Finding Your Path

Jas Rohel is the Founder and CEO of The Education Awards and the Education Expo, bringing Business and Education together.  Alongside the awards night, Jas works with numerous event sponsors to develop and implement projects in education that directly contribute back to the outstanding work of teachers and educational organisations. Jas is also a Chamber Council Board Member at Solihull Chamber of Commerce.

In support of her drive to create more business links in the education sector, Jas is a radio presenter for The Education Show and Talking Business on Solihull Radio. On air, she discusses a vast amount of business and education topics and interviews key leaders from across the industry.

Business strategist and all-round disruptor Ketan Makwana has been working on business growth, strategic management and talent development for over 20 years.

Ketan has extensive expertise in Tech, Electronics and Healthcare, with a passion for people and processes Ketan has worked across all business levels within enterprise eco-systems including economic policy advisory to governments and ministries across the globe.

As CEO of Enterprise Lab, Ketan is the visionary behind the company’s mission to develop better people and better businesses for better economic outcomes.

Ketan is also an energising and inspirational international speaker on the subjects of mindset, growth, innovation and the power of disruption; he has engaged audiences across 5 continents and 42 cities.

Harriet Green is the former Chairman & CEO, Asia Pacific at IBM. She is a global executive with extensive, multi-channel business leadership experience, having lived and worked on four continents. She was CEO of both Thomas Cook Group plc and the leading high service technology distributor Premier Farnell plc. Harriet is on the advisory council for King’s College London, Board Member at Red Badger and Executive Chair of Mission Beyond. She was awarded an OBE in 2010 for services to industry, and most recently named one of Fortune's most powerful women internationally in 2019.

Harriet's activity can be followed daily on LinkedIn and Twitter.

www.linkedin.com/in/harrietg

twitter.com/harrietgreen1

Professor Kerensa Jennings FRSA is a digital impact specialist, senior adviser at BT, a Trustee and Company Director at the Centre for the Acceleration of Social Technology (CAST), and Visiting Professor of Media, Strategy and Communications at the University of Huddersfield. She is also a bestselling author and award winning strategist, and chairs the DCMS Tackling Loneliness Network Digital Inclusion Group.

Kerensa was previously CEO of the Inspiring Digital Enterprise Award (iDEA), an international programme aiming to help address the digital skills gap. She launched the programme in 2017 and by the time she left the Royal Household to join BT, it was being used in more than 100 countries. More than 6 million of the skills and educational courses have benefitted jobseekers, school children and SMEs.

Before this, Kerensa spent many years as a TV producer and the BBC's Head of Strategic Delivery. Her work on the BBC's Make it Digital strategy earned the Innovation Enterprise Chief Strategy Officer's Best Innovation Award. Kerensa has been selected among the most influential women in UK tech for the last four years by Computer Weekly and represents BT on boards, at major events and in the media.

Sue is the parenting expert on ITV’s ‘This Morning’ programme, offering practical guidance to bringing up happy, confident, resilient children from toddler to teen.

Sue is the parenting expert for Disney Family UK, regularly appearing on BBC Radio, Sky News and LBC, all whilst working with brands and organisations as a Parenting Consultant.

Sue is the author of the Amazon bestseller 'Parenting Made Easy - How To Raise Happy Children' as well as 'Raising Happy Children for Dummies' - one in the famous black & yellow series.

Called 'The Expert's Expert' David's work has been featured in a range of publications, including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Fast Company, and Forbes.

Born in Michigan, David lived in Guatemala with a tribe of Mayan Indians until he was eighteen years old, after which he moved to the United States. His educational background is in ancient languages and theology, and he’s taught at both the undergraduate and graduate level. He also owns RockBench Publishing Corp., a traditional and electronic publisher of courageous, sharp thinking.

