Panellists

Co-founder and CEO, Compare Ethics

Abbie Morris, Co-Founder and CEO, is a sustainability and policy expert. Formerly at AEQ Global, Abbie has led global teams in solving complex policy challenges, including leading a Presidential campaign in West Africa.

Previously securing relationships with the United Nations, World Economic Forum and other international organisations, communication is at the heart of her approach to business.

Founder and Chairman, Antal

Founded in 1993, Tony launched Antal International, a management and professional recruitment specialist. One of the first recruitment organisations to devote substantial resources to emerging markets, the company now has over 130 offices in more than 30 countries and works with many of the world’s most successful and ambitious employers. Award winner 2014 “I took a fairly large gamble and it paid off. Antal really took off in China, Eastern Europe and India. I’ve had the opportunity to work in some of the most interesting markets that exist in the world today”.

Founder & Managing Director, Doorsteps.co.uk

Driven and obsessed Founder of Doorsteps.co.uk. The UK’s 10th largest estate agent. StartupOfTheYear2017 // Best Emerging Online Agent 2018. Transferwise 20 under 20 // Sunday Times // NatWest Great British Entrepreneur Of The Year Finalist // London Power 100 // Evening Standard 25 under 25, 2019. Sold over £1bn worth of homes across the UK in 3 years of incorporation. Customer service rated as one of top online agents by several independent reviewers.

Managing Director, Customs Manager Ltd

Arne Mielken is a leading global trade professional in the UK and the EU and Managing Director of Customs Manager Ltd. He is accredited customs & export control practitioner and certified classification specialist. He has worked with customs and trade authorities in the EU and the UK for over a decade and he continues to be actively involved in the development of EU and UK customs policy and legislation through his membership in the EU’s Trade Contact Group (TCG) and the UK’s Joint Customs Consultancy Committee (JCCC).

CEO & Founder, Ferly

Billie Quinlan is an entrepreneur, public speaker and passionate advocate for women’s health. In 2018 she delivered a TED talk on the pleasure gap and in 2019 she co-founded the venture backed sexual wellness app Ferly.

The app is the first digital therapeutic for sexual difficulties, providing an effective and engaging solution for the 1 in 4 people that struggle with a sexual difficulty e.g. inability to orgasm, low libido, pain or anxiety around sex.

CATHERINE YOUNG Founder, ThinkRoom

Catherine Young is an African entrepreneur with executive level experience across a number of businesses, including a successful corporate career, holding various senior and executive positions in companies including Deloitte, Chevron and SAP Ariba. Her capabilities are underpinned by deep engagement and care for people across her work career. As the founder of Thinkroom, she is involved in entrepreneurial ecosystem development across Africa and the UK, as well as acceleration programmes through her co-ownership in Grindstone Accelerator.

CHRIS FORBES Co-founder, The Cheeky Panda DAY 2 - 4.00pm Overseas Expansion

Co-founder of The Cheeky Panda along with his partner Julie Chen. Cheeky Panda is Ranked 6th in the UKs top 100 start-ups and a B Corp. Chris is passionate about delivering change for good and has been a public speaker with regular features in press and radio helping share the journey and inspire others to become environmental entrepreneurs. Passionate about building sustainable 21st century companies that have purpose over profit but are still commercially viable entities.

MD, Atomic Acquisitions

An energy industry executive and strategic advisor with more than thirty years’ global experience spanning the oil & gas, utilities, and nuclear sectors, Biplab Rakshi was instrumental in the founding of the UK Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) leading numerous restructuring and divestment programmes. Now leading the conversation on low carbon energy initiatives, Biplab is a founding member of UK-based Atomic Acquisitions. In August 2020, Biplab was appointed as Chair of the Institute of Directors (IoD) East of England, where he aims to drive innovation and opportunity across the region.

CEO, Genuine Solutions Group

Christian is the Co-founder and Chief Executive of Genuine Solutions Group – a company he started as a young entrepreneur with some friends back in 2005. Today the company employs more than 100 people in their head-office in Surrey and has grown into one of the most dynamic companies in the UK.

Genuine Solutions Group is the proud parent of two successful brands; Genuine Solutions and GSUK , a multi-award winning enterprise which specialises in the re-use and re-cycling of consumer tech and is also a distributor of new and reused mobile phones and accessories.

