After a distinguished career as a top executive in various international blue-chip companies including, BT, Nortel and Alcatel, Chris Lilly then turned entrepreneur, creating a number of high-tech start-ups in the communications, healthcare and security sectors. He has held positions as Chairman, Chief Executive, and Managing Director in a range of companies.He is currently Chief Executive of Versyns Ventures Ltd, a firm of international rainmakers, incorporating a corporate finance boutique, and a business and technology consultancy. His overall success has not come without failure, most notably with the collapse of one of his start-up companies, which started off by being tremendously successful and was at one stage valued at over GBP250M, but then the telecom bubble burst in 2001/2002, resulting in the customer base disappearing overnight. He is therefore very aware of the problems which can lead to failure. He has operated in over 30 countries worldwide, published numerous papers in his professional capacity, and presented at major conferences throughout the world. He is a Business mentor with The Prince's Trust and with The Enterprise Centre in Sussex where he mentors both start-ups and growing companies.