Esther McVey, Conservative MP

Esther is Conservative MP for Wirral West and the Private Parliamentary Secretary to Chris Grayling, Minister for Employment. Esther is first Conservative MP on Merseyside since 1997 and the only current Conservative in Merseyside. Esther graduated in Law before becoming a graduate trainee with the BBC in 1991.

She then went on to work for in media for the next 14 years as a Broadcaster and a Journalist, presenting and producing programmes such as GMTV, a legal Series for Channel 4, a BBC consumer show and a BBC science show.

Esther then left media in 2000 to establish her own business setting up office space for new start-up companies as well as establishing the biggest business women’s network in the northwest.

In 2008, Esther went back to university and Liverpool John Moores to do an MSc in corporate governance, graduating with a distinction as well as winning the North of England excellence award for her studies. This then became part of her careers book “if Chloe can” which Esther wrote and got sponsored and is being delivered to schools across Merseyside. The book was turned into a play with the National Youth Theatre and had its first performance in London’s West End at the Lyric Theatre last October and it is now touring around the country.

Esther was the first MP to employ an apprentice and got the House of Commons authorities to introduce the scheme. Esther is passionate about issues such as careers, youth unemployment, apprenticeship, investment and business growth. She has also been nominated for the Merseyside Woman of the Year and Cheshire Woman of the Year.

Andrew Anderson

Andrew Anderson is Chief Executive Officer of software company Celaton whose technology automates all the inbound information streams that flow into and through organisations every day. Its unique ability to learn enables inSTREAM™ to transform the way that customer correspondence, financial, HR, legal and insurance documents (received by post, paper, email, fax, mobile and electronic data streams) are processed and delivers 'Guaranteed Perfect Input' into line of business systems.

An entrepreneur with over 20 years experience within the software industry, Andrew has extensive knowledge of communications, messaging and information systems in sales, marketing and technical roles.

Following seven years with The Parachute Regiment, Andrew gained experience as Communications consultant with Copymore Systems plc followed by six years at Amba Communication Systems as Technical Director.

He founded RedRock Technologies in 1993 and, through acquisition and organic growth, built one of the UK's best known brands in communications and messaging software. Andrew steered the company through IPO and public listing in 2001.

RedRock was acquired by Netstore plc in 2002 and Andrew joined its management team as Vice President of Product Development.

In 2004, Andrew led and funded the management buy out of RedRock Technologies from Netstore plc. In the same period, RedRock acquired DG Tech Ltd and was subsequently renamed Celaton Limited.

John Caines OBE

Following an accountancy qualification and an MBA from the London Business School, John founded a software company, Maxima, and developed it into a profitable £40 million p.a. group that is now quoted on AIM.

Since his successful exit from Maxima in 2001, John has assisted many businesses as a Non Executive Director, as a coach and and personal investor. He has chaired SWAIN (South West Angel and Investor Network), is author of 'The Effective Entrepreneur' and is on the Investment Committee of the government's new Angel Co Fund. In 2009, John was awarded an OBE for 'services to entrepreneurship and business.

Ken Olisa

Kenneth ("Ken") Olisa OBE, MA, CITP FBCS, FRSA

A native of Nottingham, Ken's technology career commenced in the 1970s at IBM from whom he won a scholarship while an undergraduate at Cambridge. There he read Natural, Social, Political and Management Sciences. At IBM he held various posts in systems engineering, sales and marketing, before joining Wang Laboratories in 1981. Following a period as Marketing Director for Europe, VP of US Marketing and then of Worldwide Marketing based in Boston, Ken was appointed Senior VP and General Manager of Europe, Africa and the Middle East (EAME) located in Brussels. In that post he was responsible for 11 Wang subsidiaries and 92 distributors. He led the team which restored the EAME operation to profitability; following which he launched an unsuccessful MBO resulting in his departure in 1992!

Ken moved on to test his entrepreneurial mettle by founding Interregnum, the technology merchant bank. He led that company through the roller coaster ride of its early growth; its entry into, and exit from, a joint venture with BDO Stoy Hayward; the IPO on London's AIM exchange in 2000; and the tricky years that followed the collapse of the dotcom boom.

At Interregnum, Ken worked at the forefront of the entrepreneur/technology growth cycle that began in the mid 1990s. As well as serving on the boards of many of Interregnum's investments and advisory clients, Ken notched up some interesting firsts, including chairing the UK's first publicly listed Internet Service Provider (ISP), Voss Net, on its admission to AIM and holding a similar position on the Board of DMATEK, the first Israeli technology company to be listed on the junior exchange. He was also a principal advisor to, and Director of, uDate.com which became one of the UK's few dotcom successes when it was sold to Barry Diller's USA Interactive in 2003. Ken retired from Interregnum in 2006 and now runs Restoration Partners a boutique technology merchant bank.

Ken was the first British-born black man to serve on the Board of a major UK public company (Reuters) and is currently a Director of Thomson Reuters (where he is a member of the Audit Committee). For the decade until December 2008, he was a Director (and Chair of the Remuneration Committee) of Canada's largest independent software developer, Open Text Corporation. More recently, he served as Director of Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC) from its 2007 IPO. He also serves on the Board of, or is an adviser to, several privately held and innovative companies including the UK's leading corporate governance advisor, Independent Audit.

