Annual Conference

Booking Open October 2018 arrow_forward

Sarah is immediate past president of Suffolk Chamber of Commerce. She joined the BCC board in 2016 And chairs the accreditation board, and became Vice President in December 2017.

Sarah started her career as a management consultant at KPMG, moving to JP Morgan before setting up her own company, Sarand Business Software with her partner in 1994. The company supplies bespoke software to a wide range of clients.

Sarah chairs Abbeycroft Leisure, a not for profit organisation running leisure services across Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. She is also a Governor at West Suffolk College and the Suffolk Academy Trust.

Andy joined Aviva in April 2015 as Managing Director to lead the UK Corporate business following the acquisition of Friends Life Group Limited where he was UK CEO. Andy is a member of the Aviva UK Insurance executive committee covering Life, GI and Health. Andy has over 25 years operational and executive experience in the health and life insurance industry, both in the UK and Europe. He has extensive knowledge of the UK regulatory environment and a strong sales and marketing background having worked at Prudential, Aviva and Friends Life.

Andy is married with four children. He sits on the board of a charitable trust and in his spare time enjoys watching Celtic football club.

Arlene has been involved in politics since she was a student at Queen’s University and has always been known as a strong advocate for unionism, particularly in the west of the Province. A lawyer by profession, she was born and bred in South East Fermanagh and still lives in the County with her husband and three children.

Arlene joined the DUP in 2004 and has been a senior representative for the party since that time. She has been an Executive member of the Democratic Unionist Party since 2004 and was elected leader of the party on 17th December 2015.

In 2008 Arlene was awarded the devolved Assembly Member of the Year by the Women in Public Life Awards. This award recognised the significant contribution that Arlene had made in the Northern Ireland Assembly, and she remains the most high-profile female politician in Northern Ireland.

Funke leads the legal team for the UK, Ireland, Malta and Gibraltar and the UK compliance function for Roche, the world’s largest biotech company.

Outside her day job, she is an active diversity campaigner and leader, campaigning for more gender equality, race diversity and social mobility. She is a regular media contributor (including on BBC One) and holds a number of board memberships.

Funke has received both national and international recognition for her legal and diversity work. In 2017, Debretts 500 listed her as being the most influential black lawyer in the United Kingdom.

Having received a Point of Light award from Prime Minister Theresa May in October 2016 (recognising the impact of her voluntary diversity work), Funke was awarded the M.B.E. (Member of the Order of the British Empire) by the Queen for services to diversity in the legal profession and to young people (2017 Birthday Honours list).

She is the proud mother of a teenaged son.

As the Secretary of State for International Trade, Dr Liam Fox has overall responsibility for trade policy across government and is also the Departmental lead on trade and investment promotion in the defence and security sector. He was appointed to this role on 13 July 2016. He was elected as the Conservative MP for North Somerset in 1992.

Liam held several ministerial roles in John Major’s Conservative government. He served as Constitutional Affairs Spokesman (1998-1999), Shadow Health Secretary (1999-2003), Conservative Party chairman (2003-05), Shadow Foreign Secretary (2005) and Shadow Defence Secretary (2005-10). In 2010, he was appointed Secretary of State for Defence, a position from which he resigned on 14 October 2011.

Liam worked as a GP before his election to Parliament and is a former Civilian Army Medical Officer and Divisional Surgeon with St John Ambulance.

Sarah is the Financial Times’ business editor. She joined the FT in 2001 on the UK companies desk before working as deputy personal finance editor and spending three years as a writer and assistant editor on the Lex column. Sarah was Companies editor and supervised the FT’s corporate coverage from 2008, spanning the financial crisis, before starting her current role in 2014. Before joining the FT, Sarah worked for the UN Conference for Trade and Development debt management programme and with large asset managers in the City of London and on Wall Street.

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.

Miriam González is co-chair of law firm Dechert LLP’s International Trade and Government Regulation practice, focussing on international and EU trade law policy, with particular experience in WTO and EU internal market regulations. Miriam advises clients on Brexit, trade policy, trade agreements, sanctions and embargoes, export controls, antidumping, foreign investment proceedings and EU internal market regulations and infringement proceedings.

