Annual Conference 2019

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Will Gardiner is Chief Executive of Drax Group plc, a large British energy company that supplies electricity and gas to over 300,000 business premises. Will is committed to helping Drax’s business customers become more efficient, use more renewable power, take control of their energy costs and to reap the benefits of the revolution taking place in the electricity market.

Prior to joining Drax Will was Chief Financial Officer of CSR plc, a global semiconductor business. He had previously been a Divisional Finance Director of BSKYB and Chief Financial Officer of Easynet Group plc.

At both CSR and Easynet Will’s focus was on driving transformational change to take advantage of new market opportunities. He is also a non-executive member on the Board of Qardio plc, a wireless medical devices company. Will is also a Trustee of the Institute for War & Peace Reporting, a London-based charity that supports local journalists and civic activists in areas of crisis and change around the world.

Will graduated from Harvard University with a BA Magna Cum Laude in Russian and Soviet Studies and from Johns Hopkins University with an MA in International Relations. He spent the early part of his career in corporate finance with Citibank and JP Morgan.

Alison Rose is Deputy CEO of NatWest Holdings and Chief Executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland’s Corporate, Commercial & Private Banking business. An influential member of the RBS Executive Management Team, she leads over 12,000 people and is accountable for market-leading brands such as Coutts and Lombard.

She has worked at RBS for over 25 years and prior to her current role, was Head of Europe, Middle East and Africa, Markets & International Banking. Senior leadership roles with RBS have also included Head of Non–investment Grade Origination and Head of Leveraged Finance for the UK and Europe.

Previously shortlisted for the 'most influential woman in investment banking' award by Financial News, Alison is a passionate supporter of diversity and executive sponsor for the bank’s employee-led networks. Invited to lead a review of the barriers to women starting a business by the UK Government, she also champions NatWest’s Entrepreneur Accelerator programme, an innovative initiative supporting start-up businesses across the UK.

Keir was elected as Labour MP for Holborn & St Pancras in May 2015. In October 2016, Keir was appointed to the Shadow Cabinet, taking up the role of Shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the EU. Prior to becoming an MP, Keir was a human rights lawyer. He co-founded Doughty Street Chambers in 1990, and conducted cases in a wide range of international courts, including the European Court of Human Rights. In 2008 Keir was appointed Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and Head of the Crown Prosecution Service for England and Wales, a role he held until 2013.

The Mayor's role as the executive of London's strategic authority is to promote economic development and wealth creation, social development, and improvement of the environment. The Mayor also has various other duties in relation to culture and tourism, including responsibility for Trafalgar Square and Parliament Square.

Nigel was appointed Group Chief Executive in 2012 having joined as Group Chief Financial Officer in 2009.

Nigel won the ‘Most Admired Leader’ award at Britain's Most Admired Companies Awards 2017, for Management Today. He was also City AM “Business Personality of the Year” in 2014. In 2015-2016 Nigel was a member of the Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Group.

Nigel was Chairman of the Investment Association’s review of Executive Pay (2016-2017) and the government’s review of Mission Led Business (2016- 2017). He was also a member of the governments Patient Capital Review Industry Panel (2017–2018) and a Commissioner in the Resolution Foundation’s Intergenerational Commission (2017–2018). He is currently a member of the expert group’s advising on the government’s Social Care Green Paper and the Life Sciences Industrial Strategy Implementation Board.

Qualifications include a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he was a Kennedy Scholar, and a recipient of the Alfred P Sloan research scholarship. Nigel also worked at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).

Previous appointments include, McKinsey & Co (where clients included BP, Citibank, Cadbury’s, Santander and Kingfisher); Group Commercial Director of Dixons Group Plc.; Managing Director of Stanhope Properties Plc.; Chief Executive, Corporate, Guinness Peat Aviation (G.P.A.); Managing Director, Viridian Capital and Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Financial Officer UBM.

Nigel was Senior Independent Director (SID) of The Capita Group plc. from 2009 until 2012, and was SID / Chairman of Halfords Group Plc. from 2006 until 2011.

