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In the run up to the summit we will be asking participants who they would most like to hear from during summit week, so the list of speakers will be changing.
Confirmed speakers so far are as follows.
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Vince Cable
Vince Cable was born in 1943. He was educated at Nunthorpe Grammar School in York and read Natural Science and Economics at Cambridge University, where he was President of the Union, after which he studied for a PhD at Glasgow University.
Vince worked as Treasury Finance Officer for the Kenyan Government between 1966 and 1968. From 1968 to 1974 he lectured in Economics at Glasgow University. He worked as a First Secretary in the Diplomatic Service in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (1974-1976). He was then Deputy Director of the Overseas Development Institute, which included a period working as a Special Adviser to the then Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, John Smith MP. From 1983 to 1990, Vince worked as Special Adviser on Economic Affairs for the Commonwealth Secretary General, Sir Sonny Ramphal.
From 1990, Vince Cable worked for Shell International and in 1995 became the company’s Chief Economist. He was appointed head of the economics programme at Chatham House and since becoming an MP in 1997, was appointed a fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford and was a visiting research fellow at the Centre for the Study of Global Governance at the London School of Economics.
He joined the Liberal Democrat Shadow Cabinet in October 1999 as spokesman on Trade and Industry after a spell as a junior Treasury spokesman. Until he was appointed to the Coalition Government as Business Secretary in May 2010, he had been the Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor from November 2003 and from March 2006 Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats.
He is married to Rachel with three children by his late wife, Olympia.
Vince Cable will be speaking about small businesses and growth.
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Nick Hurd
Nick Hurd MP is Minister for Civil Society.
He was elected as the Member of Parliament for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner in May 2010, having previously served as the MP for Ruislip-Northwood since 2005.
Before the General Election in 2010, he was Shadow Minister for Charity, Social Enterprise and Volunteering. He was on the board of the Conservative Party's Quality of Life Policy Commission, chairing the Climate Change Group (2005-2007) and served on the joint parliamentary committee that scrutinised the draft Climate Change Bill. In 2006, Nick successfully took through Parliament a Private Members Bill, the Sustainable Communities Act, which was supported by over ninety national organisations.
Before his career in politics, Nick spent 18 years in business including five years representing a British bank in Brazil.
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Andrew Cave
Andrew Cave is the Head of External Affairs, UK for the Federation of Small Businesses. He also serves as chief spokesperson for the organisation. Andrew previously set up and ran the FSB’s Brussels office. Andrew has written extensively on issues affecting small businesses and, until recently, had a regular column in the Director Magazine.
Prior to the FSB, Andrew worked as a campaigns adviser to the Conservative Party and has advised political parties in Eastern Europe, the Balkans and Africa. Andrew previously worked as an adviser in the European Parliament, specialising in the accession of Central and Eastern European countries to the EU.
Andrew will be speaking about entrepreneurs from all corners of society creating businesses and jobs.
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Carry Somers
A pioneer in Fair Trade fashion, Carry Somers established Pachacuti in 1992 after an MA in Native American Studies. On a research trip to Ecuador she was shocked by the inequitable trading patterns where intermediaries made all the profits. On returning to the UK she read Anita Roddick’s autobiography and decided that, if one woman could have such a positive impact on the beauty industry, there was nothing to stop her doing the same within the fashion industry. Pachacuti's range of clothing, accessories and Panama hats are now stocked in shops around the world, providing income for over 1000 Andean artisans working within community groups, co-operatives and women's associations.
Carry has continued her pioneering work and in 2009 Pachacuti became the first company in the world to be Certified Fair Trade by the World Fair Trade Organisation after being audited against the Sustainable Fair Trade Management System. The certification guarantees that the company has a proven set of practices, procedures and processes that demonstrate social, economic and environmental responsibility. Pachacuti is now a pilot for the EU Geo Fair Trade Project which involves the creation of social, economic and environmental indicators based on geographic data, and aims at 100% transparency throughout the supply chain.
In recognition of Pachacuti's work, in 2011 the company was awarded the Observer Ethical Award in the fashion category and has also been awarded Best Performance in Sustainable Luxury in the fashion & accessories category. Additionally, Pachacuti was Highly Commended in both the Small Company of the Year and the Sustainable Supply Chain categories of the BITC National Awards for Excellence.
In addition to her work at Pachacuti, Carry co-founded Clean Slate, the UK's first Fair Trade School Uniform company. Carry has appeared on Radio 4s Women's Hour, co-wrote Working Ethically published by A&C Black and has met the Queen in recognition of her significant contribution to British business.
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Jim Dinnage
Jim Dinnage is a co-owner of Seacourt ltd, with his sons Nicholas and Gareth. Seacourt has been described by an independent US print expert as being “in his opinion at least 10 years ahead (environmentally) than any other printer in the world, including the Japanese”.
All Jim’s working life has been in the printing industry, working in the sheet fed litho, sheet fed letterpress, heat set web offset, gravure, silk screen, trade binding and trade origination sectors. Jim joined Seacourt as a salesman 20 years ago and has worked there as a manager then Director and is now Chairman.
Jim was responsible for Seacourt becoming a Waterless offset printer and for Seacourt’s Zero waste to landfill policy.
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Carol Sherriff
Carol is co-hosting the Summit. She is a founder Director of Wilson Sherriff which offers facilitation, research and consultation and learning and development services. As well as working with companies and public bodies across Europe, Carol has trained facilitators, coaches and managers in Europe, North America, New Zealand and Asia. With Simon Wilson she co-hosted the recent ‘Riders on the Storm’ virtual summitand delivers virtual learning sets and master classes on a range of business and professional topics.
