Rt Hon Dr Vince Cable MP
Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills

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.

Mark Prisk MP
Minister of State for Business and Enterprise

Mark Prisk was appointed as minister for Business and Enterprise in May 2010, in the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills. His parliamentary interests include small business and enterprise, urban planning and regeneration, as well as defence and foreign affairs.

In Decemeber 2005, he was made Shadow Spokesman for Business & Enterprise and this role was confirmed in July 2007 with a wider brief on Enterprise, Deregulation and Competition. Mark is a Chartered Surveyor by profession; he worked in the property and economic development markets, and ran his own business for ten years before entering politics.

Peter Jones CBE

Peter Jones CBE is one of Britain’s most well-known and respected entrepreneurs. In 2009, Peter was made a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) for services to business, enterprise and young people. He is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of a portfolio of businesses ranging from telecoms and leisure to publishing, media and recruitment. In 2005, Peter appeared as a panellist on Dragons’ Den and has many investments from the show including, Red Letter Days, Wonderland Magazine, The Generating Company, and the show’s most successful investment, Reggae Reggae Sauce. From ITV’s Tycoon, Peter added Be-Eco, Hair Rehab and Bladez Toyz to his portfolio. Peter’s book of the same name, Tycoon, is a UK bestseller.

Peter has spent a large amount of his time focusing his attention on unlocking Britain’s young entrepreneurial talent by revolutionising enterprise education in Britain and he successfully launched the National Enterprise Academy in 2009. The National Enterprise Academy is the first-ever UK educational organisation dedicated solely to enterprise and entrepreneurship and training the next generation of aspiring entrepreneurs aged between 16-19.

Michael Hayman

Michael is co-founder of the communications consultancy Seven Hills, which specialises in campaigns focusing on entrepreneurship. He is also co-founder of StartUp Britain, a national initiative for early stage enterprise, which was recently launched by the Prime Minister. Michael is Chairman of Entrepreneurs at Coutts & Co and a columnist for Real Business.

Michael also holds non executive positions with the cities of Westminster and Edinburgh, and serves as a commissioner on the enquiry into the future of cities and local government finance.

He is listed in Debrett’s People of Today and is an ambassador for the Courvoisier Future 500.

Joe Cohen

Joe Cohen is founder and CEO of Seatwave – he started the company in May 2006, and launched it in February 2007. Seatwave has since become a market leader in this emerging space.

Joe brings broad experience of the consumer internet space, having led three start-ups in the past ten years.

Before founding Seatwave, Joe started and ran the international division of Match.com, (2001 until 2006) the global leader in online dating. As Chief Operating Officer at Match.com he oversaw the development and operations of the Match business in 35 countries and 18 languages. Joe became a thought-leader on global dating and consumer internet services and offered commentary and perspective to the BBC, CNBC, CNN, The New York Times, Reuters, Business Week and many others.

Previously, from 1999 until 2001, Joe was Vice President and General Manager of Ticketmaster.com for Europe where he was one of the pioneers of the European online ticketing industry. Prior to Ticketmaster, Joe worked for Citysearch where he was New Markets General Manager, responsible for the roll-out of the online city guide business in 20 cities in the US and Northern Europe.

Martyn Dawes

Martyn is an award winning entrepreneur and CEO with a proven track record in delivering high growth and impressive shareholder returns.

He is the Founder of Coffee Nation Ltd. Coffee Nation successfully created an entirely new market category of branded self-serve coffee bars selling gourmet coffee-to-go in high footfall retail locations.

Martyn led the business as CEO from start-up in 1997 through to 2007 and remained on the board until the business was sold in 2008 at which point the company operated from some 560 locations across the UK in premium quality retail outlets. Long term contracts include Tesco, Welcome Break, Moto, Esso, Sainsbury and Somerfield.

Coffee Nation won the Sunday Times/Virgin Atlantic Fast Track Award for Innovation in 2006 and Martyn was recognised as Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year, South Region, Consumer Products & Services in 2005. Coffee Nation was ranked as one of the UK’s top 100 fastest growing privately owned companies in 2005 & 2006.

