2023 Judges

As the CEO of Helm (The Supper Club), Andreas Adamides heads the most established membership community for scaleup founders in the UK.

Award-winning entrepreneur Andreas Adamides is also the founder of SaaS business CatchApp.

Previously, he founded and scaled up several companies. Some of these include BuyQuick, which was Australia’s first major eCommerce business which he expanded to 10 markets internationally, the WileyFox mobile handset brand, consumer brand Finlux, and the launch of Vector Watch, which was acquired by FitBit.

I am a London-based entrepreneur, who is passionate about the environment, particularly sustainability. I am the founder of instant pickup, which is a sustainable logistic company that helps people find environmentally friendly transport.

My current focus is using Instant Pickup, to help accelerate the accessibility of people to sustainable transport. We use a triadic marketplace business model, bringing together companies/individuals in need of environmentally friendly vans and a peer service provider (owners of vans). We connect both parties by using our platform.

Jon’s career in private equity at LDC & Inflexion focused on assisting p/e backed management teams execute successful value creation plans. He has deep expertise in value creation strategies and has been involved in more than 85 transformational programmes over the last 25 years.

Now an independent advisor on strategic value creation, Jon is also Chair of Nexgen Group, for Bridges, the specialist Impact investor.

Jon is Co-Founder of Ārahi, a tech start-up software platform that helps SMEs build their value creation strategy and implement it through effective and efficient board reporting and decision making.

Michael has built his career in Life Sciences and Medical Diagnostics. He has worked internationally, growing businesses and leading technological advances in diagnostic systems, sensor development, stem cells, implantable devices and digital health solutions. Michael is currently the founder and Chairman of Better2Know, the world’s largest private provider of Sexual Health testing solutions. Operating across 20 countries, Better2Know helps thousands of people every year to live happier amd healthier lives.

Bethany is Chief Operations Officer at Decision Intelligence Company, Peak. She joined the Manchester-based scaleup in 2018 and has been instrumental to the success of Peak’s funding rounds to date, raising a total of £112m. Rated a top 10 sales leader in the UK, Bethany has experience of building successful, high-growth SaaS businesses. She is an active contributor to discussions about leadership, vulnerability, SaaS metrics, fundraising and women in tech.

Most recently, Bethany Ayers was COO of Peak, an AI scale up backed by Softbank. She has a background helping companies figure out product market fit and then building the revenue teams to take advantage of it. In addition to Peak, Beth has held senior leadership roles at Codility and NewVoiceMedia.

She currently advises Peak’s board and sits on the board of ToffeeAM, a deep tech AI company. Beth is the co-host of The Operations Room, a podcast for startup and scale up COOs.

Dawn Bonfield MBE is Royal Society Entrepreneur in Residence at King’s College London working with young people on addressing the Sustainable Development Goals as entrepreneurs. She has been Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor of Inclusive Engineering at Aston University since 2017, and is the Founder & Director of Towards Vision, a not-for-profit which works towards a vision of diversity and inclusion in engineering. She is Past President and former Chief Executive of the Women’s Engineering Society (WES). Dawn is Deputy Chair of the Women in Engineering Committee of the World Federation of Engineering Organisations working on the application of engineering and technology to address gender inequality globally.

VP of People with global experience across the UK, US, Europe & Asia. Background in resourcing and talent development, working on multiple projects from developing solutions for acquiring top talent to learning and development programmes, employee engagement, culture and values. I partner with senior business leaders to ensure talent and building a great place to work is a top business priority.

Julie Chen, the visionary co-founder and CEO of The Cheeky Panda, leads the charge in sustainable FMCG. Their eco-friendly alternatives, crafted from bamboo, the fastest-growing plant on Earth, combat deforestation head-on. Julie’s unwavering determination propelled The Cheeky Panda to the forefront, revolutionizing everyday household essentials with a touch of green magic. As a result, the brand has become a global leader, celebrated for its innovative products and unwavering commitment to environmental conservation. When not shaping The Cheeky Panda’s future, Julie finds solace in nature, cherishes family time, and champions social and environmental causes with a heart full of passion.

Oliver Cummings is CEO of Nurole, the online marketplace for board level hiring. Ranked in the FT1000 fastest growing companies in Europe with c. 50,000 members globally and c. 1,000 board placements per year, Nurole is a digital disruptor helping organisations find high impact Chairs, independent directors, advisory board members and trustees.

Prior to Nurole, Oliver spent over a decade working as a private equity investor, most recently as the youngest ever partner at BXR Partners and before that at Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, the private equity arm of Goldman Sachs.
Oliver is a board advisor at Thomas’s London Day Schools (www.thomas-s.co.uk), a privately-owned schools group in London and Potage (www.potage.co.uk), named one of the UK’s top food delivery services by GQ.

