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Scaleup Week announced

19 April 2021

PRESS RELEASE

BGF & SCALEUP INSTITUTE ANNOUNCE SCALEUP WEEK: THE BUSINESS PLAN 18TH – 20TH MAY

  • Major new UK initiative launched to drive recovery, renewal and long term investment in high-potential businesses
  • Scaleup Week: The Business Plan has active engagement from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Prime Minister’s Build Back Better Council

London: Today, BGF and the ScaleUp Institute announce the launch of a major new nationwide initiative, Scaleup Week: The Business Plan taking place 18th – 20th May. The Scaleup Week represents a national moment to address critical challenges as we recover economically from the pandemic, to help business not just survive but thrive and ensure we have a fully funded plan to drive investment nationwide.

Scaleup Week will convene a series of conversations on the future of scale-ups, innovation and investment throughout the country. It is being driven by business for business, led by BGF with the ScaleUp Institute and has the active engagement of the Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng MP, Secretary of State for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and the Prime Minister’s Build Back Better Council.

This major initiative comes at a crucial time for the UK with the urgent need to drive swift recovery and renewal, as well as long term investment. The week-long series of virtual events will see the leaders of industry, investors, banks, academics and policymakers coming together. They will explore how the UK’s high-potential businesses can support the levelling-up agenda, drive progress in our communities, foster diverse workforces, achieve the transition to net zero and more.

From 18th May to 20th May, Scaleup Week: The Business Plan will host a series of main agenda virtual events including the following themes:

  • Enriching the community: how scaleups are a force for local renewal
  • Navigating the journey to net zero: how growing businesses will play their part
  • Finding a purpose and embedding a culture: lessons for leaders and teams
  • Unlocking ingenuity: how to create fertile conditions for innovation
  • Making Global Britain a reality: can growing businesses attract worldwide attention?
  • Focusing on skills: equipping today’s workforce for tomorrow’s challenges
  • No more glass ceilings: removing barriers to a diverse entrepreneur community

Stephen Welton, Executive Chairman at BGF, comments: “This is a pivotal moment for the UK economy with significant hurdles still to overcome but major and transformational opportunities ahead for the country’s growth businesses. Our high-potential firms not only represent innovation, but also how the future business landscape can be shaped, and that needs major investment to fully unlock progress across the county – this new initiative is here to help deliver a more diverse, cleaner and fast-growth future for UK scaleups.”

Business Secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, comments: “There is no question that this has been a challenging year for British businesses, but we also now have a moment of great opportunity with firms shaking up how they do things and adopting new tech and ways of working.

“I look forward to speaking to some of Britain’s brightest business leaders at Scaleup Week and hearing more about how we can help them to innovate, export, create jobs, generate wealth, and build back better from the pandemic, using government support like our new Help to Grow Management Scheme.”

Irene Graham, CEO at ScaleUp Institute, comments: “Scaleups exist across every sector, region and locality of the UK generating £1.1 trillion per annum and employing 3.2 million people. They are vital to our recovery and our future economy, being our most innovative, international and productive companies. This inaugural ScaleUp Week will focus on what continues to need to be done at national  and local level to foster scaleups, and what more can be done to propel  their growth and the opportunities they have both at home and abroad. We are delighted to be bringing the ecosystem together at this critical juncture to galvanise further action.”

At the time of launch, confirmed speakers include the following – with more to be announced:

  • Stephen Welton, Executive Chairman, BGF
  • Kwasi Kwarteng MP, Secretary of State for BEIS
  • Johnny Boufarhat, CEO & Founder, Hopin
  • Irene Graham OBE, CEO, ScaleU p Institute
  • Noel Quinn, Group Chief Executive, HSBC
  • Vin Murria OBE, founder, Advanced Computer Software & investor
  • Baroness Brown of Cambridge, UK Low Carbon Business Ambassador and CCC board member
  • Dr Linda Yueh, Economist, Writer & Broadcaster
  • Amanda Solloway MP, Minister for Science and Innovation
  • Daniel Korski CBE, CEO, Public
  • Colin Mayer CBE, Peter Moores, Professor of Management Studies, University of Oxford
  • Ian Simm, CEO, IMPAX
  • Adam Hale, Chair, Arctic Shores & ScaleUp Institute

The full programme of events and registration for attendees can be found here.

– ENDS –

Notes to Editors

About BGF

  • BGF was set up in 2011 and has invested over £2.5 billion in nearly 400 companies, making it the most active investor in the UK.
  • BGF invests across the spectrum of high growth companies from earlier stage, to growth, to the smaller end of the AIM market working with a wide range of co-investors, universities and other stakeholders.
  • BGF set up in Ireland in 2018 with a €250m fund, looking to replicate a similar regional investment model across the country.
  • BGF is a minority, non-controlling equity partner with a long term patient outlook on investments, based on shared long-term goals with the management teams it backs.
  • BGF today invests in growing businesses in the UK and Ireland through its network of 16 offices.
  • In 2018, Canada launched its equivalent – the Canadian Business Growth Fund – and in 2019, Australia did the same, both based on BGF’s funding model.
  • bgf.co.uk
  • Social media: @BGFinvestments

About ScaleUp Institute

The ScaleUp Institute is a private-sector led, not-for-profit organisation focused on collaborating with policy makers, corporates, finance players, educators and Government at a local and national level. Our mission is to help the UK to become the best place in the world to grow a business as well as start one, and to enable our existing high growth businesses to ‘scale up’ even further. The Institute was founded in 2015 to help the UK improve its record in scaling companies which lags behind its major competitors after evidence showed that a one per cent boost to the UK scaleup population would boost the economy by hundreds of billions. The latest data shows that 33,445 Scaleup Businesses generate a total turnover of £1.1 trillion to the UK economy – 50% of the total contribution from all SMEs.

  • https://www.scaleupinstitute.org.uk
  • Social Media: @scaleupinst
  • Media Contact: [email protected]

Host of Scaleup Week, Samantha Washington

Presenter, Sky News

Samantha Washington is a presenter on Sky News. Prior to working at Sky, Samantha was a business presenter at the BBC, working on BBC Breakfast and BBC News. She was the regular host of Your Money, a personal finance show on BBC News. She has also presented on BBC Radio 4 and 5 Live.

She started her journalism career as a producer on the multiple award winning Radio 4 programme Money Box, but quickly progressed to reporter and correspondent, and picked up a File on 4 award for investigative journalism in the process.

Before becoming a journalist, Samantha worked in the City, first as a management consultant for Oliver Wyman and later at Barclays Capital.

She studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE) at Oxford University.

Samantha will be hosting Scaleup week sessions: 

  • The “Funding the Future: unlocking capital to power the growth we need” session on 18 May at 10:00am.
  • The “Enriching the community: how scaleups are a force for local renewal” session on the 18 May at 2:00pm.
  • The “Navigating the journey to net zero: how growing businesses will play their part” session on 18 May at 4:00pm.
  • “Finding a purpose and embedding a culture: lessons for leaders and teams” session on 19 May at 1:00pm.
  • “Unlocking ingenuity: how to create fertile conditions for innovation” session on 19 May at 3:00pm.

Host of Scaleup Week, Gavin Esler

Writer & Broadcaster

Gavin Esler is an award winning broadcaster and podcaster, journalist and writer. He is the holder of a Royal Television Society award, a Sony Gold (radio) award, and two Lovie awards for his podcast series about Vladimir Putin, The Big Steal. He is author of five novels (Loyalties, Deep Blue, The Blood Brother, A Scandalous Man and Power Play) and four non-fiction books (The United States of Anger, Lessons from the Top, Brexit Without the Bullshit and How Britain Ends.)

Lessons from the Top was inspired by Gavin’s own conversations and interviews with numerous heads of state & world leaders. These include Bill Clinton, Angela Merkel, Tony Blair, Margaret Thatcher and many other accomplished communicators ranging from Dolly Parton and Angelina Jolie to leaders of terrorist groups. The book examines how successful leaders tell stories to educate, persuade and bring about change. Gavin is often invited to  discuss these lessons with business, military and public sector leaders.

Gavin is known for his reporting and presenting work at the BBC, and has been the main presenter on Dateline London on the BBC News Channel and BBC World and numerous other programmes, including Hardtalk. He left the BBC in 2018 and is now a freelance journalist and writer.

