Our Philosophy

At The Pipeline, we believe that organisations only achieve outstanding results when they build high-performing teams with a shared purpose. Outstanding performance is delivered through:

Collective endeavour: Each individual member brings a unique insight and skill. The team works together to an agreed goal.
Leadership: Leaders develop new leaders and are confident in their conversations however difficult they may be.
Diverse membership: In a successful team everyone feels they belong. They also always have a minimum of one-third female membership.

Leaders know this formula works but all too often they are so busy ‘doing’ that they don’t invest enough time in building high-performance teams, which can deliver more than any individual – however hard they work.

Leaders are frequently promoted for outstanding individual performance and have not always sufficiently invested in themselves to develop the skills, insights and confidence needed to build a great team.

Over time, leaders can come to believe that a team with members who look alike and understand one another is sufficient, despite decades of evidence to the contrary. Or worse, leaders are so busy they no longer even notice. Many also take it for granted that everyone understands their own purpose and that of their organisation and can articulate both.

At The Pipeline, we cause organisations to stop and reflect. We are practical and muscular – we use the evidence of what works and refuse to do what doesn’t. We have the research, experience and record of delivery to help individual leaders and their organisations to build the type of high-performing teams that move mountains.

About The Pipeline

Margaret McDonagh

Co-Founder

Margaret McDonagh is a dynamic businesswoman and member of the House of Lords. She has had a successful corporate career serving as a NED for both Standard Life and Spanish based infrastructure company Abertis-TBI (global airports). Margaret was also the founding Chairperson of Smart Energy GB. Margaret actively supports several charities, including serving as trustee of the AFC Wimbledon Foundation and is the Chairperson of the Orthopaedic Research & Education Fund, which uses big data to improve outcomes for patients. By profession, Margaret is a global expert in leading ‘big campaigns’. She ran Labour’s 1997 and 2001 General Election campaigns, which produced the most successful results for any party in Britain’s history.

center-curve

Lorna Fitzsimons

Co-Founder

Lorna Fitzsimons is a trusted advisor to blue chip companies and Whitehall on gender diversity and developing executive female talent. She is also a Board member of the UK Fashion Textiles Association (UKFT), the Greater Manchester Local Enterprise Partnership, and a trustee of the education charity, SHINE. Lorna is deeply committed to unlocking women’s potential at the top of corporate Britain and realising growth in the Northern Powerhouse. Lorna was the Founder and Director of The Alliance Project, a £150m public-private partnership to bring back textile manufacturing to the UK, and CEO at the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre (BICOM). She turned BICOM into an internationally renowned centre of excellence. She was also a visiting Fellow at the Defence Academy’s Advanced Research and Assessment Group, and a former Member of Parliament.

The Pipeline Team

Karen Blackett OBE

Non-Executive Director & Personal Brand Expert; UK Country Manager, WPP

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Karen Blackett OBE

Non-Executive Director & Personal Brand Expert; UK Country Manager, WPP

Karen Blackett has been in media for 22 years and is currently Country Manager of WPP, the largest UK media agency with billings over £1 billion. Prior to this, Karen was CEO for 5 years where she was instrumental in MediaCom’s success and in championing diversity across their industry.

In 2012, Karen launched the first ever Government backed Apprentice Scheme for the sector, where the apprentices qualify for an NVQ in Marketing and Communications. In June 2014, she received an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday honours. Karen has won the Women in Marketing (WIM) Outstanding Contribution to Marketing Award, featured 5 times in the Power List of Britain’s 100 Most Influential Black People (heading the list in 2015, the first business woman to do so), and has appeared in the Woman’s Hour Power List of Top 10 Influencers, and Marie Claire’s Women At The Top Awards.

Most recently, Karen has been appointed as one of four external advisors to help diversify the Civil Service, and as a UKTI Business Ambassador for No 10. In March 2016, Karen became the President of NABS, the advertising industry charity which focuses on health and wellbeing in the workplace and presenting the business case for Diversity.

Lynn Blades

Executive Coach & Leadership Summit Facilitator

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Lynn Blades

Executive Coach & Leadership Summit Facilitator

Prior to becoming a full-time executive coach, Lynn spent almost 20 years in the media industry as an award-winning (Emmy, National Press Club and Peter Lisagor Award for Investigative Journalism) television journalist, writer, producer, and on-air presenter/contributor in the USA and UK. Her excellent communication skills and distinctive can-do spirit were honed in professional posts with top international networks including BBC, ITV 1, CNN, CBS, CNBC, GMTV, Fox Health Network, E! Entertainment, BET and Showtime, where she developed and presented hard news as well as entertainment programming.

Lynn is known for her no-nonsense yet non-judgmental approach to coaching, upheld with total commitment to empowering her clients. She insists that measurable results can be obtained when time is valued as a commodity used to achieve leadership growth. Lynn inspires courage, humility and discipline in her clients and consistently coaches leaders to uncover their hidden potential for success.

Professor Chris Bones

Non-Executive Director & Academic Advisor

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Professor Chris Bones

Non-Executive Director & Academic Advisor

Professor Chris Bones is Dean Emeritus at Henley Management School, Professor of Creativity and Leadership at Manchester Business School and Visiting Professor at the University of Aberdeen. He advises on the academic content of The Pipeline programmes.

Professor Bones is an organisation and change strategist who is consistently ranked by his peers as one of the most influential thinkers of his generation. He has written extensively for professional journals and major newspapers.

He published his first book, ‘The Self-Reliant Manager’ in 1994 and contributed to the republished works of Peter Drucker. His latest book ‘The Cult of Leadership’ addresses the reasons behind the malaise in leadership and what can be done to restore trust in business. It won the 2012 Management Book of the Year Prize – the first UK winner. Before entering the world of academia Professor Bones had a successful career in industry spanning 30 years. He has also advised the current and previous Governments on M&A and pay.

Alison Byrom

Sales Operation Manager

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Alison Byrom

Sales Operation Manager

Alison Byrom is The Pipeline’s Sales Operations Manager. She is responsible for liaising with organisations as the first point of contact to help answer queries around our open or bespoke programmes and match you to the right solution. Once programme places are booked, Alison provides all delegates and their managers with vital pre-programme information to ensure participants and organisations maximise results.

Michele Carr

Executive Coach

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Michele Carr

Executive Coach

Michele is an Executive Leadership coach with an avid interest in health and well-being. With a reputation for building excellent working relationships across all sectors and tackling controversial projects, she served as an executive manager in local government during her 35+ year public sector career. She led a diverse range of services such as housing, transport, planning, economic development,regeneration and corporate policy including leading on the delivery of the £90m Metrolink town centre extension for Oldham.

A keen walker and believer in the power of exercise and the outdoors, she has been director of her own company Walking the Talk Ltd since 2015, offering her clients the opportunity to walk outdoors during their coaching sessions.

Billy Christie

Head of Research

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Billy Christie

Head of Research

As the Head of Research for The Pipeline, Billy is responsible for overseeing our research projects including the annual Women Count report, as well as the reporting function of our GENIE diagnostic tool. His background in politics and policy research give him plenty of experience in providing in-depth analysis for a multitude of stakeholders. Outside of work he is a local councillor and a school governor and brings a wealth of experience to our clients.

Claudia Centazzo

Commercial Director – GENIE

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Claudia Centazzo

Commercial Director – GENIE

Claudia is the Commercial Director – GENIE at The Pipeline. She is a commercial mathematician, and her purpose is to provide senior decision makers with change enabling data. In other words, the raw material necessary to make tough choices and take people with them. Claudia has 15 years of experience of working in a commercial environment for a niche mathematical consultancy, where she used her analytical and communication skills to secure large value contracts in the telecoms and energy sectors and deliver innovative and successful outcomes for its clients.

Claudia adds considerable value by the mathematical discipline she possesses allied to her naturally curious disposition. Intuition is a highly prized resource if change is to be instigated in organisations resistant to alterations in the status quo. Intuition in combination with mathematically driven accuracy is a powerful yet all too rare skill set.

Claudia holds a PhD in pure mathematics from the University of Louvain la Neuve, Belgium.

Nell Cundle

Senior Programme Coordinator

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Nell Cundle

Senior Programme Coordinator

Nell is an experienced events manager across the private and public sectors. She anticipates the needs of participants before they themselves realise them. Her talent for delivering great customer service comes from working in the retail industry when she helped her dad on his flower stall at a very young age.

William Devine

Head of Coaching

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William Devine

Head of Coaching

William Devine is a Senior Executive Coach working with leaders and teams across all sectors of the UK and Internationally, and is the head of The Pipeline’s coaching practice.

William is also an expert in supporting organisations to recover, restore resilience and grow through traumatic events. He works with organisations nationally and internationally.

William runs his own boutique business providing psychological services to organisations in the UK and beyond to support the wellbeing and resilience of their people.

He has qualifications in Psychotraumatology and Psychodynamic Psychotherapy having practiced with individuals, groups and organisations for over 20 years. He is a member of various professional bodies in Coaching, Psychotherapy and Trauma e.g. AOC, BACP, BACP Coaching Division, FPC, UKPTS, ESTSS.

Dipali Patel

Executive Assistant

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Dipali Patel

Executive Assistant

Dipali Patel is an Executive Assistant at The Pipeline with over 10 years of experience and knowledge in both the Public and private sector. Dipali is an excellent problem solver who is calm and friendly with meticulous attention to detail. She is welcoming and engaging with everyone she comes across and brings together the team with her warm and approachable manner.

Lorna Fitzsimons

Co-Founder

More about Lorna

Lorna Fitzsimons

Co-Founder

Lorna is co-founder of The Pipeline and is a trusted advisor to big cap companies and Whitehall on gender and developing executive female talent. She is also a Board member of the UK Fashion Textiles Association, UKFT, Greater Manchester Local Enterprise Partnership and a trustee of the education charity, SHINE. Lorna is deeply committed to unlocking women’s potential at the top of corporate Britain as well as realising growth in the Northern Powerhouse.

Previously, Lorna was the founder and Director of The Alliance Project, a £150m public-private partnership to bring back textile manufacturing to the UK and CEO at the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre (BICOM). She turned BICOM into an internationally renowned centre of excellence. She was also a visiting Fellow at the Defence Academy’s Advanced Research and Assessment Group and former Member of Parliament for Rochdale.

Jackie Gittins

Executive Coach

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Jackie Gittins

Executive Coach

In her role as coach, Jackie works alongside CEO’s and senior leaders of global organisations helping them to do the tough work of change. She equips leaders to direct with their head as well as their heart, always seeing the leadership and people dynamic in the context of their business and commercial imperatives.

Jackie is known for moving leaders and their teams to the next level of performance. Organisations want to work with her as she brings a mix of business acumen with creativity, challenge and support.

Jackie’s work is shaped by the belief that the answers to most questions and dilemmas lie within the minds of leaders and their teams within organisations. Her approach focuses on enabling and surfacing the crucial questions that lead to new opportunities and growth in the current dynamic economy.

Simon Gulliford

Non-Executive Director

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Simon Gulliford

Non-Executive Director

Initially, Simon began his career as a lawyer, however, he changed career direction in the mid-1980s when he returned to University to study for an MBA. He joined the academic staff at Ashridge Management College and was soon promoted to head of the Marketing Faculty.

In 1992, he left academia and set up his own consulting business. Simon then became the Marketing Director of Sears, helping to relaunch and subsequently demerge Selfridges. From there he was appointed Marketing Development Director of EMAP plc and helped launch and develop magazines such as FHM, Red and Heat, as well as working closely with all EMAP music and entertainment interests.

Until August 2004, Simon was the Group Marketing Director for Barclays plc, where he instigated significant change and built Barclays into a world- class marketing organisation.

Until March 2011, Simon was the Chief Marketing Officer for Standard Life plc where he instituted a major re-structuring and re-positioning programme. He has also recently carried out major pieces of strategy work for easyJet, BAA, Harper Collins, Cannes Lions & BDO.

Simon has a strong practical approach, backed by a thorough appreciation of latest analytical techniques. He is a lively and compelling speaker in constant demand on the international conference circuit and European business schools.

Kathryn Gallan

Head of Partnerships & Client Development

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Kathryn Gallan

Head of Partnerships & Client Development

Kathryn Gallan is Head of Partnerships & Client Development at The Pipeline. She is passionate about how companies spot and invest in their talent. Kathryn‘s role at The Pipeline involves identifying organisations which are committed to retaining and advancing their senior women through our Top-Flight and Leadership Summit programmes.

Kathryn is also a NED at Starting Point Recruitment, a company which invests 100% of its profits in initiatives which increase social mobility, an Associate Member of CIPD and a co-founder of the TalentProof podcast which showcases role models from under-represented groups.

Katie Kennedy

Programme Organiser Executive

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Katie Kennedy

Programme Organiser Executive

Katie has experience in delivering events, exhibitions and customer service. Having previously worked in politics and hospitality, she has worked with a wide range of stakeholders. Katie is outgoing and enjoys meeting all the people on our programmes and supporting them. She also enjoys seeing a project through from start to completion. In her spare time, she enjoys photography which she has also used in previous events roles.