Dr. Rhianna C. Rogers is an associate professor of Interdisciplinary Studies (History and Anthropology) and coordinator of the Global Indigenous Knowledge (GIK) program at SUNY Empire State College. She teaches in the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, the School of Arts & Humanities, the School for Graduate Studies, and the Center for International Education. Rogers has won awards for her innovative approach to teaching and learning, including the 2020-2021 & 2019-2020 SUNY Empire Provost Innovation Award, the 2018-2019 Explorations in Diversity & Academic Excellence Award (EDAE), and the 2017-2018 SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Rogers is co-founder/PI of SPEC/Buffalo Project, an award-winning, comprehensive, action-based diversity program focused on upskilling populations to inform solution-making efforts in college and community environments (2010-present). Based on the success of this program, Rogers was invited to speak at the 12th Annual United Nations (UN) - Geneva Forum in the International Conference on Inclusive Education and Project Based Learning for Peace and Development (Dec. 2020).

She received a certificate in Ethnic Studies, a B.A. in Social Sciences (Anthropology Major and History Minor), an M.A. in History, and a Ph.D. in Comparative Studies (Anthropology, History, and Linguistics Concentrations) from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida.

Rogers is an Open SUNY Fellow in academic innovation (2014-present) where she won the inaugural 2015 Open SUNY COTE Online Effective Practice Award and was a finalist for the 2021 and 2018 awards. She also offers collegial support as a SUNY Tools of Engagement Project (TOEP) Fellow in OER academic innovation where she won the 2015-2016 SUNY TOEP Best Peer Mentoring and Support Award.

She was the inaugural Rockefeller Institute of Government-Ernest Boyer Presidential Fellow and the Spring 2020 Center for Law and Policy Studies Internship director (2019-2020) as well as the inaugural coordinator of Interdisciplinary and Multidisciplinary Studies for the college (2017-2019) and the convener for Interdisciplinary Studies (2014-2017).

Rogers is a Registered Professional Archaeologist (RPA) with over a decade of field and museum experience. She has worked in both academic and tribal archaeology as well as in historic preservation and museum studies. Rogers has conducted research and taught in the United States, the Dominican Republic, Cyprus, Lebanon, Mexico, Ecuador, Spain, and Puerto Rico.

Spec project info:

https://specollective.org/
https://twitter.com/specollective
https://opencollective.com/spec

Paul is Equality Adviser to the Premier League board and led on the development of the League’s No Room for Racism Action Plan. He is also a non executive board member at Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and National Citizen Service Trust and an adviser to Sainsbury’s and Metropolitan Police. Previously he spent 16 years as a partner at PwC, the global professional services firm, where he served on the Management Boards of the firm in both the UK and in Africa. He also provided corporate finance and consulting advice to clients across a diverse range of industries including financial services, sport and infrastructure.

As well as a career in professional services, Paul has worked in both local and central government, been a board member at both the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission and Kingston University and works with a number of London schools, all of which reflects his interest in public services and issues of inequality. He has for many years been involved in diversity and inclusion in business and was recognised for his work in that area in the most recent New Year’s Honours List.

Ying is a qualified accountant with a background in investment banking, working for UBS, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs. A successful entrepreneur, he is the founder and chief executive of Dynamo one of the largest mortgage brokers in the UK.

Having secured significant investment from an FTSE 250 company – Ying and his team lead the way in the industry, providing expert knowledge and unbeatable service to numerous homeowners and property investors in the UK.

Shereen Daniels is an advocate for anti-racism in business, Shereen is Vice Chair of the Black Business Association for London Chamber of Commerce & Industry and Founder + Managing Director of HR rewired.

As a wonderfully accomplished HR leader who is a sought after speaker and advisor, Shereen has been featured in Forbes, BBC Worklife and voted one of LinkedIns Top Voices for 2020.

Shereen accelerates Board-level knowledge to implement strategic impactful actions to think differently about anti-racism and promoting racial equity.

As the Vice Chair of the Black Business Association Committee, Shereen plays an integral role in lobbying and supporting the effective business activity of Black entrepreneurs and owners, showing the investable credibility of Black business and significantly influencing the government’s agenda on racial injustice, discrimination and economic empowerment. The committee is focused on ensuring the capital markets and government take the opportunity to both hear and heed competent Black voices and secure the growth of the business sector.

