Laurence Vaughan

Laurence has been Chairman of Catapult Ventures since September 2013 and is the Founding Partner of Opus Ventures. Laurence began his career with PwC in audit and consulting before joining a client as Financial Director. In 1993 he joined Synter where as CEO he led the team that grew the company from a single BMW dealership in Nottingham to a luxury car group with around £1bn revenues by 1997 when it listed on the London Stock Exchange. Sytner was bought by US-based Penske Group in 2002 and Laurence joined the main board before becoming Sytner’s non-executive Chairman and founding Opus Ventures. Today Sytner has more than 140 prestige dealerships around the UK, including Audi, Bentley, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Land Rover, Lexus, Maserati, McLaren, Porsche and Rolls Royce. It has revenues in excess of £3bn and is the UK’s most profitable car dealership group.