Sue Leeson

Executive Coach

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Sue Leeson

Executive Coach

Sue has 30 years corporate experience culminating in 15 years at board-level. Her career started in advertising working on leading accounts, then in media during the transition to digital and finally in retail with a global brief.

As a professional executive coach, Sue coaches across a breadth of industries at a senior level. Her wealth of corporate experience enables fast comprehension of client challenges and helps her to work with each client to develop realistic strategies for success.

Sue has both experienced herself and coached others around the following: working in a male-dominated environment, navigating conflicting priorities of daily growth vs. long-term strategy, the complexities of working in a global matrix structure, balancing demanding work and personal schedules and more.

Sue’s clients say her coaching is insightful, challenging, supportive and effective.

Lexie Sims

Director at The Good Board

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Lexie Sims

Director at The Good Board

Lexie Sims is a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion consultant working with organisations’ C-Suite, HR and line managers to ensure inclusive environments by creating and embedding Diversity, E&I strategies.

She has over 20 years senior HR experience in public and commercial sector organisations, including leading talent acquisition and talent management functions.

She is a Certified Course Facilitator, an experienced Career Coach, and a Trustee for the National Scout Association.

Lexie is passionate about ensuring organisations and individuals exceed their potential through development of sustainable, inclusive business strategies and individual talent development and management. A keen mentor and coach it is her belief that social mobility is aided by access to opportunity and education.

Karen Mackley

Leadership Summit Facilitator

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Karen Mackley

Leadership Summit Facilitator

Karen has over 25 years experience of working in design and project management of leadership development programmes for a diverse range of clients in the UK and globally. She is a specialist in experiential learning and have delivered “immersion programmes” for clients in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors. She has her own consulting business offering coaching and development expertise for clients in the UK.

Jayne MacLennan

Executive Coach

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Jayne MacLennan

Executive Coach

Jayne has a wealth of FTSE 300 board level and non-executive director experience. Her career started as a chartered surveyor and property consultant and then progressed to corporate life in the UK and North America where she was involved in several large-scale mergers and acquisitions. She is a subject matter expert but also an experienced all-round business woman.

As an executive coach and accredited mediator, Jayne combines this learning with the experience of working with complex issues and challenging environments. She is passionate about supporting individuals and organisations reach new horizons and achieve the results they want.

Jayne’s non-executive experience also allows her to see things from multi levels which Chief Executives and Senior Leadership Teams in particular find beneficial. Her personable approach never compromises her insightfulness and vision of how things can be better.

Margaret McDonagh

Co-Founder

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Margaret McDonagh

Co-Founder

Margaret McDonagh is a dynamic business woman and member of the House of Lords. She read an article by Alice Thompson in 2012 that explained corporate UK had lost 40% senior female executives in the previous decade and thus co-founded The Pipeline. Its purpose is to increase the number of women at the most senior levels of large organisations.

Margaret passionately believes such organisations are more successful over the long term and therefore looks at this gap as an economic rather than an equality issue. The Pipeline achieves its aim by working with both organisations and individual female executives because if women could do this on their own it would already have happened.

Margaret herself has had a successful corporate career serving as a NED for both Standard Life and Spanish based infrastructure company Abertis – TBI (global airports). Margaret was also the founding Chairperson of Smart Energy GB. She actively supports several charities including serving as trustee of AFC Wimbledon Foundation and is the Chairperson of the Orthopaedic Research & Education Fund, which uses big data to improve outcomes for patients.

By profession, Margaret is a global expert in leading ‘big campaigns’. Margaret ran Labour’s 1997 and 2001 General Election campaigns, which produced the most successful results for any party in Britain’s history. Margaret was also the first female and youngest General Secretary of the Labour Party.

Sue O’Brien OBE

Non-Executive Director

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Sue O’Brien OBE

Non-Executive Director

Sue joined Ridgeway Partners as a partner in 2015 to lead the Retail and HR practice and work with the Board practice team. Previously Chief Executive, and a board member of a listed search firm, she has over 17 years as a practitioner in board advisory services.

Her work within the search industry has focused on board and non-executive appointments in FTSE and AIM listed businesses. With an early career in retail, she was a managing director of a leisure business in the early nineties. She moved into executive search in 1998. In addition to her role at Ridgeway Partners, Sue is a board member of Walpole British Luxury, a founder member of The Women’s Business Council and a Trustee for KidsOut children’s charity. She was awarded an OBE for services to charity and for promoting equality in the workplace, has a role on the board of the Chartered Management Institute and she is also a member of the International Women’s Federation.

Pargavi Arulrajh

Intern

More about Pargavi

Pargavi Arulrajh

Intern

Pargavi has joined The Pipeline as our Intern. She has recently graduated with a 1^st class degree in International Business from University of Hull where she also did a year abroad at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University. She is extremely passionate about Diversity and Inclusion which has led her to The Pipeline. She believes that people from different backgrounds should be allowed equal opportunities to better their lives and careers.

Paula Leach

Programme Leader

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Paula Leach

Programme Leader

Paula Leach is a Chief People Officer with over 25 years experience working in global multinational, large scale complex public sector and entrepreneurial growth organisations. Paula is passionate about the importance of leadership in building organisational cultures where people are included, can be creative and collectively productive. Paula now runs her own Executive Coaching and Business Advisory business ‘Vantage Points Consulting Ltd’ (www.vantagepointsconsulting.com) enabling and inspiring leaders to explore and unlock their full potential and that of their teams and organisations. Later in 2021 she will be launching the ‘Vantage Points Foundation’ which will provide coaching and mentoring support and inspiration to young women to lean into and achieve their dream careers. Paula is author of the book ‘Vantage Points’ published in February 2021.

Jennifer Powell

Executive Coach

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Jennifer Powell

Executive Coach

Jennifer brings over 15 years experience as a communication and change strategist, and as a Partner in a global management consultancy, to her Executive coaching. She has worked at executive levels with, and in, a number of FTSE 100 companies in many sectors – finance, oil and gas, law, services. She works effectively in an environment of turbulent or substantial change.

She firmly believes that if people are resourceful enough to articulate issues, they are resourceful enough to find solutions. Her role is to use questioning, challenge and feedback to help clients uncover helpful insights quicker. She often helps clients to shine in their personal diversity and to lead inclusively so that diversity is welcomed, encouraged and celebrated in organisational life.

Sanaa Sliti

Executive Assistant

More about Sanaa

Sanaa Sliti

Executive Assistant

Born in London, Sanaa is proud of her Moroccan heritage. She partially spent her childhood in Morocco, and although once again London-based, she still feels strongly connected to her cultural roots.

Professionally, Sanaa worked in a range of Executive Assistant & program management roles before joining The Pipeline. Her career has taken her to posts in management consulting and global insurance, in both the UK and in Bahrain. Life in the Middle East allowed Sanaa to enjoy the benefits of a luxury lifestyle but first-class travel and an expensive apartment didn’t compensate for the culture shock. She cleverly found ways to adapt culturally, without having to compromise her own personality.

Sanaa feels she has learned an incredible amount about human behavior during her career, including how to best communicate with a variety of people. At The Pipeline, she applies her outstanding organization skills to program management and network coordination.

Shanelle Reynolds

Office Assistant

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Shanelle Reynolds

Office Assistant

Born and raised in St Catherine in Jamaica. I am on a gap year from studying Law and Criminal Justice at De Montfort University. In my spare time I am a lover for fashion, I enjoy styling others and keeping up with the new fashion trends. Before joining The Pipeline, I had been temping which gave me the experience of working alongside a few big companies in the Industry such as Smiths Group PLC and Atos UK.

Simon Linares

Executive Coach and Mentor

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Simon Linares

Executive Coach and Mentor

Simon Linares is an Executive Coach and Mentor at Merryck & Co EMEA. Before that he was the Group Human Resources Director of Direct Line Insurance Group Plc. He was responsible for leading the Group’s HR function, Internal and External Communications and Public Affairs. He was also responsible for delivering the Group’s People and Corporate Responsibility strategies. Simon is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Simon has spent the majority of his career as a leader in customer-centric businesses. Before moving into HR, Simon held several commercial business roles in the fastmoving consumer goods and financial services sectors. Simon is a NED of Nottingham Building Society and is also a trustee of the KidsOut UK charity.

Sophy Antrobus

Programme Lead

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Sophy Antrobus

Programme Lead

Dr Sophy Antrobus researches contemporary air power in the context of the institutional, cultural and organisational barriers to innovation in modern air forces, in particular the RAF. She joined the Freeman Air and Space Institute from Portsmouth Business School where she was a Teaching Fellow in Strategic Studies. Prior to that Sophy completed her PhD at the University of Exeter. Her thesis researched the early politics of air power and networks in Whitehall in the inter-war years. She delivered the 2020 Peter Nailor Defence Lecture at Gresham College on the subject ‘How are Drones Changing Warfare?’.

Previously, Sophy served in the Royal Air Force for twenty years including in Iraq and Afghanistan and a tour with the Royal Navy. She was awarded the MBE in 2003. Her final tour was commanding operations at RAF Valley. Prior to starting her PhD she ran a successful consultancy business working with military charities and veterans. She is a Fellow and elected member of the Council of the Royal Aeronautical Society; she also chairs its Learned Society Board.

Lisa Wilcox

Finance Manager

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Lisa Wilcox

Finance Manager

Lisa has joined The Pipeline to look after all things finance. She holds a Business (Accounting) degree from Sydney, Australia and was a member of CPA Australia for 20 years. Lisa has worked in the public sector, for large corporates as well as SME’s, across a broad range of industries, has worked in Australia, New Zealand and now lives and works in London.

Pauline Wiseman

Executive Coach

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Pauline Wiseman

Executive Coach

Pauline has held a number of senior leadership roles in the European and UK motor industry. In addition she has supported several charities in a non-executive role, drawing on her broad commercial experience as a Finance Director, Learning and Development specialist and International Human Resources Director.

Pauline is now engaged in providing consultancy support to organisations aiming to create positive commercial change while bringing out the potential excellence within their people.

Working with senior leaders to examine their strategic direction, company structure and culture, Pauline supports positive change through organisation design, leadership development and executive coaching. Recent clients include Jaguar Land Rover, Ultra Engineering, Children with Cancer UK and MacIntyre.

As an executive coach, Pauline is focused particularly on supporting senior female leaders to bring out their most authentic personal leadership in challenging environments. Feedback from those Pauline has worked with attributes her with enabling them to leverage their personal impact and influence more effectively and so drive the success of their organisations.

The Contributors

Maria Albonico

Partner, McKinsey & Co

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Maria Albonico

Partner, McKinsey & Co

Maria is a Partner in McKinsey’s London office. She serves clients in leading pharmaceutical companies in Europe, US and Japan and is a leader in McKinsey’s Pharmaceuticals and Medical Products Practice in Europe.

Maria has worked extensively on commercial and strategy topics in the Pharmaceutical space, where she enjoys tackling, together with her clients, the challenges that the healthcare industry is currently facing. In one recent project, she worked with the senior leadership team of a large multinational pharmaceutical company to transform its go-to market strategy, with a focus on Europe and the US. She also serves Arts clients, building on her passion for creativity and art.

In addition to her work with clients, Maria leads McKinsey’s Women’s Recruiting Initiative in the London office. Maria has a Masters degree in Art Management from the Bocconi University and an MBA from London Business School.

Sir Rod Aldridge

Former Chairman and Founder, Capita

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Sir Rod Aldridge

Former Chairman and Founder, Capita

Sir Rod Aldridge is a social entrepreneur with over 40 years’ experience in the public, private and third sectors. In 1984, he founded Capita, leading it until his retirement in 2006, and turning it from start-up to a FTSE 100 company. Today Capita remains the market leader in the provision of support and professional services to the government and private sector in the UK, and is the 50th ranked company in the FTSE 100, with a market capitalisation of over £8billion.

Prior to Capita, Sir Rod worked in local government for ten years, becoming a qualified account with CIPFA, and ultimately it’s Technical Director. He served as Chairman of the CBI Public Service Strategy Board at its inception in 2003.

In 2006, Sir Rod established the Aldridge Foundation to further the work of his charitable trust. The Foundation helps young people to reach their potential and improve their communities, principally through the sponsorship of and support to a family of twelve entrepreneurial academies and colleges, eight of which are open. These have been established in the North West, London and southern coastal communities.

Sir Rod was awarded an OBE in the 1994 New Years Honours List, for services to the computer industry, and was given the freedom of the City of London in 1996. In 2006, he was elected fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and in 2012, he received a knighthood for services to young people.
Sir Rod is Chair of The Lowry, the arts and entertainment venue in Salford; Patron and former Trustee of The Prince’s Trust; former Chair of Acorn Care and Education, a provider of special schools across England; and a founding member of the Prince’s Charities Council. He is a Founder Freeman of the Guild of Entrepreneurs.