Miriam previously served seven years as a Senior Member of the Cabinet for EU External Relations Commissioners Chris Patten and Benita Ferrero-Waldner, where she had responsibility for EU relations and trade with the Middle East, the U.S. and Latin America, as well as being a FCO adviser during the UK Presidency of the European Union. Miriam also acted as lead EU negotiator for the WTO telecoms agreement and led the services negotiations for EU bilateral and WTO accession agreements on e-commerce as well as on energy, postal and construction services.

Miriam is currently a Non-Executive Member of the Board and Chair of the Audit Committee of UBS Limited and a member of the International Advisory Board of the Instituto de Empresa in Spain. She previously served four years as the Honorary President of Canning House.

Miriam is also the Founder and Chair of Inspiring Girls, a charity dedicated to raising the aspirations of young girls around world by connecting school girls and female role models. The campaign has been launched so far in Serbia, Spain, Italy, Brazil and Chile, with several more countries in the pipeline for 2018 and beyond.

A former lawyer, Sahar Hashemi founded Coffee Republic, the UK’s first US style coffee bar chain with her brother and built it into one of the UK’s most recognised high street brands with 110 bars and a turnover of £30m.

She left the day-to-day management of Coffee Republic in 2001 and published a bestselling book, Anyone Can Do It, Building Coffee Republic from our kitchen table, which has been translated into 6 languages and is 2nd-highest selling book on entrepreneurship after Richard Branson.

In 2005 she founded Skinny Candy, a brand of sugar free sweets which was sold to confectionery conglomerate Glisten PLC in 2007.

In June 2012 Sahar was awarded an OBE for services to the UK economy and to charity.

She is currently co- chair of the Government Scale Up Taskforce and is actively involved in the roll-out of Change Please, a social enterprise that trains and hires homeless people to run coffee carts. She is finishing her third book, “Start Up Forever, 10 ways to behave like a start up when you’re not a start up” based on her experiences of working with large organisations.

Rachel Lomax was appointed a Non-Executive Director in November 2010. She has 40 years’ experience in policy making, at the heart of the British economy. Rachel served as Deputy Governor of the Bank of England from 2003 until 2008. Before joining the Bank, she was Permanent Secretary of three government departments, including the Department of Work and Pensions and the Welsh Office as well as the Department for Transport. Her earlier career was spent at the Treasury, the Cabinet Office and the World Bank. Rachel is also a Non-Executive Director of HSBC.

Rebecca Long-Bailey entered Parliament in May 2015 representing the Salford and Eccles Constituency. Before becoming an MP, Rebecca worked as a solicitor for a number of leading national law firms based in Manchester specialising in commercial real estate, commercial contracts and healthcare law.

In September 2015, she was appointed Shadow Exchequer Secretary. In June 2016, she was promoted to Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury and in February 2017 was made Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

During her time as Shadow Secretary of State, Rebecca began the development of Labour’s Industrial Strategy “Richer Britain Richer Lives” which was published during the 2017 General Election. The strategy sets out a roadmap to rebuild and transform the British economy centred around three pillars: national missions to tackle the biggest challenges facing the modern world; cross-cutting policies to create a fertile ground for business activity; and cooperation between employers, workers and government at a sector level to strengthen existing industrial strengths and cultivate new ones. Rebecca is now undertaking round table discussions with business and industry in all British regions to delve down into the key requirements of businesses in order to generate and revitalise regional growth and prosperity.

John McDonnell was born in Liverpool and raised in Norfolk. Throughout his time in Parliament John has championed the cause of tax justice, hosting the Parliamentary launch of the Tax Justice Network in 2003.

