Judging 2023

Charlotte Bloom

Award-winning business growth strategist and serial entrepreneur.

Charlotte Bloom is an award-winning business growth strategist and serial entrepreneur on a mission to make a difference, in particular to climate positivity and female empowerment. She carries under her belt 20 years of experience advising visionary leaders of start-ups through to publicly-listed companies. As the CEO of growth consultancy VSNRY, which she founded in 2018, Charlotte is known for taking a different approach and putting herself into the shoes of the customer behind her clients’ businesses.

Charlotte is an author, co-writing the new book ‘Winning through Platforms: How to Succeed When Every Competitor Has One’ – a playbook for outcompeting platform-based businesses, and the strategic brain behind many of the world’s most visionary companies. The book became a number-one bestseller on Amazon for Sales and Marketing in the UK and USA in its first week on sale in December 2023. The book contains tried-and-tested strategies from over 50 companies including Apple, Starling Bank, Adobe, Salesforce, Peloton, The Walt Disney Company, and many more. It forms part of the American Marketing Association leadership series, with a foreword by world-leading brand strategist David Aaker.

Charlotte splits her time between the UK and USA, and contributes to Forbes, Entrepreneur, and Bloomberg, writing on innovative business models and growth strategies.

Viviane Paxinos

CEO of AllBright

Viviane Paxinos CEO of AllBright leads a global collective of 500,000 ambitious women committed to creating a more equitable world for all. Based at the Mayfair headquarters of the membership club, Viv was appointed to the leadership role in October 2022 with her extensive experience in driving tangible results and business growth.

Formerly Global GM of UNiDAYS, one of the world’s leading student affinity networks, Viviane successfully grew the business, connecting some of the world’s leading lifestyle brands with new audiences. Previously, Viv has held senior roles for BBC Worldwide, Comcast and Discovery Inc; Viviane has a legacy of delivering global growth for brands through strategic insights and innovative creativity.

Viv passionately believes in the power of the collective is committed to developing global teams who are empowered to achieve results; maintaining a people-first culture through nurturing and mentoring talent to create a best-in-class working environment.

Bindi Karia

Innovation expert + advisor, venture partner at Molten Ventures

Bindi is incredibly passionate about all things startup and entrepreneurship around Europe and is the founder of a Boutique Advisory Firm, bindi ventures, focused on advising and connecting the dots across four core Innovation pillars for commercial success (Corporate, Startup, VC Managing Partners, Government)

She has worked in and around technology startups for most of her career – As a Consultant (PwC Consulting), as a Corporate (Microsoft BizSpark /Ventures), as a Startup employee (Trayport), as an Advisor (Startup Europe, TechStars Startup Weekend, Tech London Advocates, European Innovation Council, WEF), as a Connector (GQ UK, the IoD, Evening Standard and Computer Weekly have all recognised this) and as their Banker (the bank fka Silicon Valley Bank). Currently, she is a Venture Partner at Molten Ventures, NED at FTSE 250 Company, Redde Northgate (REDD), sits on Advisory Boards of several startups, a Venture Debt fund (Bootstrap Europe), and has sat on Corporate Digital Advisory Boards (The Very Group, Centrica)

She is very driven by giving back her time and experience to the innovation ecosystem, and as such, serves as a Board member at the University of East London, is an Ambassador/former Board Member for the European Innovation Council and Startup Europe, sits on the Boards of Tech Global/London Advocates, ICE (International Community of Entrepreneurs) Snowball,British American Project and was appointed by World Economic Forum to their “Digital Leaders of Europe” Group.

She is a strong advocate for promoting DEI in Tech, and continues to be shocked at the poor levels of investment in both underrepresented founders and VC Funds across Europe.

Bindi lives in London, UK, raised in Canada, but her entire family is from Kenya.

Ade Ahmadu

Strategy and transformation professional and ex-Meta

Ade is a seasoned strategy and transformation professional with a notable track record in delivering projects worth over £10 million across the financial, pharmaceutical, and technology sectors. Before Meta, Ade excelled as a global Finance Transformation Programme Manager at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), where he led significant business changes across 75 markets globally and played a key role in redesigning the future state operating model and organisation structure for GSK and Haleon, post-de-merger. His experience is further enriched by managing and consulting on transformation projects at prestigious FTSE 100 companies like Barclays, BUPA healthcare, and HSBC, as well as consulting firms such as KPMG and Deloitte.

In 2021, driven by a passion to support the black community’s success in the corporate world, Ade founded Cerculate. As an accredited executive and career coach with the Association for Coaching, he assists mid to senior-level executives, especially black men, to navigate and excel in their career paths. Ade’s rich professional experience is backed by academic achievements, including an MSc in International Banking & Finance from London Metropolitan University, a BA (Hons) in Media & Cultural Studies and Business from Kingston University, and an Executive MBA from Warwick Business School, with a dissertation focusing on the challenges black men face in reaching C-suite roles in FTSE 100 and 250 companies.

Ade’s career is propelled by a commitment to improving business performance through racial equity.