The company was sold to Milestone Capital Partners for £23m in March 2008 and on to Whitbread/Costa for £59.5m in 2011.

He is Chairman of the London Westminster Chapter of Young Presidents Organisation for 2011/12.

Luke Johnson

Luke Johnson author of ‘Start It Up’, a how-to-book looking at why running your own business is easier than you think, is the Chairman of Risk Capital Partners, a private equity firm he founded in 2001. For six years until 2010 he served as Chairman of Channel 4 Television, a major British broadcaster.

He is Chairman/part owner of the restaurant business Giraffe with 40 branches, and Chairman/owner of Patisserie Valerie, Druckers and Baker & Spice, three chains of over 70 retail patisseries. He recently took control of Bread Ltd, Britain’s largest artisan baker, including the retail bakery Gail’s.

As Chairman and majority shareholder of Signature Restaurants he built up the Strada branch restaurant chain and owned various classic London restaurants including The Ivy, Le Caprice and J Sheekey.

Previously he was Chairman of PizzaExpress PLC. During his involvement the share price rose from 40p to over 800p. In the 1980s he worked as a stockbroking analyst for Kleinworts. He co-founded the largest UK chain of dental surgeries, Integrated Dental Holdings, which was sold for over £100m after ten years of ownership.

He wrote a business column in The Sunday Telegraph between 1998 and 2006, and now writes a weekly essay in The Financial Times. In 2009 he became the Chairman of The Royal Society of Arts.

He graduated in medicine from Magdalen College, Oxford University.

James Averdieck

James Averdieck is the founder of Gü Chocolate Puds. Spotting a gap in a seemingly overcrowded sector, Gü has taken on deeply entrenched competition and won highly coveted supermarket shelf space.

James began his career at a strategy consultancy in Europe, the US and the Middle East. From there he joined Safeway and then St Ivel, where he learned how to sell. He also got his first taste for desserts, running their own label business. James then moved to Brussels to establish a European operation, and soon became a convert to Belgian gastronomy. He saw the opportunity to marry high quality chocolate patisserie with efficient supermarket distribution.

After a year back in London, James left to pursue his chocolate dream. He pitched his idea to a specialist supplier of handmade patisserie, and Gü was born – with a mission to use superior raw materials to deliver uncompromisingly good products. Combining his drive to produce a high quality product with modern, luxury packaging and an innovative approach to marketing has marked Gü out in the market. Their use of PR and early adoption of on-line tools, along with regularly giving produce away free established the brand in consumers’ minds where competitors relied on conventional marketing and store position.

Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones

Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones is, in his words, ‘a poor boy, done good’.  He was born in Jamaica and following his parents move to the UK in the 50s, was raised in inner city Birmingham.  Unqualified but ambitious and persistent, he talked his way into television becoming a producer/director for the BBC and is credited with bringing many of the top celebrity chefs to the small screen including Gordon Ramsay, Antony Worrall-Thompson, and James Martin.

Wilfred subsequently fulfilled a lifelong ambition in purchasing a small farm in Devon, and has been responsible for one of the most successful food companies of recent times in the UK with his own range of meat products under The Black Farmer® label.

Emma Harrison

Emma Harrison is the chairman, owner and founder of “A4e” (Action for employment). Emma founded A4e in 1991 and now employs 4000 staff across 250 centres worldwide – it is the principal supplier and prime contractor to governments of services such as the Flexible New Deal, Legal Aid Helpline, Social care, Education for Offenders, Business Enterprise and Youth Vocational centres.

An article from said, “Over the past 20 years Emma Harrison has grown A4e from a small, Sheffield-based training business to one of the largest social purpose companies in the UK, helping unemployed people back into work.”

Paul Lindley

Paul Lindley came up with the idea for his organic children’s food and drink company, Ella’s Kitchen, while Deputy Managing Director at kid’s TV brand Nickelodeon. In 2004, he left his job to explore the worlds of retail, food manufacturing and fast-moving consumer goods, discovering a gap in the market for his business. Two years later, Ella’s Kitchen hit the supermarket shelves, and Paul has never looked back.