A believer in the Victorian ethos that successful commerce is the fuel of public service, Ken is a Freeman of the City of London; a past Master of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists; a Director of the Thomson Reuters Foundation; Chairman of Thames Reach (a charity working to shelter and resettle the homeless in London); founding Chairman of the Powerlist Foundation; a Vice President of the British Computer Society and a past member of the Government's Women's Enterprise Taskforce. More distantly, he was a Governor of the Peabody Trust for a decade and a NED of the West Lambeth NHS Trust for three and a half futile years. His experience of regulation is substantial. He has been a regulatee of the FSA since 1993 and a start-up regulator twice; first as an inaugural Postal Services Commissioner from 2001 to 2004 and more recently as a Board member of IPSA, the body charged with managing MPs' expenses, pay and pensions.

Ken's knowledge and experience of businesses from the largest to the smallest company, combined with his technology marketing track record and his willingness to speak his mind makes him much in demand as a public speaker and he has been widely recognized. He is past winner of the BVCA/Real Deals Private Equity Personality of the Year Award and of the Sunday Times UK Not for Profit Non Executive Director of the year. He appears in the UK's top 10 most influential black men in the Powerlist 2012 and was recently named in Computer Weekly's UK Tech 50 list of most influential people in UK IT. In 2010 he was awarded an OBE for his services to the homeless of London and he is an honorary Fellow of his old college, Fitzwilliam, Cambridge.

A keen skier and a bad golfer, Ken's interest in sport has traditionally been wholly amateur. However he is the Chairman of the BBA, a new company currently fundraising "to do to British Basketball what Packer did to cricket"

Ken married Julia in 1976 and they have two adult daughters; Elinor and Auriol.

Lorraine Ruckstuhl

Lorraine Ruckstuhl is the head of the mid market Technology, Media &Telecoms team at Barclays Corporate.

Lorraine leads a team of more than ten dedicated media Relationship Directors who specialise in providing the specific funding mix required to support the sector most effectively.
Lorraine has over 20 years experience of corporate and investment banking. Before joining the Technology, Media & Telecoms team, she spent five years in Debt Finance at Barclays, arranging and providing acquisition finance and term debt facilities to a variety of corporates.

Before that she spent seven years as a Relationship Director working with large UK and European based media clients, which took her regularly to France, the Netherlands and Scandinavia. "I enjoy getting to know customers, understanding their businesses and supporting them to grown and achieve their goals," she says.

Originally from Yorkshire, Lorraine went to High School in the USA before returning to university in the UK.

Max Firth

Max Firth
Managing Director
Business Information Services (BIS)
Experian

Max joined The pH Group (now Experian pH) in 1990 as a trainee consultant. His client involvement covered all areas, but with specific focus in Banking, Telecoms, Utilities and Public Sector both in the UK and France. Working through the company, on both the IT and client side, he ran major UK clients across the core sectors from 2000, and in 2010 became Managing Director. In June 2011 he took over the Business Information business unit at Experian UK, incorporating both the core credit business as well as pH's marketing expertise.

Simon Keeling

*Coming shortly*

Simon Orme

Managing Partner of Simon Orme and Associates.

After an early career with ICL in the UK and Australia he spent 3 years with the Ministry of Finance in Fiji as System Development Manager.

On returning to the UK he joined the ICL Senior Executive Programme and then Hoskyns as a Senior Consultant working in the financial services sector.

His next appointment was as Managing Director of Lonsdale Systems Ltd which specialised in developing systems for the international insurance sector. He then joined BIS Insurance Systems as Managing Director before returning to Hoskyns as a Divisional Managing Director.

In 1986 Hoskyns became a public company with Simon becoming the Group Marketing Director.

Following the acquisition of Hoskyns by Cap Gemini he retired to form Simon Orme and Associates.

Stephen Welton

Stephen Welton has over 20 years of experience in the private equity industry.
He joined the BGF after 10 years with CCMP Capital (formerly JP Morgan Partners) a global private equity firm. Stephen was a Founder Partner and member of the investment committee.

He has extensive experience as an investor working with private companies, most recently as Chairman of Edwards, the global engineering group headquartered in the UK.

Before this, he was Chairman and CEO of TV Travel Shop prior to its successful sale to a global media group. He also has 10 years of UK private equity and growth capital experience as Managing Director of Barclays Private Equity and at Henderson Ventures, which he co-founded.

He started his career in banking, has a law degree from Durham University and is a qualified Barrister-at-Law. Stephen became Chief Executive of the Business Growth Fund in 2011.

Who attended?

• Business Founders of SMEs
• Directors
• CEOs
• MDs
• COOs
• DGs
• Financial Directors
• Business Managers

When and where was it?

Date: Thursday 29 March 2012 Time: 09:00-17:00 Venue: Fasken Martineau LLP, 17 Hanover Square, London W1S 1HU