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Judges 2024

Judges 2024

JUDGES 2024

Chamber business awards

Our Judges

Ailsa Meeks
Commercial Director, Community Homes Ltd.
Carl Williamson
Director, SME & Trade Finance & Co-Head of Business Group, UK Export Finance
Charlotte Forsberg
CEO, Swoop Funding
Chris Loy
Managing Consultant, Stonehaven
David Finch
Assistant Director in the Healthy Lives team, The Health Foundation
Helen Wylde - Archibald
Chief Executive Officer, Wildanet
jo clough
Social Sustainability Director, Business and Commercial Banking, Lloyds Banking Group
Mander Thiara
Global Operations Program Manager, HP
Peter Harman
Formerly Bank of England
Richard Behan
Chief Corporate Development Officer, CAE Technology Services
Richard DeNetto
CEO, Change the Race Ratio
Rob Burlison
Director of Corporate Affairs, Intuit
Sarah Ralphs
External Affairs Lead, Heathrow
Sharon Arbuckle
Senior Head of Corporate Partnerships, The Prince’s Trust
Suresh Weerasinghe
Head of UK Growth, Group Public Affairs, Aviva
Tom davis
Director of Public Affairs, Sizewell C
Tracey Paul
Chief Communications Officer, Pool Reinsurance
Viren Patel
Director of Employers and Partnerships, The Open University

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Ailsa Meeks

Commercial Director, Community Homes Ltd.

Ailsa has over 15 years experience in the energy industry.

Ailsa is Commercial Director at Community Home Solutions Ltd; a start-up created in 2021 with the goal of bridging the gap between fuel poverty and net zero through domestic retrofit solutions.

Community Home Solutions work with local Net Zero Hubs in England to disburse grant funding from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero to improve the energy efficiency of some of the worst performing homes in England through the installation of retrofitted energy efficiency measures; reducing carbon emissions and household energy bills. Since establishment, CHS have managed the delivery of retrofit solutions to over 6,500 homes.

Prior to joining Community Home Solutions, Ailsa had a 13-year career at E.ON Energy Solutions.

Carl Williamson

Director, SME & Trade Finance & Co-Head of Business Group, UK Export Finance

Carl joined UK Export Finance (UKEF) in September 2019 from Lloyds Banking Group, where he spent 31 years in a variety of roles. He was a Relationship Director, managing and developing a portfolio of customers within the Manufacturing & Industrials sector. Prior to this he was Head of Cash Management and Trade Finance, delivering cash and trade products to large London corporates.  

As Co-Head of Business Group, he is responsible for the Trade Finance Division and Small Delas & Emerging Sectors business functions.  These incorporate various underwriting units helping UKEF grow its support for smaller exporters with a range of Guarantee and Insurance products whilst being supported by a business development function through UKEF’s 27 strong team of Export Finance Managers (EFMs), as they drive the uptake and adoption of the export credit agency’s products across the country.  Additionally, the Marketing & Communications team sits within his remit, delivering UKEF’s external press and communications, driving external stakeholder relationships and creating Events and Marketing material to help raise awareness of UKEF’s stated objectives.    

Charlotte Frosberg
Charlotte Forsberg

Chief Marketing Officer, Swoop Funding

Charlotte Forsberg is an accomplished marketing professional focused on driving growth and creating a meaningful impact in the fintech industry. After building a successful brand marketing career at Diageo, she took the helm of one of the UK’s leading corporate communications agencies. Throughout her tenure, Charlotte advised and influenced businesses across a diverse range of sectors, from retail and mining to energy, automotive, and professional services.  

Her passion for supporting small businesses has become her driving force, and she now focuses on the global expansion of one of the most exciting fintech ventures, Swoop. As CMO Charlotte has helped deliver remarkable growth, now attracting over 75,000 businesses each month to seek funding solutions and straight-talking financial support.  

Chris Loy
Chris Loy

Managing Consultant, Stonehaven

Chris is part of the international strategy firm Stonehaven that helps clients accelerate and unlock change as they navigate the societal and environmental transitions shaping the world’s economies.

Over a 14-year career, Chris has primarily focused on communications and digital including 8 years at Heathrow Airport where he was Head of Reputation and Campaigns and the digital lead for their high-profile expansion campaign. In his current role as a Managing Consultant he advises clients across rail, aviation, infrastructure, economic and sustainability sectors. 

David Finch

Assistant Director in the Healthy Lives team, The Health Foundation

David joined the Health Foundation in May 2018 and currently leads a programme of work developing policy and analysis related to the wider determinants of health. His work focuses the role that social and economic policy and business can play in improving health, and understanding the influence that health has on social and economic outcomes of people and places. 