Founder, BGI Group

From a working-class boy in a tiny village in rural Wales, to one of the world’s top performance expert and business strategist, best-selling author and international speaker, Deri is proof that it doesn’t matter where you start, but what matters is your focus and the strategies you use to get there.

From very humble beginnings Deri has worked his way up through the corporate ranks, built over 20 companies of his own and firmly established himself as one of the leading experts on business strategy and extreme performance.

Co-founder, Chilango

Eric has been named “CEO of the Year” at the 2019 Business Excellence Awards, one of the “Top 30 Entrepreneurs in the UK”, 35 and under, by Startups Magazine, and among “Britain’s Most Disruptive Entrepreneurs” by The Telegraph. He has advised Fortune 50 CEOs while at McKinsey, helped build Skype’s multibillion dollar success story, and has founded several businesses. His work has been featured on over 7 major TV stations, in the Wall Street Journal, and The Economist. He has also appeared as a guest judge on The Apprentice with Lord Alan Sugar.

Co-founder, ROAST & MD, TIPI Group

Gareth is responsible for the quality of product offering and driving innovation. He oversees business’ growth and ensures a more efficient partnership between each agency.

Gareth was one of the Co-Founders of TIPi Group in 2015. He has over 15 years industry experience, including leading the SEO offering at STEAK for clients such as British Gas, Comparethemarket.com and Post Office. He later became Head of Performance Media at 360i, followed by Strategy Partner at iProspect working on British Gas and MoreThan amongst others.

JAMES DAVIDSON Founder, Tails.com

James started his career at Unilever, gaining extensive experience in operations and management. After 6 years, he embarked on an expedition in Central America volunteering with Raleigh International, during which he realised the power of a strong purpose coupled with an entrepreneurial approach.

On his return to the UK, he joined Innocent Drinks, where his role as Head of Supply Chain was key in supporting the company as it grew rapidly in the UK and across Europe.

Co-founder, Xero

Gary is a co-founder and the Managing Director of Xero UK, responsible for business operations across Europe, Middle East and Africa. Under Gary’s leadership, Xero UK has scaled from a three-person startup with annual revenues of £50k to more than £40M in the year to 31 March 2018.

A visionary on SaaS and technology, Gary is renowned for his trend spotting. He’s loved tech since he started coding on a BBC micro computer in his parents’ attic in the 80s. Gary is also passionate about small business, being an active investor in startups with a passion for building better businesses.

JAS BAGNIEWSKI Founder, Eve Sleep

Jas is the founder and CEO of Lover, a digital platform focused on improving people’s sex lives.

Before founding Lover Jas was the founder and CEO of Eve Sleep PLC, a direct to consumer mattress business that exited in one of the UKs fastest IPOs. Jas was also the country head of Zalando UK (UKs largest ecommerce business) and a member of the Senior Management Team at CityDeal/Groupon UK.

Prior to working in e-commerce, Jas worked as a consultant in the Financial Services industry with Accenture.

Founder, Imagen

Imagen Co-founder and CEO, Jay Richards is the 5th of 6 children from migrant parents. From a rebellious start while at school to now the Founder of Imagen and a Forbes 30under30 entrepreneur, he credits his Business Studies teacher at school for guiding his sense of entrepreneurship in the right direction at the right time and now aims to provide opportunities for Gen Z to shape their future.

JENNI YOUNG CMO, Tappit

Jenni has worked with start ups, scale ups, corporates and not for profits worldwide, and has over 20 years’ experience in marketing, events, communications, operations and commercial development. She has worked across both B2C and B2B sectors and has won several high profile awards from PRCA and D&AD. She has extensive experience of working with live events, tech, media, lifestyle and innovation brands. Her previous roles include Marketing Director at Live Nation, Marketing & Centres Director at Digital Catapult and Managing Director of Upstream.

JOSH WINTERSGILL Founder, Able Move

Joshua is currently the Founder and Director of easyTravelseat. In August 2017, an innovative idea was sparked by his difficulties faced by accessing air travel as a wheelchair user. Just over a year later, Joshua had registered the business, filed a patent, created a working prototype, developed and documented a detailed business and marketing plan.

In September 2018, Joshua applied to the UK Disabled Entrepreneurs Award ran by the Founder of easyJet, Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou.

Co-founder, Kafoodle and CEO and Founder, Auris Tech

Kim Antoniou is an award-winning tech entrepreneur and Founder and CEO of Auris Tech Limited, inventors of a unique patented Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) technology, designed specifically for ‘read’ speech, which is a distinctly different speech pattern to conversational speech.