Ewan was the former Group CFO for Virgin Media Ireland before leaving to establish his own consultancy and coaching business (xPotential.ie). He now operates as a CFO and board advisor for a portfolio of high growth businesses as well as an executive coach to mid to senior leaders (he is passionate about leveraging his leadership experience and coaching expertise to support senior leaders in business). Ewan also performs facilitation and leadership sessions for companies.

Ewan’s career has seen him earn many accolades including Irish Accountant of the Year and being listed in the top 100 CFOs in Ireland.Whilst CFO for Virgin Media in Ireland he was responsible for €0.5 billion of revenue and an annual capital investment budget in excess of €100 million. Ewan is renowned of his expertise in improving organisational culture, supporting operations, driving enterprise growth and providing strategic direction, with a proven record of sustained double digit growth.

Ewan’s career has seen him earn many accolades including Irish Accountant of the Year and being listed in the top 100 CFOs in Ireland.

Henry has worked in healthcare since 1994 as a lawyer, investment banker and CEO of LaingBuisson, a leading market intelligence provider. He started his career as a lawyer with Linklaters in London, New York and Washington, before moving into banking with Rothschild, UBS Investment Bank and Jefferies, where he was Joint Head of European Investment Banking. He was also a Senior Consultant to Macquarie after leaving banking.

He is currently Deputy Chair of the European Healthcare Investor Association, Non-Executive Chair of healthcare search and recruiter Compass Recruitment Solutions, Chair of healthcare strategy consultants Mansfield Advisors, Senior Advisor to Savills Operational Capital Markets, and remains a Non-Executive Director of LaingBuisson.

Scott English is an entrepreneur, investor, host and speaker in the entrepreneur media industry and has been for the last 20 years. Founded and co-founded national media companies with involvement in directories, offline and online digital publishing and national conferences, awards and exhibitions. Has trained 1,000’s executives in multiple industries and provides regular business consultancy for fast-track start-ups. Currently Director at CEMG the combined publishing and events brand behind Elite Business, Elite Business Live and Elite Franchise, expanding it’s purview to include a range of content for supporting SME fast-track growth companies and digital marketing solutions. He is an experienced host and speaker and known face in entrepreneurial circles. Regular judge for British Business Excellence Awards, GBEA’s, FSB Awards, Growing Business Awards and Founder of the EB100.

Co-founder of The Cheeky Panda along with my wonderful partner Julie. Ranked 6th in the UKs top 100 start-ups, Sunday Times Fast Track 100 OTW and a B Corp. I am passionate to deliver change for good. I regularly feature in the media including podcasts, press, radio and as a keynote speaker.

Philippa Gogarty is a Co Founder and Director of Micro Scooters UK. The company was first set up in 2004 after Philippa and Anna came across the mini micro scooter in Clapham. Fifteen years on Micro Scooters UK has established scooting as one of the most popular forms of transport and fun for children and for adults.

Before setting up Micro Scooters UK, Philippa had a career in charity fundraising, working at St Mary’s and Hammersmith Hospitals. Since 2016, Philippa has been a Director of Micro Scooters and is also working closely with refugee charities in Northern France and Chichester.

Previously the Finance Director, and now moved into Operations, Victoria has responsibility for delivering all Retail Channels (excl Ecom), Warehousing, Distribution and Customer Experience areas of the business.

Harriet Hastings founded Biscuiteers, the UK’s original hand-iced biscuit company, in 2007 after identifying a gap in the gifting market for luxury food gifting. Having started her career in publishing, latterly as a Marketing Director at Penguin, she spent 10 years as Director of consumer brands at Trimedia, a top 20 PR agency. She is also co-director of London events company Lettice, founded by her husband Stevie and currently run by their daughter Holly. Harriet has been awarded the Natwest Aphrodite Everywoman award (2018) and Great British Entrepreneur award (2021).

Wes recently joined Santander in 2019 to lead Business Development within Commercial & Corporate Banking. His previous role was as Head of Workplace Pensions for Scottish Widows, although he has plenty of experience in banking with more than 20 years in commercial banking.

Wes is married with two daughters, lives in Worcestershire and is a keen football and rugby fan.

Elliott Herrod-Taylor, CEO & Founder, is a young entrepreneur with a background in scaling businesses. He was awarded Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2021 and has a 2:1 degree in Politics & Entrepreneurship from Leeds University, which he achieved alongside creating over £1m in revenue for The Bunch and selling his events business, UP4. He has also participated in the MIT Global Entrepreneurship Program and was a former professional rugby player for Bath and represented England Rugby Youth Teams.

David spent 15 years as CEO at Tusker, who won Growing Business of the Year: Large in 2015. He led the sale of the business from Smedvig Capital to ECI Partners in February 2015 and recently exited Tusker when it was sold by ECI to Lloyds Banking Group for £300million in February 2023. He is now helping to build Veeve, a luxury short term rental business, in both London and Paris.