As Managing Director at graduate recruitment and employability consultancy SRS, Sophie Milliken is a recruitment and employability expert.

She has worked with employers such as M&S, JP Morgan, Expedia and AXA to design and deliver their graduate recruitment campaigns. SRS is also the leading provider of assessment-centre simulations for universities and has trained over 30,000 students at these events. A merger in 2019, saw Sophie take on an additional group role in the newly formed Careerpass Network.

Sophie has been a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development since 2013 and was awarded a Fellowship of the Royal Society of Arts in 2019. Her first book, From Learner To Earner was published in August 2019, becoming a best seller in October. Sophie's second book, The Ambition Accelerator will be launched in March 2021 and includes advice from Dragons' Den star Sara Davies and The Apprentice's Linda Plant.

A multi award-winning businesswoman and proud mum, Sophie also enjoys supporting the North East region. Sophie is a supporter of Northern Power Women and co-founder of City Ladies Networking. She is Chair of Smart Works Newcastle and also sits on the Board of Age UK Northumberland.

Ian Thomas is Chief Executive of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames. The council is the first to have been granted ‘Royal’ status and serves an increasingly diverse population of around 180,000 people.

In 2014 Ian was named by Innovation Charity NESTA and The Observer as one of ‘Britain’s New Radicals’ for his creative ideas in raising aspirations for children in care. He holds a Masters Degree in ‘Developing Professional Practice’ (incorporating change management) and is a Masters level qualified Executive Coach and Mentor.

His efforts have led to him being recognised in the New Year’s Honours list 2019 when he was made a Commander of the British Empire.

As Chair of the Lunar Society Deirdre LaBassiere provides visible, values-based leadership in developing a healthy, well-led, dynamic and inclusive culture for the organisation. As Trustee of Women Acting In Today's Society (WAITS) Deirdre utilises her considerable leadership and governance experience coupled with my commitment to support women who find themselves in domestic violence situations to develop and guide the strategic direction of the organisation. Deirdre is also the Governance and Assurance Manager at Housing 21 as well as a consultant in Governance.

Sabrina is a strategist. She has built her subject matter expertise in strategy, business transformation and business change across industry disciplines internationally working for organizations such as Ernst and Young, Nordstrom, Ogilvy & Mather, Barclays Investment Bank, and Barclays PLC.

Sabrina is a small business advocate. She believes that small/ medium businesses are the heartbeat of a thriving economy. Sabrina is invested in leadership accountability and creating space.

Natalie Born is the Founder and Chief Disruptor of Innovation Meets Leadership and the Vice President of Innovation for Territory Global. Prior to Innovation Consulting, Natalie was the Senior Vice President of Business Development at a mar-tech firm. As an accomplished executive with two approved US patents under her belt and over 15 years of experience leading product development teams, she is consistently willing to share her expertise to ensure companies are designing their products and strategy with the customer at the centerof the design.

Natalie is a keynote speaker and innovation facilitator. Natalie has worked with organizations such as CareerBuilder, First Data, IHG and ADP, leading major initiatives in over 18 countries and building a background in acquisition, integration, and international product development.

Annette Brown is the IT Manager at Millbank Law Firm, the Chief Technology Officer of the Social Mobility Business Partnership and a Founding Executive Advisor of Positive Transformation Initiative.

Dr Catherine McGregor is a globally respected researcher in the legal profession, author, consultant and editor of the legal journal Modern Lawyer.

During our talk, Catherine shared on social mobility, the stigmatization of those considered to be working class and how she has navigated her path from academia to law.

Leila is a passionate business owner and entrepreneur, born in Hong Kong and adopted and brought up with her younger brother by British parents with origins from England, Scotland, and Wales. She is married to a Greek American.