The company has grown extremely quickly, catching the zeitgeist of the times, and this year, families will spend more than £30 million on Ella’s Kitchen foods. In December 2009, Ella’s Kitchen was recognised as the 9th fastest growing private company in the Sunday Times Fast Track 100, while in June this year it was voted the Best Food and Drink Brand in the 2010 Grocer Gold Awards, beating giants Hovis, Walkers, Doritos and Cadburys.

Kamal Ahmed

Kamal Ahmed joined the Telegraph Media Group in September 2009 as Business Editor, Sunday Telegraph, with responsibility for the business section of the paper.

Before that, Kamal was Group Director, Communications, at the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the regulator charged with upholding and enforcing equality and human rights legislation in Britain.

Before joining the Commission in 2007, Kamal was Executive Editor, News, at The Observer with responsibility for the news section of the paper. He was a member of the senior team that developed and re-launched The Observer as a mid-size full colour Sunday, a redesign that won Newspaper of the Year at the British Press Awards in 2005, the highest award for any newspaper. Between 2000 and 2004 he was Political Editor of The Observer, covering Tony Blair’s government, the September 11 attacks, the run-up to the Iraq war and the death of the Government scientist, David Kelly.

Will Butler-Adams

Will Butler-Adams is managing director of Brompton Bicycles. He was brought up in Yorkshire and studied Mechanical Engineering at Newcastle University. He spent 5 years working in the chemical industry, and has some experience of the motor industry, having worked for Nissan and Calsonic.

Will started at Brompton in 2002 and took over as MD in 2008. Over that period the company has shown robust growth. Today Brompton is the largest bike manufacturer in the UK and the most popular bicycle brand in London.

Melody Hossaini

Melody Hossaini has reached over a million young people in over 100 countries. She is one of the leading youth sector figures in the UK with an equally strong profile globally. With 13 years experience in the youth sector, Melody became Founder and Director of InspirEngage International in 2009, with an end objective of improving the lives of children and young people.

InspirEngage’s innovative services, developed and delivered by Melody, are the first of its kind in several parts of the world. Her work is fuelled by the inspiring young people she meets.

Melody beat 75,000 applicants to become one of the candidates on BBC 1’s ‘The Apprentice’ and the first ever Social Entrepreneur on the show. She was described by Lord Sugar as “a woman of exceptional ability”.

Her passions are Social Justice, Young people and Enterprise. She has lived in 4 countries and speaks 5 different languages.

Paloma Vivanco

London based businesswoman and Apprentice candidate- Series 6, Paloma Vivanco, started her working life frying donuts in Donut King.

At the age of 21 Paloma embarked on her own company but since then moved on into the Telecommunications industry. Paloma has worked for some of the biggest Telecoms providers in senior marketing, product and commercial positions including: Telecom New Zealand, 3 Mobile, British Telecom, Vodafone Group and Virgin Mobile. Paloma’s wealth of mobile & telecoms experience is now being used as a consultant to tier 1 mobile operators around the globe.

Paloma’s entrepreneurial drive has also seen her launch a new venture – a fine fibre Alpaca knitwear company called INACIA. INACIA is already stocked in London boutiques but Paloma is looking to expand the operation across Europe where she is getting new enquiries.

Claire Young

Claire Young, 32, is the straight talking, no-nonsense business woman who is well known for reaching the final of series 4 of BBC1’s The Apprentice (2008) watched by over 11 million viewers. Since then she has worked non-stop setting up numerous business ventures including www.schoolspeakers.co.uk and www.girlsoutloud.org.uk. She is also passionate about promoting entrepreneurship and enterprise to our younger generation. Claire works ‘hands on’ in schools (primary through to university age), and across multiple government organisations, helping students to raise aspirations, take off the blinkers and think big!

Claire supports the National Apprenticeship Service by heading up their Young Ambassador Network and works in partnership with the Peter Jones Foundation supporting Tenner Tycoon and Global Entrepreneurship Week. Recently she met with the Prime Minister for roundtable talks and has been invited to join the House of Lords Youth Unemployment taskforce. Claire has been nominated for the Queen’s Enterprise Award 2011 and is also delighted to represent the UK in The European Network of Female Entrepreneurship Ambassadors.