Carol is a visiting lecturer in business strategy and knowledge management at two universities. She is author of ‘Metaphors at Work’ in Creating a Culture of Collaboration, and ‘The Hero’s Journey’ in Working with Difficult Groups, both edited by Sandor Schuman. Carol contributes to the Big Society in a number of ways. She is a Board member of international and local not-for-profit groups. She has been Chair of an NHS Trust and provides pro bono services to a number of charities each year.
Carol presents a session on ‘Small businesses on a mission for growth - what works?’.
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Carol Black
PROFESSOR DAME CAROL BLACK is the UK National Director for Health and Work, Chairman of the Nuffield Trust, Chairman of the Governance Board of the new Centre for Workforce Intelligence, President of the British Lung Foundation, and Pro-Chancellor of the University of Bristol. She is currently co-chairing an independent review of sickness absence on behalf of the government.
She is a past-President of the Royal College of Physicians, and has recently stepped down as Chairman of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges. The Centre she established at the Royal Free Hospital, London is internationally renowned in the field of connective tissue diseases. Since the early-1990s, she has worked at board level in a number of organisations, including the Royal Free Hospital Hampstead NHS Trust, the Health Foundation, the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement, and the Imperial College Healthcare Charity, and recently chaired the U.K. Health Honours Committee.
Dame Carol’s session will focus on how small businesses can build healthy workplaces.
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Simon Wilson
Simon is co-hosting the Summit. He is a founder Director of Wilson Sherriff which offers facilitation, research and consultation and learning and development services. As well as working with companies and public bodies across Europe, Simon has trained managers, coaches and consultants in Europe, North America, New Zealand and Asia. With Carol Sherriff he co-hosted the recent ‘Riders on the Storm’ virtual summit for facilitators, coaches and consultants. Simon has chaired two not-for-profit trustee boards and is a volunteer member of an international professional association.
Simon is co-author with Carol Sherriff of ‘Metaphors at Work’ in Creating a Culture of Collaboration, and ‘The Hero’s Journey’ in Working with Difficult Groups.
Simon’s session will be talking about 'Riders on the storm: how small business owners can look after their business, their staff and themselves'
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Iqbal Wahhab
Iqbal Wahhab was born in Bangladesh and came to Britain at the age of eight months. He was educated in London and is a graduate of the London School of Economics. After working as a journalist in the national press for three years, in 1991 he set up his own PR firm which specialised in food, drink and restaurants, and then in 1994 he launched Tandoori magazine.
He sold out of the magazine to launch the multi award winning Cinnamon Club in 2001 - a restaurant and bar aimed to change the way we view Indian dining. In 2003 he co-authored the Cinnamon Club Cookbook, and in 2005 opened the highly successful Roast, a British restaurant and bar in Borough Market.
Among many other roles, he is Chair of the government's independent Ethnic Minority Advisory Group, and Chair, The Mayor's Fund for London Business Club.
Iqbal received an OBE in the 2010 New Years Honours List for public service and services to the hospitality industry and was this year also made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
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Sharon Ward
For the past five years I have been the corporate responsibility manager for Logistik. Our work is based around creativity and that is our principal armoury in developing ways to engage the team in Sustainability. Starting small and trying things out has proved a strong way to find what works well in a fast paced agency environment. Our work is based around delivering a creative legacy in the regions we work with; helping others to have what we take for granted.
We are Logistik. We're an integrated design and communications agency with bases in London and Leeds. .
We provide inspirational and engaging live communication events for some of the biggest businesses in the corporate world. We provide design, branding and web services to both public and private sector clients and we pride ourselves on building lasting partnerships with our clients, taking time to understand our clients, their market, their culture, and the challenges they face.
We're also committed to creating a positive and sustainable legacy, by taking an active role in our community and by managing and reducing our environmental impacts. In 2011 our efforts were recognised with a Businesss in the Community Big Tick award for Small Business of the Year, and we were also shortlisted for a national Award for Excellence in this category. We're proud to be supporting organisations from our local areas to promote enterprise and sustainability.
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Martyn Smith
After 25 years' experience in the Financial Services and Corporate Finance sectors, Martyn is working closely with the rest of the Pro Bono Bio team. a new pharmaceutical business, to ensure their humanitarian mission is tightly tied to the commercial success of the business. He leads the Humanitarian Division ensuring Pro Bono Bio delivers on its promise to provide free medicines to a new charity, Medicines for Africa, which he is helping to form.
Medicines for Africa is focused on improving healthcare in the East African Community. He is also helping to ensure the business understands the medical research and development priorities for Africa and exploring alternative funding sources to establish how Pro Bono Bio can best support those needs. The first area of focus is tuberculosis which is a top five World Health Organisation priority. To find out more please visit www.probonobio.com.
Martyn will be speaking about how humanitarian thinking is contributing to plans for business growth.
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Richard Blundel
Richard is Senior Lecturer in Enterprise Development, Open University Business School's Centre for Innovation, Knowledge and Enterprise. He is also an Associate of the Centre for Public Leadership and Social Enterprise. Richard edits the Quarterly Survey of Small Business in Britain with Emeritus Professor Colin Gray. He is a Board member of the Institute of Small Business and Entrepreneurship, and a member of ACCA's UK SME Forum.
Richard is the co-author of a new book Exploring Entrepreneurship: practices and perspectives (Oxford University Press 2011) and is developing a new entrepreneurship course for the Open University's MBA programme. Richard's research has examined small firm growth processes and the role of network relationships, with a particular focus on artisanal food producers and small manufacturing firms. He is working with colleagues to research the different ways that SMEs respond to contemporary social and environmental challenges, and to draw out the implications for policy and practice.
Richard will be talking about 'the shape of small business'.