Leila leads multiple businesses and charitable initiatives and spends her time dedicated to managing these Directorships whilst continuing to promote and campaign for the benefits of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging in business and in wider society.

Leila has been proactive in her external engagements and has spoken previously for numerous companies including KPMG, Verizon Media, Britvic and Working Options. She was previously interviewed by the BBC journalist Clive Myrie on “the diversity dividend” and benefits of intergenerational leadership. She personally hosts high-profile annual events such as "Celebrating Diverse & Inclusive Leadership” bringing together inspirational thought leaders from industry.

Sharon currently holds an Executive Leadership position on Birmingham City Council’s Cabinet as portfolio holder for Housing, Homelessness, Bereavement Services, Registrar Services and Localisation. She has political leadership responsibilities for the largest housing portfolio in Local Government and provides visible leadership to the 1.2 million citizens of the city and represents them across Europe. 

Sharon has been instrumental in reshaping Birmingham’s approach to tackling homelessness with a vision for a collaborative approach.

I spent time with Jackie Uhi, who is the Head of Networks for HSBC and oversees all 620 branches and a team of 6,000 in the UK. We spoke about life, leadership, equality, making decisions, ambiguity, taking risks and discovering your path in your career.

Justin Onuekwusi is the Head of Retail Multi-Asset Funds at Legal and General, the Co Founder of the #talkaboutblack movement which was launched three years ago dedicated to discussing the issues affecting people of colour.

Justin has also been awarded the Freedom of the City of London in recognition of his work promoting inclusivity within the asset management industry.

Harris Beider is the Head of School of Social Sciences and Professor of Community and Policy at Birmingham City University. Harris was the Chair in Community Cohesion and Head of Social Relations at the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations at Coventry University.

His work has been featured in The Nation, The Guardian, The Huffington Post and BBC TV and national radio. Harris was a Visiting Professor at Columbia University, New York City.

Raj is a CEO, multi-award winner, author, survivor, ambassador and campaigner.   With an unwavering determination to ensure no woman ever goes through what Raj suffered, she set up her registered charity Breaking the Silence (BTSUK), an organisation which raises awareness & provides services to support and equip women & children to overcome domestic abuse, forced marriages and/or human trafficking.

Ollie Phillips is an Ex-England 7's Rugby Captain, World 7's Player of the Year and 4x World Record Holder Adventurer.

As a motivational and keynote speaker, now helping businesses & teams exceed their potential in the areas of Teamwork, Leadership, Resilience and Change. Since retiring from professional rugby Ollie has been involved in many life-changing challenges such as climbing Kilimanjaro, Mount Everest and sailing around the world in the Clipper Boat Challenge which have taught him much about life and himself. 

Mike Harris - Founding CEO of First Direct and Egg Plc. At Mercury Communications, Mike Harris took over as CEO of a company running out of growth opportunities and desperately needing reinvention. By creating an exciting, fast growing consumer brand he doubled profits to over £200m pa in less than three years.

Whilst at Mercury he also supervised (as Chairman) the launch of the mould breaking mobile operator Mercury One to One. As founding Chief Executive of Egg Plc. Britain’s first internet bank and for a number of years the biggest in the world, Mike Harris built a financial services organisation that broke all growth records and moved into profit right on schedule. As Executive Chairman and Co-founder of Garlik Ltd which Mike Harris rapidly built a successful web based business which was sold to Experian. Mike was an advisor on innovation to the Royal Bank of Scotland and served as Chairman of the Group Innovation Board.

Emile William Ivanhoe Heskey is an English former professional footballer and one of the most prolific forwards in Football and Premier League history. With a career that spans 21- years Heskey has made over 500 appearances, won over 60 England caps, scored 158 goals and recorded 48 assist.

Emile Heskey made his debut in 1995 at the age of 17 with Leicester City. Throughout his illustrious career, has played with Liverpool, Birmingham, Aston Villa, Newcastle Jets, Wigan, Bolton Wanders and has 10 international appearances representing England in UEFA Euro and FIFA World Cup.