Formerly Gavin was the BBC’s Chief North America Correspondent for eight years, based in Washington and frequently reporting from the White House mostly during the Clinton presidency. He has also reported from countries as diverse as China, Peru, Argentina, Cuba, Brazil, Russia, Jordan, Iran, Saudi Arabia and from the Aleutian Islands, as well as all across Europe. On returning to the UK, he joined the presenting team on the BBC’s flagship news and current affairs programme Newsnight. He is a voting member of BAFTA, Chancellor of the University of Kent and a visiting lecturer in various academic institutions, large corporations, and public service organisations including the British military. Gavin took on the role of moderator for the 2017 ‘How to do Good’ charity-speaker tour in Oslo, Stockholm, The Hague, Brussels, Paris, London and New York.

In his most recent book How Britain Ends (February 2021) Gavin explores the possibility of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland reinventing itself or, as the title suggests, coming to an end. The book examines what “being British” might mean in the 21st century – if anything – and whether the UK, which has reinvented itself every century since 1603, can begin a further restructuring for the 21st century. The challenge to unionists is to find new structures to keep the United Kingdom together. The challenge to nationalists is to ask themselves what “independence” really means in an increasingly inter-dependent world. Drawing on Scottish, Irish, Welsh and English literature and culture, Gavin asks whether a federal structure could in the end save the union or whether what he calls “the elephant in the bed” – England itself – may itself ensure that the competing nationalisms on these islands mean the United Kingdom is inevitably coming to an end.

Gavin will be hosting Scaleup week sessions: 

  • “Making Global Britain a reality: can growing businesses attract worldwide attention”? session on 20 May at 10:00am.
  • “Focus on skills: equipping today’s workforce for tomorrow’s challenges?” session on 20 May at 2:00pm.
  • “No more glass ceilings: removing barriers to a diverse entrepreneur community?” session on 20 May at 4:00pm.

The Rt Hon Boris Johnson MP

Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union

Boris Johnson became Prime Minister on 24 July 2019. He was previously Foreign Secretary from 13 July 2016 to 9 July 2018.

He was elected Conservative MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip in May 2015. Previously he was the MP for Henley from June 2001 to June 2008.

Scaleup Week will hear from The Rt Hon Boris Johnson MP during the “Enriching the community: how scaleups are a force for local renewal” session on 18 May at 2:00pm.

Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng MP

Secretary of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng MP was appointed Secretary of State at the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on 8 January 2021.

He was previously Minister of State at the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

Kwasi was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department for Exiting the European Union from 16 November 2018 to 24 July 2019. Before becoming a Member of Parliament, Kwasi worked as an analyst in financial services.

Kwasi was elected the Conservative MP for Spelthorne in 2010. From 2010 until 2013 he was a member of the Transport Select Committee, and in 2013 he joined the Work and Pensions Select Committee where he was a member until 2015. In October 2016 Kwasi joined the Public Accounts Committee, where he was a member until May 2017.

In 2015 Kwasi was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Leader of the House of Lords, and in 2017 he became Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng MP joins the Scaleup Week panel for the “Enriching the community: how scaleups are a force for local renewal” session on 18 May at 2:00pm.

Stephen Welton

Executive Chairman, BGF

Stephen Welton is Executive Chairman of BGF, a role he has held since July 2020, and is responsible for the strategic direction of the company. Before taking on the role of Executive Chairman, Stephen was the founder CEO of BGF between 2011 and 2020. Under Stephen’s leadership, BGF has grown from 1 to 16 offices across the UK and Ireland, with more than £2.2bn invested and a team of 170, becoming in the process the most active growth capital investor in the UK.

Stephen has extensive experience as an investor. Prior to BGF, he was one of the founding partners of the global private equity firm CCMP Capital (formerly JP Morgan Partners), and before that, Managing Director of Barclays Private Equity and Henderson Ventures, which he also co-founded.

In 2013, Stephen was appointed an advisor to the UK Government regarding the establishment of the British Business Bank and in 2017, served as a member of the Industry Panel advising HM Treasury on the Patient Capital Review and is currently a member of the Prime Minister’s Business Council. In 2018, Stephen was appointed a member of the first Council of Innovate UK, which forms an integral part of UK Research and Innovation. Stephen is also a member of the Diversity Project Advisory Board.

Stephen joins the Scaleup Week panel for:

  • The “Funding the Future: unlocking capital to power the growth we need” session on 18 May at 10:00am.
  • The “Enriching the community: how scaleups are a force for local renewal” session on the 18 May at 2:00pm.
  • The “Navigating the journey to net zero: how growing businesses will play their part” session on 18 May at 4:00pm.
  • The “Making Global Britain a reality: can growing businesses attract worldwide attention”? session on 20 May at 10:00am.

Irene Graham OBE

CEO, ScaleUp Institute

Irene Graham is the CEO and a board director of the ScaleUp Institute. A former senior banker at Standard Chartered Bank where she held both European and global managing director roles, she set up, ran and scaled several of the bank’s key client and product businesses across its corporate and institutional bank and led several global M&A activities.

Before joining the ScaleUp Institute she was Managing Director at the British Bankers Association. She led a host of strategic work across the industry from the regulatory and business perspectives, including leading the Business Finance Taskforce set up by the CEOs of the UK banks which resulted in the creation of the BGF, the Enterprise Research Centre, the SME Finance Monitor, and Mentorsme as well as being responsible for new export and business policy initiatives including the Small Business Act, expanded UKEF products and Open Banking which Irene advised Government and industry upon.

She is a Visiting Professor of Entrepreneurship at Strathclyde University and holds a variety of non executive director and advisory roles across the creative, business and finance communities.

Irene joins the Scaleup Week panel for the “Enriching the community: how scaleups are a force for local renewal” session on 18 May at 2:00pm.

Gillian Keegan MP

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Apprenticeships and Skills) at the Department for Education

Gillian Keegan was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Apprenticeships and Skills at the Department for Education on 14 February 2020.

Gillian will feature as a Scaleup Intervention during the “Focus on skills: equipping today’s workforce for tomorrow’s challenges?” session on 20 May at 2:00pm.

Dr Linda Yueh

Economist, Writer & Broadcaster

Linda Yueh is an economist, writer and broadcaster. 

Dr Yueh is Fellow in Economics at St Edmund Hall, Oxford University and Adjunct Professor of Economics at London Business School. She is Visiting Professor at LSE IDEAS at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and Associate Fellow (Global Economy and Finance Programme & U.S. and the Americas Programme) at Chatham House. Professor Yueh is Chair of the LSE Economic Diplomacy Commission. She was Visiting Professor of Economics at Peking University. 

Professor Yueh is Adviser to the UK Board of Trade and Member of the Independent Review Panel on Ring-fencing and Proprietary Trading of the UK government. She is Chair of the Royal Commonwealth Society and Trustee of Malaria No More UK and the Coutts Foundation, where she is Chair of the Audit, Finance and Investment Committee. She is a Non-Executive Director of the following publicly listed companies on the London Stock Exchange: Rentokil Initial plc and SEGRO plc (from May 1), both FTSE 100 companies, Fidelity China Special Situations plc, a FTSE 250 investment trust, and Chair of Baillie Gifford’s The Schiehallion Fund Ltd, an investment company listed on the Specialist Fund Segment of the LSE Main Market. She serves on the Advisory Board of LSE IDEAS and on the Policy Committee of the Centre for Economic Performance (CEP), both at the London School of Economics. She is a Fellow (FRSA) of the Royal Society of Arts.  


Dr Yueh is a widely published author who has written/edited 10 books. Her latest book, The Great Economists: How Their Ideas Can Help Us Today (Viking/ Penguin Random House), was selected as The Times’s Best Business Books of the Year. The U.S. edition, What Would the Great Economists Do? How Twelve Brilliant Minds Would Solve Today’s Biggest Problems (Picador/ Macmillan), was Newsweek‘s Best Books of the Year. She is represented by Janklow & Nesbit UK. She is the Editor of the Routledge Economic Growth and Development book series.

She is a TV and radio presenter, including for BBC Radio 4 and the World Service, as well as having fronted BBC TV series, such as The New Middle Class, Next Billionaires, and Working Lives. She was Chief Business Correspondent for BBC News and presenter of Talking Business with Linda Yueh for BBC World TV and BBC News Channel based in Singapore. She had been Economics Editor and anchor at Bloomberg TV in London.