It has been developed in collaboration with The University of Edinburgh, and used to launch, Fonetti, the world’s first children’s listening bookshop App, available in the AppleStore and soon to be obtainable for Android.

Founder & CEO, Dai

Joanna Dai is the founder and CEO of innovative womenswear brand, Dai. Dai delivers comfort-empowered performance for the modern woman, designing at the intersection of eco-certified technical fabrics, minimal aesthetics, timeless silhouettes, and purposeful versatility. The brand is a Certified B Corporation™ and committed to creating a positive environmental and social impact. Since launch in 2017, Dai has been on a tremendous growth trajectory and is a pioneer in sustainable materials innovation and tech-enabled fit and e-commerce experience.

Co-founder, Nix & Kix

Kerstin is the co-founder of refreshingly fruity, naturally zingy, lightly sparkling soft drinks company NIX&KIX. NIX&KIX are a sugar tax exempt, vegan soft drinks which come in 4 unique flavours : Mango Ginger, Watermelon Hibiscus, Blood Orange Turmeric and Cucumber Mint, all with a little hint from cayenne. Their range of cans, small and large bottles have successfully launched with Sainsbury’s, Bidfood, Tesco, Waitrose, Ocado, Foodservice, food lead chains as well as internationally in Holland and Germany.

LUCY CHAMBERLAIN Founder, C&C Search

Passionate, fun and straight-talking, Lucy has become one of the business world’s popular motivational speakers. Lucy’s business journey as a Founder has seen her work as a TV presenter, Awards Judge and Leading Coach. She won the Female Speaker’s Award for Most Engaging Speaker at the Female Speaker’s Conference in 2019.

Alongside her fantastic knowledge base, Lucy’s level of experience enables her to give genuine insights into leadership, change and overcoming adversity.

Co-founder, StepLadder

Lucy is the Co-Founder and COO of StepLadder, a fast-growing, award-winning fintech company pioneering collaborative finance and revolutionising the home-buying process. She has won awards including the Female Founder award at the Unbound Innovation Awards in 2019, Innovator of the Year at the Women in IT Awards 2020, and delivered the winning pitch for StepLadder in the Future of FinTech Battle. Aside from StepLadder, Lucy is also an executive coach, having co-founded #RideTheWave, a coach-training programme that helps leaders and founders.

Co-founder, The Happiness Index

His passion is to understand how people experience happiness and his vision is to use data to visualise culture in a similar way to how Google Maps visualises the world.

CEO, Monpure

Nate’s story is a very unique one, from being brought up by a hardworking single mother in the conservative city of Hamburg, to being taken under the wing of Andy Rubin, CEO of one of the most successful British companies Pentland Brands. This prompted him to move to the UK, where he eventually set up the worlds first dedicated scalp- and hair health brand MONPURE LONDON.

Group chairman, Vistage

To say that Marko likes to help build things is an understatement! After all, he has spent the last 25 years doing that on behalf of the world’s most famous toy brand, LEGO®. He started his long career there as Marketing Assistant, rising through the ranks to serve on its global Executive Board and has held numerous commercial roles in the UK, across Europe, North America and Asia.

Marko puts his success down to one consistent, simple focus; To sustainably grow the business and develop leaders of tomorrow.

Founder, Get Nourished

Melissa Snover (aka Melissa Burton) is an entrepreneur, visionary, and a trendsetter in the world of food technology and 3D printing. She is passionate about developing innovations which offer solutions to her customers, challenge her competitors and disrupt current market offerings.

She is currently the founder and CEO of Rem3dy Group which pioneers personalised health solutions across nutrition and medicine under the brands Nourished and Scripted.

MD, Echo

Nick started his career as an engineer before moving on to product design, innovation and strategy with the world leading design agency IDEO. After designing everything from computers and telephones to post boxes and furniture, he changed direction and moved into branding, working with several leading London agencies. In 2004 Nick set up the London based, brand design and innovation agency, Echo, with Nigel Ritchie and Andrew Capper.

NOEL MCGONIGLE HR Director, Savills

Highly commercial international HR Director, outstanding leader with extensive experience in both strategic and operational HR management roles within the private and public sectors. Skilled in Strategic change management, organisational design, executive coaching, reward, training and development, M&A and TUPE. Ability to work in global, multi-site organisations.