During his eminent career Emile Heskey’s accolades include:

UEFA Cup Winner- 2001

FA Cup Winner- 2001

4X English League Cup Winner- 1997, 2000, 2001 & 2003

UEFA Super Cup Winner- 2001

English Super Cup Winner- 2002

Two FIFA World Cups 2002 & 2010

Two UEFA European Championships 2000 & 2004

Chris Do is an Emmy award-winning designer, director, CEO and Chief Strategist of Blind and the founder of The Futur.

This is part 2 to our in-depth conversation that we had previously published on 02/08/2020. Chris, goes in and shares even more.

Daniel Priestley started out as an entrepreneur at age 21 and built a multi-million dollar event, marketing and management business before the age of 25. A successful entrepreneur, international speaker and best-selling author, Daniel has built and sold businesses in Australia, Singapore and the UK. 

Daniel is the founder of Dent, which runs a 9-month growth accelerator programme for small enterprises, working with over 500+ entrepreneurs each year to develop their businesses. Dent has offices in the UK, USA, Singapore and Australia. 

Daniel uses campaigns to help raise up to $100,000 for charity each year and is connected to some of the world’s most known and celebrated entrepreneurs and leaders. With a passion for global small business, Daniel is the author of the four best-selling books Key Person of Influence, Entrepreneur Revolution, Oversubscribed and 24Assets.

Stephanie for years was dealing with shame from becoming a young mother at 18 who was unemployed and struggled to provide for her child. Stephanie needed to make some life changing decisions which she had to make to create the life she wanted.

Now Stephanie has a Masters and PhD, leads a successful property business with over a Million in property being managed and is a trainer and podcaster with a passion to help others to do the same.

Rebecca Owers has extensive national experience from working in the field of Wealth & Mortgages for 22 years in her career with HSBC where she now heads up their Wealth Centre of Excellence. Rebecca leads a team of 200 people across six varied departments, from a wealth call centre to highly qualified technical consultants and a retirement advice centre. Rebecca is a respected leader who loves positively impacting those she leads on her teams and the customers they serve. 

Rebecca is always in a constant state of learning, using innovation, and always leading from her value of fairness which drives her passion for creating open and diverse teams enabling ideas and change to come from the ground up. In 2020, Rebecca led the creation of the Belonging group for over 1200 colleagues which leads practical change across many aspects of the staffing to ensure more people truly feel they belong at HSBC.

Chris Do is an Emmy award-winning designer, Director, CEO and Chief Strategist of Blind and the founder of The Futur—an online education platform with the mission of teaching 1 billion people how to make a living doing what they love.

He currently serves as the chairman of the board for the SPJA, and as an advisor to Saleshood. He has also served as: advisory board member for AIGA/LA, Emmys Motion & Title Design Peer Group, Otis Board of Governors, Santa Monica College and Woodbury University.

Dan Brown is an Entrepreneur, Serial Networker and the Founder of The Positive Transformation Initiative. 

During our talk, we discussed all things PTI, life and positive and transformational relationships.

Veronica devotes her life to supporting young people so that they are empowered to seize opportunities in order to add value to improving their lives.

Prior to joining the charity sector, Veronica spent 13 years building her career in the advertising industry for publications such as Time Magazine and the Voice. Since then, she has advised and worked for organisations/individuals focused on helping young people to realise their potential.

Veronica is the Founder of Beyond Our Youth, Development Manager of RedSTART Educate, COO of the Aleto Foundation, Vice-President of Reedham Children’s Trust, Trustee of the Armitage Foundation and founding Trustee of Generating Genius.

Veronica is a fully certificated member of the Institute of Fundraising and has a Masters with Merit in Charity Marketing and Fundraising.

Veronica lives in Bromley and has twin sons who both work in the creative industry.

A qualified Chartered Accountant by profession and now turned Entrepreneur! Lubna was a candidate on BBC One The Apprentice UK 2019 - Season 15 after being one of the 16 selected from a pool of almost 100,000 applicants.