Professor Yueh has advised the World Bank, European Commission, Asian Development Bank, World Economic Forum in Davos, among others. She was a Non-Executive Director of the publicly listed companies: JPMorgan Asian Investment Trust plc and Baillie Gifford’s Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust plc. She was previously Co-Chair of the Global Cities Business Alliance (GCBA) of London First; Board Member of London & Partners; Advisory Board Member of The Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF); advisor to the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC); and Advisory Board member of the British Science Association’s For Thought Summit 2019. Previously, she was an attorney at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in New York.

Dr Yueh joins the Scaleup Week panel for the “Making Global Britain a reality: can growing businesses attract worldwide attention?” session on 20 May at 10:00am.

Timo Boldt

CEO & Founder, Gousto

Timo Boldt is the Founder & CEO of Gousto, specialising in the home delivery of meal kits. The company leads an industry with a unique blend of technology and food: more than half of their orders come from artificial intelligence-powered recommendations.

Outside of Gousto, Timo sits on the Unilever Digital Advisory Board (advising the senior marketing leadership on digital strategy, data and tech capabilities, and vision around emerging technologies) and on the board of Flagstone,  a secure online platform that helps SMEs, Wealth Managers, Charities and High Net Worth Individuals to maximise returns on cash deposits.

In a previous life, Timo was a VP in a special situations hedge fund. Before that, he worked in investment banking at Rothschild. Timo is British, was born in Germany and completed high school and university in the US.

Timo will feature as a Scaleup Intervention during the “Enriching the community: how scaleups are a force for local renewal” session on 18 May at 2:00pm.

Lord Grimstone of Boscobel Kt

Minister for Investment at the Department for International Trade and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Lord Grimstone of Boscobel Kt was appointed unpaid Minister for Investment jointly at the Department for International Trade and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy on 18 March 2020.

Before joining government, his career spanned the private and public sectors. His roles have included:

  • chairman of Barclays Bank plc and Standard Life Aberdeen
  • lead non-executive on the board of the Ministry of Defence
  • chairman of financial services body, TheCityUK, from 2012 to 2015
  • member of HM Treasury’s Financial Services Trade and Investment Board

Lord Grimstone has held board appointments across many sectors and served as one of the UK’s Business Ambassadors.

He also:

He has a particular interest in UK-China and UK-India relations. He has joined several Prime Ministerial visits, including the annual Economic and Financial Dialogues between the countries. He also chaired TheCityUK China Market Advisory Group.

Lord Grimstone was knighted in 2014 for public service to defence and business.

Lord Grimstone joins the Scaleup Week panel for the “Making Global Britain a reality: can growing businesses attract worldwide attention?” session on 20 May at 10:00am.

Chika Russell

Founder, Chika's Foods

Chika joins the Scaleup Week panel for the “No more glass ceilings: removing barriers to a diverse entrepreneur community?” session on 20 May at 4:00pm.

Alex Harvey

Chief of Advanced Technology, Ocado

Alex features as a Scaleup Intervention during the “Unlocking ingenuity: how to create fertile conditions for innovation” session on 19 May at 3:00pm.

Martin Murphy

CEO, Syncona

Martin is Chief Executive Officer of Syncona Investment Management Ltd. He co-founded Syncona in 2012 alongside The Wellcome Trust.

Since then, Martin has been closely involved in the foundation and development of seven Syncona companies, including: Achilles Therapeutics, Autolus, OMass Therapeutics, Quell Therapeutics, Anaveon and Resolution Therapeutics. He was previously Chairman of Blue Earth Diagnostics, which Syncona sold to Bracco Imaging for $476 million in 2019.

Previously, he was a partner at MVM Life Science Partners LLP, a venture capital company focused on life science and healthcare, where he led their European operations. Martin has also held roles with 3i Group plc and McKinsey & Company. He has a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Cambridge.

Martin joins the Scaleup Week panel for the “Unlocking ingenuity: how to create fertile conditions for innovation” session on 19 May at 3:00pm.

Poppy Gustafsson

CEO, Darktrace

Poppy Gustafsson is the Chief Executive Officer of Darktrace plc. Under her leadership, the company has experienced significant growth and global expansion, with 4,700 customers and 1,500 employees worldwide. She was named Vodafone’s Woman of the Year for Technology and Innovation in 2020, Tech Businesswoman of the Year at the UK Tech Awards 2019 and won the Veuve Clicquot Business Woman Awards 2019. Together with Darktrace CTO Jack Stockdale, Poppy was awarded an OBE for services to cyber security in 2019. She is a qualified chartered accountant, and holds a BSc in Mathematics from the University of Sheffield.

Poppy will feature as a Scaleup Intervention during the “Enriching the community: how scaleups are a force for local renewal” session on 18 May at 2:00pm.

Romi Savova

CEO & Founder, PensionBee

Romi is Chief Executive Officer of PensionBee, the UK’s leading online pension provider she founded in 2014 to simplify pension savings in the UK, following a harrowing pension transfer experience of her own.

Prior to PensionBee, Romi worked at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Credit Benchmark and received an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Romi joins the Scaleup Week panel for the “Funding the Future: unlocking capital to power the growth we need” session on 18 May at 10:00am.

Paula Quazi

Founder, Smol

Paula joins the Scaleup Week panel for the “Scaling, Hiring and Fundraising during a pandemic” session on 18 May at 11:30am

Andy Gregory

Chief Investment Officer, BGF

Andy is Chief Investment Officer at BGF. He is a member of BGF’s Board, executive team and sits on the national Investment Committee. Andy has significant experience of regional private equity, having worked as a director in the Manchester offices of ISIS Equity Partners, Bridgepoint, and Royal Bank Development Capital.

He is a chartered accountant with over 20 years’ experience in private equity, acquisition finance and corporate finance.  Andy also has industry experience, having been group finance director of Pennine Retail Systems Limited, a leading UK retail software company which was successfully backed by private equity.

He qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Arthur Andersen in Manchester and has an Economics degree from The University of Manchester.  Andy is married with two young children and lives in Cheshire. In his limited leisure he tries, and generally fails, to impress his children by playing the piano and whilst on holiday loves to windsurf or snowboard depending on the time of year.

Andy joins the Scaleup Week panel for the “Finding a purpose and embedding a culture: lessons for leaders and teams” session on 19 May at 1:00pm.

Tania Boler

Founder, Elvie

Tania is an internationally recognized women’s health expert and has held leadership positions for various global NGOs and the United Nations. Passionate about challenging taboo women’s issues, Tania founded Elvie in 2013, partnering with Alexander Asseily to create a global hub of connected health and lifestyle products for women.

Catherine will feature as a Scaleup Intervention during the “No more glass ceilings: removing barriers to a diverse entrepreneur community?” session on 20 May at 4:00pm.

Adrienne Minster

CEO, Rated People

Adrienne Minster is CEO of Rated People, a UK tech scale-up. Over the course of her career, she has successfully built and scaled businesses in a wide variety of settings, ranging from start-ups to large corporates. She is passionate about building high-performance teams and working with organisations that have potential for transformation and growth.

Rated People is the UK’s leading online marketplace for homeowners to find skilled, local tradespeople. More than 9 million jobs have been posted to date and over 50,000 tradespeople are able to use the platform to find new work opportunities. During her tenure, Adrienne has taken the company to profitability and the business has recently been recognised as one of The Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For in the UK.

Prior to joining Rated People, Adrienne served as Global Head of Online at hibu (formerly Yell Group) where she led their global eCommerce business. She has a background in strategy consulting with Booz & Company in the United States, and was the first employee at BroadReach Healthcare, where she led operations for a national HIV/AIDS treatment programme in South Africa.

Adrienne holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard and an MBA from INSEAD.

Adrienne will feature as a Scaleup Intervention during the “Finding a purpose and embedding a culture: lessons for leaders and teams” session on 19 May at 1:00pm.

Noel Quinn

Group Chief Executive, HSBC

Noel Quinn was appointed Group Chief Executive in March 2020, having previously served as interim Group Chief Executive from August 2019. Mr Quinn has been with HSBC – or its constituent companies – since 1987, when he joined Forward Trust Group, a subsidiary of Midland Bank (now HSBC UK).