Lord Waheed Alli

Partner, Shine Venture Capital

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Lord Waheed Alli

Partner, Shine Venture Capital

Rees Aronson

Audit Partner, KPMG

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Rees Aronson

Audit Partner, KPMG

Rees joined KPMG in 1989 and has over 25 years’ experience in the insurance industry. For six years he held a number of internal management roles including the Head of FS Audit. Rees leads various external audit accounts including FTSE 100 (Prudential Plc) and FTSE 250 (Hiscox Plc) clients and large private groups (Budget Holdings Ltd).

Rees has extensive experience in the insurance sector dealing with Life, Non Life (retail and London Market) and intermediary clients. He has significant experience of working with listed groups.

He has led a large number of advisory projects particularly transactions including IPO’s, rights issues, debt issues and financial due diligence. He has also led a number of projects advising on various aspects of Corporate Governance. Specifically he has acted as the reporting accountant on rights issues for Hiscox and Beazley during their relocation to Bermuda and Ireland respectively and for Prudential during their attempted takeover of AIA. Rees also provided advice to Old Mutual during their acquisition of Skandia and to Winterthur when they sold Churchill Insurance to Royal Bank of Scotland. Rees spent a year on secondment at the Labour party acting as their Finance Director during the 2001 General Election.

Rees has extensive experience of leading audit and advisory engagements for a wide range of clients including Prudential, Old Mutual, Allianz UK, Clerical Medical, Churchill Insurance, Hiscox, Beazley, Novae, Lancashire, Towergate and Budget Holdings Limited (ultimate parent company of Compare the Market).

Rees has considerable experience in IFRS, UK GAAP, European Embedded Values reporting and SOX reporting. He also has experience with various types of regulatory and client money reporting.

Sly Bailey

Former CEO, Trinity Mirror

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Sly Bailey

Former CEO, Trinity Mirror

Sly was the CEO of the Trinity Mirror for almost a decade, from 2003 to 2012, having previously been CEO of IPC media which was the largest magazine publisher in the UK and at the time the UK’s largest leveraged buy-out. Sly sold the business to AOL Time Warner in 2001 for just under a £billion. At the time it was the largest ever transatlantic media deal. She serves as a Non-Executive Director on a number of boards including Ladbrokes, Greencore Group plc and The London Real Estate Exchange.

Gurnek Bains

Founder & CEO, Global Future CIC; Former CEO, YSC

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Gurnek Bains

Founder & CEO, Global Future CIC; Former CEO, YSC

Gurnek is the Founder and CEO of Global Future CIC, and co-founded and previously served as Chair and CEO of YSC, having established the company in 1990. He works with senior leaders across a range of industries and remains a trusted advisor to some of the most senior leaders in British and international business.

Gurnek is chief author of ‘Meaning Inc: The Blueprint for Business Success in the 21st Century’ (2007). Gurnek has a Degree in Social Psychology and a Doctorate from Oxford University.

He is interested in spread betting, keeping fit, current affairs and photography and is married with 2 children.

Suzanne Baxter

NED & Chair of Audit Committee, W. H. SMITH

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Suzanne Baxter

NED & Chair of Audit Committee, W. H. SMITH

Suzanne is an experienced chair, director and finance professional with substantial FTSE250 and public sector board and committee experience. Following a broad executive career that included 11 years as a FTSE250 CFO, she has built an interesting non-executive portfolio where she works with a variety of businesses and follows her passion for workplace equality. Suzanne is a non-executive director, board committee member and Audit Committee Chair of international retailer WHSmith plc. She is a Commissioner for Equality and Human Rights for Great Britain and a member of the board, audit committee and UN Treaty Monitoring group of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and is the sole External Board Member and Nominations Committee Chair for Pinsent Masons LLP, the international professional services firm.

Jo Bertram

Chief Digital & Strategy Officer, Telefonica O2 UK

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Jo Bertram

Chief Digital & Strategy Officer, Telefonica O2 UK

Jo has recently joined Telefonica UK (O2) as Chief Digital & Strategy Officer. Prior to this, Jo was the Regional General Manager of Uber’s Northern Europe operations, covering the U.K., Ireland, Nordics, Baltics and Benelux. In four years at Uber, Jo grew the organisation from a small London team of three to more than 300 people across the region. She oversaw the launch of Uber in more than 40 cities and towns beyond London; and managed Uber’s entry into Ireland, Finland, Denmark and Norway. She has also been an Executive in Residence at EQT Ventures, who she continues to advise.

Jo also has more than eight years of management consultancy experience, having worked for both McKinsey and Accenture. She holds a degree in natural sciences from Cambridge University and an MBA. from INSEAD.

Mark Betteridge

Director, BBM Campaigns

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Mark Betteridge

Director, BBM Campaigns

Mark negotiated national industry agreements as a trade union officer before bringing his abilities as a communicator and advocate to Campaign It! He uses his understanding of membership organisations to build successful coalitions to support campaigns, securing endorsements from businesses, charities and unions for campaigns as diverse as the Scotland Referendum and telecommunications market reform.

His experience and skills are in demand by organisations and campaigns seeking to engage and motivate local communities. As a former Deputy Leader of a London council with minority political control, Mark was responsible for relationships with other parties. The success of his inclusive approach was recognized with the Municipal Journal Best Achieving Council Award for 2013.

Evelyn Bourke

Group CEO, BUPA; NED at M&S, Bank of Ireland

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Evelyn Bourke

Group CEO, BUPA; NED at M&S, Bank of Ireland

Evelyn is a Non-Executive Director on the boards of Bank of Ireland, London First and Marks & Spencer, and served as Bupa’s Group CEO from 2016 until 2020. She previously served as Acting Group CEO from April 2016 and CFO from September 2012. Evelyn has a strong track record and extensive experience in financial services, risk and capital management, and mergers and acquisitions. A qualified actuary, she also holds an MBA from London Business School and was previously a Non-Executive Director of the IFG Group in Ireland. Evelyn joined Bupa from Friends Life where she was Chief Executive Officer of its Heritage division. Previously at Friends Provident, she was the Executive Director responsible for strategy, capital and risk and, before that, Chief Financial Officer.

Donald Brydon CBE

Chairman, The Sage Group

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Donald Brydon CBE

Chairman, The Sage Group

Donald is currently Chairman of the Sage Group plc and the Medical Research Council, and previously chaired the London Stock Exchange.

Donald brings his wealth of experience gained on the boards of a number of listed companies across a wide range of sectors, as well as his significant knowledge and understanding of the Finance and Insurance industries, gained from his time as Chairman and Chief Executive of both BZW Investment Management Ltd and AXA Investment Managers SA.

Past experience: Donald has also held the post of Chairman at: Smiths Group plc, the London Metal Exchange, Taylor Nelson Sofres plc, Amersham plc, AXA Framlington Ltd and Royal Mail plc and is a former Director of Aberdeen UK Tracker Trust plc, Allied Domecq plc, AXA UK plc and Scottish Power plc.

Other current appointments: Donald is currently Chairman of the charity Chance to Shine and Chairman of the Science Museum Foundation.

Rt Hon Vince Cable MP

Leader & Former Secretary of State, Liberal Democrats

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Rt Hon Vince Cable MP

Leader & Former Secretary of State, Liberal Democrats

Married to Rachel since 2004. His late wife, Olympia, died in 2001 and their three children are Paul (married to Agnesa Tothova); Aida (married to Stephen Kenny) and Hugo. Vince has two grandchildren: Ayrton, son of Paul and Agnesa, and Charlie, son of Aida and Stephen.

Vince Cable read Natural Sciences and Economics at Cambridge University, where he was President of the Union, followed by a PhD at Glasgow University.

From 1966 to 1968 he was Treasury Finance Officer for the Kenya Government. After lecturing at Glasgow University in economics he worked for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as a first secretary in the Diplomatic Service (1974-76). He was then appointed Deputy Director of the Overseas Development Institute, which included a period working for the then Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, John Smith, as a special advisor. From 1983 to 1990, Vince worked as special advisor on Economic Affairs for the Commonwealth Secretary General, Sir Sonny Ramphal.

In 1990 he joined Shell International taking up the post of Chief Economist in 1995. He has also been head of the economics programme at Chatham House and is a former fellow of Nuffield College Oxford and the LSE.

Vince served as a Labour councillor in Glasgow between 1971 and 1974, before joining the Social Democrat party. He is currently the Leader of Liberal Democrats and a visiting professor at the London School of Economics.

Alastair Campbell

Journalist, Broadcaster and Author

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Alastair Campbell

Journalist, Broadcaster and Author

Alastair Campbell is a writer, communicator and strategist best known for his role as former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s spokesman, press secretary and director of communications and strategy. Still active in politics and campaigns in Britain and overseas, he now splits his time between writing, speaking, charities and consultancy. He delivers useful keynotes on effective and strategic communication, leadership and politics.

Though he left a full-time role with the Blair government in 2003, he returned for the subsequent three general elections to help first Blair, then Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband. He also advised the Better Together campaign against independence for Scotland, and the Remain side in the EU referendum campaign. He continues to advise left of centre parties.

Campbell has been Humanitas Visting Professor on media at Cambridge University, and has been honoured by both University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin and University College Cork for his contribution to the Northern Ireland Peace Process. He is on the advisory board of Portland PR, and in addition independently acts as an advisor to governments, businesses, charities, sports organisations and high-profile individuals. He helped to found the world’s first university in football business, UCFB, in Burnley, Lancashire, which has since extended to Wembley and Manchester City’s Etihad stadium.

He writes a monthly interview for GQ magazine, and has covered figures as varied as Prince William and Jose Mourinho, Al Gore and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Nicola Sturgeon and Nicola Adams. Passionate about sport, he was written about different sports for The Times, the Irish Times and Esquire magazine. He was communications adviser to the British and Irish Lions rugby tour of New Zealand in 2005. He led a fundraising drive for Burnley FC, a team he has supported since the age of four, when the club was in financial trouble. They are currently riding high in the Premier League.

He has written fourteen books in the past ten years, including eight volumes of diaries, four novels, a personal memoir on depression and the pursuit of happiness, and Winners and How They Succeed, a Number 1 best-selling analysis of what it takes to win in politics, business and sport.

Sue Campbell CBE

Head of Women's Football, The FA

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Sue Campbell CBE

Head of Women's Football, The FA

Sue Campbell trained as a physical education teacher, taught in Manchester and lectured at Leicester and Loughborough Universities. During this time, Sue represented her country as a player, a coach and a team manager. She then went on to spend four years as a regional officer with the Sports Council (now Sport England) before moving to the National Coaching Foundation (NCF). Following 11 years as the Chief Executive of the NCF, she became Chief Executive of the Youth Sport Trust. In February 2005, Sue became Chair of that organisation. In March 2016, Sue was appointed as Head of Women’s football with the Football Association.

Among many honours, Sue has received 10 honorary doctorates and in June 2003, Sue was awarded a Commander of the British Empire for her services to sport.

In April 2005 she was appointed as Chair for UK Sport, following 18 months as the Reform Chair. Sue held this position for two terms, and following a very successful Olympics/Paralympics in 2012, she stood down as Chair in April 2013.

In December 2008 Sue was appointed to the House of Lords as an independent Crossbench Peer.

Julie Chakraverty

NED, Santander UK

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Julie Chakraverty

NED, Santander UK

Julie is a Non-Executive Director for Santander UK as well as Founder and Director of Rungway Limited. Previously she served on the boards of Amlin, Spirit Pubs and Paternoster Insurance. During her executive career, Julie was a Board Member of UBS Investment Bank where she held a number of global leadership positions with a specialist background in digital platforms and fixed income.

The “CreditDelta” portfolio product she founded won industry awards for innovation every year between 2001-2009. In 2015 she was a judge at the London Innovator Awards.

Julie is a Trustee for the Girls Day School Trust and graduated with a first-class Economics degree from St John’s College, Cambridge

Clementine Collett

Oxford Researcher and Gender Studies Expert

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Clementine Collett

Oxford Researcher and Gender Studies Expert

Clementine holds a BA in Theology from University of Oxford, and an MPhil in Gender Studies from University of Cambridge. At Cambridge, Clementine researched gender biases related to verbal and non-verbal communication in the context of corporate interviews.

Since graduating, Clementine has been working as a researcher at the University of Cambridge, as well as for a number of consultancies. She has published reports on topics from leadership and innovation to AI and gender. Her interests include women in leadership, diversity in organisations, AI and gender, and how biases relate to body language and verbal communication.

Peter Collett

Psychologist and Former Oxford Fellow for Dept. of Experimental Psychology

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Peter Collett

Psychologist and Former Oxford Fellow for Dept. of Experimental Psychology

Peter is a psychologist and a former Oxford don. For many years he was a member of staff at the Department of Experimental Psychology at Oxford University, where he taught and did research on a range of topics, including body language, culture, management style and television audiences.

Peter has written a number of books and presented several programmes on television. He has spoken at numerous conferences and events, and he has provided consultancy and training workshops to a broad range of organisations. Peter is widely acknowledged to be a world expert on communication. The Guardian called him a “body language guru” and the Mail on Sunday described him as “a grand master of the secret code of fleeting gestures, signs and expressions that give us all away.”