Now a successful young businesswoman she hopes that her story will motivate others to realise that with hard work, drive and determination anything is possible.

Dr Shibby Robati

Originally from Leeds, but now based in London, Shibby Robati is a fully qualified doctor of over 5 years as well as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh.

As well as being a candidate on Series 6 of The Apprentice, Shibby has set up numerous successful business ventures focussed largely on the medical sector. These ventures have ranged from recruitment and training courses to the sale of bespoke medical education tools targeted specifically for children to pharmaceutical and medical device companies across the world. As a result, he has turned over nearly a quarter of a million pounds in the last few years.

A self-confessed ‘workaholic with a social life’, Shibby manages to juggle busy full-time work in the surgical world with that of his entrepreneurial pursuits. He is also quoted of saying, ‘If you have a job to do, give it to a busy person’ and ‘There’s no short-cut to hard work.’

His passions also include a wide range of sports, learning and teaching on both medical, entrepenurial and philosophical issues.

Salem Samhoud

Salem Samhoud is a successful entrepreneur and founder of his own consultancy firm &Samhoud. Samhoud started his enterprise with his vision in mind: to achieve breakthroughs by inspiring and interconnecting people. Samhoud believes that to truly achieve change, the ability to connect and to inspire people is key.

Prior to founding &Samhoud, Samhoud started and owned his own transportation company and was a leading consultant in the area of public transportation. Samhoud also worked as marketing manager for Unilever in Africa. Samhoud works as a top coach, facilitator and consultant in change and strategy and has consulted a large number of prominent companies and organisations, including the Dutch Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management, AMB Generali Gruppe, Swiss Life, Rabobank, Achmea/Eureko, Municipality of Barcelona, Dutch National Railways, Corporate Express, Interpolis.

Samhoud is the author of various books and publications. His most recent book Kus de Visie Wakker (Kissing the Vision Awake), 2007, reveals the keys to rendering organisational success through implementing a vision. Other bestsellers are Plezier en Prestatie (Fun & Achievement), 2003, about how organisations can increase their success by keeping their employees happy, and Eigen Doel (Your own Goal),1998, on the secrets of success, quick choices and being bold enough to say “no”.

Fazle Naqvi

Fazle Naqvi is a co-founder of Brand Calculus, a QSR franchising company and the India master franchisee for Booster Juice, the Canadian Smoothies major. As the Chairman and Managing Director of Brand Calculus, he directs the strategy of the company and helps to sharpen its supply chain and marketing.

Prior to this, Fazle played pivotal roles at the Landmark Group, Co-founded Indus League Clothing Limited, and was a member of the original management team at Madura Garments (Madura Garments was a part of the British multinational Coats Viyella plc). He has been a part of the creation & development of some of India’s best known apparel brands including – Scullers, Indigo Nation, Louis Philippe, Van Heusen, Allen Solly and Peter England. Having worked in the fashion retail space most of his working life, he is now in the unchartered territory (for him) of the restaurant business.

Rick Heinick

Rick Heinick is corporate vice president, Global Human Resources and Transformation at Bausch + Lomb. He joined the company in January 2011.

He has responsibility for building systems and processes to align and energize B+L’s global workforce while developing a culture of high performance. He also is responsible for helping lead the company’s transformation.

Rick most recently served as a senior partner with Schaffer Consulting, where he advised executives on organizational transformation and people issues. The core of his work involved counseling executive teams to accelerate business results and developing an internal capacity for continuous improvement. A member of Schaffer’s leadership team, Heinick was an advisor to a number of multinational companies in the health care sector during his 15-year tenure with the firm, including Bausch + Lo.

Rajeeb Dey

Rajeeb Dey is CEO of Enternships.com – a jobs portal connecting talented students and graduates to ‘entrepreneurial work placements’ in start-ups and small businesses worldwide. He was awarded the “02 X Young Entrepreneur of the Year” in 2009 for Enternships and has been recognised as one of the ‘rising stars’ of the Business World by Spectator Business Magazine.

Most recently he was one of the Co-Founders of the StartUp Britain campaign – an initiative supported by HM Government which aims to celebrate, inspire and accelerate entrepreneurship in the UK.