He led HSBC’s acquisitions of Swan National Motor Finance and Eversholt Leasing Ltd, becoming General Manager of each business in turn.

He subsequently served as Head of Specialised and Equity Finance at HSBC; Group Director of Strategy & Development at HSBC Insurance Services North America; Head of Commercial Finance Europe; and Head of Commercial Banking UK.

From 2011 to 2015 he was the Regional Head of Commercial Banking for Asia-Pacific, based in Hong Kong. Mr Quinn was appointed Chief Executive, Global Commercial Banking in December 2015. He became a Group Managing Director in September 2016. Mr Quinn qualified as an accountant in 1987.

Noel joins the Scaleup Week panel for the “Making Global Britain a reality: can growing businesses attract worldwide attention?” session on 20 May at 10:00am.

Gerard Grech

CEO, Tech Nation

Gerard Grech is chief executive of Tech Nation, a privately and publicly funded organisation focused on accelerating the growth of digital businesses in London and across cities in the UK. He is also a governing board member of Europe’s largest arts centre, the Barbican, and Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency.

A veteran of digital media, web and mobile, Gerard’s international experience in London, Paris and New York, building digital products and rolling them out across 5 continents, has given him global vision and local expertise, spanning product development, business strategy and venture capital. He will discuss the entrepreneurial risk culture and the importance of talent, patient capital and the ‘beehive effect’ in light of Brexit, as well as how the UK is faring in the big emerging areas including AI, machine learning and digital social innovation.

Gerard joins the Scaleup Week panel for the “Unlocking ingenuity: how to create fertile conditions for innovation” session on 19 May at 3:00pm.

Sten Saar

CEO & Co-Founder, Zego

Sten joins the Scaleup Week panel for the “Scaling, Hiring and Fundraising during a pandemic” session on 18 May at 11:30am

Catherine Lewis de La Torre

CEO, British Business Bank

Catherine was appointed CEO of the British Business Bank in September 2020. She has been with the British Business Bank since 2016 leading its Commercial Arm, initially as CEO of British Business Investments and taking on the additional role as CEO of British Patient Capital in October 2018.

Before joining the Bank, Catherine was Head of Private Equity for Cardano Risk Management, where she was responsible for managing a global portfolio of private capital investments on behalf of several UK pension funds. Previously she was a Partner and Managing Director of Fondinvest Capital in Paris, an investor in European private equity funds.

Prior to this Catherine was one of the founding partners of a Nordic fund-of-funds manager, Proventure, which invested in venture and growth capital funds and companies across Western Europe. Following the acquisition of Proventure in 2007, Catherine launched a consulting business advising Sovereign Wealth Funds and Institutional Investors in Asia and the US on their European private capital strategies.

Catherine graduated with First Class Honours from the London School of Economics beginning her career as an equity analyst with Venture Economics before joining CINVEN, a Private Equity firm, as an investment manager.

Catherine joins the Scaleup Week panel for the “Funding the Future: unlocking capital to power the growth we need” session on 18 May at 10:00am.

Charles Delingpole

CEO, ComplyAdvantage

Charles Delingpole is CEO of ComplyAdvantage, a technology company focused on wiping out financial crime using Machine Learning. As CEO, Charles leads the product development and growth of the company. His passion for the issue came from his time as the MLRO of a previous startup he founded when he realized the ubiquitous inefficiency concerning money laundering processes.

Over 99% of money laundering is successful, ComplyAdvantage is working to stop it completely. Founded in 2014, ComplyAdvantage works with over 500 enterprise clients across 75 countries. ComplyAdvantage has raised $88m from Index Ventures, Balderton Capital and OTPP, ComplyAdvantage has four global hubs in London, New York, Cluj-Napoca, and Singapore. Charles set up his first company, The Student Room Group, now the world’s largest student discussion forum when he was 16. After completing his MA in Politics at Trinity College Cambridge, and then an MSc in Management, Strategy, and Finance from the LSE, he became an associate at J.P. Morgan Cazenove.

Charles joins the Scaleup Week panel for the “Scaling, Hiring and Fundraising during a pandemic” session on 18 May at 11:30am

James Wise

Partner, Balderton

James joined Balderton in 2013. Since then, he has led Balderton’s investments in a number of sectors and geographies, with a specific focus on security, enterprise and healthtech. He sits as a board member and observer for multiple portfolio companies including Depop, GoCardless, Sophia Genetics, Detectify and Kaia Health, and has been involved in the sale of companies to Amazon, Microsoft & Elastic.

Prior to joining Balderton, James helped to launch and run one of the UK’s first social venture funds, providing support and capital to social enterprises. He has worked with entrepreneurs and businesses in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and as a consultant with McKinsey & Company.

As well as the professional experiences above, James is a trustee at Dot.Everyone, a charity that advocates for responsible approaches to using new technologies, and served in 2011 as a Specialist Adviser to Parliament.

James has an MA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University and has lectured for the University on aspects of responsible capitalism and the social impact of technology.

James joins the Scaleup Week panel for:

  • “Funding the Future: unlocking capital to power the growth we need” session on 18 May at 10:00am.
  • “Scaling, Hiring and Fundraising during a pandemic” session on 18 May at 11:30am

Michael Hayman

Host of Change Makers, co-founder, Seven Hills

Michael is an entrepreneur, broadcaster and author. He co-founded the campaigns firm Seven Hills & co-authored Mission (Penguin). 

He is Chairman of Entrepreneurs at the private bank and wealth manager Coutts.

Michael is Honorary Professor of the Purpose Economy at the University of London where he also holds an Honorary Doctorate.

He is also an Honorary Fellow in Entrepreneurship at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School and is an advisory board member of the School of Business & Management, Queen Mary University of London.

Michael hosts the Change Makers podcast and the TV show Capital Conversation, and is an experienced event host.  He has interviewed leaders from business, sports, politics the arts and entertainment. Michael is a columnist for CityAM, Country and Town House, and capital markets columnist for the Yorkshire Post.

He co-founded the national campaign for early stage enterprise, StartUp Britain, is an advisory board member of the National Business Awards and serves on the Advisory Council of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Michael was awarded an MBE for services to enterprise promotion, entrepreneurship and education, is a Deputy Lieutenant for Surrey and is a Freeman of the City of London.

Claudine Adeyemi

CEO & Head of Business Development, CareerEar

Claudine Adeyemi is a multi-award winning lawyer and social entrepreneur. She read law at University College London and went on to practice law at Mishcon de Reya where she was an Associate specialising in Real Estate Litigation. In 2014, Claudine founded The Student Development Co. (The SDC), a non-profit organisation providing career-related support to young people from less privileged backgrounds. The SDC supported over 1000 young people.

Claudine then founded a company called CareerEar, a site empowering people to make informed career choices. The platform features the UK’s first Q&A careers advice service allowing career-seekers (first time or career changers) to ask career-related questions to industry professionals directly. CareerEar, recognised in the Social Entrepreneur Index 2020 for the second year in a row, is also on a mission to help people to discover career paths and upskill with the support of Nesta and The Dept for Education. Claudine is particularly keen to ensure that people are prepared for the future of work. Claudine now runs CareerEar part-time and is part-time in-house counsel for an AgTech startup called Wefarm.

Claudine is also a board member of the Employers’ Network for Equality, and Inclusion (enei), advisory board member for upReach and a Global Shaper (an initiative set up by the World Economic Forum). Claudine has been recognised as a Rising Star in the We Are The City Awards (2016), Future Powerlist (2017), Brummell Magazine’s 30 Ones to Watch (2018) and in May 2018, Claudine was listed as the EMpower #1 Future Leader as presented by the Financial Times.

Claudine enjoys swimming, travelling and cooking (or more so eating) and is an avid Arsenal FC fan.

Claudine will feature as a Scaleup Intervention during the “Focus on skills: equipping today’s workforce for tomorrow’s challenges?” session on 20 May at 2:00pm.

Karen Betts

CEO, Scotch Whisky Association

Karen Betts was appointed as CEO of the SWA in May 2017, after a 16-year career in the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO).