Previously David worked for the Resolution Foundation as a Senior Fellow working on a range of issues including tax and benefit policy with a focus on Universal Credit, calculating the Living Wage, demographics, pensions and pay progression. 

Prior to this, he worked as an Economic Adviser at the Department for Work and Pensions on areas including childcare and state pensions. David studied Economics at the University of Sussex. 

Helen Wylde - Archibald

Chief Executive Officer, Wildanet

Helen Wylde joined the Wildanet board as a non-exec director in 2021, as part of a strategy that would see her assume the role of CEO in 2022. An expert in innovation and digital transformation, her experience spans Vodafone, O2, Parcelforce and the Transport Systems & Connected Places Catapult. She received the Women Business Leaders Award for Technology and Digital 2019 and joined Wildanet from her previous role as MD of East Coast Trains trading as LUMO. 

Helen has a wide range of technical and commercial leadership both in the UK & Internationally, providing transformational growth, innovation and change. She has learnt to combine her clear financial prowess with honed leadership skills and as such, has spent much of her career working at Director and CEO level.  Her modus operandi is to leverage the whole of the stakeholder landscape to a common goal and vision, and subsequently develop and acquire the right talent to deliver it.  This, Helen believes, is achieved through balancing delivery of the big picture with tenacity whilst ensuring longevity through cultural change, process, scalability, and a programmatic approach.  The aim is to establish a value-based approach which nurtures change and makes it exciting rather than scary for all those involved.  As a direct result of this strategic collaborative approach and compelling stakeholder influence, Wildanet have secured £36M of Levelling-Up funding to roll out lightning-fast broadband across Cornwall as part of Project Gigabit. 

Helen’s earlier successes range from the launch of GPRS (digital data on mobile phones and laptops) in the UK very early in her career, to the successful turnaround of a £500M Business Unit at O2 from failure to profitable and sustainable growth through customer focus and a clear understanding of how to attract profit. She led the introduction of comparison websites to Lloyds General Insurance, help set up the parcel locker systems in the UK and worked with BEIS through the Catapults on the introduction of hydrogen for vehicles, Connected and autonomous vehicles and various other cutting-edge projects that will help the UK economy to grow through innovation and technology. 

Jo Clough

Social Sustainability Director, Business and Commercial Banking, Lloyds Banking Group

Jo’s 20+ year career has spanned multiple functions within Commercial Banking at Lloyds Banking Group. Initially aligned to the SME Relationship Management business, Jo served the banking needs of businesses across Trading, Real Estate and Healthcare sectors in the North East of England before moving into leadership in those sectors. 

Jo now leads the Business and Commercial Bank’s focus on Women Entrepreneurs and Regional Development, with the mission to improve Access to Finance, Networks, Role Models, Information and Skills for all SMEs to help them thrive and grow. 

As a Social Sustainability leader, Jo’s work is aligned to breaking down the socio-economic barriers impacting the UK’s under-served business communities.  

She lives in Newcastle upon Tyne with her husband and two children. 

Mander Thiara

Global Operations Program Manager, HP

With over 25 years of experience in the IT Industry – Mander Thiara, Global Program Manager and Co-Chair of the Global Asian Pacific BRG, helps to transform HP’s technology platforms and commercialisation strategy to ensure the adoption of new services and business models, with an explicit focus on applying technologies in new ways to drive efficiencies across large markets. 

As a Co-Chair for Global Asian BRG, the goal is to ensure that Asian Groups within HP are represented, to ensure diversity is the central theme to accelerate individuals so they belong, can grow and innovate themselves.

Peter Harman
Peter Harman

Formerly Bank of England

Peter Harman has worked in the public and private sectors for over 40 years.

Initially in the Bank of England and subsequently in management and leadership development, most recently he held a number of senior roles in starting and growing businesses and their supportive environments across the UK and globally.

Richard Behan

Chief Corporate Development Officer, CAE Technology Services

Richard Behan is on mission to build the most people and customer-focused technology provider in the UK.  Based in Hertfordshire, England, and with over 25 years industry experience, his areas of focus are leadership, strategic direction, organisational resilience, people and customer experience, operational excellence, and value creation. 

As a C-level executive and co-owner he has worked with organisations like Cisco Systems, Dell, TJX, Shawbrook Bank, Microsoft, University of Oxford, Investec, Arup, Cancer Research UK, Salesforce Inc, Co-op, THG plc and Newcastle United F.C. 

Richard’s guiding principle was always about doing his best for the customer.  As he progressed through his career into broader operations and leadership roles, customer centricity, collaboration and accountability stay with him as his core values. 

When he isn’t leading the charge in digital transformation, Richard loves spending time with his family or playing golf with friends.