Nigel has won numerous national masters Athletics Championships. He has five daughters. He is leading the 50/50 by 20/20 gender diversity initiative.

Pawel Adrjan is the UK Economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab. Before joining Indeed, Pawel spent over a decade in investment banking, holding senior roles in risk management, credit ratings advisory, and treasury at Goldman Sachs and Barclays in London and New York. His research focuses on a wide range of labour market issues such as wages, pensions, and the impact of technology on jobs. Pawel speaks Polish, Spanish and French. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Oxford.

Emma is the Executive Director for Expansion at Heathrow. She moved to this role in October 2016, her previous role was the Strategy Director. She is a member of the Executive Committee. Prior to joining Heathrow, she held a number of senior positions within the telecoms industry, latterly Group Director of Industry Policy and Regulation with BT Group plc. Emma’s career began in commercial and marketing roles for Cable & Wireless before moving into the regulatory arena in 1992 whilst at Hong Kong Telecom.

Emma is a qualified Barrister, called to the Bar in 1996 and holds a degree in Law and Marketing. She also sits on the Board of BBA Aviation.

Ciarán Quilty is Vice President of the Global Business Group at Facebook. He leads a multilingual team that serves millions of businesses who use Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp and Messenger, driving the company's strategic goals.

With nearly 20 years' experience in the global technology sector, Ciarán joined Facebook in 2010 as an Operations Manager. Prior to Facebook, he spent 10 years as a consultant with Accenture working in Financial Services.

As well as delivering keynotes at industry conferences across Europe, Middle East & Africa, Ciarán is passionate about Entrepreneurs, Enterprise & Jobs advocating the shift away from traditional practices to a mobile-first culture in business development

Kim Mears, MD Strategic Infrastructure Development

Kim is responsible for building and strengthening Openreach’s strategic and commercial relationships.

Before Openreach

Kim joined BT in 2004 as a general manager, Thames Valley Field Service. In 2005 she was appointed regional director, London Home Counties, and director of NGA in 2008 where she was responsible for the end to end delivery of Openreach’s Broadband UK programme, including £1.7bn BDUK and £2.5bn NGA commercial programme.

Kim previously worked as Managing Director of Infrastructure Delivery since 2015, responsible for the deployment and build of the national fibre network infrastructure across the UK. Leading a team through various programmes, which significantly contributed to 95% of the country having the ability to order superfast broadband speeds of at least 24mbps.

Sarah became Chief Executive of CITB in January 2017.

Since then, she has led CITB through a successful consensus process and launched the three-year Vision 2020 programme of reform which will see the organisation become more responsive and accountable to industry. More recently, she fronted the launch of the organisation’s new, reforming 2018-2021 Business Plan to help make the Vision 2020 programme become reality.

Sarah’s previous CITB role was as Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Performance Director in 2014, having covered the Corporate Performance Director role in 2013.

She has worked in a range of other senior roles including Finance Manager, National Experienced Worker Assessment Manager, Head of Finance and Planning, Head of Overseas and Head of Customer Services.

Prior to CITB, Sarah worked mainly within the financial sector, in both commercial environments and not‐for‐profit organisations. She has led on several transformational programmes, including company mergers, systems development and a variety of people and management-related projects.

Kriti Sharma is an Artificial Intelligence technologist and a leading global voice on AI ethics and its impact on society. In addition to advising global businesses on AI, she focuses on AI for Social Good. She built her first robot at the age of 15 in India and has been building AI technologies to solve global issues ever since, from productivity to education to domestic violence. Kriti was recently named in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for advancements in AI and was included in the Recode 100 list of key influencers in technology in 2017 alongside Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. She was invited as a Civic Leader by the Obama Foundation Summit for her work in ethical technology. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Google Grace Hopper Scholar and recently gave expert testimony on AI Policy to the UK Parliament in the House of Lords. Kriti is frequently featured in global media such as Fortune, BBC, Harvard Business Review, The Times, Financial Times and TechCrunch. Earlier this year, Kriti spearheaded the launch of the Sage Future Makers Lab, a forum that will equip young people around the world with hands-on learning for entering a career in Artificial Intelligence.