Stephanie Melodia

Founder, Advisor & Podcast Host

Ranked as one of the UK’s Top 20 Most Influential Female Founders, Stephanie is an acclaimed public speaker for international tech conferences, business podcasts, marketing webinars, and in-person events – ranging from 1:1 in-depth interviews, to hosting global audiences of 1,000s of entrepreneurs. Areas of expertise cover tech & entrepreneurship, branding & marketing, and gender equality.

Stephanie has spoken at Web Summit 2023, WeTransfer, LinkedIn, Starling Bank, Harvey Nash Group, ComputerWeekly.com, General Assembly, Small Business Britain and Enterprise Nation. As an energetic, passionate, knowledgeable, and insightful speaker, she is regularly consulted for her thought leadership on emerging technologies and digital marketing for startups. As ex-CEO of the award-winning marketing consultancy, Bloom, Stephanie now hosts the Strategy & Tragedy podcast, advises MBA students in Entrepreneurship with Oneday, builds brands with BOMBA, and continues to serve as VC scout for early-stage venture capital firm, Ada Ventures. She has a combined social media following of 15,000.

Deborah B. Williams

Founder and CEO of The Women’s Association

Deborah B. Williams is the Founder & CEO of The Women’s Association. Her journey began in 2014, igniting a mission that has touched the lives of thousands of women and girls. In partnership with renowned businesses such as Sky, Stella McCartney, EY, Investec, Bloom & Wild, and many more, Deborah has created transformative initiatives.

Fuelling her passion for progress, Deborah embarked on 2 masters concurrently pursuing an MBA at Open University and an MA in Gender and Women’s Studies at Lancaster University. Both masters laid the foundation for The Women’s Association.

Deborah’s overarching mission is to ensure that women and girls across the globe have access to the support and infrastructure necessary to dream freely and turn those dreams into tangible realities.

DELL

Category Sponsor: Early-Stage Innovation

Dell for Startups program is meant to provide startups with personalized support and scalable end-to-end tech solutions to ensure their business is ready to grow and scale.

Our startup advisors are specially trained for your unique needs. From client systems to IT infrastructure, they have deep knowledge of startup’s environment, and listen to get to know your business needs.

By becoming part of this program, you will have, in addition to exclusive discounts, access to mentors / SMEs, tools, insights and many more, such as: financial benefits, Grants Support, dedicated points of contacts to support our members on every step as they navigate their journey.

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Ashleigh Ainsley

Co-Founder of Colorintech

Ashleigh is co-founder of Colorintech a non-profit aiming to improve access, awareness, and opportunities for ethnic minorities to enter the tech industry. They Run Europe’s largest event for Black Technologists, Black Tech Fest and work with a number of the world’s leading tech companies to run programs to enable students and working professionals to access career opportunities. Having raised over >$250k for DEI work from Google. Ashleigh counts the likes of Meta, WPP, and Bloomberg as some of his Business partners.

Ashleigh started his early career in strategy at Google before moving to London start-up Qubit, corporate KPMG, and then consultancy. He has worked on a number of engagements for the UK government at Downing Street, the World Economic Forum, and a number of the world’s biggest organizations on a range of strategy and D&I issues.

Ashleigh has been featured in a number of media outlets for his works including Forbes 30u30, The Financial Times, and the BBC 1Xtra’s rising stars, and was named by Politico as one of the most influential people UK tech in 2023.

Myles Dickinson

CEO and Founder of Haze

Myles started his first company (Haze Cards) whilst studying finance at university, he sold customisable debit cards online, and to his parent’s dismay, he dropped out in his first year to pursue the business full time. After dropping out he became the youngest person to appear on BBC Dragons Den at only 18 where he also received investment from Steven Bartlett.

Myles later exited that business and decided for his next venture he wanted to solve a problem he knew well, one of the major issues Myles’s first company faced was being able to offer the customer the ability to design a product online. So after testing every product customiser app on the Shopify app store, he raised investment from UK angel investors before his 20th birthday for his product customiser tech startup called “Haze” a 2D & 3D product customer app that enables merchants to sell complex or customisable products online. The seller app now integrates with Shopify, WooCommerce & Etsy.

Myles hopes his story inspires more people his age to get into business or to even just chase their dreams no matter how big or small.

Akua Opong

Senior Associate at LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group)

Akua is a Chartered IT Professional within the financial services industry. As part of her role, she mentors new starters in the team, including interns and graduates, and provides technology guidance to colleagues across the Group.

Outside her primary role, Akua is a keen Diversity & Inclusion advocate, LSEG WIN Network Head of External Partnerships, WIN Tech Network Community Lead, UK Accessibility Lead, Mental Health Champion and UK Coordinator for the outreach programmes/fundraising activities at LSEG. As a STEM ambassador, she is passionate about raising the profile of Women in STEM.

Akua is also a Neurodiversity advocate (self-identifies as Dyslexic and has ADHD), Cajigo Technology Mentor, charity ambassador, fundraiser and a keen sports volunteer for Netball England and British Athletics.

Career highlights include being featured in Investment Week, Forbes, guest articles and podcasts. Additionally, Akua is a Computer Weekly Rising Star 2023, Brummell’s Ones to Watch 2023, and Women, WeAreTheCity Technology Rising Star 2022.