He is senior sponsor of the Civil Service Jewish Network.

Philip Collins

Leader Writer and Columnist, The Times

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Philip Collins

Leader Writer and Columnist, The Times

Philip Collins is a columnist on The Times and chair of trustees of the think tank Demos. He is the author of the book “The Art of Speeches and Presentations” and was the chief speech writer to the Prime Minister Tony Blair. He has since written speeches for many corporate leaders.

Danuta Gray

Chair at Direct Line Group

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Danuta Gray

Chair at Direct Line Group

Danuta Gray is a senior British businessperson who has been at the helm of 6 different companies and has significant executive experience. Ms. Gray holds the position of Senior Independent Director at Aldermore, and is the Chairman of Direct Line Insurance Group Plc, Non-Executive Chairman for St. Modwen Properties Plc and Executive Chairman & Chief Executive Officer at Telefónica O2 Ireland Ltd. She is also Member of the Irish Management Institute and Member of the Defence Board at United Kingdom Ministry of Defence. She is also on the board of 5 other companies. In her past career Ms. Gray held the position of Director at Barretstown Ltd., Non-Executive Chairman at Telefónica Ireland Ltd. and Senior Vice President of BT Europe.

Stephanie Davies

CEO, Laughology

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Stephanie Davies

CEO, Laughology

Over the past two decades Stephanie has gained an unsurpassed reputation for designing and delivering interventions for top-performing teams in various settings and is recognised as one of the UK’s leading voices in happiness and engagement in organisations. Company founder and CEO, Stephanie has developed Laughology into the nations most talked about training and development provider. She has worked on innovative projects and events in the private and public sector. Her wide sector knowledge and consulting experience on all levels means she’s in high demand. Stephanie’s creative and rounded approach to engagement, creating the right culture, happiness at work, continued development, culture change and customer loyalty drives success not only with the organisations she works with but at Laughology too.

Stephanie’s unique combination as an award winning stand-up comedian and her expertise and knowledge in psychology and business makes her one of the most sought-after speakers on the business and after-dinner circuit. She also uses her knowledge to provide consultancy and training programmes for some of the top exec teams in the country, working with well-known blue-chip organisations and government parties.

More recently her passion for engaging people in conversations about diverse working practices has proved successful, with large blue-chip organisations such as O2, RBS and DTZ to name a few inviting Stephanie to talk about the importance of equality in working practices and how to promote this through behaviours and thinking. In 2016 Stephanie was invited to the International Positive Psychology and education conference in Dallas to speak alongside Dr Martin Seligman and Sean Achor. Her client list includes First Direct, Department of Health, giffgaff, EE, and O2, Virgin to name a few. She is passionate about developing organisations and communities where people come first. On top of her busy schedule, Stephanie is often asked to contribute to popular television programmes, such as The ITN news expert for humour, happiness and health, BBC’s Heaven & Earth and is a regular on BBC Radio. Her book Laughology, Improve your Life with the Science of Laughter has received excellent reviews on Amazon, The Guardian book site and Watkins book review.

Sir Mick Davis

Founder, X2 Resources

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Sir Mick Davis

Founder, X2 Resources

Mick Davies is the founding partner of X2 Mining Resources Limited, an emerging
company in the resources sector. He stepped down as Chief Executive Officer of Xstrata plc in 2013, one of the world’s largest global diversified mining and Metals Company. Previously, Mick was an Executive
Director and Chief Financial Officer of Billiton plc and Chairman of Billiton Coal.

In a personal capacity, Mick is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Jewish Leadership Council of the United Kingdom and is Chairman of the Holocaust Memorial Commission of the United Kingdom. Mick is a trustee of the Kew Foundation, which supports the work of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and is also a member of the Board of Honorary Directors of the Royal Opera House. Prior to settling in the UK, Mick played an active role in Jewish communal affairs in South Africa, where he was born. He was recently awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Bar Ilan University.

Fiona Dawson

Global President, MARS Food, Drinks & Multisales

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Fiona Dawson

Global President, MARS Food, Drinks & Multisales

Fiona Dawson has had a long career with Mars, Incorporated. She now serves as Global President of Mars Food, Drinks and Multisales, and is a member of the Mars, Incorporated Leadership Team.

Dawson has a passion for the advancement of women’s entrepreneurship and human rights. She is a member of the Women’s Business Council, where she co-chairs a group seeking to advance women in the executive pipeline.

Judith Eden

NED, ICBC Standard Bank & Flood Re

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Judith Eden

NED, ICBC Standard Bank & Flood Re

Following 23 years’ international financial services career with Morgan Stanley, Judith now fulfils a Non Executive portfolio across banking, insurance and wealth management.

Currently Independent non-executive director and Audit Committee Chair at ICBC Standard Bank plc; independent non-executive director at Flood Re; independent non-executive director at Invesco UK; Member of the Joint Audit Committee for the Kent Police Chief Constable and Crime Commissioner.

Former non-executive director across Morgan Stanley Investment Management’s European cross border fund management business; member of Morgan Stanley International Audit Committee; non-executive member of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney UK Holdings Ltd Audit Committee

Joined Morgan Stanley 1992; spent fourteen years in Audit, Operational Management and Finance on broker/dealer side before joining Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM) in 2006 as part of internal hedge fund start up

In 2009 appointed a Director of MSIM Ltd and promoted onto the Divisional management team as CAO where I oversaw a period of significant restructuring and change

In 2013 additionally became CEO of MSIM’s European cross border fund management company, MSIM ACD Ltd, before leaving mid 2015 to pursue a portfolio career.

Mark Edwards

Mindfulness & Creativity Coach

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Mark Edwards

Mindfulness & Creativity Coach

Mark has been a successful journalist (25 years with The Sunday Times), and also a successful pitch doctor (helping companies win over $5 billion of new business). In recent years he has focused on training, coaching and facilitating. Mark is a member of the Complementary Therapists Association, qualified to teach mindfulness, resilience and emotional wellbeing.

Although Mark teaches many “soft” skills, his wide experience in a hard-edged business environment means that all courses are specifically tailored to today’s busy, pressured work environment. This isn’t tinkly bells and incense. Mark’s recent clients include Renault, Intercontinental Hotels, The Economist, MediaCom, Krow, Bauer and Entura. He has also worked with senior executives from HSBC, Direct Line, Marks and Spencer, Standard Life, and the Home Office.

Roger Fagg

Behavioural Economist

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Roger Fagg

Behavioural Economist

Roger is an economist turned strategist. He began his career in the New Zealand Treasury, then moved into Airline Business Planning and teaching postgraduates all aspects of economics. He designed and ran the postgraduate diploma in Airline Management for British Airways before joining Henley Management College in 1987, where for 21 years he taught senior managers macroeconomics and strategy.

Roger is an independent teaching consultant. He has been external examiner to Bath University, worked with the Bank of England, three of the major UK clearing banks, advised a major London recording studio for 15 years, and regularly talks to SME owners in the UK and Europe about economic trends. He is a visiting fellow to Ashridge, Warwick and Henley business schools.

Roger is a practical researcher. He focuses on how the economy really works and on the links between FT100 reward systems, the behaviour of banks and economic instability. He also researches his clients trading environment as a necessary component of his teaching. His book “Making Sense of the Economy” is in its fourth reprint.
He speaks at conferences around the world on the economic outlook and its impact on business. His quarterly Economic Update is sent to 1,200 SMEs.

Jacqui Ferguson

Executive Technologist

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Jacqui Ferguson

Executive Technologist

Jacqui is an experienced CEO from the technology industry. Most recently she was CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Services UK, Ireland, Middle East Mediterranean and Africa, a $3bn P&L and 10,000 people business serving large corporate and mid-sized companies with transformational technology and business process solutions

Jacqui is also a Non-Executive Director of the FTSE listed Wood Group PLC (Oil and Gas Services). At the Wood Group Jacqui has a special focus on Cyber Security, Digital Strategy and Company Merger/Integration.

Jacqui has extensive global experience including living and working in Silicon Valley, California working directly for Meg Whitman, Chairman and CEO Hewlett Packard as her Chief of Staff for 3 years. Jacqui is passionate about developing more women into executive positions.

Talita Ferreira

Former Chief Financial Officer, BMW UK

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Talita Ferreira

Former Chief Financial Officer, BMW UK

Talita has a high-profile 22-year international career within the automotive and financial services industries, delivering inspirational leadership and strategic change, developing talent and organisational values and establishing proper risk management and compliance structures. She is a Chartered Accountant and qualified as Chartered Director with the Institute of Directors in 2013. Having worked in South Africa, Germany and the UK, Talita has built an international career in the finance and automotive industries. She has experience from KPMG, several South African banks, and most recently as CFO of BMW Financial Services in the UK – where she led the Finance, Strategy, IT and HR areas.

Talita delivers tailor-made programmes, workshops and webinars to help companies and organisations achieve a more engaged workforce, challenge and transform structures, leadership paradigms, cultures, and increase organisational success and individual well-being.

Sheila Flavell

Chief Operating Officer, FDM Group

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Sheila Flavell

Chief Operating Officer, FDM Group

Sheila Flavell, FDM Group Chief Operating Officer and an Executive Board Director of FDM Group. Sheila’s experience and knowledge of the Group has been key in driving the Group’s global expansion programme. She played an integral role in the Group’s flotation on AIM in 2005 and was a key instigator of the management buy-out of the Group in 2010 and the subsequent listing onto the main FTSE Market in 2014 as well as FDM’s listing on the FTSE250 earlier this year.

Sheila is passionate about enhancing diversity in the workplace and creating exciting careers for the next generation of digital talent. She spearheads FDM’s Global Women in Tech campaign and FDM’s Getting Back to Business programme. She sits on the main Board of techUK and the Women in Tech Council. In 2017, Sheila was recognised as one of the top 25 most influential women in North America’s mid-market by CEO Connection and was conferred with a lifetime achievement award by Scotland Women in Technology.

Baroness Margaret Ford

Chair, Scottish TV Holdings

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Baroness Margaret Ford

Chair, Scottish TV Holdings

Margaret Ford joined NewRiver REIT plc Board in September 2017 and became Non-executive Chairman in October 2018. She is a member of the Remuneration and Nomination Committees.

Margaret Ford has over 20 years’ experience as a Non-executive Director and Chairman of private and Stock Exchange listed companies and extensive experience of working with Government. She is currently Chairman of STV Group plc, and was previously Chairman of Grainger plc and May Gurney Integrated Services plc, and a Non-executive Director of SEGRO plc and Taylor Wimpey plc.

Margaret is Chairman of the Tennis Foundation and National President of the British Epilepsy Association. From 2002 to 2008, she was Chairman of English Partnerships and from 2009 to 2012, she was a member of the Olympic Board and Chairman of the Olympic Park Legacy Company. Margaret was appointed to the House of Lords in 2006 and sits as an Independent Peer. Margaret was awarded an OBE for services to Sport and Business in the 2019 Honours List.

Baroness Martha Lane Fox

Co-Founder, Lastminute.com and NED, Twitter

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Baroness Martha Lane Fox

Co-Founder, Lastminute.com and NED, Twitter

Paul Geddes

Chief Executive Officer, QA Apprentices

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Paul Geddes

Chief Executive Officer, QA Apprentices

Paul was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of QA Apprentices in 2019. Prior to that, he served as CEO of Direct Line Group (formerly RBS Insurance) since 2009, and led the business through an IPO as part of the divestment from RBS in 2012, and into the FTSE 100 in September 2014. Paul is deputy chairman of the ABI Board and a non-executive director of Channel Four Television Corporation. Prior to Direct Line Group, Paul was CEO of RBS Group’s mainland UK retail banking business, following a successful career in multichannel retailing and marketing at leading companies such as Kingfisher, GUS and Procter & Gamble.

Sam Gilpin

Managing Director, YSC Europe

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Sam Gilpin

Managing Director, YSC Europe

Sam is a Partner at YSC, based in London. He was previously Global Head of Client Development and before this was leading YSC Asia, based in Singapore. He has been at YSC since the beginning of 2008, and has experience consulting in Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific. Sam works across a number of areas at YSC, including executive assessment and coaching, leadership development, team effectiveness, diversity and inclusion, and culture change. He focuses on a range of sectors at executive level, in particular financial services, FMCG, luxury, real estate, pharmaceuticals, and hospitality. He is currently particularly interested in ethical leadership and is a member of YSC’s think tank on the topic. Sam has an MA in English Literature from Oxford University, an MA in Anglo-American Literature from University College London, and an MSc in Organisational Behaviour from Birkbeck College, University of London. Prior to becoming a consultant, he was a writer of fiction and journalism.

Rob Goffee

Emeritus Professor of Organisational Behaviour, London Business School

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Rob Goffee

Emeritus Professor of Organisational Behaviour, London Business School

Emeritus Professor of Organisational Behaviour at London Business School. He has led several of the School’s major executive programmes, acted as Chair for the Organisational Behaviour Group, served as Deputy Dean and Governor, Director of the Innovation Exchange and Faculty Director of Executive Education.

