THE long-serving chief executive of Braveheart Investment Group is stepping down after 18 years in charge.

Geoffrey Thomson, one of the co-founder of the Perthshire company in 1997, is being replaced on an interim basis by non-executive director Trevor Brown.

The 69-year-old Mr Brown is the biggest individual shareholder in the group with a near 27 per cent stake.

He is also chief executive at Flying Brands, the former flower and gift delivery business where Sir Tom Hunter’s West Coast Capital was a major investor. Flying Brands is now looking at investments in the technology and logistics sector.

Mr Thomson, 57, was not available for comment.

Chairman Jeremy Delmar-Morgan said: “Geoffrey, who has been Braveheart's CEO for 18 years, was one of the founders of Braveheart and I would like to take this opportunity to thank him for his contribution over so many years and to wish him well for the future.”

Braveheart confirm Mr Thomson will remain on the boards of its operating companies for a short time until various regulatory approvals have been obtained

Alongside those changes Jonathan Freeman, whose background is in financial services, has also been appointed as an executive director on the Braveheart board.

Mr Freeman, 50, is currently a director at companies including Futura Medical, Photonstar LED Group, Hume Capital Guernsey and Caisson Light Industrial Properties.

In addition Braveheart said it intends to put Andrew Burton, chief executive of its fund management arm Viking Fund Managers, on to the board in the “near future”.

Earlier in the year Braveheart restructured its head office which saw the departures of chief financial officer Aileen Brown and chief investment officer Carolyn Smith.

The company, which listed on the Alternative Investment Market in 2007, also reported a reduction in its revenue from £2.04m to £1.86m for the 12 months to March 31 this year.

The pre-tax loss for the year was £767,813 compared to a profit of £15,428 in the prior period.

However Braveheart had to book at near £1.1m charge on the value of its investments, as opposed to a gain of more than £111,000 in the previous year.

Redundancy and restructuring costs came in at £123,000 for the most recent financial year.

Braveheart said it had sold one portfolio company in the year which saw it add £414,000 to its own balance sheet and return cash of around £2m to its clients.

Gas leak detection firm Cascade Technologies, which Braveheart was an investor in, was sold in December last year in a deal which is believed to have valued the business at around £40m

Braveheart has invested in scores of Scottish companies over the years with notable successes including retinal imaging firm Optos and semiconductor maker Wolfson Microelectronics.

In recent years it has expanded into fund management with a number of mandates around the UK including the Finance Yorkshire Equity Fund, NI Growth Loan Fund, Lachesis Fund and Strathclyde Innovation Fund.