Helen Goulden

Chief Executive Officer of The Young Foundation

As Chief Executive Officer of The Young Foundation, Helen leads our multi-disciplinary team of researchers and innovators to support stronger communities across the UK. Prior to joining The Young Foundation, she spent nine years at Nesta as Executive Director, supporting, funding and scaling innovation in civil society, social tech, government, arts and education. Previous roles have included work within the private sector developing digital strategies and solutions for global corporate clients. She spent five years consulting in the Cabinet Office, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, and then Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), developing national innovation programmes for local government and leading research and development for interactive TV public services. Helen is also a Trustee of the Big Education Trust. Helen was awarded an OBE for services to development of sustainable communities in the 2023 New Year Honours List

514 Media

Supporting Sponsor

514 Media is a specialist B2B consultancy delivering communications campaigns globally. We help increase brand awareness, lead discussion and drive engagement. We help our clients connect with key audiences – design engineers, system architects, buyers, analysts and other stakeholders. As specialist technology PR practitioners, we know how to craft informative and engaging stories, and we seek to inspire the audiences you want to reach. Many companies have neither the time nor resources to manage international communication campaigns, so why not let 514 Media create technical content and translate it too? You’ll get the media coverage that your promotional efforts deserve.

Social handles:

LinkedIn

Olivia Hanlon

Founder and CEO of Girls in Marketing

Olivia Hanlon is the award-winning Founder and CEO of female-led, female-focussed startup organisation, Girls in Marketing. Originally set up as a community initiative in 2019 while working full-time, Girls in Marketing now has an audience of over 300,000+ across social media. Olivia has 5+ years of digital marketing experience working in-house and as a freelancer for international clients. Her expertise lies in organic marketing with a focus on SEO, Content Marketing and eCommerce. Olivia has trained over 12,000+ marketers both virtually and in-person over the last 3 years of running Girls in Marketing.

Olivia is also a public speaker, podcast host, presenter and mentor. Olivia hosted the most recent Global Marketing Day conference powered by SEMRush. Recently, she was named in the Northern Power Women Future List of 2023. Olivia is also a Startup Marketing Advisor with Virgin Startup in which she helps early-stage founders to build out their digital marketing and social media strategies. Every Wednesday, Olivia hosts the Girls in Marketing podcast which has over 125,000+ downloads and regularly ranks in the top 3 marketing podcasts in the UK and US.

Rachel Murphy

Founder of The Grafter

Rachel Murphy blazed a trail through the tech industry from her time at the NHS. Kicking off the now 30 million downloads of the NHS App to selling a building and selling a multi-million pound company in a thousand days, Rachel knows how to make an impact.

She’s delivered projects around the world and transformed some of the largest national services in healthcare. All at breakneck speed while overcoming addiction and finding her happy – a strong unbeatable female lead with an authentic Let’s do it attitude.

Frequently listed as one of the CIO100, a member of the Inspired Fifty and awarded CEO of the year in 2020 from CEO Monthly. Off the back of her work within health, Rachel was asked to join UCL as guest lecturer for the Global Business School for Health. Last but not least, Non Exec director for Cancer platform company Careology.

Clare Zhang

Pre-Seed Investor at Playfair Capital VC

Clare is a pre-seed investor at Playfair Capital. Before VC, Clare was an operator, spending time as a Founders Associate at an early stage B2B SaaS startup and as part of the driver operations team at Uber. She holds a degree in Economics and Finance from Washington University in St. Louis as well as a Masters in Management from London Business School. At Playfair, Clare is a generalist looking at all industries, but has a particular passion for HealthTech.

Yvonne Nagawa

Yvonne is a founding member of Black Seed, Europe’s first VC fund for black founders by black founders, empowering the next generation of black-founded global businesses. A seasoned professional in Legal and Compliance, she honed her expertise at leading firms like Standard Chartered bank and Bloomberg. Beyond her career, Yvonne’s passion for property investing and leading saving circles showcase her commitment to financial empowerment. Her dedication drives her mission to create a space for black women to succeed and thrive financially.

Jake Fox

Head of Startups Relations, South East Angels

As Head of Startup Relations for South East Angels, Jake engages with the startup community and arranges deal flow for the group’s investor members, leading on startup vetting, selection, pitch prep and deal close. Previously Jake’s experience covered strategy consulting, growth roles in tech startups and Founder of Paperound, a student-centred marketplace for on-demand tech talent. South East Angels is an active angel group based out of Sussex, that invests in pre-seed and seed-stage startups across a range of sectors.

Clockwise

Category Sponsor: Rising Startup Award

We provide well-designed, contemporary private offices, shared workspaces and meeting rooms with brilliantly flexible membership plans. We zero in on the details, so you can zoom out to the big picture.

We’ve made it our business to anticipate the needs of our members and their companies from day one. Providing permanent flexibility, ongoing support and proactive service, we make the time and effort to get to know who you are, where you’re going and how you’re growing.

We make sure everything works, so you can do your best work.

With the understanding that innovation and enterprise is not limited only to Central London, Clockwise is well placed to support SMEs achieve their potential with spaces in key business locations across the UK and in mainland Europe.