Her beginnings are very humble and the journey has been long with a lot of hard work, sweat and grit but because of it Lubna feels proud when looking back and seeing how far she has come. Parents tell her they give their kids her example and others tell her that they look up to her as a role model and want to be like her.

With more than 25 years of industry experience and a reputation for making things happen, Andrew Diaper is regarded as one the most successful new business builders in the Consulting and Technology industry.

With an ‘A’ list of client successes and contract wins to his credit, Andrew has driven multi-million pound revenues, across a range of disciplines from IT infrastructure through to major M&A deals, with many of the major banks and financial institutions.

Andrew started his career as an electronic engineer and motherboard designer for Acorn Computers. It was when he was at Arm, someone persuaded him to ‘take a bigger challenge’.

Fast forward 27 years and in his eigth year at Capgemini, Andrew has become Vice President of Banking and a member of the UK leadership team. Andrew and his teams of experts are driving Capgemini’s growth and strategic partnerships through innovative solutions and global delivery models that provide mutual benefit to the Capgemini Group and our partners.

‘I wear my heart on my sleeve for all to see, and I lead from the front, my past failures are what make my future successes’.

Sarah Walker-Smith is the CEO of Shakespeare Martineau. She is the first female, non-lawyer CEO in the legal top 50.

A trained accountant having worked for PWC and Deloitte, Sarah puts people at the core of everything she does as well as the marketing and branding experience gained at Boots plc

Sarah looks to challenge the norm in the legal sector and wider business world. She is passionate about levelling the playing field, encouraging everyone to bring their authentic selves to work.

A self-professed ‘geek’, Sarah loves learning and is currently exploring the relationship between leadership, purpose and trust. Sarah strongly believes that ‘good business’ is both purposeful and profitable, often with one leading to the other.

Sarah is a governor at Nottingham Trent University, is a member of the Society of Leadership Fellows at St George’s House and is on the board of the West Midlands CBI Council.

Recognising the importance of life beyond work, she enjoys writing, directing and performing in musical theatre productions.

Dr Karl George MBE

Dr Karl George is a thought leader, author and internationally established consultant in governance. He is Managing Director of the governance forum (tgf), creator of The Governance Framework and the Effective Board Member Programmes. He works with boards and senior executives in the private, public and voluntary sectors and has over twenty five years’ combined experience in accountancy, business and strategic development.

Karl is passionate about community development and utilises his expertise in governance by sitting on a number of local, regional and national boards. Having previously held a number of community and other sector board appointments, Karl is currently the Vice Chair of the  Finance, Risk and Audit Committee for the -Housing Group and Chair of the West Midlands Branch of ICSA: The Chartered Governance Institute.

He pioneered the national Diversity in the Boardroom Campaign, with support from the Birmingham Post, which encourages organisations beyond the FTSE100 to pledge to improving diversity in boardrooms.

He started the first international chapter of 100 Black Men, a mentoring programme with over 10,000 members in the United States. As a Reach Role Model, Karl was one of only twenty individuals from across the UK selected to deliver this government led national activity aimed at raising the aspirations of men from BAME backgrounds.

Herman Stewart is recognised as the UK’s leading expert in youth mentoring with over twenty years of experience mentoring. Herman is an author, TEDx speaker and his flagship mentoring programme has won an award for improving student morale, well-being, performance and attainment.

Herman’s mentoring expertise has been sought by many organisations both nationally and internationally, including government, businesses and education establishments. He was the city of Birmingham’s Lead Mentor; and his work has been regarded as ‘High Quality’ by Ofsted and his Mentoring work has been included in a white paper for policy on social inclusion.

Before embarking on his mentoring career, Herman was a keen sportsman who played football for Great Britain under 15's and he was a professional musician who featured on national radio, TV and MTV.