Rob has directed significant executive development and corporate change initiatives in Europe, North America and Asia. His work has covered a range of industries with a focus on leadership, change, board dynamics and corporate performance. His consulting clients have included Anglo-American, Arup, Axa, Electronic Arts, GE, Heineken, IHG, Investec, KPMG, Legal and General, LVMH, MLIM, Nestle, New York Life, Rexam, Roche, Royal Mail, Singapore Airlines, Smiths Group, Sonae,TimeWarner and Unilever.

Rob has published ten books and over one hundred articles in the areas of entrepreneurship, managerial careers, organisation design, leadership and corporate culture. His books (with Richard Scase) include The Entrepreneurial Middle Class; Women in Charge; Entrepreneurship in Europe; Reluctant Managers; Corporate Realities; and (with Gareth Jones) TheCharacter of a Corporation; Why Should Anyone Be Led By You?; Clever – Leading your Smartest Most Creative People and Why Should Anyone Work Here?.

His articles feature in Harvard Business Review, Leader to Leader, European Business Forum, Business Strategy Review, Management Today, People Management and The Financial Times.

He is the recipient of several teaching excellence awards and has contributed as a keynote speaker to conferences all over the world. “Why should anyone be led by you?” won the McKinsey Award for best article in Harvard Business Review and ranks as one of the magazine’s all time best selling articles. Rob is a regular contributor to TV and radio business programmes.

Sally Greene OBE

Entrepreneur, Restauranteur & Theatre Empresario

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Sally Greene OBE

Entrepreneur, Restauranteur & Theatre Empresario

Sally Greene is an entrepreneur in the entertainment and arts field, she is renowned for rescuing and restoring several key London theatres. Her business portfolio now includes Greene Light Stage, Greene Light Films, the world famous jazz club Ronnie Scott’s and London restaurant, No. Fifty Cheyne. She is the Founding Trustee of The Old Vic Theatre and Criterion Theatre.

David Grigson

Former Chair, Trinity Mirror

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David Grigson

Former Chair, Trinity Mirror

David is a highly experienced executive and non-executive director with nearly 30 years on public and PE owned company boards. He has spent much of his career in senior financial executive positions, first with EMAP where he served as Group FD, and more recently with Reuters where he was CFO. David is currently Chairman of Trinity Mirror plc and Chairman of ECI owned Investis Ltd. He was previously Senior Independent Director of Ocado plc, Chairman of Creston plc and on the board of Standard Life plc and Carphone Warehouse plc.

Lord Gerry Grimstone

Minister for Investment & Former Chairman, Barclays International

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Lord Gerry Grimstone

Minister for Investment & Former Chairman, Barclays International

Sir Gerald Edgar Grimstone (born August 1949) is a British businessman, the chairman of Standard Life, and chairman of Barclays Bank plc. He previously served as group deputy chairman of Barclays plc, the holding company for the Barclays Group.

Gerald Edgar Grimstone was born in August 1949, in Streatham, London, the son of a carpet fitter father. Grimstone has described his father as a “working class intellectual” and communist.

He was educated at the Whitgift School, Croydon, and Merton College, Oxford, from where he received a degree in chemistry.

Grimstone worked as a civil servant from 1972-86, then as a director of Schroders from 1986-99.

Grimstone has been chairman of Standard Life since May 2007, deputy chairman of Barclays since January 2016, a non-executive director of Deloitte and the lead non-executive director at the Ministry of Defence.

Doug Gurr

Director, National History Musem; Chair, British Heart Foundation

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Doug Gurr

Director, National History Musem; Chair, British Heart Foundation

Doug is the Director of the National History Museum in London, and the Chair of the British Heart Foundation.

His previous roles included teaching mathematics and computing at the University of Aarhus in Denmark, a 3 year stint working for the UK Government, 6 years with consultancy firm McKinsey ending as partner, growing (as founder and CEO) an internet start-up from nothing to $250m in 5 years leading it a successful IPO and eventual Trade Sale, and 5 years on the Board of Asda-Walmart. Doug was President of Amazon China from 2014 to 2016, and then spent four years as Amazon UK Country Manager.

Doug has two degrees in Mathematics from the University of Cambridge, and PhD in Computing from the University of Edinburgh.

Outside work, Doug is Chairman of the British Heart Foundation, and a Trustee of the Landmark Trust and was until 2014 Chairman of the Science Museum Group of national museums. He is a former Scottish international triathlete and 12 times Ironman, a keen ski mountaineer with over 20 first ascents including the first winter ascent of Gunnbjornsfeld – the highest mountain north of the arctic circle, and a an enthusiastic mountain runner, recently completing the Bob Graham 24hr Round, and the Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc.

Doug was born in the UK but his parents were New Zealanders and he grew up mostly in Africa before returning to the UK to attend high school and college. He is married with two young children.

Andrew Haldane

Chief Economist, Bank of England

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Andrew Haldane

Chief Economist, Bank of England

Andrew is the Chief Economist at the Bank of England and Executive Director, Monetary Analysis and Statistics. He is a member of the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee. He also has responsibility for research and statistics across the Bank. In 2014, TIME magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Andrew has written extensively on domestic and international monetary and financial policy issues. He is co-founder of ‘Pro Bono Economics’, a charity which brokers economists into charitable projects.

Baroness Dido Harding

Chair, NHS Improvement & Former CEO, TalkTalk

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Baroness Dido Harding

Chair, NHS Improvement & Former CEO, TalkTalk

Dido is the new Chairperson of NHS improvement after standing down as Chief Executive of TalkTalk Telecom Group PLC in May. She also serves as a non-executive director on the Court of The Bank of England.

Dido previously served as a senior executive director on the Management Boards of both Sainsbury’s and TESCO. Both were in P&L roles here in the UK and abroad. She has also held executive roles at Kingfisher plc and Thomas Cook Limited. Dido has served as a NED on the boards of The British Land Company PLC and Cheltenham Racecourse and is a former jockey. In August 2014 Dido was introduced as a Peer and sits in the House of Lords as a Conservative Peer.

Claire Harwood

Investment Director, Permira

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Claire Harwood

Investment Director, Permira

Claire joined Permira Debt Managers in September 2017. She focuses on originating, leading and executing new investment opportunities across all sectors.

Previously, Claire worked at HIG WhiteHorse for four years originating and executing deals. She also spent five years at Hawkpoint Partners (where she was involved in the Icelandic restructuring in 2009), three years at Société Générale in their Leveraged Finance teams in London and Hong Kong and three years at Barclays.

Margaret Hodge MP

Former Chairman, Public Accounts Committee

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Margaret Hodge MP

Former Chairman, Public Accounts Committee

Margaret Hodge MP is best known for taking on global tax avoiders in her former role as Chair of the Public Accounts Committee and for defeating Nick Griffin in the 2010 General Election in her Barking constituency.

In 2003 she became the first Minister for Children and has also served as a Government Minister in the Departments for Culture, Media and Sport; Work and Pensions; and Trade and Industry. Before becoming an MP she was Leader of Islington Council for 10 years. She has 10 grandchildren and enjoys playing the piano, gardening and cooking.

Christine Hodgson

Chairman, Capgemini UK Plc

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Christine Hodgson

Chairman, Capgemini UK Plc

Christine Hodgson is Executive Chairman of Capgemini UK Plc. She also chairs the Capgemini UK Sustainability Board and the Women’s Business Network. In 2011, Christine was named Woman of the Year at the CWT Everywoman in Technology Awards.

She has worked at Capgemini for 15 years, with her previous roles with the Group including Chief Executive Officer, Technology Services North West Europe, and Chief Financial Officer for both Capgemini UK Plc and the Global Outsourcing Division.

Prior to joining Capgemini, Christine spent four years as Corporate Development Director on the board of Ronson Plc. She joined Ronson from Coopers & Lybrand where she specialised in Corporate Finance after qualifying as a Chartered Accountant. She gained a first-class honours degree in Accounting and Financial Management from Loughborough University.

Christine sits on the Board of Ladbrokes Plc as well as Business in the Community and MacIntyre Care, a leading charity providing services for individuals with learning disabilities. She is married with one son, George.

Dame Vivian Hunt

Managing Partner, McKinsey UK & Ireland

More about Vivian

Dame Vivian Hunt

Managing Partner, McKinsey UK & Ireland

Jo Jenkins

CEO, The White Stuff

More about Jo

Jo Jenkins

CEO, The White Stuff

Prior to leading White Stuff, Jo had one of the most recognisable jobs in High St fashion responsible for womenswear, lingerie and beauty at Marks & Spencer to support and grow their £4 billion turnover. Jo has a reputation of combining creativity and commerciality to her decisions with a unique understanding of what women want. She was head hunted by M&S to transform their lingerie and beauty portfolio in 2012. Jo immediately grew lingerie sales by expanding their range of large cup sizes through understanding that most women could no longer fit the M&S range. She simultaneously patented and launched a new ‘bra fit’ online app. Her understanding of digital made M&S once again exciting with the overnight try & test experience for customers. Jo also transformed the quality of beauty products plus made M&S a destination experience with the introduction of nail & brow bars and branded gifts. Together these innovations grew beauty sales and increased footfall across all stores. Prior to M&S Jo spent 7 years with Next growing their womenswear product line.

Debbie Johnson

Mindfulness Teacher & Co-Founder, Being Mindful

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Debbie Johnson

Mindfulness Teacher & Co-Founder, Being Mindful

Debbie is a mindfulness teacher, trainer and consultant of mindfulness and related disciplines. She runs the 8-week MBSR/MBCT in the public and private sector, as well as workshops in organisations, communities and family settings, and offers one to one mindfulness and relationship coaching. She is an accredited teacher through the Centre for Mindfulness Research & Practice at Bangor University. Debbie has also trained as a Supervisor with the CIC via Bangor and assists new students on their path to teaching. Debbie has studied extensively in the Shambhala meditation tradition, and taught as a meditation teacher and instructor for many years.

In 2009 Debbie founded Being Mindful with Tessa Watt, one of the first companies in the UK to offer mindfulness courses in London. Debbie follows the Good Practice Guidelines set out by the UK Network for Mindfulness-Based Teacher Training Organisations; this is the Gold Standard model of mindfulness taught throughout the world, and includes continued practitioner development and supervision.

Debbie has been practising for 25 years and has taught mindfulness at meditation retreats in USA and Europe. She recently finished an 18 month world tour as a personal assistant to Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, an eminent teacher, writer and thought leader in the field of mindfulness meditation. She has taught in London at BBC, Proctor and Gamble, University of Westminster, Nursing and Midwifery Council, NHS First Steps and Lambeth Council, as well as a range of other workplaces and schools, and currently teaches with the Mindfulness Project in central London.

Sue Kay

Board Advisory, UCL

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Sue Kay

Board Advisory, UCL

Sue has a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology, Masters’ degree in Business and a Masters’ degree in Consulting and Coaching for Change from INSEAD. Her thesis ‘Wilful blindness – narcissist’s at work’ looked at how personality disorders manifest themselves in the Executive suite.

Sue is also on an Advisory Board at UCL where she lectures on organisation design and the ‘Dark side of Leadership’ on two of their MSc programmes in telecoms and business. She is also member of the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations (ISPSO) and the Organisation for Promoting Understanding of Society (OPUS).

Sue is an experienced Consultant and Executive coach. Combining her operational and corporate strategy and HR experience, Susan has a proven track record of diagnosing complex organisation problems/change situations and developing and leading large scale interventions that delivered significant business benefits.

Most of Sue’s career has been working in large multi-national corporate businesses; such as BT plc. She has also worked internationally as a Consultant and Executive coach across a range of industry sectors including professional services, manufacturing, aerospace and bio-medical devices.

Bernadette Kelly

Permanent Secretary, Department of Transport

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Bernadette Kelly

Permanent Secretary, Department of Transport

Bernadette Kelly became Permanent Secretary at the Department for Transport on 18 April 2017.

From September 2015 to April 2017, Bernadette Kelly was Director General, Rail Group in DfT. Prior to that she was a Director General at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) from April 2010.

Bernadette joined the Civil Service after graduating. She has spent most of her career working on public policy in relation to business and the economy. She has led work in government to reform the planning regime for major infrastructure; boost housing supply; establish the Competition and Markets Authority; strengthen utility regulation; reform corporate governance; and on industrial strategy and local growth and devolution.

In addition to DfT and BIS, Bernadette has worked in the Department for Communities and Local Government, HM Treasury, the Cabinet Office and the Prime Minister’s Policy Unit; as well as on secondment to ICI plc.

Bernadette was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in 2010.