Rajeeb is also a Trustee of UnLtd – the Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs, a Channel 4 Education Advisory Board Member and on the UK India Business Council Next Generation Advisory Board.

David Erdal

David Erdal has written a book for our times. Offering inspiration and vision in the wake of financial Armageddon, it is the happy story of ordinary people who share the ownership of the businesses where they work and control their own destinies. The enterprises come in all sizes from small companies to large corporations such as John Lewis. The book contains case studies and interviews with people whose inspiring stories of success fly in the face of economists’ standard predictions.

David Erdal has worked for over 20 years designing and leading the transference of ownership of companies to employees. He has a BA in Chinese from Oxford, an MBA from Harvard and a PhD from St Andrews. At a time when the ‘normal’ corporate economy has been badly shaken, Beyond the Corporation – Humanity Working is a book to weigh in the balance.

Doug Richard

Doug Richard is a successful entrepreneur with 20 years’ experience in the development and leadership of technology and software ventures. Doug featured in the first two TV series of Dragons’ Den, He is the Founder and Vice-Chairman of the Cambridge Angels and Chairman of the Conservative Party Small Business Task Force. In 2006 Doug was an Honorary Recipient of The Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion. In 2007, Doug became a fellow of the RSA.

Doug has always been a champion for startups and small businesses. In 2008, after teaching a one-day class in entrepreneurship, Doug decided to found an enterprise dedicated to helping people start better, more profitable, businesses. Since 2008 he has taught thousands in face-to-face and online classes across the UK through his social enterprise School for Startups.

Julie Meyer

Julie Meyer is one of the leading champions for entrepreneurship in Europe. With over 20 years investment and advisory experience helping start-up businesses, she is the well known founder & CEO of Ariadne Capital, co- founder and Managing Partner of the Ariadne Capital Entrepreneurs (ACE) Fund, founder of Entrepreneur Country and co-founder of First Tuesday.

American by birth and European in spirit, Julie has added a successful media career to her business commitments, recently joining BBC’s Online Dragon’s Den. In addition to her regular contributions to Business Week, Computing, FT Digital Business, Spectator Business, Julie is also a regular industry commentator for the BBC and CNBC. She is also on the Board of Directors of Vestergaard Frandsen and INSEAD, and is a member of Vince Cable’s Entrepreneurs’ Forum.

Through these intertwining roles of entrepreneur, advisor, investor and industry commentator, Julie has set her mission to build a growth story for the UK and Europe. This passion and entrepreneurial flair is what has earned her awards as one of INSEAD’s Top 50 Alumni, Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year, World Economic Forum Global Leader of Tomorrow and in the Wall Street Journal’s Top 30 Most Influential Women in Europe.

Oli Barrett

Oli is a founder of the Co-Sponsorship Agency, helping companies and causes around the world to create social action projects. He started Make Your Mark with a Tenner (now called Tenner Tycoon), the scheme which has challenged over 50,000 school pupils to see what they achieve in a just a month, starting with £10.

He is also co-founder of StartUp Britain, a new campaign by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, launched in 2011 with the full backing of the Prime Minister, the Chancellor and HM Government. Described by Wired Magazine as “the most connected man in Britain, he brought Speednetworking to the UK and has hosted events in 12 countries. He leads regular trade missions to San Francisco, helping British companies to pitch for funding and explore business opportunities.

Oli’s earlier entrepreneurial career included a student headhunting business, an international language practice website (sold in 2008) and a sock subscription website , which now ships to more than 15 countries. He spent two years on the Prime Minister’s Council on Social Action, has written for various publications and blogs on his own site at OliBarrett.com.

Penny Power

Social Media Expert, Author, Entrepreneur and founder of Ecademy – Penny Power, has dedicated her life for the past 13 years to the growth of SME’s by helping them connect through and understand the ‘social web’.

In 1998 Penny founded Ecademy, the UK’s first social network for business, with her husband Thomas. Ecademy is now a global operation with members in over 200 countries. Underpinning the network’s success is the powerful feeling of being part of a community and the strong intention that each member has towards supporting one another.

Penny’s unique contribution to the world of social networking is that she has created a hugely successful network herself. She is the public face and voice of online networking. This has given her an insight into the power of social capital as an asset for all to create.

