DAVID NORWOOD is an international chess grandmaster and as such is an expert in thinking several moves ahead of his competitors. Investors in his newly listed company will be hoping he can bring the same strategic foresight to business.

Mr Norwood, 35, is chief executive of IP2IPO, an intellectual property company that aims to help universities to commercialise their scientific research. Since he put £1 million of his own into yesterday’s AIM flotation of IP2IPO, he has as much interest as anyone in seeing the venture thrive.

A former captain of the English chess team, who writes a newspaper column about the game, Mr Norwood has a persona far removed from the other-worldly image that one might associate with the game’s masters. The Oxford University history graduate has worked in the City as a forex trader and as an investment analyst. He is a former chief executive of the stockbroker Beeson Gregory — now merged with Evolution Group — and it was while with Beeson Gregory that he created IP2IPO.