Likhon Muhammed was born in a remote village in Bangladesh. Neither of his parents had been to higher education and aspiration was limited by the boundary of the village. Early in secondary school, Likhon was challenged by his Science teacher to dream bigger, which he did. His dreaming led to him winning a national scholarship that funded the rest of his secondary education.

Likhon’s scholarship enabled him to move to the capital of Bangladesh to study in a private school following a British curriculum. He completed A-Levels in Physics, Pure Maths and Applied Maths which led to Likhon gaining a full scholarship to study Physics at the University of Oxford.

Likhon, is now a Headteacher in one of the most prominent academy chains who has helped students to secure apprenticeships at Mercedes McClaren and Coca-Cola along the way.

After studying law at the University of Edinburgh Sylvia qualified as a solicitor in 1997, after several years working at Shepherd & Wedderburn, Sylvia moved in-house, and to London, she has worked across three industries; telecommunications at colt, life sciences/healthcare at ThermoFisher and international risk management and private security with Aegis, and GardaWorld where she led by example, not only on commercial and corporate issues but also working with governments, industry and civil society.

Sylvia has contributed to the regulation of the private security industry, with the International Code of Conduct and the development of an industry ISO 18788 (with respect for human rights at its core). After leaving the industry 2018, Sylvia has worked for a range of companies as an outsourced GC and is also working with a number of charitable initiatives, she has a passion for doing the right thing.

Michael Grant was installed in October 2012 as the new master of the Information Technologists’ Company, the 100thCity of London livery company.  Previously, he was a Senior Warden of the company, a post in which he worked closely with the Lord Mayor of London.

In his role as Warden, Grant represented the ITC as a member of the Financial Services Group, alongside eleven other modern livery companies. They jointly assist the Lord Mayor by providing access to expertise and experience for planning his outbound and inbound visits across the world.

Amongst his other City interests, Grant frequently attends State and other visits to the City, dressed in his armour, as a Pikeman of the Company of Pikemen and Musketeers, the Lord Mayor’s private bodyguard. He also frequently acts as chairman of IT conferences on both sides of the Atlantic or as a Master of Ceremonies at a range of industry events including the eGovernment Awards and the Intellect Annual Ball.

Previous to that, in his role as ITC Clerk (CEO), a post he held for five years, Grant incorporated three companies, the last of which was by Royal Charter, and acted as company secretary to two of these. Running a small team of 13, Grant managed and attended ten company committees, and was responsible for helping to manage numerous City events, a £5 million trust fund as well as the ITC’s own Livery Hall.

During his 23 years as a member of the company, Grant has also provided management and consultancy to a team running IT4C (IT for communities), matching the needs of 1,000 charities to the pro-bono help of 10,000 IT volunteers across the UK. He was ITC company secretary for five years and acted as a trustee for three years during the planning and building of the Hammersmith Academy for 700 children.

Swifty joined the British Army in 1982 leaving school at 16 and joining the 1st Battalion Royal Green Jackets. He served 10 yrs. before being medically discharged as a result of injuries received in an IRA IED explosion in Belfast. He lost both legs above the knee, a couple of fingers and received various other blast injuries.

On leaving HM Forces, Swifty continued with his passion for travel and also found work as an Extra/Supporting Artiste in Film and TV. He continues to do this work and has been fortunate enough to get the opportunity to become an actor in Theatre, TV and Film productions.

Over the last 29yrs and in between work opportunities Swifty has become involved in various expeditions both research and adventure and has taken up several outdoor sports and activities. These include Canoeing, Hand-Cycling, Skydiving, Sit-skiing and Snowboarding.

Barry is the CEO of LexJam Consulting and formerly the Director of Legal Affairs and Third Party Sales at ITV Plc. He also sits on the Board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority and assisted in the creation of the Social Mobility Pledge.

During the decade spent working as volunteer youth worker at the childhood trauma charity, Body & Soul, Barry became increasingly concerned by the number of young people from low income backgrounds, although academically capable, were not considering a career  in law. All too often the fear of the unknown was the key factor in putting these students off even attempting to enter the solicitor profession. Barry wanted to change this.