James Lohan

James Lohan is one half of the couple behind Mr & Mrs Smith. His first company, Atomic, organised legendary London parties and corporate events. Working in industries he was passionate about, he moved in line with his market and co-founded restaurant and members’ club the White House. Next, naturally, he turned his attentions to boutique hotels.

Since Mr & Mrs Smith’s first guidebook was published under the Spy Publishing imprint in 2003, Smith has grown under James’ entrepreneurial eye from a labour of love to a multi-faced boutique travel provider. An online booking service in was introduced 2005 and an in-house reservations team in 2006. The company has developed a three-tiered membership programme which includes a full travel and lifestyle concierge service, and has attracted more than 75,000 active members. In the last two years, the Smith brand has launched in the Asia-Pacific region and North America from offices in Melbourne and New York.

James’ latest projects include the introduction of a 24-hour worldwide telephone-booking service, making a series of online travel videos and developing Smith apps on mobile platforms.

Duncan Cheatle

Duncan Cheatle has spent over 10 years championing UK enterprise and worked with over 1000 entrepreneurs. He is founder of The Prelude Group whose mission is “to make Britain the most enterprising nation in the world”. He is co-founder of StartUp Britain a private sector funded campaigning body set up to champion and inspire UK enterprise.

The Supper Club, founded in 2003, is home to around 250 of Britain’s most innovative, award winning and high growth entrepreneurs and has hosted nearly 800 events to date. The Club won the SFEDI UK Best Enterprise Support Awards in 2010.

Duncan is one of the most networked individuals in the SME sector and comments on and provides media access to entrepreneurs regularly. Most notably his e-petition on Number 10’s website got over 18,000 signatures in opposition to the changes to CGT taper relief. He has been a judge for both the National Business Awards and the Fast Growth Business Awards.

Previous roles have ranged from cowboy in outback Brazil in the late 1980s, corporate financier to finance director of a VC-backed publishing and marketing group. He has also been a trustee of charity Street League, a director at entrepreneurs’ network Glasshouse and lived and worked in Dubai and the Gulf region with Mars.

Rachel Bridge

Rachel Bridge is the Enterprise Editor of The Sunday Times and author of four best-selling books about entrepreneurs, including her latest, How To Make a Million before Lunch. She runs regular workshops for budding entrepreneurs and in 2010 took a one-woman show to the Edinburgh comedy festival, also called How to Make a Million before Lunch, which played to packed audiences at The Pleasance.

Kate Bassett

Kate is the editor of Real Business, Britain’s longest running print, digital and events brand for fast-growth companies. She has interviewed the country’s star business people from Theo Paphitis of Dragons’ Den to Lush founder Mark Constantine and is a regular speaker at events including the annual Entrepreneurs’ Summit and the Inspirational Women’s Network. Previously, Kate was editor of European Business Review and Net Profit. Her journalism has appeared in the Financial Times and The Independent. Follow her on Twitter at @Kate_Bassett

Dan Martin

Dan Martin has nine years experience as an online journalist writing about entrepreneurs. He is currently editor of BusinessZone.co.uk, a leading community providing free, practical and no-nonsense advice on how to start and grow a successful business and has responsibility for UK Business Forums, Britain’s most active online forums for entrepreneurs and home to more than 100,000 registered members.

Dan is also founder of The Pitch, a competition for small business owners in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland which launched in 2008. It has the backing of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills as well as several high profile entrepreneurs.

When not chatting to entrepreneurs Dan is a prolific tweeter who was named one of the 10 most influential political bloggers on Twitter by the Independent. He also received the public award for best B2B tweeter at ‘Twitter Oscars’ the Golden Twits in 2010.

Dan is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Paul Boross

Paul Boross, The Pitch Doctor, is a psychologist, author, performer, NLP expert, corporate strategist and internationally recognised authority on communications, presentation, performance and “the art and science of persuading people to give you business”.