Managing Director, SME at BT

Pete Oliver is a managing director focused on leading teams in commercial, digital, sales and marketing in both direct to consumer and enterprise businesses.

Passionate about technology and entertainment, he has led teams spanning EE, BT, BT TV and BT Sport, delivering consistent revenue growth and expansion into new categories.

Over the last 7 years he has been proud to lead teams delivering game-changing launches in the UK, from BT Sport disrupting the pay TV market to EE becoming the UK’s first 5G network.

CEO & Founder, Koru Kids

Rachel Carrell is the founder and CEO of Koru Kids, a fast-growing tech company dedicated to building the world’s best childcare service. Originally from New Zealand, Rachel holds a masters and doctorate from the University of Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar. She has received numerous awards including ‘Inspirational Mother’ and ‘Best Businesswoman in Tech’, and was elected a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in recognition of her work. Rachel is also the mother of two young children.

Co-founder, Crep Protect

Nohman Ahmed is one of the three brothers who founded the group Undercover Brothers which specialises in the lifestyle fashion industry, one of the more notable brands under their ownership is Crep Protect which has revolutionised the shoe care industry. Crep Protect which was founded in 2013 has rapidly grown to become an international player in the industry with presence in over 52 countries worldwide. With its award winning marketing and content creation Crep Protect quickly became the world’s largest premium shoe care brand.

Head of Education, Capitalise

With a background in financial services & the Fintech accountancy sectors, Phil has worked for some of the largest and most innovative businesses across these industries.

Whilst at HSBC Phil designed, piloted and rolled out a successful national training academy program helping hundreds of new employees start their careers in the bank whilst at Furtli he launched the forecasting software successfully into the South African market in the year it was voted Xero Practice App of the Year.

Director of Strategic Partnerships, Bottomline

Randy has over 25 years’ experience across sales, product, client strategy and the building out of successful partnerships to improve distribution models and delivering increased value to customers. An evangelist re the power of collaboration; Randy is passionate regarding the opportunities for growth, transformation and genuine business benefit that the Financial Technology landscape offers businesses today.

RASHIDA ABDULAI Founder & CEO, Strand Sahara DAY 1 - 4.00pm Overseas Expansion

Rashida Abdulai is an award-winning lawyer and founder of Strand Sahara, the online legal service for SMEs in the UK and across Africa. Proudly serving entrepreneurs of Africandescent, Strand Sahara makes legal services more relevant and accessible, preparing businesses for growth and investment.

Before Strand Sahara, Rashida was an international arbitration specialist at global law firm Hogan Lovells, where she represented some of the world’s largest corporations in highvalue, complex disputes.

Co-founder, OLIO

Saasha Celestial-One is Co-Founder & COO of OLIO, a free app harnessing the power of mobile technology and the sharing economy to provide a revolutionary solution to the problem of food waste, which is the 3rd largest contributor to the climate crisis. OLIO is growing quickly, empowered by 50k+ volunteers. Since 2016, 2.4m OLIOers have successfully shared over 6m portions of food in 54 countries.

Director, People at Elder

Valerie joined Elder as Director of People last September, working closely with CEO Andy Dowds and the fabulous Elder’s Team to accelerate Elder’s growth.

Her expertise covers strategy, organisation design, coaching, thriving through change, employee development and experience.

She is passionate about leading the People agenda for humansized, purposeful, fast growth and innovative companies.

Prior to Elder, Valerie worked at Mention Me (Head of People), HomeAway (EMEA HR Director), RSA Security (EMEA HR Manager).

MD, British Business Bank

Richard Bearman has over 20 years’ experience in the banking sector and over that time has developed a real passion for working with and supporting entrepreneurs. Richard is Managing Director at the British Business Bank and is responsible for the Start Up Loans programme. Working with a range of Delivery Partners across the UK to help start up businesses access funding, Richard is proud to play a part in helping people achieve their dream of being their own boss.

CEO & co-founder, Hurr

Victoria Prew is the co-founder and CEO of HURR Collective, the UK’s first peer-to-peer wardrobe rental platform. Offering luxury fashion to women who prefer to rent rather than buying, HURR was deemed the ‘Airbnb of Fashion’ by Forbes in 2019.

Headquartered in London, HURR Collective aims to address an underserved market of women who want access to the latest trends, without the commitment of purchase.

Prew is the first to tap into the growing market, spearheading rental fashion and shifts in millennial behaviour.