Karen held a variety of posts in London and overseas with the FCO. Most recently, she was British Ambassador to Morocco.  She was also Counsellor to the British Embassy in Washington, and held roles at the UK’s Permanent Representation to the EU in Brussels  and the British Embassy in Baghdad.  In London, she served in the Cabinet Office and the Joint Intelligence Committee, as well as in a variety of roles in the Foreign Office.

Prior to joining the FCO, Karen worked as a lawyer for Clifford Chance in London and Hong Kong.  She studied law at the College of Law in Guildford and history at St. Andrews University.

Karen is an Adviser to the UK Government’s Board of Trade, the Chair of the CBI’s International Trade and Investment Council, a member of the Scottish Government’s Trade Board and a Trustee of Raleigh International.

Karen joins the Scaleup Week panel for the “Making Global Britain a reality: can growing businesses attract worldwide attention?” session on 20 May at 10:00am.

Bob Wigley

Chairman, UK Finance

Bob Wigley spent his banking career with Morgan Grenfell and Merrill Lynch and was EMEA Chairman of Merrill Lynch between 2003 and 2009. Between 2006 and 2009 he was a member of the Court of the Bank of England. He is a past member of the Takeover Panel, the FSA’s Senior Practitioners Panel and was the FSA’s nominated representative on the Council of European Securities Regulators Market Consultation Panel.

He led a group of industry Chairman and Chief Executives to author a report on the competitiveness of London as a global financial centre “London, Winning in the Decade Ahead” and chaired the Green Investment Bank Commission. Since leaving banking, he has chaired and invested in a number of Fintech companies. Bob was instrumental in the creation of TheCityUK and has been on its advisory board since its formation.

Bob joins the Scaleup Week panel for the “Funding the Future: unlocking capital to power the growth we need” session on 18 May at 10:00am.

Neeta Patel CBE

CEO, Centre for Entrepreneurs

Neeta is CEO at The Centre for Entrepreneurs, which supports UK entrepreneurs through independent research, convening networks and entrepreneur communities. Its flagship programme is NEF+ which is the UK’s leading development programme for young aspiring entrepreneurs and young talent in scaling companies. She is passionate about encouraging bright, talented young people to become entrepreneurs, and in the skills development agenda more generally.

Prior to joining the NEF, Neeta worked in Private Equity working with technology start-ups and private investors. She has over 25 years of experience in the Corporate innovation world, spanning financial services (L&G), media & publishing (FT), and education & cultural relations. She has also led her own Fintech startup.

She is a mentor and adviser to numerous start-ups led by young entrepreneurs, is an Entrepreneur-Mentor-In-Residence at London Business School, and a Non- Executive Director at the FTSE 250 listed Allianz Technology Trust. She is a board adviser at Tech London Advocates and a board member of City Ventures, City University.

Neeta has been recognised for her work in entrepreneurship and technology through various awards including a Special Merit award in the Entrepreneurs’ Champion category at the Great British Entrepreneur Awards in 2015, Maserati 100 in 2016, Top 10 Asians in Tech 2017,18 & 19; Woman of the Year 2019 at The Asian Age Awards, Top 100 BAME leaders by the Financial Times (2018), Top 50 Women in Technology 2019 by Computer Weekly, amongst others. Neeta was awarded a CBE for services to entrepreneurship in the Queen’s birthday honours in 2020.

Neeta joins the Scaleup Week panel for the “Focus on skills: equipping today’s workforce for tomorrow’s challenges?” session on 20 May at 2:00pm.

Willie Watt

Chair, Scottish National Investment Bank

Willie Watt is the Chair of the Scottish National Investment Bank; a new, publicly-owned development bank which launched in November 2020. Prior to his appointment as Chair-designate of the Bank, Willie served as Chair and as CEO of Martin Currie, an Edinburgh-based specialist international public equities investment firm, between 2001 and 2019.

Willie previously spent 16 years with the 3i Group, latterly as Managing Director of its Scottish business. He ran specialist venture, buy out and energy investment teams. Willie is also a Board Member of National Galleries Scotland and an Advisory Board Member at Scottish Equity Partners. 

Willie joins the Scaleup Week panel for the “Making Global Britain a reality: can growing businesses attract worldwide attention?” session on 20 May at 10:00am.

Pip Jamieson

Founder & CEO, The Dots

Pip Jamieson is the Founder & CEO of The Dots, a professional network for people that don’t wear suits to work -‘dubbed “The next LinkedIn?’ by Forbes.

Delightfully Dyslexic with a distinctive marmite laugh (you either love it or you hate it) Pip was named by The Sunday Times as one of the Top 100 Disruptive Entrepreneurs innovating in their respective fields & by Ad Week as one of the 41 trailblazing leaders having a positive impact on the world. 

Being a dyslexic sole female tech founder, Pip has put promoting social responsibility and helping businesses build diverse teams at the heart of everything they do! 68% + of The Dots community is female, 31% + BAME & 16% + LGBT+. The Dots also do a lot of work around socioeconomic diversity and neurodiversity to fuel a more balanced industry of the future.

Pip joins the Scaleup Week panel for the “Finding a purpose and embedding a culture: lessons for leaders and teams” session on 19 May at 1:00pm.

Dawid Konotey-Ahulu

Co-founder, Redington & Mallowstreet

Dawid will feature as a Scaleup Intervention during the “Focus on skills: equipping today’s workforce for tomorrow’s challenges?” session on 20 May at 2:00pm.

Dr Emily Shuckburgh

Director, Cambridge Zero, University of Cambridge

Dr Emily Shuckburgh is Director of Cambridge Zero at the University of Cambridge and Reader in Environmental Data Science at the Department of Computer Science and Technology.

Dr Shuckburgh is a mathematician and climate scientist and a Fellow of Darwin College, a Fellow of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, an Associate Fellow of the Centre for Science and Policy and a Fellow of the British Antarctic Survey. She leads the UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training on the Application of AI to the study of Environmental Risks (AI4ER). Until April 2019 she led a UK national research programme on the Southern Ocean and its role in climate (ORCHESTRA), and was deputy head of the Polar Oceans Team and head of the Data Science Group at British Antarctic Survey. In the past she has worked at École Normale Supérieure in Paris and at MIT.

Dr Shuckburgh is a fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society and co-chair of their Climate Science Communications Group. She has also acted as an advisor to the UK Government on behalf of the Natural Environment Research Council. In 2016 she was awarded an OBE for services to science and the public communication of science. She is co-author with HRH The Prince of Wales and Tony Juniper of the Ladybird Book on Climate Change.

Dr Emily Shuckburgh joins the Scaleup Week panel for the “Navigating the journey to net zero: how growing businesses will play their part” session on 18 May at 4:00pm.

Cate Poulson

Head of Talent Network, BGF

Cate joined BGF in 2012 to set up the Talent Network. Her role today is to oversee a national team, dedicated to continuously building and developing BGF’s external network of Board Directors; and plugging this network into a wide range of opportunities to partner with BGF to support our current and future investee companies. This spans, ensuring that the widest community of business leaders know which companies to connect with BGF, introducing a range of Non-Executive leadership to our investee company Boards, supporting our CEOs with the development of their leadership teams, and ensuring our businesses are well positioned to network and influence across the business community.

Before BGF Cate was with 3i Group plc, where she was part of the Business Leaders Network team, developing and managing the firm’s relationships with senior executives and non-executives across a range of sectors and geographies.

Prior to this, Cate worked in the Private Equity practice of executive search firm Korn/Ferry | Whitehead Mann, where she focused on Chairman, CEO and CFO appointments for private equity backed businesses. She initially joined Whitehead Mann as part of the Consumer and Retail team, focusing on a variety of senior appointments across the UK, Europe, Australia and the USA.

Cate joins the Scaleup Week panel for the “Three Things to build back better. Three pieces of actionable advice from leading CEOs” session on 19 May at 4:30pm

Tim Lee

CEO, Mindful Chef

Tim joins the Scaleup Week panel for the “Three Things to build back better. Three pieces of actionable advice from leading CEOs” session on 19 May at 4:30pm

Tristia Harrison

CEO, TalkTalk

Since 2017, Tristia has been the CEO of TalkTalk Group Plc, having previously served as Managing Director of TalkTalk’s consumer business and having joined The Carphone Warehouse Group in 2000. She has developed TalkTalk’s community engagement programme in the North West since moving the business to Salford in 2019, including partnerships with local foodbanks and other community projects to help disadvantaged families and children in the area. Tristia is also an Independent Non-Executive Director at Next Plc and a Trustee at the national charity Ambitious about Autism.