Baroness Denise Kingsmill

Chairman, Monzo Bank

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Baroness Denise Kingsmill

Chairman, Monzo Bank

Denise Kingsmill is a member of the House of Lords. Her career has encompassed periods as a leading employment lawyer, Deputy Chair of the UK Competition Commission (the UK’s principle anti- trust agency) and a director of PLC, private, not for profit and government boards. After taking an economics and anthropology degree at Cambridge University, Denise spent the early years of her career in the textile and fashion industry in London and Paris, before qualifying as a lawyer in 1980. Initially, specialising in trade union and employment law she later specialised in UK and European commercial law and handled disputes for the UK’s leading FTSE 100 companies.

In 1997, she became Deputy Chair of the Competition Commission and during her 7 year tenure chaired over 20 economic regulatory enquiries in a diverse range of industries including, banking, automobiles, energy, milk production and cruise liners. Denise headed two Government enquires in 2001 and 2003, into women’s pay and employment and the economic management of labour. In 2007, she led an enquiry into health of fashion models on behalf of the British fashion council and the Mayor of London.

Currently, Baroness Kingsmill is Chairman of Monzo Bank and a member of the Supervisory board of E.ON SE (German Energy company), and a non-executive director of Inditex (Zara). She is on the Advisory Board of the Global Sustainability Forum and is a member of the International Board of the Spanish business school, IESE.

Denise holds a number of honorary doctorates in Law and Business and was awarded the CBE for services to Employment and Competition in 2000.

Sir Terry Leahy

Chairman, B&M Retail

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Sir Terry Leahy

Chairman, B&M Retail

Sir Terry Leahy, who is 58, was appointed Chief Executive of Tesco PLC in March 1997 and retired from this position in March 2011. He received a Knighthood for services to food retailing in the 2002 New Year Honours and in the same year was made a Freeman of the City of Liverpool.

Born on 28 February 1956, he was educated at St Edwards College, Liverpool and then went on to the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology where he gained his BSc (Hons) in management sciences.

Terry joined Tesco in 1979 as a Marketing Executive and was promoted to Marketing Manager in 1981. From 1984 to 1986 he held the position of Marketing Director for Tesco Stores Ltd. He was appointed Commercial Director of Fresh Foods in 1986. Appointed to the Board of Tesco PLC as Marketing Director in 1992, and was appointed Deputy Managing Director in February 1995.

Paul Lester CBE

Chairman, Essentra

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Paul Lester CBE

Chairman, Essentra

Paul is Chairman of Essentra, the FTSE 250 global manufacturer and distributor of vital component parts. He is also currently Chairman of Forterra plc and Knight Square Holdings. Previously Paul was Chairman of Greenergy and Forterra, as well as the private equity company backed businesses Survitec, Peveral and Parabis. He also chaired the FTSE 250 Company John Lang Infrastructure Fund, as well as Signia Wealth.

From 2002 to 2010, he was chief executive of VT Group plc, the support services company. Paul held the position of group managing director for Balfour Beatty plc and was chief executive of Graseby plc from 1990 to 1997 following senior management positions at Schlumberger and the Dowty Group plc.
Paul has previously served as president of the Society of Maritime Industries, the BSA and the EEF.

He is a Chartered Engineer, a Fellow of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers and was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws. Paul is a life time West Bromwich Albion Supporter.

Jon Lewis

Chief Executive Officer, Capita

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Jon Lewis

Chief Executive Officer, Capita

Jon became the Chief Executive Officer at Capita in 2017. Before joining Capita, Jon was Chief Executive Officer of the multi-national consultancy, engineering and project management business, Amec Foster Wheeler. Prior to that, he had a 20-year career at Halliburton Company Inc, where he held a number of senior roles, including Senior Vice President. His background very much reflects Capita’s core proposition as he has spent his career developing, selling and deploying technology-led services to enable clients to have smarter processes and create more efficient organisations.

Margaret Edge

HR & Recruitment Consultant

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Margaret Edge

HR & Recruitment Consultant

Margaret is an experienced HR and Recruitment consultant with well established credentials in the executive search sector. Margaret previously worked with The Pipeline as the director of our Consultancy Services. Prior to this she spent 10 years with Norman Broadbent Executive Search and played a leading role within the HR Practice, working with both large and small clients to help them build capability within their HR functions.

Diane Maxwell

Former Retirement Commissioner, New Zealand Government

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Diane Maxwell

Former Retirement Commissioner, New Zealand Government

Diane has just completed six years as the Retirement Commissioner for New Zealand where she worked on building financial capability for people of all ages, retirement income policy including settings for KiwiSaver, and a monitoring role for the retirement villages sector. Prior to her time as Commissioner she was at the financial markets conduct regulator the FMA, and the Bank of New Zealand. Diane has been a regular on television, radio and print media in New Zealand and specialises in making dry subjects interesting and relevant, often with a focus on issues facing women. A regular public speaker, she has been invited to speak at OECD, industry and regulatory forums internationally across the UK, Europe, Russia, India, United States, South East Asia and Australasia.

Sir Simon McDonald

Permanent Under Secretary, Foreign & Commonwealth Office

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Sir Simon McDonald

Permanent Under Secretary, Foreign & Commonwealth Office

The Permanent Under-Secretary and Head of the Diplomatic Service is the senior foreign policy adviser to the Foreign Secretary, and responsible for the management of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London and our Embassies and High Commissions around the world. Sir Simon McDonald took up his appointment as PUS on 1 September 2015.

Prior to taking over as PUS in 2015, Sir Simon was Ambassador to Berlin for five years. He is a career diplomat with previous appointments including Foreign Policy Adviser to the Prime Minister (Gordon Brown), Head of Foreign and Defence Policy in the Cabinet Office (2007-10) and Principal Private Secretary to the Foreign Secretary (Jack Straw).

Sir Simon entered the FCO in 1982 working on the Benelux desk. He has had previous postings in Jeddah, Bonn, Washington and Riyadh. Sir Simon has specialised in the Middle East, Europe and transatlantic relations. In 2003-06, he was ambassador to Israel and in 2006-07 Director for Iraq.

Sir Simon is married to Olivia, they have four children.

Baroness Ruby McGregor-Smith

Former CEO, Mitie

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Baroness Ruby McGregor-Smith

Former CEO, Mitie

Ruby McGregor-Smith CBE is the former Chief Executive of Mitie Group
plc, the strategic outsourcing company. Until recently Ruby was one of a small number of women who held the position of Chief Executive in the FTSE. She was also one of the UK’s longest serving CEO’s. During her time at Mitie, Ruby has seen the business grow its revenue from £0.5bn to over £2.0bn, continuing its unbroken track record of profit and revenue growth.

Ruby was born in Lucknow, India. Her family immigrated to the UK when she was 2. She joined Mitie as the Group Financial Director before being promoted to Chief Operating Officer. She was appointed to Chief Executive of Mitie in 2007. Ruby has been an Independent Non-executive Director of PageGroup since May 2007 and also Non-executive Director for UK Government Department for Culture Media and Sport. Ruby is also UK Business Ambassador for UK Trade and Investment as well as Chair of the Public Services Strategy Board for CBI.

Ruby is married with 2 children aged 18 years and 15 years.

Mary Meaney

Senior Partner, Paris, McKinsey and Co

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Mary Meaney

Senior Partner, Paris, McKinsey and Co

Mary is a Senior Partner in McKinsey’s Paris Office. She is the Leader of McKinsey’s Organisation practice in Europe and the co-author of Leading Organizations: Ten Timeless Truths. Over the last 20+ years, she has served leading pharma, consumer products, energy, basic materials, telecommunications, and public sector organisations on their most important transformation, change management, top team alignment and performance improvement efforts.

Michelle Emerson

Managing Director at Blue Monday Ltd

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Michelle Emerson

Managing Director at Blue Monday Ltd

Michelle is an experienced CEO, Management Consultant and Non-Executive Director.

Michelle has worked at CEO and Board level with established businesses, SME’s and Start-ups to develop strategies for growth, change, people and business transformation, often as an advisor to the CEO.

In her early career, working as HR Director at EMI Music UK & Ireland for 8 years, she was one of the team supporting the launch of The BRIT School and its Music Business course and work experience programme. Today she is the Director of BRIT for Business which she launched to share the creative expertise and ethos of the world-renowned BRIT School with businesses in search of creativity and inclusivity, with all profits being returned as a charitable donation to the school.

Michelle became SVP HR for EMI Music working with the global HQ for 2 years before leaving to become Global HR Director at BBC Worldwide. Having diversified out of core HR into areas of strategy and business development at BBC Worldwide, she left and joined the start-up pure-play fashion Etailer ASOS.com as Group Services Director, with a remit across Customer, People, Studios, Production, CSR and Business Transformation. After almost 3 years at ASOS, Michelle became CEO at Walpole, an industry body established to promote, protect and develop British Luxury Brands. As a unique alliance of c.250 British Luxury brands, Michelle established Walpole as the voice of the sector, developing initiatives and events, working with the GREAT campaign and UK Government, media partners, business sponsors and member organisations. Through her own business consultancy, Michelle has worked with many different clients.

With extensive experience in digital high growth environments and global operations across industry sectors, Michelle’s experience spans businesses that are UK listed, public sector, not-for-profit, private equity and pure play Etailing at Board level.

Charlotte Milligan

Former Political TV Editor, ITV

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Charlotte Milligan

Former Political TV Editor, ITV

Charlotte worked in broadcasting for more years than she would care to admit starting out in the BBC. Over the years she had roles on both sides of the camera as producer and presenter. When Charlotte left ITV in 2008 she was Political Editor and Head of Current Affairs at ITV Yorkshire.

Charlotte now works as a public affairs consultant as well as running media training and presentation skills courses for senior executives in some of the UK’s most successful companies.

Delyth Morgan

CEO, Breast Cancer Now

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Delyth Morgan

CEO, Breast Cancer Now

Baroness Delyth Morgan is the Chief Executive at Breast Cancer Now. She spent 10 years at Breakthrough Breast Cancer, as the charity’s first Chief Executive, from 1996, before which she worked at Shelter, Workplace Nurseries Campaign and Asthma UK.

After becoming a life peer she was appointed to Government in 2007, when she served as Children’s Minister for the Department of Children Schools and Families, Minister for Intellectual Property and Quality at the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills and Government spokesperson for the Department of Work and Pensions in the House of Lords.

In 2011, Delyth returned to the field of breast cancer at the helm of Breast Cancer Campaign. Having jointly managed preparations for merger of two charities very close to her heart, Delyth was appointed Chief Executive of the newly merged charity, Breast Cancer Now – officially the UK’s largest breast cancer charity – which launched in June 2015.

Delyth now sits in the House of Lords as an independent peer. She is a Fellow of University College London and Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Cancer Research and Cardiff University. She is also Patron of Pancreatic Cancer UK and The Sheila McKechnie Foundation, and Honorary President of Cancer 52. In June 2015 she was appointed Chair of the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI).

Tangy Morgan

Senior Advisor, Bank of England

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Tangy Morgan

Senior Advisor, Bank of England

Tangy C. Morgan is a (re)insurance executive with over 25 years of experience in the US, Bermuda, London and international markets insuring the catastrophe liability of global organizations ranging across all sectors. She has built a successful career; Senior Vice President of Starr Excess International (AIG), Deputy Head of Syndicate Underwriting Performance Corporation of Lloyd’s of London and is currently a Senior Advisor to the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority and Strategia Worldwide Ltd.

In 2015, she advised a Silicon Valley tech start-up in the insurance sector and remains interested in Insuretech. Tangy has also done scholarly research on technology innovation and E-Commerce at Boston University.
She holds a BA degree from Tennessee State University, Nashville, TN and a Master of Science Degree in Business Continuity, Security and Risk Management from Boston University, Boston MA.

Professor Geeta Nargund

Medical Director, CREATE Fertility

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Professor Geeta Nargund

Medical Director, CREATE Fertility

Geeta Nargund is the Medical Director of CREATE Fertility. She is also a Senior Consultant Gynaecologist and Lead Consultant for Reproductive Medicine services at St George’s Hospital, London. Geeta is also proud to be a Director of the Walking Egg Foundation, a Belgian Charity dedicated to making fertility treatments affordable and accessible globally.

She has published more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific papers including abstracts and also several book chapters in the field of reproductive medicine. She is a pioneer in the field of Natural and Mild IVF and Advanced Ultrasound Technology in Reproductive Medicine. She is an accredited trainer for Infertility and Gynaecological Ultrasound special skills modules by the Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists (RCOG) London and British Fertility Society (BFS). She pioneered the use of follicular Doppler in assessing “Egg quality” in humans. She also published the first scientific paper on “Cumulative live birth rates with Natural cycle IVF”.

She is a Visiting Professor at Hasselt University, Medical Faculty (working at Genk University Hospital), Belgium; St Marco University Lima (oldest university in Latin America) and SDM Medical College, India. She is actively involved in research in making IVF more natural, accessible and safer for women and children. She is the Chief Executive of the UK National charity, Health Education Research (HER) Trust. This Charity funds and supports women’s health education in the UK and in Africa.