Richard DeNetto

CEO, Change the Race Ratio

Richard in the CEO for Change the Race Ratio, the UKs leading business campaign to accelerate racial and ethnic minority representation on boards and in executive teams.  Richard is responsible for leading the strategic direction of the organisation and manages the organisations engagement with key stakeholders.  Richard leads a team responsible for supporting businesses to increase diversity of their leadership teams through the development of a successful event series, practical guides and reports.    

Richard has a strong track record of leading businesses that provide career and professional development for business leaders and senior ED&I and HR professionals.  Richard led the CBI’s business engagement work on the Future of Work, he was a Director in a boutique staffing firm and the CIPD’s Chair for Cambridgeshire and an Executive Officer for CIPD Mid and North Anglia. 

Rob Burlison

Director of Corporate Affairs, Intuit

Rob Burlison joined Intuit as their International Director for Corporate Affairs in 2018 overseeing QuickBooks and Mailchimps political and regulatory strategy across international markets.

Prior to Intuit, Rob was Managing Director of a leading political strategy consultancy based in both London and Brussels as well as an Economic Policy Officer for the UK Government. 

Sarah Ralphs

External Affairs Lead, Heathrow

Sarah has over a decade of experience in External Affairs and is passionate about developing partnerships.

After working for a number of MPs in Staffordshire and Yorkshire, Sarah joined Transport for London where she focused on business engagement and public affairs. Sarah then spent five years in the heath sector, setting up the General Medical Council’s strategic engagement team.

Sarah joined Heathrow in 2023 as External Affairs Lead and looks after Heathrow’s relationships with national and regional business groups. As part of this, Sarah sits on the BCC’s Global Britain challenge group. 

Sharon Arbuckle

Senior Head of Corporate Partnerships, The Prince’s Trust

Sharon Arbuckle is a senior fundraising figure at the Prince’s Trust, responsible for creating and driving the success of fundraising initiatives and events. 

She transformed the Corporate Volunteering department, building a sector leading function and creating commercially appealing products. She is an expert in creating opportunities that engage the employees of corporate partners to support the work of The Prince’s Trust. 

Sharon has a passion for Equality Diversity and Inclusion and leads the fundraising efforts to drive results in this area. 

Previously at Cancer Research UK, she created innovative community fundraising events, including ‘Slide on’, mobilising entire cities around new fundraising ideas.  

Sharon has years of experience leading sales teams at BT and Yell, motivating teams to exceed targets.  

Sharon champions innovation in all that she does, is not afraid to take risks and is solution focused in the face of a new and challenging fundraising environment. 

Suresh Weerasinghe

Head of UK Growth, Group Public Affairs, Aviva

Suresh joined Aviva in 2018 and leads Aviva’s work on how its investment activity in the UK can support the UK’s growth ambitions.

Previously was a senior lawyer at HM Treasury for 6 ½ years where he worked on EU Referendum and Brexit negotiations and various EU financial services matters. Prior to the Treasury Suresh worked in a number of legal jobs in the civil service, including as a senior lawyer to UK Attorneys General. 

Tom Davis

Director of Public Affairs, Sizewell C

Tom Davis is Director of Public Affairs at Sizewell C, the UK’s next new nuclear power station and one of Britain’s biggest infrastructure projects. 

Before joining Sizewell C, Tom spent 10 years at EDF in political relations roles including the last five years as the company’s Head of Corporate Affairs. Tom was responsible for EDF’s engagement with UK politicians and advocacy groups, on issues ranging from new nuclear and Hinkley Point C to energy retail markets. 

Tom worked for several years in the House of Commons for a Select Committee Chairman and later a Transport Minister, before working in political relations in the rail industry.

Tracey Paul

Chief Communications Officer, Pool Reinsurance

Tracey Paul is  Chief Communications Officer at Pool Reinsurance, a City based organisation that provide resilience to the UK economy in the event of a terrorist incident.

Prior to this Tracey worked in a number of different sectors notably in Government as Chief of Staff to Dame Louise Casey on her review into integration, and for the Labour Party, for 20 years  managing the strategic communications division during several general election campaigns and serving as Head of Elections. 

Viren Patel
Viren Patel

Director of Business Development Unit, The Open University

Viren started his career in accountancy before moving into the commercial world 20 years ago. He has worked across diverse sectors including education, telecommunications, healthcare and retail and joined The Open University (OU) in 2015. Now in his role as Director of the Business Development Unit, Viren manages the OU’s commercial activity portfolio which includes working with employers and educational partners both within the UK and internationally, as well as identifying new potential income diversification opportunities.   

Under Viren’s leadership, the OU has developed its higher and degree apprenticeship programmes in healthcare, social work, policing, systems thinking, digital management and leadership. The OU also offers undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, vocational qualifications, microcredentials, short courses and free learning and now works with more than 2,800 organisations across a wide range of sectors. 

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