Until June 2020, she served as a Trustee at Comic Relief, advising on marketing and communications campaigns such as the Big Night In to raise funds for charities in the wake of COVID-19.  In September 2020, she joined the charity Crisis as Chair of the Trustees.

Tristia has held various senior management and executive positions in The Carphone Warehouse and TalkTalk Group, having first joined TCWG 2000. 

Tristia is married with two teenage sons and splits her time between TalkTalk’s HQ in the North West and London

Tristia joins the Scaleup Week panel for the “Enriching the community: how scaleups are a force for local renewal” session on 18 May at 2:00pm.

Jo-Jo Hubbard

CEO, Electron

Jo-Jo is the CEO and Co-founder of Electron, an energy technology company unlocking value in decarbonising energy systems by enabling granular, market-based interactions.

She started her energy career in the early days of the renewable build-out on the asset financing side before transitioning into Cleantech VC. In 2015 she joined the international strategy consultancy firm McKinsey & Co, where she focused on digital transformation. Here, she understood that the full decarbonization and transformation of the energy sector will not happen without new, shared digital infrastructure and marketplaces that incentivize cooperation. This provided the basis on which Electron was founded.

She is a frequent keynote speaker at energy and technology events, sits on advisory boards for several UK utilities on digital transformation and community trading models and writes for national publications on these topics.

Jo-Jo joins the Scaleup Week panel for the “Navigating the journey to net zero: how growing businesses will play their part” session on 18 May at 4:00pm.

Paul Hayes

CEO, Seasalt

Paul Hayes is chief executive of the Cornish fashion brand Seasalt and has nearly 30 years’ experience of building brands in the fashion, lifestyle and outdoor sectors. Since Paul joined Seasalt in September 2013, its headcount has more than quadrupled to nearly 1,000, making the business one of Cornwall’s biggest private sector employers.

Paul has overseen expansion into Europe and North America and driven Seasalt’s digital transformation strategy. In his earlier career, he was General Manager for Northern Europe at Timberland and held senior positions at Berghaus and Aigle.

Paul will feature as a Scaleup Intervention during the “Navigating the journey to net zero: how growing businesses will play their part” session on 18 May at 4:00pm.

Alice Avis MBE

Non-Executive Director, BGF

Alice is an investor and portfolio non-executive director where she serves on the boards of the Business Growth Fund (BGF), the Edrington Group, a privately-owned international spirit’s company, Cyden, a high growth, UKTech100 beauty company and Empiric Student Property (ESP) PLC.

She also serves as an advisor to the National Trust and as a Trustee of City Harvest London.

She was formerly Chief Executive of The Sanctuary Spa Group where she tripled the value of the business prior to its sale to PZ Cussons.  Most recently, she was Executive Chairman, Lumene Oy, a Finnish skincare company.

Her executive career was in consumer, as Director of Marketing and e-Commerce at Marks and Spencer, and as Global Brand Director of Johnnie Walker, Diageo. Her early career was as at Bain & Company and at BMP, advertising agency.

In 2009 she was awarded an MBE for services to the beauty industry.

Alice joins the Scaleup Week panel for the “No more glass ceilings: removing barriers to a diverse entrepreneur community?” session on 20 May at 4:00pm.

Sir Kenneth Olisa OBE, FRSA, FBCS

HM Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London

Ken is Founder and Chairman of Restoration Partners, the boutique technology merchant bank and architects of Inogesis formerly known as The Virtual Technology Cluster model. Ken’s technology career spans over 30 years commencing with IBM from whom he won a scholarship while at Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge.

In 1992, after twelve years as a senior executive at Wang Labs in the US and Europe, Ken founded Interregnum, the technology merchant bank. He was elected as a Fellow of the British Computer Society in 2006. He is currently Chairman of Interswitch (Africa’s largest e-payments company). He is a former Director of Thomson Reuters, a former deputy Chair at the Institute of directors and Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC) where he coined the famous epigram “More Soviet than City” to describe the manner of his departure.

Ken is a Freeman of the City of London, Liveryman and Past Master of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists, Patron of Thames Reach (for which he received an OBE in 2010), and Chairman of charity Shaw Trust. He was an original member of the Postal Services Commission (PostComm) and the Independent Parliamentary Standard Authority (IPSA) and is the Founder and Chairman of the Aleto Foundation. He is a past Sunday Times Not for Profit Non-Executive Director of the year and was named Number 1 in the 2016 Powerlist’s roster of the UK’s most influential black people.

In 2013 Ken and his wife, Julia, endowed the Olisa Library at his alma mater Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. In 2015, Her Majesty the Queen appointed Ken as Her Majesty’s Lord Lieutenant for Greater London and he was knighted in the 2018 New Year’s Honours List for services to business and philanthropy.

In September 2018 Ken was appointed as the director on the board of Huawei a Chinese multinational networking, telecommunications equipment and Services Company. Sir Kenneth is President of London Youth, a member network of 450+ community youth organisations working across London, supporting tens of thousands of young Londoners each year through their sports, arts, employment and social action programmes and outdoor learning at their residential centres in East Sussex and Buckinghamshire.

Sir Kenneth joins the Scaleup Week panel for the “No more glass ceilings: removing barriers to a diverse entrepreneur community?” session on 20 May at 4:00pm.

Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser DBE FRS

CEO, UK Research & Innovation

Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser is the Chief Executive of UK Research and Innovation, which brings together the UK’s Research Councils, Innovate UK and Research England, operating with a combined budget of more than £8bn per year.

Prior to this Ottoline Leyser was Professor of Plant Development at the University of Cambridge and Director of its Sainsbury Laboratory, an interdisciplinary research institute combining computational modelling with molecular genetics and cell biology to elucidate the dynamical systems underpinning the control of plant growth and development. She has made important contributions to understanding the role of plant hormones in developmental plasticity, using the control of shoot branching in Arabidopsis as a model system.

Ottoline has a long-term interest in research culture and its effects on the quality and effectiveness of the research system.  She chaired the Nuffield Council on Bioethics project examining these issues and has been actively engaged in work aimed at generating a more inclusive, creative and connected culture. She has worked extensively in science policy, for example serving as Chair of the Royal Society’s Science Policy Expert Advisory Committee, Chair of the Management Committee of the University of Cambridge Centre for Science and Policy, and as a member of the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology.

She is a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Member of the Leopoldina and EMBO, and an International Member of the US National Academy of Sciences. In 2017 she was appointed DBE for services to plant science, science in society and equality and diversity in science.

Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser a joins the Scaleup Week panel for the “Unlocking ingenuity: how to create fertile conditions for innovation” session on 19 May at 3:00pm.

Jamie Mitchell

Founder, All Together, Non Executive Chairman Rare Restaurants

Jamie will host the Scaleup Week session “Three Things to build back better. Three pieces of actionable advice from leading CEOs” on 19 May at 4:30pm.

Amanda Solloway MP

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Science, Research and Innovation) at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Amanda Solloway was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on 14 February 2020.

During her previous tenure as MP, Amanda had the privilege to be the PPS to the Secretary of State for International Development and sit on the committees for Human Rights and then Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy.

Amanda joins the Scaleup Week panel for the “Unlocking ingenuity: how to create fertile conditions for innovation” session on 19 May at 3:00pm.

David Richards

Founder, Chairman & CEO, WANdisco

Since co-founding the Company in Silicon Valley in 2005, David has led WANdisco on a course for rapid international expansion, opening offices in the UK, Japan and China. David spearheaded WANdisco to a hugely successful listing on the London Stock Exchange (WAND:LSE) and, shortly after, the acquisition of AltoStor, which accelerated the development of WANdisco’s first products for the Big Data market. A passionate advocate of entrepreneurship, David has established and successfully exited several highly successful Silicon Valley technology companies. David was the founder and CEO of Librados, an application integration software provider, and led the company’s acquisition by NASDAQ-listed NetManage, Inc. in 2005. David is a frequent commentator on a range of business and technology issues, appearing regularly on Bloomberg and CNBC. David holds a BSc in Computer Science from the University of Huddersfield.