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Queen Mary University Enterprise Zone

Category Sponsor: Outstanding Startups Support

Queen Mary University Enterprise Zone (QME) is an innovation hub, offering flexible, modern workspace for Digital Health, MedTech and AI start-ups in East London. The centre is Queen Mary University of London’s (QMUL) latest innovation space offering, having successfully brought to the market 40,000 square feet of incubation space to support life science companies via the Queen Mary BioEnterprises (QMB) Innovation Centre in 2011 which has created and safeguards thousands of STEM jobs within London since its inception.

Here at QME we are committed to creating the space and environment for start-ups to work, grow their venture, collaborate and pioneer new exciting innovations and are here to support start-ups on their entrepreneurial journey by connecting them to like-minded self-starters, industry experts and investors via workshops, events and networking sessions.

Social handles:

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Tania Diggory

Tania Diggory is an entrepreneur, international Burnout Prevention speaker and Founder and Director of Calmer, an award-winning training organisation that empowers entrepreneurs, freelancers and business teams to nurture good mental health and wellbeing. Tania is a leading expert in the field of burnout prevention and is the Author of This Is Calmer: Inspiration, support and encouragement for the entrepreneurial mind, and Working From Home: The Complete Calmer Guide To Remote Working. Tania has run three different businesses before the age of 30, and has consulted and trained over 400 companies on their mental health and wellbeing strategy, and frequently delivers public talks, online and offline.

Lisa Eaton

Lisa Eaton is a dynamic business leader, marketing expert, speaker, and founder of Fabric Academy, an online training provider committed to empowering marketers worldwide. With more than two decades of experience, Lisa is a strategic thinker with a track record of creating and executing successful marketing and communication strategies for public and private organisations.

Lisa is a seasoned entrepreneur, leader, and mentor who has founded and co-founded successful companies and initiatives. She began her entrepreneurial journey in 2002 when she founded SalSeduce, a salsa dance company in the North East of England. Lisa transformed the brand into a recognised leader in the regional dance community and grew the company for over a decade.

In 2014, Lisa co-founded Unwritten Group, an award-winning integrated marketing and communications agency that delivered successful campaigns for a wide range of organisations and prominent UK brands. As co-founder, Lisa’s focus on strategic planning, business development, and stakeholder engagement contributed to the company’s growth and reputation.

In 2021, Lisa launched Fabric Academy, an online marketing academy providing learners with the tools and knowledge to build their own marketing strategies. Their global framework bridges the gap between academic learning and what industry requires, transforming marketers of the future.

The academy’s CPD-accredited marketing strategy course has attracted learners from all over the world, significantly impacting the careers of its marketing alumni and their organisations. As a prominent North East business community member, Lisa’s experience includes being a host of the GINWAG podcast, where she interviewed local business figures about their experiences, a board member of The Key, an organisation supporting young adults to reach their full potential and Deputy Chair of the Board of Trustees for Smart Works Newcastle, committed to supporting women into employment.

Lisa has a strong entrepreneurial spirit, is passionate about women in business and is dedicated to reinventing the education landscape to transform marketers of the future.

Dragon Argent

Supporting Sponsor

Dragon Argent is a boutique advisory, accountancy, tax and legal firm joined up together to provide a unified customer service for founders and entrepreneurs which is very uncommon for a boutique professional service firm in the UK. We combine this diversity of professional competencies with a specialism focused on the kinds of challenges and opportunities encountered by the founders of tech enabled startups.

We work with over 400+ tech enabled clients across a range of sectors including design, engineering, fintech, healthcare, life sciences, media, property, retail, and SaaS.

We encourage startups and business owners to book a pro-bona discovery call with one of our professionals to answer questions related to the accounts, tax and legal issues they face.

Schedule a discovery call: https://www.dragonargent.com

Social handles:

LinkedIn

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Anglia Unicorn

Headline Sponsor

Anglia Unicorn is an independent design engineering focused electronic component distributor with a made-to-measure service. We are a division of Anglia geared to helping companies access the resources and technologies needed to take a great idea from the drawing board to a finished, marketable product.

Whether you are a start-up, entrepreneur, university spin-out, technology investor or an established company looking to design and launch a new product, Anglia Unicorn is tailored to provide you with comprehensive engineering support, extensive supply chain expertise and access to evaluation hardware and software tools along with samples of the latest innovative technologies from our world class partners, all free of charge. Our company ethos is to provide a bespoke service that enables you to be at the forefront of the latest technology trends. We can help you to not just push, but totally redefine boundaries.

Anglia Unicorn understands that by carefully listening to your needs, ensures we effectively translate your ideas and then using our knowledge we can speed up the success of your tech design in every aspect. We offer support at every stage from design chain through to supply chain from day one to year ten and beyond. As the product moves from the design concept to the manufacturing phase we will be there asking the right questions and taking you through the product cycle, enabling you to take your idea from the drawing board to prototype stage then onto mass production.
Find out how Anglia Unicorn can help accelerate your product design and launch today, visit www.anglia-live.com/unicorn/

Sanj Surati

Sanj is an award winning multi-disciplined Digital Atelier with over twenty years of experience within the music, fashion and luxury industries.
London-based Sanj has been working within digital and technology since 1998. He has seen the cultural shift in human habit and behaviour as we all evolve into digital consumers.
Some of his successes have been burgeoning, ground breaking and, more importantly, culturally relevant.