Prior to 1981, John worked in the Trade Union movement. In 1981, he was elected to the Greater London Council as the member for Hayes and Harlington. John became Chair of Finance, responsible for the GLC’s £3billion budget and building good working relations with the City of London, alongside other employer organisations. He later worked as Head of Policy at Camden Council and was Chief Executive of the Association of London Government before being elected in 1997 as the Labour MP for Hayes & Harlington, West London.

In September 2015, under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, he was appointed Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer. As Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell has been heading up the development of Labour’s New Economics programme, building a consensus around the need for more long-term, patient investment from Government. As part of that work, he has been touring the UK holding lectures and seminars to involve people in the conversation.

Since becoming Shadow Chancellor, John has published the Labour Party’s Tax Transparency and Enforcement Programme – the most comprehensive effort ever made by any UK government to tackle tax avoidance. During the 2017 general election John produced a fully costed economic programme detailing the taxation and spending decisions Labour intend to take in government, the most comprehensive costing exercise provided by any political party at an election in recent times.

Chi Onwurah is a British Member of Parliament representing Newcastle upon Tyne Central and is also Shadow Minister for Industrial Strategy Science & Innovation.

From Sept 2015-October 2016 Chi was Shadow Minister for Culture and the Digital Economy. From Jan 2013 – Sept 2015 Chi was Shadow Cabinet Office Minister leading on cyber security, social entrepreneurship, civil contingency, open government and transparency. From Oct 2010 – Jan 2013 Chi was Shadow Minister for Innovation, Science & Digital Infrastructure working closely with the Science and business community, with industry on Broadband issues, and on the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill. Chi continues to encourage women in STEM.

Prior to Chi’s election to Parliament in May 2010 she worked as Head of Telecom’s Technology at the UK regulator Ofcom focussing on the implications for competition and regulation of the services and technologies associated with Next Generation Networks.

Prior to Ofcom, Chi was a Partner in Hammatan Ventures, a US technology consultancy, developing the GSM markets in Nigeria and South Africa. Previously she was Director of Market Development with Teligent, a Global Wireless Local Loop operator and Director of Product Strategy at GTS. She has also worked for Cable & Wireless and Nortel as Engineer, Project and Product Manager in the UK and France

Chi is a Chartered Engineer with a BEng in Electrical Engineering from Imperial College London and an MBA from Manchester Business School. She was born in Wallsend and attended Kenton Comprehensive School in Newcastle, where she was elected the school’s ‘MP’ in mock elections aged 17.

Samantha is the co-founder of Open Bionics, a multi award-winning Bristol-based robotics company developing affordable and stylish bionic hands. Samantha has an exceptional business acumen and brings valuable experience in project management, marketing, and business development. Samantha has elevated Open Bionics to a globally recognised brand, secured game-changing partnerships with Disney and Eidos Montreal, and built a team of exceptional creative talent working to bring science fiction to life.

In 2005 Lord Price joined the John Lewis Partnership Board taking on responsibility for strategy as Development Director. In 2013 it was announced that in addition to his position at Waitrose he would become Deputy Chairman of the John Lewis Partnership.

He has been Chairman of Business in the Community since 2011 and The Prince’s Countryside Fund since 2010. He also sits on the Board of Directors of Channel 4 and the Consumer Goods Forum.

He was appointed Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in the 2014 New Year’s Honours for his work with Business in the Community and The Prince’s Countryside Fund. He is also Life Patron of GroceryAid.

In October 2015 Lord Price announced he was to leave the John Lewis Partnership in April 2016 after 10 years fulfilling the role of Managing Director of Waitrose. Suggestions have been made that Mark may apply for the chairman position of Channel 4.

In February 2016 he became the Minister of State for Trade.

Fleur Sexton is Businesswoman of the Year 2017 and Managing Director and co-founder of multi-ward winning PET-Xi Training, whose relentlessly upbeat teams and innovative programmes deliver impact, inspiration, productivity and value across the UK.

Fleur is dedicated to breaking barriers and improving chances, investing much of her time and 10% of profits into these activities, campaigning to Government and employers to invest in skills, motivating women to fulfil their potential and running the PET-Xi Foundation which raises money for young people nationwide.

