Business Centre provided
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Speakers
Keynote Speaker
Tony Anderson, Easyjet/Egg
After rising through the Marketing ranks at British Airways and Thomas Cook, Tony turned from gamekeeper to poacher when he was appointed Sales and Marketing Director of easyJet. As the new airline's third employee he helped launch the company that became an internet pioneer, a household name and a major force in European aviation. Tony went on to become Group Marketing Director for the easyGroup and held positions on the board of several of Stelios's companies.
Outside of travel Tony has held senior positions including Directorships at online bank Egg, TNS and The Children's Mutual. He acts as an adviser to a number of high-growth technology and energy companies in the Cambridge area.
Marketing Magazine have ranked Tony among the top marketing names in the UK and he has been a finalist for the Marketeer of the Year award. Tony is the author of "Gorilla Marketing" the acclaimed inside account of the easyJet start-up.
2nd Keynote Speaker
Kirsty Henshaw, Worthenshaws Freedom
Kirsty Henshaw delivered one of the best pitches ever seen on Dragon's Den when she appeared on the programme in July 2010. A 24 year old, single mother born and bred in Preston, she electrified the Den with her passion, commitment and gritty determination to succeed. Kirsty became one of the youngest entrepreneurs to receive investment on the show when she secured a £65,000 investment from Dragons, Peter Jones and Duncan Bannatyne, in return for a 30% stake in Worthenshaws, her frozen dessert business.
Kirsty's range of dairy-free, nut-free and sugar-free frozen puddings has now been rebranded to Worthenshaws 'Freedom' and launched across the UK in all major supermarkets in September 2010. The rebranding will enable Kirsty to plan other healthy products to complement the dessert range.
Kirsty's business has been compared to the hugely successful 'Reggae Reggae Sauce' from fellow Dragon's Den contestant, Levi Roots, which now sells in excess of ten million bottles a year. Peter Jones has staked his reputation on Kirsty going on to sell millions of her desserts each year. This looks highly probable because Kirsty's product is innovative and offers a solution to a clear niche in the food market. Many desserts on the market contain lots of saturated fats or are labelled as 'low-fat' but actually contain a high amount of added sugar or are laced with artificial sweeteners and flavourings. There is a clear need for a range of desserts tailored to people with eating restrictions or for those who just enjoy eating natural and healthy foods.
Kirsty was inspired to create her range of frozen products by her four year old son Jacob who has a serious nut allergy and is intolerant to dairy and gluten. She began experimenting with a little ice cream maker from Argos in her tiny kitchen at home. Kirsty formulated a recipe for success combining brown rice milk, coconut oil and natural fruit extracts - all renowned for their health giving properties. Convinced she had a recipe that children and adults would enjoy as a healthy alternative to ice cream she approached a local ice cream maker to produce the products in larger quantities.
Kirsty then hired a consultancy to help her create a brand and design a website. She funded this with £14,000 of her own money which she had saved from doing two part-time jobs and also secured £6,000 of vouchers from the North West Development Agency through the University of Preston. Kirsty was so determined to succeed in business that she dropped out of university where she was studying for a sports therapy degree to pursue her business dream full-time.
An inspirational, confident and 'can-do' young woman, Kirsty talks about her entrepreneurial journey so far. She emphasises the importance of building great relationships with the people around you and knowing your business model inside-out. Kirsty is currently focused on building the Worthenshaws Freedom brand and is consolidating her position as one of the most inspirational young businesswomen in the country.
Funding
Fred Hallsworth, BAcc, CA
Fred has had a 30 year career in Professional Services in Scotland and Cambridge where he held a number of senior management positions including Managing Partner of Andersen Cambridge and Scotland, and Senior Client Service Partner and Head of Technology, Media and Telecoms for Scotland and Northern Ireland at Deloitte.
Since his retirement from Professional Services in early 2005 he has accumulated a portfolio of UK Non Executive Director appointments providing corporate finance and corporate governance advice to dynamic companies, mainly in the Technology Sector including Life Sciences and Medical Devices.
He has advised them at every stage in their life cycles from start-up, through growth and development, and ultimately exit by trade sale or flotation. His current appointments include Microvisk Technologies which he chairs, memsstar, Metaforic and Golden Charter. His former NED appointments include Scottish Enterprise where he chaired the Audit Committee, Innovata plc where he was Senior Independent Director, and Forth Dimension Displays which he chaired until its recent sale to Kopin Corporation.