Professor Joe Nellis

Professor of Global Economy, Cranfield University

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Professor Joe Nellis

Professor of Global Economy, Cranfield University

Professor Joe Nellis is Professor of Global Economy specialising in global macroeconomics, business environmental analysis, strategic thinking and management development.
Joe contributes across the full range of the School’s portfolio including senior Executive Development programmes as well as the Full-time MBA, Executive MBA and doctoral degrees. He was formerly Director of Graduate Programmes (1999-2003) and Academic Dean of the Faculty of Management (2003-05). He held the post of Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Cranfield University (2005-08). He is the longest serving member of the School of Management’s Executive Board. From 1st January 2014 until 31st January 2015 he served as Director and Pro-Vice Chancellor of Cranfield School of Management and as Interim Dean/PVC in 2019.

Joe has held Visiting Professorial appointments at various universities in Germany, Belgium, Austria, the Netherlands, Hungary, the USA and Ghana. He has published 19 research and subject-based books and over 200 academic and practitioner journal articles. His research encompasses analysis of business developments in a changing world in terms of the macroeconomy, the role of government, the impact of technology, societal and demographic trends. He is a frequent contributor to a wide range of national and international conferences and is a consultant to a number of UK and international companies in the areas of strategy and business environmental analysis, strategy formulation and management development. He has also acted as a consultant to several central government departments and public sector organisations. He was jointly responsible for the development of the Halifax and Nationwide House Price Indexes and more recently for the DPS Rent Price Index. He was formerly Chairman of Wellingborough Homes Housing Association.

Caroline Noblet

Partner & Co-Chair of Employment Practice, Squires Patton Boggs

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Caroline Noblet

Partner & Co-Chair of Employment Practice, Squires Patton Boggs

Caroline has more than 25 years of experience as an employment lawyer, advising companies in the FTSE 350 and those on the international stage. She leads a team of more than 155 employment and immigration lawyers based in our offices across the world. She is passionate about the benefits of a “one-stop shop” proposition, as the team works with global clients on a local and multi-jurisdictional basis, bringing the best in class service in a time and cost efficient way. With a constant desire to support the global clients of the firm and reduce their legal spend, the team leads the way in developing innovative products and services.
Caroline has been named in The Lawyer’s Hot 100 2019, which celebrates the most daring, innovative and creative lawyers from in-house, private practice and the Bar.

Sir Jim O’Neill

British Economist & Former Chairman, Goldman Sachs Asset Management

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Sir Jim O’Neill

British Economist & Former Chairman, Goldman Sachs Asset Management

Helen Pitcher

Chairman, Advanced Boardroom Excellence

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Helen Pitcher

Chairman, Advanced Boardroom Excellence

Helen holds an MA, LLB (Law), is a qualified psychometric assessor and an alumnus of the INSEAD Challenge of Leadership Programme & the INSEAD International Directors Programme – Corporate Governance Certificate (IDP-C): she is the only UK Board Effectiveness Consultant with this qualification.

Helen has also attended the INSEAD Leading from the Chair Programme. She is an APECS-accredited coach and is also a Fellow of the IoD, CIPD, RSA and a Member of the European Corporate Governance Institute.

Helen is recognised as a leading Board Effectiveness practitioner and writes and presents regularly on the subject of the Chairman’s and NED’s role in creating a high-performance board culture and the behavioural aspects of board performance.

Helen is also a leading organisational performance coach and mentor, and works at the most senior level in FTSE 100 and international companies, and in the public sector. She has a worldwide network of alumni whom she has coached over the years.

Dr Carole Print

Lecturer in Finance & Business Studies, Henley Business School

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Dr Carole Print

Lecturer in Finance & Business Studies, Henley Business School

Dr Carole Print helps participants to understand what leaders need from finance professionals and to ask the right questions. Carole has had a successful career as a Finance Director and senior lecturer at Henley Business School where she has recently stepped down from teaching MBAs full time.

Carole specialises in teaching the managerial application of finance. She has been a governor at a large independent girls school for many years where she is Vice-Chair and Chair of the Finance Committee and is also a governor at a local primary school.

Sir Mike Rake

Former Chairman, BT

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Sir Mike Rake

Former Chairman, BT

Sir Michael Rake, knighted in 2007 is Chairman of Great Ormond Street Hospital (2017) and Phoenix Global Resources (2017). He is also chairman of Majid AL Futtaim Holdings LLC (2010) and is a director of Worldpay Inc (Chairman Worldpay Group plc 2015-2018) and of S&P Global (2008).

Mike’s business advisory roles include Chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce UK, Chairman of the Advisory Board for Engie UK, Advisor to Teneo Holdings, a Senior Adviser for Chatham House and a member of the Oxford University Centre for Corporate Reputation Global Advisory Board. Mike is a William Pitt Fellow at Pembroke College, Cambridge. He is also a member of the International Business and Diplomatic Exchange (IBDE) Advisory Board, Chair of the Advisory Council for a Blueprint for Better Business and Vice President of the RNIB.

Mike’s former principal roles include Chairman of BT Group Plc, Chairman (both UK and International) of KPMG, Chairman of easyJet, President of the Confederation of British Industry, Deputy Chairman of Barclays and director of the Financial Reporting Council. Mike was the first chairman of the UK Commission for Employment of Skills, Chairman of Business in the Community, a trustee for the Prince of Wales Charitable Foundation and a member of the Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Group.

Baroness Gail Rebuck

Chair, Penguin Random House UK

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Baroness Gail Rebuck

Chair, Penguin Random House UK

Gail sits on the Penguin Random House Global Board of Representatives and Bertelsmann’s Group Advisory Committee. She was Chair and CEO of Random House from 1991-2013 and a Non-Executive Director of BSkyB from 2002-2012. Gail is currently a Non-Executive Director of Koovs Plc and Belmond Ltd.

Gail chairs the Council of Royal College of Art, the Cheltenham Literature Festival and the Quick Reads charity which she founded alongside World Book Day on behalf of the publishing industry. Gail was voted Veuve Cliquot Business Woman of the Year in 2009; was awarded a CBE in 2000; a DBE in 2009 and appointed a Labour Peer to the House of Lords in 2014.

Mike Reed

Former Chief Internal Auditor, Government Internal Audit Agency

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Mike Reed

Former Chief Internal Auditor, Government Internal Audit Agency

Mike Reed is an experienced finance and internal audit professional who has held a number of corporate and policy roles in the Senior Civil Service (SCS). Mike has led large teams to deliver ambitious change programmes, and worked with stakeholders both in and out of the public service. He has delivered outcomes as diverse as improving the country’s resilience to major incidents, promoting social cohesion through helping local services cope with increased migration, and providing chief executives with assurance on the organizational health of their businesses.

Rt Hon Lord John Reid

Chairman & Former Home Secretary, Institute for Strategy, Resilience & Security

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Rt Hon Lord John Reid

Chairman & Former Home Secretary, Institute for Strategy, Resilience & Security

John Reid is the most experienced Cabinet minister of modern times, having held more ministerial posts at Cabinet level than any other politician in recent history. In range of portfolios, and in breadth and intensity of change management across departments, his experience is unparalleled.

In particular he has served in leadership across a range of security-related portfolios in the UK Government including Home Secretary, Defence Secretary, Northern Ireland Secretary, Minister for Transport and Armed Forces Minister. Following almost quarter of a century as a Member of Parliament, in 2010 he was elevated to membership of the House of Lords, the Upper Chamber of the UK Parliament.

He is a Hon. Professor and Chair of the Institute for Security and Resilience Studies at University College London; a Principal at the Chertoff Group; Vice-Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Homeland Security; Director of John Reid Advisory and a Senior Advisor to the Private sector on Security related matters.

His many awards include a Hon. Doctorate from Stirling University for his outstanding contribution to Public Affairs (2009): Politician of the Year (Spectator, 2006); Minister to Watch (2005); Peace Person of the Year, Northern Ireland (2002) and Best Scot at Westminster (2001).

Andrew Roscoe

Partner & Head of Assessment, Egon Zehnder

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Andrew Roscoe

Partner & Head of Assessment, Egon Zehnder

Andrew, based in London, leads Egon Zehnder’s global Executive Assessment and Development Practice and is also an active member of the firm’s Board Consulting and CEO practices. After specialising for many years in the energy and industrial sectors, he now also concentrates on CEO and CFO succession and private-equity portfolio leadership. He is devoted to improving team performance and organisational effectiveness and has recently co-written an article published in Harvard Business Review entitled “Turning Potential Into Success – The Missing Link in Leadership Development”

Before joining Egon Zehnder, Andrew worked in the corporate finance department of Cazenove & Co., where he mainly handled M&A transactions involving industrial and financial-service companies. He began his career in a nuclear research laboratory, then designed power plants before concentrating on strategy work in that sector.

Andrew earned a BSc in mechanical engineering from the University of Birmingham and an MBA from the London Business School. He is very devoted to his large family, which includes two dogs, and makes an effort to stay in touch with friends and relatives. Andrew also enjoys long-distance cycling; recently he completed a trip across Europe in support of a children’s charity.

Stuart Rose

Chairman, Ocado & former CEO, Marks and Spencer

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Stuart Rose

Chairman, Ocado & former CEO, Marks and Spencer

Stuart Rose has spent all his career in retail joining Marks & Spencer plc in 1971. He left to join the Burton Group in 1989, becoming a director in 1993. Following the Group’s demerger in 1997, he became Chief Executive of Argos plc during the bid by GUS. In 1998, he became Chief Executive of Booker plc which was merged with the Iceland Group in 2000. He then became Chief Executive of Arcadia Group plc in November 2000 and left in December 2002 following its sale to Sir Philip Green. He was named Chief Executive of Marks & Spencer plc in May 2004 and became Chairman in 2008, standing down in January 2011. He was Chairman of The British Fashion Council from 2004 – 2008, Chairman of Business in the Community from 2008 – 2010 and a Non-Executive Director of Land Securities from 2003-2013. He was Chairman of Ocado until 2020, and is now Chairman of EG Group, Fat Face, Oasis Healthcare Group and a Non-Executive Director of Woolworths (South Africa). He is also Chairman of The Healing Foundation, a medical charity.

Stuart was knighted in 2008 for services to the retail industry and corporate social responsibility and made a life peer in September 2014.

June Sarpong

TV & Radio Presenter Sky News

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June Sarpong

TV & Radio Presenter Sky News

June has enjoyed a 20-year career which has already seen her become one of the most recognizable faces of British television, as well as being one of the UK’s most intelligent and dynamic young hosts. June is a media phenomenon and is the only host of her generation that is equally comfortable interviewing politicians, celebrities and members of the public.

June has also taken on the world’s most challenging live audiences, hosting 2005’s major Make Poverty History event in London’s Trafalgar Square and presenting at the UK leg of Live Earth in 2007. In 2008 alongside Will Smith she also hosted Nelson Mandela’s 90th Birthday celebrations in front of 30,000 people in London’s Hyde Park.

June is the Co-Founder of the WIE Network (Women:Inspiration & Enterprise). WIE first launched in NYC in 2010 and in UK in 2012. This acclaimed conference has featured leading speakers from a gamut of industries, previous speakers include: Sarah Brown, Melinda Gates, Arianna Huffington, Donna Karan, Queen Rania, Nancy Pelosi, Iman and many more. WIE supports female excellence and has an alliance of over 200,000 women.

June’s latest endeavour is Ldny an ethical fashion social enterprise initiative which has a partnership with the United Nations. Ldny launched during UN week at the start of 69th General Assembly Meeting.

June is based in London in 2015 she joined the board of Stronger IN the official campaign to keep Britain in the EU. June is currently a panelist on ITV’s Loose Women and Sky News’s weekly political debate show The Pledge.

Ann Steer

CEO, Freemans Grattan Holdings

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Ann Steer

CEO, Freemans Grattan Holdings

Ann is the Chief Executive Officer for Freemans Gratting Holdings, a role she has been in since January 2020 after initially joining as their Chief Marketing Officer. Previously she was Chief Customer Officer at N Brown Group where she worked in Home Shopping & Online Retail for more than 20 years. She was part of the team to launch the first Littlewoods website in 1999 and has held various marketing and digital roles. Ann was [promoted to the Operating Board in May 2014, Ann and was responsible for N Brown’s marketing strategy and activities, including sponsorships of the Digital First agenda and International expansion.

Annie Swain

Stylist

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Annie Swain

Stylist

Annie began her career working on the fashion desk of a British national newspaper, going on to style internationally renowned clients and work with leading TV channels & fashion publications for over a decade.
She headed up art direction and styling for eight years on behalf of Trinny and Susannah on their highly acclaimed makeover programmes across ten markets, including three style books.

She has delivered catwalk shows, lookbooks and stunning features for Hugo Boss, M&S, Pilot Magazine, Remix Magazine NZ, Phoenix Magazine and high profile TV shows on ITV and Endemol. She works with celebrities including Katie Melua, Dannii Minogue and Myleene Klass together with celebrated fashion photographers David Ralph, Daniela Federici and Blair Getz Mezibov.

As a result of her extensive international experience, Annie has access to an exclusive network of vintage stores and private collectors. This, combined with her passion for unearthing new talent and emerging designers, enables her to consistently surpass clients’ expectations with something new, surprising and different.