Sanj started work in the Music Business developing an understanding of ecommerce and social trends within the web back in the late 90s. From there he started to help Digital Start Ups target Music Industry Professionals during the seismic shift of consumer habit evolution from physical products to digital.

His exposure to luxury began when the Head of Music at Burberry approached him regarding the use of holographic technology for a show in Beijing back in 2011. Over 120 million viewers watched the show live. Since then, he has worked with some of the biggest brands in the world including BMW, Gucci, Charlotte Tilbury and Louis Vuitton.

He has worked with many award-winning artists as well and has brokered some exciting initiatives. His most notable project so far being part of the team that delivered the 2Pac hologram at Coachella back in 2012. This initiative won Titanium at the Cannes Lions and broke Digital PR Records faster than anything before that feat.

Tiger Heart is his agency where his specialty is working with technology to develop new live digital experiences for the purpose of product launches, retail experiences and experiential events.

He believes that we are still in the early stages of the 4th Industrial revolution. That there is a vast amount of great creative technology and digital ideas that are being conceived, designed, developed and delivered into the consumer space. That technology now is a part of everything we do, see and remember. That current technology developments are exciting, exploratory and for some businesses very frightening.

Sanj’s history of future thinking proves that the right application of technology can change the world and can communicate with people in an unforgettable way.
His current clients include: BMW, Gucci and Alphabet.

Tennessee Watt

Tennessee Watt is a Brand Marketing Manager at Google working to inspire marginalized talent to become technologists.

She is also the Founder and Director of Tennessee Watt Consulting, a diversity, equity and inclusion firm, where she supports a wide range of organizations to develop authentically inclusive campaigns, create equitable work cultures, identify minoritized suppliers and influencers, and react to trends within Black culture and social media at lightning speed.

She holds a Masters degree in Management and Innovation from Imperial College London, and a Bachelor of Science in Business and Finance from BPP University. Tennessee has been featured in Business Insider, PR Week, Campaign Magazine and more.”

Saalim Chowdhury

Saalim Chowdhury has joined Techstars London as their Managing Director in 2020.

Formerly a Partner at 500 Startups, Saalim leads the growth of the startup accelerator in London with a focus on driving diversity in the startup community and building a strong community support network for founders.

His investment approach optimises for high quality execution founders, who have deep empathy with their customers, even if they aren’t the finished product as founders or services.

Griselda Togobo

Griselda Togobo, is an international corporate consultant.

She is also a multi-faceted entrepreneur, engineer and chartered accountant. Her experience as a black woman in the corporate world drives her to help progressive global companies create inclusive workplaces. She works directly with CEO’s and business leaders to embed a culture of inclusion at the heart of their talent strategy. Griselda offers a fresh approach to developing leaders. She is a respected and impactful speaker and is known for her high energy and engaging style.

She graduated from Cambridge University with an MPhil in Industrial Systems, Manufacturing and Management. Before becoming an entrepreneur, she was a management consultant at Deloitte LLP.

Simon Squibb

Investor, Entrepreneur and Chief Purpose Officer at The Purposeful Project

Simon has spent 10 years as an entrepreneur in the UK and 20 years as an entrepreneur in Hong Kong. He started his first company when he was homeless at 15 years old, and he sold his last company Fluid to PwC. He has also invested in over 70 startups in the last 15 years.

Today Simon is the founder of The Purposeful Project, a platform that helps people learn how to start and scale a business for free. Recently he launched EntrepreneurHouse.com – a place people can stay for free, eat for free and learn business for free alongside other like-minded people.

Sam Jones

Founder of Gener8

Sam founded Gener8 to enable people to control and earn from their data. In 2021, he gave the “best pitch ever” – which has been viewed more than 30 miillion times – on BBC Dragons’ Den. In 2022 he won Disruptor of the Year at the Great British Entrepreneur awards.

Jarvis Smith

Co-Founder of My Green Pod

In Jarvis Smith two worlds collide with dynamic effect. On one hand a proud hippie, mystic, self-confessed tree-hugger and radical eco-warrior, Jarvis is also a thought leader, media entrepreneur, speaker and renowned online retail businessman. His work gracing global publications, he now partners with and is advising brands including Natwest, HSBC, Deloitte, Citrix, the Parliament Trust, Octopus Energy, Yeo Valley and Weleda.

He is on the advisory boards for the 2022 Initiative, the good business club, WhereFrom, Zero Carbon HR and the One Earth Show. It was in the middle of 14 years’ Shamanic training that Jarvis’ true awakening happened, during the filming of 2007 Channel 4 reality TV show ‘Dumped’. Shot on location on a Croydon landfill, the experience opened Jarvis’ eyes to the vast devastation human lifestyle waste was having on the planet.

Rupal Patel

Author of CIA to CEO, MBA & startup coach

Rupal Patel’s high-octane career has taken her from military briefing rooms in jungles and war zones to corporate boardrooms and international stages. During her thrilling career as an analyst and field agent at the CIA, she served in active war zones, advised Commanding Generals, and earned War Zone Service Medals and Citations for “superior support to the President of the United States.”