He is a former Board Member of CBI Scotland, CBI Eastern England, Scottish Institute for Enterprise and University of Cambridge Finance Committee. Fred's hobbies include tennis and golf. He and his wife Nicola are currently Platinum Sponsors of Scottish Opera's Alexander Gibson Circle, and also support Scottish Opera's Emerging Artists programme.
Simon Christian
UK Director, ScottishPower Renewables
Simon is responsible for Scottish Power Renewables UK onshore windfarm developments. His team has successfully delivered to date 19 projects with planning consents for over 1,700 MW.
Simon joined Scottish Power Renewables 7 years ago with responsibility for a portfolio of windfarm developments including the major 322MW Whitelee windfarm. Initially stalled in planning Simon led the team that overcame major aviation objections leading to a planning consent for Whitelee in April 2006. His team have over 30 developments at various stages of planning with a combined capacity of over 1.5GW.
An Electrical Engineer, Simon has worked in the electricity industry for over 30 years with experience of distribution networks, electrical contracting, retail sales & marketing and prior to joining the Renewables business worked in ScottishPower Corporate Strategy team.
He is actively involved at an industry level sharing experience on aviation matters through the Renewables UK Aviation Strategy Group as Vice Chair, and was directly involved in the establishment of the Aviation Investment Fund Company Limited and was elected as Chairman of the Fund Management Board on its inception in 2009.
However, aviation is only one obstacle that Simon and his team tackle, the breadth and complexity of overcoming the many planning challenges in developing onshore windfarm is what makes this such an exciting industry.
Simon is passionate about promoting renewable energy development and in addition to onshore wind is a Board member of Hammerfest Strom a tidal device developer.
Knowledge Transfer
Dr. Siobhán Jordan
Director Interface - The knowledge connection for business
Siobhán has been Director of INTERFACE - The knowledge connection for business, since its inception in August 2005. Interface is a national programme funded by Scottish Funding Council and Scottish Government to provide a central point of access for industry and commercial organisations to the Scottish research base representing all Scottish Universities, Higher Education Institutions and the Scottish Research Institutes. Siobhán has a wealth of experience in both business and academia, having supported over 800 companies across all sectors make productive links to academic departments over the past few years. See www.interface-online.org.uk
She holds degrees in Biotechnology and process engineering and a PhD in human genetics. Previous roles have included team leader at the MRC Human Genertics Unit, Edinburgh and managing the application and award processes for the Scottish Proof of Concept Programme. In this role she was responsible for ensuring that those leading edge technologies which are capable of commercialisation within Scotland were identified and financially supported.
Siobhán has developed programmes to facilitate networking and mentoring of female entrepreneurs amongst the Proof of Concept Programme Associates in addition to nurturing those associates who were considering establishing spin-out companies..
International Trade
Dr Derek Shepherd - C.Eng. F.I.C.E. NGenTec
A Civil Engineer who worked for Taylor Woodrow for 21 years with 15 years based in Nigeria as Managing Director of a substantial construction company. This was followed by a short spell based in Hong Kong as International Managing Director for Gammon in 1985 and in 1987 joined Aggreko as Managing Director for UK. From 1990 to 1999 based in Netherlands a Managing Director of Europe and Middle East and joined the Aggreko plc Board as International Managing Director in 1997 based in Dubai. The International division was grown over 11 years up to a Billion US$ p.a. business with the rental of substantial temporary diesel and gas power plants across all 5 continents of the developing world.
Following retirement in 2009 Derek is Chairman and founder of NGenTec Ltd a novel permanent magnet generator supplier for wind turbines, spun out from Edinburgh University, a non Executive Director of Ashtead Technology Rentals, Chairman of Avalon services an aviation support company in Dubai and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Engineering by Heriot Watt University Edinburgh in 2009.
Ana Bakalinova
Head of Web Publishing at Trinity Mirror group
After graduating with a Masters degree in Media, Ana helped launch a film ecommerce business that became an award-winning film internet portal during the dot com boom. After this she joined AOL Time Warner where she held several positions and led high profile projects from video live streaming to AOL Europe portal redesign. Ana went on to become the social media product manager for the Trinity Mirror group and now she is heading up the web production for the regional newspaper websites..