Drawing on a career that has seen him move from primetime TV and stand-up comedy to trans-Atlantic development deals, media consultancy and motivational psychology, Boross has worked with such power players as the BBC, Google, The Financial Times, Royal Bank of Scotland and MTV. He has also worked with several household names, including Virgin chief Sir Richard Branson, TV chef and comedian Ainsley Harriott, and Sky newscaster Dermot Murgnahan.

Boross’ frontline experience of performance — he recently starred in Sky’s hit series School Of Hard Knocks with English rugby icon Will Greenwood and counts a 12-year stint at London’s legendary Comedy Store among his credits — coupled with a strong commercial grounding has given him rare insight into the entertainment world’s distinctive pressures, pitfalls and potential.

He is also founder and managing director of training company BIG SKY and music-production studios MB Productions.

Tom Bloxham

Tom Bloxham MBE is chairman and co-founder of award winning regeneration company Urban Splash, which has received 304 awards to date for architecture, design and business success. The company is responsible for development projects across the country, including Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield, Bristol, Plymouth and Morecambe..

Tom sold fire extinguishers door to door, studied a degree in politics, and ran a market stall down Affleck’s Arcade. He made more money sub-letting the space than selling his posters. That’s how it started.

As well as steering Urban Splash through the many ups and recent downs of business, Tom chairs the Manchester International Festival and is a trustee of The Tate, Manchester United Foundation and is also Chancellor of Manchester University. Tom was awarded an MBE for services to architecture and urban regeneration in 1999.

Priya Lakhani

Priya Lakhani started her career as a successful media barrister, working for numerous newspapers across the country. However, in August 2008, Priya decided to quit her legal career to become an entrepreneur and launch Masala Masala, a fresh Indian stir-in sauce company. Within three months of launching, Priya secured deals with Waitrose and Ocado.

Since then, Priya has launched a smoothie and baby food brand and been awarded ‘Business Entrepreneur of the Year” in 2009 which honoured the best businessmen and women aged 30 and under and was named on the Growing Business Young Guns list 2009 and in Management Today’s ’35 Women Under 35’ 2009.

Marcus Waley-Cohen

After graduating from Edinburgh University in 2000, Marcus Waley-Cohen worked as a strategy consultant for Bain & Co. and Arthur D. Little.

In 2003 he set up Firefly Tonics with his old friend Harry Briggs. Marcus and Harry were fed up with the fact that all the drinks on the market either contained more chemicals than a plastics factory or gave them the unpleasant feeling that they should be served by Mary Poppins with a spoonful of sugar. In the end, they decided to make what they needed for themselves. Rather than just head to the kitchen and pick up a blender they decided to go the long way round, and create an entirely new product. After much research, Firefly was born: original blends of delicious fruit juices and natural botanical extracts with absolutely nothing artificial.

Firefly launched exclusively with Harvey Nichols in August 2003. It was an instant success as consumers were captivated by a combination of the idea, the bottles and the taste. Today, Firefly sells its tonics in more than 40 countries from its base in West London.

Ayo Jenyo

Ayo Jenyo, a London born entrepreneur, won Entrepreneur of the Year at the National Enterprise Academy. As the ambassador for the National Enterprise Academy, Ayo has spoken at various events including the National Business Awards and was interviewed on a primetime news channel.

Ayo previously worked in sales, but now is the Managing Director of Daniel & Samson Associates Ltd, which is an international trades company. On his successes over the past year, Ayo simply says ” I’m just a man on a mission, taking every opportunity.”

Alyssa Smith

Flying the flag for young female entrepreneurs, Alyssa Smith (25) from Hertfordshire, UK already has two businesses under her belt – one, a bespoke, online Jewellery Design service and the other, a Social Media Consultancy business which she launched earlier this year. She is the lady behind the Twitter inspired ‘Tweetie’ necklace that has taken the celeb world by storm and Alyssa has recently become the ‘Entrepreneur in Residence’ at the newest Peter Jones Academy in Hitchin, Hertfordshire.

Celebrity fans of Alyssa’s jewels include Dawn Porter, Suzi Perry, Carol Vorderman, Caroline Flack, Sienna Miller, Emma Freud, Claire Young and Jenny Johnson, co writer of hit TV series, LOST. Corporate clients include ‘Pink Lady’ apples and ‘Sweet Eve Strawberry’.