco in the Chess Olympics.