Activist attack spurs exodus at Woodford-backed start-up

A tech start-up backed by Neil Woodford accelerated a boardroom clear-out today after coming under attack from activist Crystal Amber.

Allied Minds, which helps embryonic tech ideas become companies, has replaced chairman Peter Dolan with board member Jeff Rohr and top non-executive director Kevin Sharer with Harry Rein.

Dolan said: “Allied Minds is at an inflection point, with a new leadership team and strategy.” The move comes days before an annual meeting to vote on their re-election.

“We think this is a reaction to counting the votes for re-election of those directors at the AGM which takes place a week tomorrow,” said Crystal Amber chief Richard Bernstein. “We think they were going to be voted out, so this avoids that embarrassment.”

Crystal has proposed taking over Allied and selling off its assets to return money for shareholders.

The reshuffle is the latest shake-up at Allied after chief Jill Smith was replaced by co-chief executives Joseph Pignato and Mike Turner and a bonus scheme was scrapped.

Woodford’s fund owns about 23% of Allied and also 17% of Crystal Amber.

Crystal Amber is targeting another boardroom shake-up at broker Cenkos. Crystal wants Cenkos to find a new CEO after the proposed candidate, Jim Durkin, faced a hold-up in regulatory approval.