Her attention to detail and instinctive personal approach contribute to an individually crafted aesthetic with unique results.

Margherita Taylor

TV and Radio Presenter

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Margherita Taylor

TV and Radio Presenter

Margherita is one of the best loved faces and voices on British radio and TV, a multitalented presenter able to cover everything from political and cultural issues to what’s hot in the music scene. In 2012 Margherita joined the Heart FM family after nearly two decades at Capital and can be heard on Sunday afternoons, 12-4pm. She continues her weekday Smooth Classics show on Classic FM (10pm-1am), as well as co-hosting the Classic FM Live concerts with John Suchet.

She is a regular contributor on Sky News’ Sunrise, The One Show and Sky Arts, and also fronted their coverage of ‘Rewind Festival 2014’.

Margherita is also heavily involved in the charities The Prince’s Trust and Help A London Child. She started her TV career by hosting such shows as ITV’s junior version of Gladiators, Train To Win, BBC2’s The Ozone and Heartland for Central Television (a mixture of celebrity interviews and music). Margherita then moved on to present the channel’s cult prime time show for young people, Channel 4’s T4 Sunday for three years (March 1999-January 2002), originally alongside her ‘on-screen husband’ Dermot, and then with Vernon Kay.

Lindsay Thomas

CEO, Sustainable Risks

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Lindsay Thomas

CEO, Sustainable Risks

Lindsay Thomas is the CEO of Sustainable Risks Ltd a risk and regulatory advisory consultancy. He has extensive experience in financial services, especially regulatory policy, reputation protection and risk management. Lindsay is a contributor to both the BBC and ITV news commenting on regulatory issues.

He has provided briefings or other policy inputs to UK political parties. He provides consultancy to major banks, asset managers and other market participants. Lindsay is also a trustee of KIDS, a national UK young people’s disability charity.

Until 2006, Lindsay was a Director of the Financial Services Authority. His senior FSA roles included directorships of Retail Firms Supervision, Knowledge Management and Authorisation. As a senior supervisor and advisor he has been at the center of almost every major issue in financial services.

Tanni Grey-Thompson

Stellar Gold Medal Winning British Paralympian

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Tanni Grey-Thompson

Stellar Gold Medal Winning British Paralympian

Tanni is a Gold Medal winning British Paralympian, her first Paralympics was Seoul in 1988, where she won a bronze medal in the 400m. In 1992 she claimed victory in the London Wheelchair Marathon, the first of six wins over her career and then went on to the Barcelona Paralympics, where she won four gold medals in the 100m, 200m, 400m and 800 metres and a silver in the 4x100m relay. It was at Barcelona that Tanni became the first women to break the 60 second barrier for 400m.

Tanni won the 800 metres gold in the 1996 Atlanta Paralympics along with three silver medals in the 100, 200 and 400 metres. At the 2000 Sydney Paralympics, Tanni returned won another four gold medals in the 100m, 200m, 400m and 800 metres. Her final Paralympic Games as an athlete was Athens 2004, where she won gold in the 100m and 400m taking her medal tally to 11 golds.

Her total Paralympic Medal tally is 11 gold, 4 silvers and 1 bronze and added to that 5 gold, 4 silver and 3 bronze medals at World Championships. Over her career, Tanni broke 30 World Records on the track.

Tanni has continued to be involved in sport and physical activity. She is a Board Member of the London Marathon, the Sportsaid Foundation, the Duke of Edinburgh Awards and Join In. In addition to this she is also a Board Member of several organisations including Transport for London, the London Legacy Development Corporation and the London 2017 Organising Committee.

In 2010 Tanni became an Independent Crossbench Peer in the House of Lords, taking the title Baroness Grey-Thompson of Eaglescliffe in the County of Durham. As a working peer Tanni uses her experience and knowledge during debates in the House and she has spoken on a range of issues including Disability Rights, Welfare Reform, and of course, Sport.

Matilda Thorpe

Presentation Persona Trainer / Actor

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Matilda Thorpe

Presentation Persona Trainer / Actor

Matilda has worked in theatre, TV, film & live comedy. She plays Rupert Grint’s mother in the new comedy, Sick Note, for Sky Atlantic. She is also known for Mandy in TV’s long-running comedy, Desmond’s, BBC’s Robin Hood, & has worked with, among others, Robin Williams & many UK cast members of Whose Line Is It Anyway in comedy improvisation.
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She appeared in the West End’s Olivier award-winning, When We are Married, Golden Girls at Leeds Playhouse and recently in the Park Theatre production, Shutters.

Other TV credits include: Eastenders, The Bill, Holby City, Casualty, Rosemary and Thyme. Films include Queen of Hearts & Crush.

Harriet Thorpe

Presentation Persona Trainer / Actor

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Harriet Thorpe

Presentation Persona Trainer / Actor

Harriet is best known for playing Carole Parkinson in The Brittas Empire and Fleur in Absolutely Fabulous, a role she is reprised in the recent movie adaptation. She has also appeared on television in The Three Musketeers (BBC), The Secret (BBC), Victoria Wood’s Christmas Special+Midlife Crisis, French & Saunders, Girls On Top, Doctors, The Bill and Casualty.

Harriet has also appeared on film in Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows, The Lady in the Van, Calendar Girls, Suzie Gold, The Calling, Maurice, Life Is Sweet and Greystoke.

West End theatre includes Wicked, Mamma Mia, Great Britain, Cabaret, Crazy For You and Les Miserables. Harriet has also appeared at the National Theatre in All My Sons, A Prayer for Owen Meany, Pravda and The Government Inspector; the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre in Twelfth Night, Cymbeline, Richard III and A Midsummer Night’s Dream; in Gary Barlow + Tim Firth’s musical adaptation of Calendar Girls; and as Mrs. Lovett in John Doyle’s production of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd. Harriet is ambassador for breast cancer charity Walk The Walk.

Karoline Vinsrygg

Partner, Egon Zehnder

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Karoline Vinsrygg

Partner, Egon Zehnder

Karoline is based in London and is active across Egon Zehnder’s CEO Succession, Board, Industrial, and Services Practices. She also works for private equity portfolio companies. In addition to executive and non-executive search, she provides leadership assessment, succession planning, and accelerated integration support to executives transitioning into new roles. Karoline co-leads the firm’s Global Diversity & Inclusion Council.

Prior to joining Egon Zehnder, Karoline was Chief of Strategy and Organization and a member of the Executive Board of Aker Yards (later STX Europe) – the largest shipbuilding group in Europe, where she was responsible for strategy, business development, communications, and HR. Karoline gained transactional experience from Akers Yards as well as Citigroup, while based in New York and London. She started her career with the Norwegian Shipowners’ Association, where she was head of the policy section and a member of the executive team.

Karoline earned a BA in Political Science from the University of Oslo and an MBA from The McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University in the US, which she attended as a Fulbright Scholar.

Anthony Watson

Former CIO & Founder, Chairman & CEO, Nike Inc & Uphold Bank

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Anthony Watson

Former CIO & Founder, Chairman & CEO, Nike Inc & Uphold Bank

Anthony is one of Britain’s most successful technology entrepreneurs. Anthony started his career in technology at AOL, First-e Bancorp, Microsoft, Citi and Wells Fargo. He was poached by Barclays in 2009 to be their Managing Director & Chief Information Officer of Europe, Middle East & Global Operations and then later in 2014 by Nike to be Chief Information Officer.

In April 2015, Anthony was hired as CEO by Uphold, a growing financial technology business. Under his stewardship, Uphold (renamed from its original name, Bitreserve), grew from a simple bitcoin exchange with less than 3000 users across a handful of countries into one of the fastest-growing FinTech payment companies in the world, operating across 186 countries, servicing over 121,000 users who transacted over $109 billion in less than 14 months on the platform. Anthony remains a member of Uphold’s Board of Directors and an equity shareholder.

Anthony is in the process of setting up a new next-generation, technology-led global payments bank, UpholdBank, as its Chairman & Chief Executive Officer. In November 2016 UpholdBank entered formal discussions with the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulatory Authority (PRA) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to become an authorised, licensed and regulated bank in the United Kingdom.

Anthony is involved with several charitable endeavours as well as LGBT and progressive activism.

Tessa Watt

Mindfulness Practitioner

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Tessa Watt

Mindfulness Practitioner

Tessa Watt is an experienced Mindfulness practitioner and helps Pipeline participants deal with the pressures of everyday life at work. She is the author of Mindfulness: A Practical Guide (Icon, 2012) and Mindful London (Virgin, 2014). She is co-chair of the ‘Mindfulness in the Workplace’ strand of the Mindful Nation UK inquiry (2015).

Tessa is co-presenter of Be Mindful Online, the Mental Health Foundation’s online mindfulness course. She follows the UK Good Practice Guidelines for mindfulness teachers, and has completed the Teacher Development Levels 1 & 2 run by the Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice, Bangor University. Tessa was formerly a Research Fellow in History at Cambridge University, where she completed her PhD, and a Senior Producer at the BBC.

Baroness Patience Wheatcroft

Non-Executive Director - St. James' Place Plc, and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles

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Baroness Patience Wheatcroft

Non-Executive Director - St. James' Place Plc, and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles

Patience is a non-executive director of Fiat Chrysler and of St James’s Place Plc. She is Chairman of the Financial Times Complaints Commission. She was Business and City Editor of The Times for nine years before taking up the Editorship of the Sunday Telegraph. Then she decided to see business from the other side, leaving journalism to join the boards of Barclays and the property company, Shaftesbury. In July 2009, she returned to journalism, as Editor in Chief of the Wall Street Journal Europe. She left that role at the beginning of 2011 to become a working Conservative peer.

Gareth Williams

Non-Executive Director, Saga

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Gareth Williams

Non-Executive Director, Saga

Gareth is currently a Non Executive Director with Saga plc, WNS [holdings] Ltd and YSC Limited.

Previously he was Human Resources Director for Diageo for 14 years with oversight responsibility for Corporate Relations. In total, he had 30 years experience with GrandMet and Diageo including 5 years on assignment in the United States. Gareth’s early career was with Ford Motor Company in a number of their Manufacturing and Product Development locations.

Andrea Wong

Former President, Sony Pictures Television & Sony Pictures Entertainment

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Andrea Wong

Former President, Sony Pictures Television & Sony Pictures Entertainment

Andrea held the dual roles of President, International Production for Sony Pictures Television (SPT) and President, International for Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE). Based in London, Wong headed Sony Pictures Television’s 18 overseas production companies, creating over 100 shows and more than 1,400 hours of entertainment around the world each year. In her role as President, International for Sony Pictures Entertainment, Wong guided the company on matters impacting international production, and champions the studio’s interests abroad.

Previously, Wong served as president and CEO of Lifetime Networks, where she oversaw the day-to-day operations of Lifetime Television, Lifetime Movie Network, Lifetime Real Women, and Lifetime Digital, including programming, marketing, advertising sales, affiliate sales, public affairs, business and legal affairs, strategic planning, operations and research. During her time there she saw Army Wives become Lifetime’s top-rated original series ever and spearheaded Lifetime’s acquisition of Project Runway.

Prior to that, Wong was executive vice president, alternative programming, specials and late night at ABC where she developed shows such as The Bachelor, the U.S version of Dancing With the Stars and the Emmy-award winning Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

Wong graduated MIT with a degree in electrical engineering and received an MBA from Stanford University. She serves on the boards of Liberty Media Corporation, Liberty Interactive Corporation and Hudson’s Bay Company. Wong is a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute. She is also a member of the governing board of the British Film Institute and serves on the Stanford Graduate School of Business Advisory Council.

Gill Wylie

Transformation Director, Lloyds Banking Group

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Gill Wylie

Transformation Director, Lloyds Banking Group

Gill is a change and technology leader who loves to guide people to deliver new innovative solutions that transform businesses. Gill has spent most of her career working across technology and data companies and Financial Services.

Gill grew up in Northern Ireland and studied Computer Science at Queens University, Belfast before setting up roots in London. In her early years Gill gained tremendous experience and was rewarded with an appointment to the Executive Committee of an SME. This is where she learned to balance the demands of clients, lead and develop people whilst ensuring the company was profitable. Gill explains that she has been fortunate to work in senior roles for companies that embrace both technology and business change and put their customers at the heart of everything they do. Prior to returning to Lloyds Banking Group, Gill ran the UK Systems Integration division of an IT Consultancy and Services company (Atos) where she was able to work closely with clients from a variety of sectors and bring innovation and services to help them transform their businesses, especially focusing on Digital transformation.

Gill recently returned to Lloyds Banking Group where she is part of an executive team leading the group through the biggest digital transformation she has ever been involved with. The size and scale is providing the opportunity for Gill to learn everyday whilst continuing to have fun along the way.

Gill likes to encourage team work whilst having fun along the way. Gill is a big sports fan having played for Arsenal Ladies football team (a long time ago). Nowadays she has to be content with watching her two sons, Josh and Alex, play sports.

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