After leaving the CIA, she earned her MBA from London Business School and started her first award-winning business over ten years ago. Called a ‘Power Woman’ by Harper’s Bazaar Magazine, Rupal is a sought-after international speaker who has spoken in front of thousands and worked with top-tier organizations like Accenture, AB Inbev, SAP, and Virgin.

Áine Rogers

Director, UKI Small Business, Cisco

Áine Rogers Leads Cisco’s Small Business for the UKI theatre. She is responsible for the strategic direction and growth of this segment executing on Cisco’s defined go to market combining global short mid- and long-term strategies with developing existing local routes to market in new ways to best serve smaller enterprises on their digitisation journey whose technology adoption, consumption and needs have changed drastically in recent years. Critical to the overall success and market share capture will be running the business successfully while reimaging small business at true scale.

Working effectively with multiple stakeholders within Cisco and partnering in new ways with channel, distribution and Eco System partners will key to realising continued success.

Mark Wright

Apprentice Winner, Digital Marketing Specialist

Mark Wright is an award-winning, influential entrepreneur and digital marketing specialist, renowned for his success in winning BBC’s The Apprentice. In securing the winners title, Mark went on to find and develop one of the UK’s fastest growing digital marketing agencies, Climb Online, in partnership with Lord Sugar.

As the most successful business to have been founded by an Apprentice winner to date, Climb Online is renowned for its disruptive approach to digital marketing, working with household brands to scale growth and generate profit.

Mark’s experience in building and creating a multi-million-pound turnover digital empire has led him to source and invest in additional businesses within the property investment, web development, public relations and hair and beauty sectors, where he has dedicated his time to implementing strategies that have replicated admirable levels of success.

Amali de Alwis

CEO at Subak

Subak’s mission is to accelerate climate action by funding and scaling a global ecosystem of organisations and individuals that use data and tech to create systemic change in policy and behaviour.

Outside of the day job, Amali is a Board member at Ada National College for Digital Skills, the Raspberry Pi Foundation, and Unboxed 2022. She was a founding member at Tech Talent Charter, was named as ‘The most Influential woman in UK IT’ by Computer Weekly, and was awarded an MBE in 2019 in the New Year’s Honours list for Services to Diversity and Training in the Tech Industry.

David Savage

Group Technology Evangelist at Harvey Nash Group

David started his career as a technology recruiter, and spent a decade exploring the role people play in shaping the sector, before being asked to step into the role of Group Technology Evangelist for the Harvey Nash Group; he is responsible for helping share the best thoughts and insight from acorss the Harvey Nash Group with the wider market.

A regular event speaker, host and moderator David regularly writes for industry publications, appears on and hosts technology-focus media channels and hosts the ‘Tech Talks’ podcast.

Tech Talks is a regular member of the Apple Podcast top 50 tech podcast chart, attracting thousands of listeners each month from a diverse community of tech enthusiasts and entrepreneurs. To date over 475 episodes have been published.

His voice and standing in the sector was recognised in 2018, with David being named Computing Magazine’s Digital Ambassador of the Year.

He has a passion for tech, sci-fi, Newcastle United and truly awful films.

Zac Des

Founder of Dreamweaver

From photography to exhibitions, book publishings, and Apple endorsements, Zac Des has become a go-to contact for some of the world’s most renowned brands. His popularity amongst London crowds can be accredited to his signature street style photography which promoted the launch of his book “A Chelsea Story.”

Since then Zac has gone on to host parties, exhibitions, fashion week events, as well as assist brands on various projects, always exceeding expectations. Zac later went on to found Zac Des Brand; which serves as a branding, marketing, and consultancy firm for UHNWI’s and their business interests.

In 2021, Zac debuted the long-awaited podcast, “Would You Like A Podcast” on Apple Podcasts. His latest project, Dreamweaver serves as a multifaceted creative agency working with a vast array of companies, individuals and brands.

Lewis Ellis

Digital Marketing Consultant and Apprentice Finalist

Lewis Ellis is a digital marketing consultant born and bred in the heart of Manchester. In 2019 Lewis featured on BBC’s ‘TheApprentice’ making it to the Final Five in a bid to win Lord Sugars £250,000 investment.

Since the show, Lewis has returned to marketing and has decided to take the plunge and setup his own digital agency with a difference! Fed-up of the uninspired, tedious and quite simply, boring marketing modus operandi, Lewis aims to ‘shake things up’ and harness his naturally disruptive personality to inject brands with a more effective strategy that invites consumers into the business.

Lewis is also working on his side-project travel startup and has co-founded ‘Hiddin Travel’ with Luke, a friend that also used to work overseas prior to studying at university. This brand-new and stylish travel company targets the ever-evolving and complicated millennial/GenZ market now demanding more from their vacations.