A board member of Coventry & Warwickshire Champions, Chamber of Commerce and The NSPCC Business Group, Fleur is a married mother of 3, tweets as @FleurSexton and can be found at fleursexton.com.

Alok Sharma was appointed Minister of State for Employment at the Department of Work and Pensions on 9 January 2018.

He was Minister of State for Housing and Planning, for the Department for Communities and Local Government from 13 June 2017 to 9 January 2018.

Alok was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 17 July 2016 to 13 June 2017.

He has served as a member of the Commons Treasury select committee, a member of the Commons Science and Technology select committee, a Parliamentary Private Secretary at the Treasury and from 2012 to 2015 as a Conservative Party Vice Chairman. Alok was appointed in 2016 as the Prime Minister’s Infrastructure Envoy to India.

He also served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Rt Hon Oliver Letwin MP, the former Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster who had overall responsibility for the Cabinet Office. He was elected as the Conservative MP for Reading West in May 2010.

Matthew Taylor has been Chief Executive of the RSA since November 2006. During this time the Society has substantially increased its output of research and innovation, has provided new routes to support charitable initiatives of its 29,000 Fellows and has developed a global profile as a platform for ideas. In July 2017 Matthew published the report ‘Good Work’; an independent review into modern employment, which was commissioned by the UK Prime Minister.

Prior to this appointment, Matthew was Chief Adviser on Political Strategy to the Prime Minister. Previous roles include Labour Party Director of Policy and Deputy General Secretary and Chief Executive of the ippr the UK’s leading left of centre think tank.

Matthew is a regular media performer having appeared several times on the Today Programme, The Daily Politics and Newsnight. He had written and presented several Radio Four documentaries and is a panellist on the programme Moral Maze. He has posted over a thousand times on his RSA blog site and tweets as @RSAMatthew.

A corporate employment law solicitor by profession, Chuka studied English Law and French Law at the University of Manchester and the University of Burgundy, followed by Nottingham Law School.

Following his election to Parliament, in June 2010 he was elected to serve on the Treasury Select Committee and in October 2010 was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to Ed Miliband, Leader of the Labour Party. In May 2011, Chuka became Shadow Minister for Small Business and Enterprise in Labour’s Shadow Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) team.

In October 2011, Chuka was appointed to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills. Chuka held this post until September 2015.

Chuka is currently Chair of Vote Leave Watch, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Social Integration, and Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on EU Relations.

Anna Edwards is a co-anchor of “Bloomberg Daybreak Europe” on Bloomberg TV and a frequent host on Bloomberg Radio.

She began her business news career in 2003 at CNBC and has also freelanced for CNN in London. Before working in TV Anna was an equity analyst at UBS and qualified as a Chartered Management Accountant at Pricewaterhouse Coopers.

Anna has interviewed business leaders, politicians and key economy figures including Jes Staley, Axel Weber, Richard Branson, Michael O’Leary, Martin Sorrell, Carolyn McCall, Bob Dudley, Jeremy Corbyn, Christine Lagarde, Bill Gross, Joseph Stiglitz, Wilbur Ross, Nouriel Roubini and hundreds more.

Bronwen Maddox is the Director of the Institute for Government, a leading independent think tank, which works to promote better government by focusing on how it is led, how decisions are made and how it is scrutinised.

From 2010-16 Bronwen was Editor and Chief Executive of Prospect, a leading monthly current affairs magazine. Prior to that she was Chief Foreign Commentator, Foreign Editor and US Editor of The Times, supervising its award-winning coverage of September 11, 2001. She was previously at the Financial Times, where she ran award-winning investigations and wrote economics editorials.

Before becoming a journalist, she was an investment analyst in the City and a Director of Kleinwort Benson Securities, where she ran its highly-rated team analysing world media stocks.

She has a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from St John’s College, Oxford. She is a member of the Governing Council of the Ditchley Foundation which fosters transatlantic relations, and a non-executive board member of the Law Commission, the public body which recommends reform of laws in England and Wales.