Kriti was appointed a United Nations Young Leader at the General Assembly in 2018.

Frances became general secretary of the TUC in January 2013, the first woman ever to hold this post.

She joined the TUC as campaigns officer in 1994, and launched the Organising Academy in 1997.

Frances headed up the TUC’s organisation department in 1999, reorganising local skills projects into unionlearn which now helps a quarter of a million workers into learning every year.

As deputy general secretary from 2003, Frances led on the environment, industrial policy, the NHS and winning an agreement covering the 2012 Olympics. She has served as a member of the Low Pay Commission, the High Pay Centre, the Resolution Foundation’s Commission on Living Standards, the Commission on Economic Justice and the government’s National Retraining Partnership.

Holly Tucker MBE is founder of Notonthehighstreet and Holly & Co.

With a lifelong commitment to champion small businesses in the UK, Holly wants to inspire anyone who dreams of running their own business, to do it.

With a determination to bring colour to grey business advice, Holly has set about creating Holly & Co, to demystify and inspire in equal measure.

Holly & Co has two high street spaces, hosts her own podcast 'Conversations of Inspiration' with the UKs top entrepreneurs as well as holding creative business events across the country.

Claire joined Pinnacle Group in May 2018 as Director of Housing to lead its delivery of high-quality and innovative housing management services. In 2019 she was appointed Managing Director Homes and now also oversees Pinnacle People and Connect, a 24/7 contact centre providing services to the public, private and third sectors. She sits on the Pinnacle Group executive committee.

Prior to joining Pinnacle, Claire spent a decade in local government as Leader of the London Borough of Haringey where she prioritised improving education outcomes for all children, wide-scale regeneration and delivering better housing. Claire is a former Chair of London Councils – the regional body that brings together the capital’s 32 boroughs to lobby for fairer funding and a better quality of life for Londoners and also represented the region on the London Enterprise Panel. She served as finance portfolio holder for the Local Government Association. In 2015, Claire was awarded an OBE for services to local government.

Hannah Essex is Co-Executive Director at the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) a role she shares with Claire Walker. BCC sits at the heart of a business network that spans the length and breadth of the UK, with links to markets across the world.

Claire and Hannah lead the British Chambers campaigns, communications, public affairs, policy and senior representative work on behalf of the Chamber Network.

Claire and Hannah joined the British Chambers of Commerce in September 2019 from social enterprise Teach First, where they co-led the Communications Department. Claire covered Hannah’s maternity leave and they formed their partnership when Hannah returned in 2015. As one of the only Executive level job- share partnerships in the country, they are considered trail -blazers in the concept of co-leadership.

Together, they have a combined 35 years’ experience leading in a range of organisations, driving transformation and impact. Claire has held a number of trustee positions and led a range of community projects. Hannah is Vice-Chair and Founding Trustee of The Girls’ Network.

Claire Walker is Co-Executive Director at the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) a role she shares with Hannah Essex. BCC sits at the heart of a business network that spans the length and breadth of the UK, with links to markets across the world.

Claire and Hannah lead the British Chambers campaigns, communications, public affairs, policy and senior representative work on behalf of the Chamber Network.

Claire and Hannah joined the British Chambers of Commerce in September 2019 from social enterprise Teach First, where they co-led the Communications Department. Claire covered Hannah’s maternity leave and they formed their partnership when Hannah returned in 2015. As one of the only Executive level job -share partnerships in the country, they are considered trail -blazers in the concept of co-leadership.

Together, they have a combined 35 years’ experience leading in a range of organisations, driving transformation and impact. Claire has held a number of trustee positions and led a range of community projects. Hannah is Vice-Chair and Founding Trustee of The Girls’ Network.