Recognising that in-house counsel do not readily have access to dedicated legal CSR project management resource nor large teams to deliver work experience he set out to devise a model which unlocked the latent goodwill which existed in the in-house community,  in turn, enabling students to experience multiple work places meeting a diverse range of professionals.  Hence, in 2014, with the help of a number of law firms and corporates the Legal Social Mobility Partnership was created offering places to 20 students in London. 

In 2017, Barry secured the financial backing of 23 organisations to evolve the LSMP in to a registered charity and broadened its scope to showcase law and accountancy side by side with business – a first in the UK. In doing so, SMBP is able to offer  over six hundred places across 19 clusters in 13 different locations nationwide.

Sharon is a former television presenter and motivational speaker who presented at Tedx Norwich 2019.   She is the founder of the Dot Com Children’s Foundation and creator of a range of resources which empower children to speak up about issues that frighten or worry them.   

Sharon is an adviser to the police nationally about the safeguarding of children and is currently working to turn the range of paper-based resources which have a strong track record with schools into a digital wellbeing programme.   The new digital resource has already been cited in DFE guidance for teaching online safety. 

In 2014/15 as a journalist and survivor of child abuse, she was appointed media spokesperson and panel member advising the government on the setting up of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse under the Home Secretary Theresa May.  She is currently a consultant on the safeguarding group to the Chief Constable of Essex, Steven Kavanagh who leads the national strategy on digital crime.

Manley was schooled on leadership through a mix of practical and academic. He twice served as an Officer in the Royal Navy, re-joining for the first Gulf War and in between Manley was an Inspector in the Royal Hong Kong Marine Police.

In 2000, he was selected as a skipper in the BT Global Challenge round the world yacht race, leading a team of volunteers, including novices, for 9 months in a 32,000 mile journey, the “wrong way”!

Manley continued his adventures as part of the 3-man team that won the inaugural race to the Magnetic North Pole. The team faced polar bear attacks, and sub-zero temperatures, learning huge lessons about both surviving and competing in very difficult circumstances.

Their record time of 10 days and 9 hours still stands. With many more adventures ahead, Manley is always a “leader, in learning".

A Nottingham native, Ken is an IT businessman and philanthropist with a 40 year international career at IBM, Wang and Interregnum (which he founded and floated in 2000).

A Past Master of the Information Technologists’ Livery Company, he is known in the Square Mile as an outspoken proponent of good corporate governance. He chairs leading governance advisors, Independent Audit, and his expression - “More Soviet than City” - describing his treatment as a director of ENRC is rarely out of the business pages.

Ken has advised or invested in some of the UK’s more interesting computer technology entrepreneurs. A diversity pioneer and enthusiastic mentor, he became the first British born black FTSE100 Director when he joined Reuters (now Thomson Reuters) in 2004 and regularly appears in the Powerlist most influential black people in the UK.

Born and raised in Birmingham (UK) since 1981, Melissa has lived the life of an entrepreneur from an early age. In her young teens, Melissa was always exploring entrepreneurial ventures and whilst she wasn’t clear on exactly what her future looked like, she always knew that she would be running businesses.

After leaving her 7-year career in social housing, Melissa took the plunge and become totally self-employed in 2008 when she ventured into a business partnership involving youth & community engagement. This set the foundation for Melissa’s path into further entrepreneurial enterprises…leading onto launching a training & consultancy business; building a property portfolio; launching a boutique estate agency business which she went on to sell in late 2019 and Melissa is now focusing on speaking & delivering training, events & coaching services for entrepreneurs.

John held Senior Leadership roles at the software company Oracle including leading the UK, Ireland and South Africa Sales Consulting organisation. Prior to joining Oracle, John ran Pan-European Customer Project Teams delivering Software change projects across Western, Northern and Southern Europe for the fast-moving consumer goods company Dalgety and for the Channel Tunnel ticket and reservation system for Eurostar.