The group of City grandees lobbying for reform of the UK’s capital markets has bolstered its team with two small-company-focused executives today, signalling a push from the body to address the crisis gripping the UK’s junior stock market AIM.

The Capital Markets Industry Taskforce (CMIT), led by London Stock Exchange boss Julia Hoggett, said that the boss of Octopus Ventures, Erin Platts, and Lisa Gordon, chair of small-cap broker and investment bank Cavendish, would join its team.

Platts was until last year head of Silicon Valley Bank’s UK division and oversaw its emergency sale to HSBC. She will replace Klaus Hommels, founder and chairman of the venture capital firm Lakestar, who is stepping down from the CMIT after two years.

Gordon’s appointment is a newly created role designed to sharpen the group’s focus on smaller listed firms following an exodus from the London Stock Exchange’s AIM last year.

The junior bourse shrank at its fastest pace on record in 2024, with more than 90 firms leaving the market through takeovers and de-listings. The Chancellor Rachel Reeves also compounded fears over the future of the exchange after slashing by half a key inheritance tax relief on AIM shares.

In a statement, CMIT said Gordon would be tasked with championing the needs of smaller quoted and listed companies in the UK.

A ‘critical juncture’

“The addition of leading figures from the venture capital space and growth company-focused investment banking strengthens CMIT’s representation of the UK’s capital markets ecosystem and enhances its platform to advocate for effective reform of the UK market,” CMIT said.

Gordon, who also holds non-executive roles at Alpha Group, JPMorgan UK small cap and income fund, and advertising group M&C Saatchi, said that the UK’s smaller listed firms were at a “critical juncture” and action was needed to “navigate the challenges and seize the opportunities ahead”.

Since it was formed at the direction of the Treasury in 2022, CMIT has pushed regulators and government for reform to UK capital markets on issues like pension investment and executive pay. 

Members of the group also include Phoenix chair, Sir Nicholas Lyons, GSK chair Sir Jonathan Symonds and Mark Austin, a capital markets lawyer who has led a number of reviews into the state of UK’s public markets.

Among the group’s key campaigns have been pushing the Treasury to change pension rules to unlock the flow of cash into the UK’s public markets and start-ups, and championing a “hybrid” stock market system called Pisces.