Cooden Tax Specialists

Category Sponsor

We are a niche tax consultancy, founded by Simon Bulteel, an ACCA qualified accountant in 2013, to support businesses of all shapes and sizes to prepare robust, successful and financially rewarding claims for Research and Development Tax Credits. Simon has been involved in claims since 2005. Cooden’s first piece of work was to defend an InsureTech from an enquiry from HMRC, whilst at the same time increasing their claim. Since then, the growing team have worked with a number of Tech startups and scaleups operating within Cybesecurity, Payment Data, Virtual Reality Design and most recently a Global Positioning Start-up.

www.coodentaxconsulting.co.uk

Small Business Research + Enterprise Centre

Supporting Sponsor

The Small Business Research + Enterprise Centre’s history dates back to 1870 where we started as a business desk in Guildhall Library. Fast forward to 2020, midst a pandemic we became the first point of contact for small business enquiries for the City of London Corporation.

Our Mission is to create and grow sustainable businesses in the UK by providing access to essential business data and tailored business support.

Our small business start-up support service is available to all start-ups and small businesses throughout the UK. We can provide you with access to specialist business information and market research. We also offer business support events and provide expert assistance to help you start and grow your business.

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Kay Kukoyi

Author & Founder of Purposeful Group

Kay Kukoyi CSM FITOL is a software delivery specialist, global tech startup mentor, author and speaker. She has published 5 books for entrepreneurs and SMEs, and has been recognised on the Financial Times and Inclusive Boards list of the 100 Most Influential BAME Leaders in the UK Technology Sector, and as a finalist for the BTA Lifetime Achievement Award, 2022.

Kay is the CEO and Founder of Purposeful Group, an international community and centre for learning focused on entrepreneurship, technology and digital skills training which includes the Tech Startup Academy™, Freelancer Academy™ and Digital Careers Academy™ brands.

The company supports and empowers entrepreneurs around the world through its bestselling books, professional mentoring, and specialist workshops and programmes, and works on local and national programmes in the UK to support career builders and digital upskillers.

Shammi Raichura

Operations Lead at Uber

Shammi Raichura is an Operations Lead at Uber where he is responsible for unlocking and operationalising growth opportunities for the UK business.

His current role as head of Cities puts him at the intersection between a company at the forefront of building technology changing the way we live, and the external business and policy enviornment evolving to meet its demands.

Tzvete Doncheva

Investor Relations & Platform Manager at PropTech1.

Tzvete Doncheva is the Investor Relations and Platform Manager at PropTech1 Ventures, one of Europe’s first ESG compliant PropTech venture capital funds. She leads on fundraising and platform activities in non-German speaking markets, fostering connections with property investors, who seek to better leverage technology in their portfolios. Through her work, she helps to strengthen the fund’s brand across the continent. Her experience in VC includes being on the investment team at a supply chain-focused fund and in a platform role at the VC spin out of multinational real estate investment manager Round Hill Capital. Tzvete is a firm advocate for bridging the gender gap in venture capital and technology, a non-exec trustee at Girls in Charge and founder of a project, that aims to help tackle the issue of closed networks in VC and help increase female representation at founder and funder level.

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Liana Fricker

Liana is the is the Founder & Inspirer-in-Chief at Inspiration Space.

Known as the Inspirer-In-Chief to colleagues and peers, Liana has helped over 150 entrepreneurs transform their business dreams into realities.
A champion for women in business, Liana is on a mission to democratise entrepreneurship for the progress of all.

Sonya Barlow

Founder of the LMF Network.

Sonya Barlow is an award winning entrepreneur, founder of the @LMFnetwork, author of Unprepared Entrepreneur, diversity business coach, BBC radio host and Linkedin Changemaker. Her efforts are focused on bridging the skills gap and creating inclusive cultures.

“Strategically Winging It” is her famous tagline as a result of three successful chapters of LMF Network in 18 months. Utilising social media, she has engaged an audience as far as ~60K with her charmingly witty remarks. All the while carrying her Pakistani heritage proudly, she has drawn attention to the social stigmas faced by the under-represented community of BAME. Having been raised amongst an average working class family, she has understood the importance of leading as a successful role model to encourage inclusion and stapled this to the forefront of all her business collaborations. Sonya is a multi hyphenated individual – sharing her expertise through consultancy, training, community building, workshop facilitation, a 5* podcast and articles.

Flavilla Fongang

Author & Founder of Black Women in Tech

Flavilla Fongang is an award-winning serial entrepreneur, an international and multilingual keynote speaker. She is the founder of 3 Colours Rule, an award-winning branding and marketing agency. Flavilla was awarded the “She’s Mercedes” businesswoman award by Mercedes Benz among women such as Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook. She is the author of “99 Strategies to get customers”. She is also the founder of Tech London Advocates – Black Women in Tech.

She published in October 2021 “The Voices In The Shadow”. A book that features stories of black women in tech and is distributed to secondary schools for FREE across the UK and Ireland. The Voices In The Shadow Volume 2 will be coming back in 2022. She is a judge at the AWS Software Startups Awards 2022. Flavilla Fongang is a recognised leader in marketing as she created the D.A.C. system and The Beyond Marketing Approach which have helped numerous brands successfully grow their business. Flavilla is the chosen brand advisor for BBC and provides actionable brand strategy advice.

She has been a keynote speaker for the most prestigious international events, such as AdWeek, HubSpot, DMWF, MozCon, AdWorld, Upgrade100, CTA, MarTech and many more.