After Paul Walker, the former Chairman, stepped down from the Board in October 2016, David took the role of Chairman. In 2017 David was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Sheffield Hallam University in recognition of him being a champion of British technology and a passionate advocate of entrepreneurship.

David and his wife Jane founded the David & Jane Richards Family Foundation with the purpose to educate, empower and improve the lives of children through hands-on programmes and targeted assistance. They aim to encourage children to fulfil their potential and make a positive impact on the world around them. The first programmes commenced in 2018 in some state schools in the UK, where they will use new methods to teach computing skills and install beehives as part of a wider teaching curriculum.

David will feature as a Scaleup Intervention during the “Focus on skills: equipping today’s workforce for tomorrow’s challenges?” session on 20 May at 2:00pm.

Solange Chamberlain

MD, Commercial Banking, COO, NatWest

Solange Chamberlain is the Chief Operating Officer of NatWest’s Commercial Banking (CB) business. She leads CB’s Strategy, Balance Sheet Management, Learning, as well as Change & Transformation programmes.

Solange joined the Group in December 2019 from Lloyds Banking Group, where she held various roles in Corporate Development, Treasury, Insurance and Commercial Banking. During that time, she played a leading role in simplifying the group as well as supporting their return to private ownership. Solange has also previously spent time at Citigroup, Lazard and Perella Weinberg, advising financial institutions.

She takes an active role in driving equality and inclusion initiatives across the organisations she has worked, and is involved in a number of initiatives including mentoring and industry forums. Solange is also the Executive sponsor for CB’s response to climate change, helping to drive the transition of our business and our customers to a low carbon economy.

Originally from France, Solange attained a 1st class honours degree in Mathematics from Imperial College London.

Solange joins the Scaleup Week panel for the “Navigating the journey to net zero: how growing businesses will play their part” session on 18 May at 4:00pm.

Johnny Boufarhat

CEO & Founder, Hopin

Currently based in Barcelona, Johnny Boufarhat is the founder and CEO of Hopin, a leading virtual experience platform that’s redefining how people connect around the globe. With Hopin, you can create live virtual and hybrid events that are interactive and immersive by providing interactive sessions, breakout rooms, and randomized pairing for networking.  

Bourfarhat developed the concept for Hopin after becoming immunocompromised in 2015; his weakened immune system prevented him from leaving the house. While he stayed connected with family and friends through social media and digital messaging, Johnny missed one thing from his previous life — live events. Johnny dreamed of wandering between sessions, listening to keynotes, and meeting inspiring new people. This led him to create Hopin — bringing the intrinsic value of live in-person events to a virtual venue.

Boufarhat founded Hopin in 2019 and in less than a year, scaled the company to tens of million of users and 90,000+ organizations hosting events. The platform has been used by well-recognized organizations including the United Nations, NATO, Dell, Slack, CNBC, American Express, Hewlett Packard the Wildlife Conservation Society, and many more. Johnny also aims to expand Hopin’s product suite, with the recent acquisitions of Jamm, StreamYard and Streamable. Hopin recently closed its $400 million Series C this March and has raised $570 million to date.

Johnny joins the Scaleup Week panel for the “Finding a purpose and embedding a culture: lessons for leaders and teams” session on 19 May at 1:00pm.

Paul Scully MP

Minister for London and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Small Business, Consumers and Labour Markets) at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Paul Scully was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and Minister for London on 13 February 2020.

Paul joins the Scaleup Week panel for the “No more glass ceilings: removing barriers to a diverse entrepreneur community?” session on 20 May at 4:00pm.

Vin Murria OBE

Founder, Advanced Computer Software & investor

Vin’s career has included a combination of venture capital, private equity and CEO/operational experience, centred around twenty years of M&A activity in the software sector. Her recent past includes 7 years as Chief Executive Officer of Advanced Computer Software plc, which she founded in 2008. Advanced is a consolidator in the healthcare and business solutions sector which, in March 2015 was acquired by Vista Private Equity for £765m (circa $1.2Bn).

For the five years prior to this, Vin was CEO of Computer Software Group plc, a small shell which she joined in Sept 2002.

Vin is currently non-executive director at FTSE250 Sophos Plc, Zoopla Plc, and Softcat Plc, and a Senior advisor at NM Rothschilds. Previous roles include 15 years at Kewill Systems plc (exited in March 2000 at a market valuation of $1.8bn), non-executive at Chime Plc and Greenko Plc, acquired by Providence and GIC Private equity respectively, and Concateno Plc acquired by Inverness Medical.

Vin was named Overall Asian Woman of the Year( 2010), Cisco’s Woman of the Year (2012), and Tech Entrepreneur of Year ( 2012) whilst Advanced was named Tech Company of Year (2014) having grown to be the 3rd largest UK headquartered Software Business. In 2007 Vin formed and fully funded a charitable foundation targeted at educating and supporting women in India and the UK.

Vin joins the Scaleup Week panel for the “Enriching the community: how scaleups are a force for local renewal” session on 18 May at 2:00pm.

Claudia Harris

CEO, Makers

Claudia joins the Scaleup Week panel for the “Three Things to build back better. Three pieces of actionable advice from leading CEOs” session on 19 May at 4:30pm.

James Uffindell

CEO & Founder, Bright Network

James Uffindell is a technology entrepreneur, investor and one of the UK’s leading experts on the entry level talent market. James has spent the last 20 years helping over one million students with their applications to both blue chip employers and leading universities. James is an expert on social mobility at university level, the graduate job market, internships, entry level talent, and managing and engaging Gen Z and millennial employees.

James set up his first business in in his university bedroom in 1999 which he sold to a Private Investor in 2013. Frustrated at the lack of careers support for graduates, James founded Bright Network in 2013, a high-growth technology platform that uses data and insights to build the workforce of tomorrow. In the last 12 months Bright Network has served 12M+ of careers advice supports over 280,000+ graduates and 300+ of the world’s largest employers including Google, Goldman Sachs, Accenture and PwC. The business has raised £7M+ of venture investment to date and is one of the fastest growing careers networks in the UK.

James is a regular media commentator on careers, talent and entrepreneurship – he has been featured in The Economist, Management Today, The Times, The Independent, The Daily Telegraph as well as on live on BBC (radio and TV), Channel 4, CNN and on ITV.

James gives regular keynotes at conferences including Talent Leaders Connect, the How To Academy and Capitox, and has spoken at The Oxford Union, London School of Economics and The New Entrepreneurs Foundation.

James joins the Scaleup Week panel for the “Focus on skills: equipping today’s workforce for tomorrow’s challenges?” session on 20 May at 2:00pm.

Tobin Ireland

Independent Director, Lovehoney

Tobin joins the Scaleup Week panel for the “Three Things to build back better. Three pieces of actionable advice from leading CEOs” session on 19 May at 4:30pm

Adam Hale

Chair, ScaleUp Institute

Adam is a Board Member of Tech Nation whose objective is to accelerate the growth of the UK’s digital sector, a Board Advisor to scaleups at the ScaleUp Group and an Associate of Oxford Said Business School’s Creative Destruction Lab. He is a board member of Unit4, board advisor to Nottingham based e-days and holds a number of advisor roles with a range of digital tech companies.

Previously, he was CEO of B2B software business Fairsail and scaled the enterprise to be a global leader of HR technology. Fairsail was acquired by the Sage Group in 2017 and is now Sage People. Adam has a Computer Science degree from the University of Bristol and is a Patron of the Prince’s Trust.

Adam joins the Scaleup Week panel for the “Focus on skills: equipping today’s workforce for tomorrow’s challenges?” session on 20 May at 2:00pm.

Lucinda Bruce-Gardyne

Founder and Board Director, Genius Foods

Lucinda Bruce-Gardyne is the creator of the first fresh gluten free bread on the market and Founder of Genius Foods Ltd, the UK’s leading brand in fresh gluten and dairy free bakery products.

She is an experienced Executive and Non Executive Board Director, Food Scientist and Ingredient Functionality Expert, Innovator of great tasting gluten and dairy free food, Author, Chef and Mother.

Lucinda is dedicated to helping people with dietary restrictions, enjoy a mainstream diet and lifestyle. She is committed to supporting scaling businesses, budding entrepreneurs and finding sustainable, ground breaking solutions to improve public health and well being. Lucinda is passionate about the important role science plays in business growth and efficiency.