Ezechi Britton MBE

Code Untapped CEO
Impact X Founding Member, Principal & CTO in Residence.

A tech founder with over 15 years experience in FinTech. Ez’s journey has taken him from Software Developer to Co-Founder and CTO to Venture Capital.

He is currently a Founding Member, Principal and CTO in Residence at Impact X Capital Partners LLP a venture fund focused on supporting underrepresented entrepreneurs.

He is the Co-Founder of Code Untapped, a digital skills accelerator that helps companies find innovative product solutions by giving them access to diverse and underrepresented technologists through their innovation labs events.

He is a former Co-Founder of Neyber a multi-award-winning Fintech firm focused on financial wellbeing, where he was the founding CTO and held numerous roles during his tenure including brand ambassador and NED.

Ez also advises a number of boards. He is an advisor to the board of UKITL (UK IT Leaders Network), Albany Group and the Venture Studio from Crisis who invest in, support and create ventures to end homelessness. Ez is also on the steering committee for Spring the centre of excellence for the Water industry.

Amelia Sordell

Founder of Klowt.

Amelia Sordell, 31 is a speaker, start-up founder, and personal branding expert living in London.

Originally from Australia, Amelia kicked off her career in Public Relations before, by her own admission she discovered she was in fact “unemployable”.

Her desire to be in charge of her own career and live by her own rules led to launching her first business at the age of just 21. The womenswear brand she founded grew quickly in success and after just 12 months in business was stocked in 12 online and instore boutiques and had large retailers like ASOS courting to stock the clothes. Unfortunately, in year 2 Amelia lost everything. She was forced to clothes the doors on her business and that chapter in her life.

Amelia’s fast-growing agency, Klowt has already made a dent in the space operating on a 100% inbound model and working with Startup Founders to SkyBet’s leadership team. Klowt is set to be the agency in the personal branding space, and the business has big plans to build the personal brands of the next Elon Musks, Mark Zuckerbergs and Grace Beverleys.

Graham Hussey

Founder of Dream Factory.

Graham has spent the last decade in the world of startups. In his previous company, Startup Van, he interviewed over 3,000 founders face to face, producing the most viewed business content in Europe.

His latest venture Dream Factory is the only content creation house dedicated to founders which has exploded in popularity since it’s launch in September last year. Some of the best UK startups are Dream Factory members and regularly create content in Dream Factory’s film, photography and podcast studios.

Mark Wright

Director of Climb Online & Apprentice Winner

Mark is an influential entrepreneur and self-taught digital marketing specialist and speaker, who won the BBC show The Apprentice in 2014.Mark is CEO of one of the UK’s fastest growing digital marketing agencies, Climb Online, which he launched with Lord Alan Sugar’s backing after winning The Apprentice in 2014. After winning The Apprentice, the company went to turning over £1.7 million in his first year of trading.

Sallee Poinsette-Nash

Founder of Brandable & Co.

Sallee is one of the UK’s leading people-brand experts, founder of award-winning strategy agency, Brandable & Co. and on a mission to make business more human. Professional experience consists of 20+ years navigating the world of high-level business and brand building. Sallee has held CEO and COO positions, headed up international projects and delivered brand strategy and advisory board roles to a high-profile client list.

Jeremy Whittingham

Consultant for SMEs in Engineering, Science & Technology.

Now an independent consultant, Jeremy is perhaps best known in the industry as having co-launched the UK’s largest annual advanced manufacturing, technology and supply chain event, Advanced Engineering.

He has an extensive background in bringing together OEMs, SMEs, and startups to facilitate innovation in automotive, aerospace, medical technology, energy, and other sectors vital to the UK economy. He continues to contribute to Advanced Engineering and regularly curates its Enabling Innovation Awards, working closely with Innovate UK/KTN, Innovation DB, and Startups Magazine.

Before this, Jeremy spent over a decade working across multiple business units for FTSE100 giant RELX PLC (formerly Reed Elsevier), developing academic and corporate markets for information services including ScienceDirect, The Lancet, and Drug Discovery Today.

Katrina Larkin

Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer at Fora

Fora is re-imagining the way a working environment can support ambitious, innovative and high growth businesses. The result is a portfolio of design led, premium workspaces that support the needs and ambitions of some of the most exciting businesses in the world, through driving productivity, wellbeing and collaboration.

Founded by Enrico Sanna and Katrina Larkin, Fora’s story began with the development of the first site in Old Street which opened in February 2017. Fora currently occupies 12 buildings, with secured pipeline for 2020 and beyond

A pioneer in the festival world, Katrina co-founded The Big Chill Festival in 1994. The event grew to become an internationally recognised brand. In the process, The Big Chill spawned an entire industry of similar events and boutique festivals in the UK. In 2013 Katrina began working with Brockton Capital Fund II L.P. on the redevelopment, rebranding and curation of Camden Lock Market, with great success. In 2014, Katrina joined Market Tech, overseeing 16 acres of Central London real estate.

JUDGING

/// The Judges of 2023

/// The Judging Process

/// Step 1 – Initial scoring:

/// Step 2 – Scoring review and shortlist selection:

/// The scoring:

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