Lucinda joins the Scaleup Week panel for the “Unlocking ingenuity: how to create fertile conditions for innovation” session on 19 May at 3:00pm.

Paul Newman

Co-founder & CTO, Oxbotica

Paul Newman FREng, FIET, FIEEE is a creator, pioneer and innovator of autonomous vehicle (AV) technology.

He is CTO at Oxbotica, holds the BP Chair of Information Engineering at the University of Oxford, and is Director of the Oxford Robotics Institute. In 1999, Paul set out the fundamentals of the large-scale navigation problem SLAM (simultaneous localisation and mapping) and wrote the most cited paper in the field. He continues to lead the way in AV innovation, having authored 180 papers, garnered 21,000 citations and registered 22 patents.

His pioneering approach to AV technology is being successfully harnessed for at Oxbotica. Beyond his responsibilities at Oxbotica and the academic world, Paul is a strategic advisor to businesses and organisations at Government level.

He serves as a science advisor to the Prime Minister on the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology.

In 2015, he was elected a Fellow of the IEEE, the IET and the Royal Academy of Engineering. In 2019 he was awarded the Royal Academy of Engineerings prestigious Silver Medal for outstanding and demonstrated personal contribution to UK engineering, resulting in successful market exploitation.

Paul features as a Scaleup Intervention during the “Unlocking ingenuity: how to create fertile conditions for innovation” session on 19 May at 3:00pm.

Catherine Beech OBE

Chair, Phoremost

Catherine has over 25 years of biotech and pharmaceutical industry experience, 12 of which were within the pharma industry leading drug development programmes in hypertension, heart failure, Parkinson’s Disease and HIV. Since 1999 she has worked extensively to commercialise novel technologies in the life sciences.

Catherine joined the scientific founders to establish the biotech company Exonate where she is CEO. Catherine has a degree in medicine from Birmingham University and in 2008 was awarded the OBE for services to technology and innovation.

Catherine will feature as a Scaleup Intervention during the “No more glass ceilings: removing barriers to a diverse entrepreneur community?” session on 20 May at 4:00pm.

Sherry Coutu CBE

Founder of Digital Boost, F4S & Workfinder

Sherry Coutu is a serial entrepreneur and angel investor who serves on the boards of companies, charities, and universities.

She is currently a non-executive Director of Pearson plc, London Stock Exchange plc, DCMS and raspberry pi trading. Sherry has decades of experience chairing Remuneration Committees of FTSE plcs, acting as Senior Independent Director and Nominations Committee chair and serving on audit committees. Philanthropically, she supports Founders4Schools, Digital Boost, Raspberry pi Foundation and Cancer Research UK.

Sherry has an MBA from Harvard, an MSc (with distinction) from the London School of Economics, and a BA (Hons with distinction) from the University of British Columbia, Canada. She has been awarded Honorary Phd’s from The University of Bristol, Manchester University and the Open University for her work in Education and the Economy.

She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to entrepreneurship in the New Year’s Honours List 2013.

Sherry joins the Scaleup Week panel for the “Finding a purpose and embedding a culture: lessons for leaders and teams” session on 19 May at 1:00pm.

Daniel Korski CBE

CEO, Public

Daniel Korski CBE is the Chief Executive Officer at PUBLIC and has 20 years of experience in senior positions in government across the UK, EU, and US. Daniel was most recently Deputy Head of Policy at No. 10 Downing Street and Special Advisor to David Cameron.

Daniel was previously adviser to the Vice-President of the European Commission and has previously worked for the UN and Foreign Office in Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan and  Yemen. He co-founded PUBLIC to enable tech startups to transform the way public services are run and delivered.

Daniel joins the Scaleup Week panel for the “Making Global Britain a reality: can growing businesses attract worldwide attention?” session on 20 May at 10:00am.

Adam Jacobs

Executive Chairman, Bloom Procurement

Bloom Procurement was founded in 2011 by the executive chairman, Adam Jacobs and has a unique proposition as the only independent marketplace for the public sector to buy and manage contracts. Bloom compliantly awards public sector contracts to its dynamic supplier base across a wide range of professional service categories.

Adam will feature as a Scaleup Intervention during the “Finding a purpose and embedding a culture: lessons for leaders and teams” session on 19 May at 1:00pm.

The Baroness Brown of Cambridge DBE FREng FRS

Chair, Climate Change Committee's Adaptation Sub-Committee

Baroness Brown is an engineer and a Crossbench Member of the House of Lords, with extensive experience in industry and academia.  

Julia was Vice Chair of the Climate Change Committee for 12 years and continues to advise the UK Government as Chair of the Adaptation Committee of the CCC and as a member of the Hydrogen Advisory Council, she is currently chairing the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Independent Climate Commission.  She is a non-executive director of Ørsted and chair of The Carbon Trust.  Until the sale in 2017 she was a non-executive director of the Green Investment Bank. 

She led the King Review on decarbonising transport (2007) for the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Baroness Brown joins the Scaleup Week panel for the “Navigating the journey to net zero: how growing businesses will play their part” session on 18 May at 4:00pm.

Ian Simm

Founder & Chief Executive, Impax Asset Management

Ian Simm is the Founder and Chief Executive of Impax Asset Management Group plc, one of the world’s leading investment managers dedicated to investing in the transition to a more sustainable economy. Prior to Impax, Ian was an engagement manager at McKinsey & Company advising clients on environmental strategy.

Outside Impax, Ian is a member of the UK government’s Energy Innovation Board, which provides strategic oversight of public sector funding of energy innovation programmes, and is a board member of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change, the European membership body for investor collaboration on addressing climate change. Between 2013 and 2018, he was a board member of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the UK’s leading funding agency for environmental science.

Ian has a first-class honours degree in physics from Cambridge University and a Master’s in Public Administration from Harvard University. In the last century he initiated and led an expedition to complete the first summer crossing of the Sahara Desert by tandem bicycle.

Ian joins the Scaleup Week panel for the “Finding a purpose and embedding a culture: lessons for leaders and teams” session on 19 May at 1:00pm.

Colin Mayer CBE

Peter Moores, Professor of Management Studies, University of Oxford

Colin Mayer is the Peter Moores Professor of Management Studies at the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, the Centre for Economic Policy Research and the European Corporate Governance Institute, a Professorial Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford and an Honorary Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford and St Anne’s College, Oxford.

He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Oxford Playhouse, and he was a member of the UK Government Natural Capital Committee, the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal and the International Advisory Board of the Securities and Exchange Board of India. He was chairman of Oxera Ltd. between 1986 and 2010 and a director of the energy modelling company, Aurora Energy Research Ltd between 2013 and 2020. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2017 New Year Honours.

He leads the British Academy enquiry into “the Future of the Corporation” and his most recent book Prosperity: Better Business Makes the Greater Good is published by Oxford University Press.

Colin joins the Scaleup Week panel for the “Finding a purpose and embedding a culture: lessons for leaders and teams” session on 19 May at 1:00pm.

Dr Eliza Filby

Generations Expert & Historian of Contemporary Values

Dr Eliza Filby is a writer, speaker and researcher who specialises in what she calls ‘Generational Intelligence’ helping companies and services understand generational shifts within politics, society and the workplace. She is passionate about the cause of age diversity and bringing the generations together through greater empathy.

She has worked with a variety of organizations from VICE Media, Warner Brothers, ASOS clothing, UK’s Ministry of Defence and the Royal Household. She has worked with banks such as HSBC, Barclays, BYMellon in Canada and Macquarie bank in Australia. She has spoken at the EU’s Human Rights Forum on teenagers and technology; the Financial Times CEO forum on the future of work and to the UK’s House of Lord’s Select Committee on intergenerational unfairness. Eliza received her PhD from the University of Warwick and subsequently taught at King’s College, London and the University of Renmin in China. Her writing has been published in The Times, The Mail Spectator, Guardian and the Financial Times. She published her first book ‘God and Mrs Thatcher’ in 2014 and is currently writing her second a  history of ageing in the 21st century.

Dr Eliza joins the Scaleup Week panel for the “No more glass ceilings: removing barriers to a diverse entrepreneur community?” session on 20 May at 4:00pm.