Amina is the founder of ANC Admin Solutions, helping parents to secure remote flexible accounting and admin roles as well as training refugees and migrants to become administrators and help them to secure jobs in the UK. Amina is also Co-Director at Skylight Ventures, a fund that supports refugee businesses in their early stages. A Clore Social Leader fellow, Amina sits on the advisory board of the Experts by Experience Employment Network, an initiative that provides mentoring support to refugees at any stage of their professional career

Founder of Arcus Global, a fast growing, key player on the UK Local

Government landscape. Investor, Strategic Director and Board Member with over 20 years’ experience across multiple industries, sectors, and markets.
Have scaled Arcus from a single small software pilot to a suite of market leading products with 50 government customers and recurring software revenue over 3.5M p.a.

Barry is President of Playdale who are the UK’s leading manufacturer of children’s playground equipment, and has distributers in over 50 countries. Playdale have won national Manufacturing and export awards, Barry personally receiving an MBE for services to International Trade in 2017. In 2018 Barry was named IoD ‘Global Director of the Year’ and ‘Cumbria Business Person of the Year’, featuring in the ‘Telegraph’s Top 50 Most Ambitious Business Leaders’ and ‘The Manufacturer Top 100 people in Manufacturing’, he is currently Vice Chair of Make UK North West regional Advisory Board, a Honorary Professor at Lancaster and Cumbria Universities and Non Exec Director for the Chamber of Commerce

Sheena Macaulay: CEO of Party n Paint: Business Mentor and Solicitor

Sheena is the founder and CEO of the global events experience Party n Paint. Providing a social art events that serves the community and corporate organisations globally. As an experienced business owner she uses her platform to educate, support charitable causes and advocate for new and established business owners.
This experience coupled with Sheena’s legal qualifications has positioned her as an expert who mentors and speaks to university graduates on how to develop the resilience, branding and market penetration required to survive in business, as well as working alongside the Prince’s Trust on multiple initiatives to give back and support mental health charities, skills development in young people and legacy building in the community.

Stuart is a HR consultant providing practical pragmatic support and strategic advice to numerous companies in the media and pharmaceutical sectors. Also creating and delivering learning and development programmes across a wide spectrum including leadership development and strategy. A background in HR and Recruitment, where he led award winning teams in the UK, US and Asia. Previously a HR and Recruitment Director in Emap, Incisive Media and Mark Allen Group, with a brief to attract and develop the best talent and set up and managed in-house recruitment departments in each.

Tenice is Operations Lead and co-founder of S-Cube, winner of the GBA for Micro Business of the Year (2021) category. Specialising in seismic waveform inversion during her PhD at Imperial College London, her work resulted in the Geophysics Best Paper award for 2013. In 2019, she became Operations Lead for S-Cube shaping the company’s best practices for taking new algorithms from testing into commercial deployment. She is also an avid volunteer at Great Ormond Street Hosiptal’s Weekend Club

Sarah is a senior HR professional with over 15 years’ experience in both corporate, SME and start-up environments. She has worked in both domestic and international businesses in a breadth of sectors throughout her career. Sarah has won several awards for organisational development in scaling businesses and, most proudly, for her work in the area of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

Sarah’s most recent role is the Chief People’s Officer of Tryzens, an international award-winning e-commerce business.

Christian Nellemann is a serial entrepreneur and the Founder of XLN, which provides low-cost phone, broadband and card processing services for small businesses. The company was bought by Daisy in 2022 for £210 million.

He was born and brought up in Denmark and started his first business in the UK at the age of 22, creating successful companies selling perfume and office products before founding Euroffice.co.uk in 1999 and XLN in 2002.
Christian has won many awards himself and in his book Raw Business he shares his experiences of being a successful entrepreneur. He now chairs Boards and helps early-stage entrepreneurs as an angel investor and mentor.

As MD of O’Donovan Waste, Jacqueline is one of the waste and construction sectors’ most passionate pioneers of employee-training, industry best-practice and road-safety. Jacqueline is recognised as an innovator and a leading-force in the industry and is a keen advocate of sustainable-operations as well as encouraging diversity and inclusion. She has received numerous accolades for her work and holds several respected fellowships/affiliations with professional organisations/bodies in the sector. She is a recipient of the Growing Business ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ title as well as numerous others. A true disrupter in the industry!

Award-winning entrepreneur and bestselling author of WIN! Donna O’Toole is the founder of August Recognition - a top global awards agency. Named one of the world’s Top 25 Customer Experience Influencers, Donna has helped hundreds of businesses, brands, teams and leaders across the world to create high-impact commercial and cultural results by achieving valuable recognition for their achievements.

Dr. Grace E Olugbodi is the creator of the multi-award winning maths game and App, Race To Infinity (part of her series of 5 games) and the author of the Make Maths Fun book. Grace has an Honorary Doctorate Degree in recognition of helping children fall in love with Mathematics. She is a Department for International Trade Export Champion and recently was part of an Advisory Government Policy group. She has been interviewed live on BBC NEWS and has won multiple awards for her innovative games.

I have been a civil servant for 22 years. My most recent role at the Department of International Trade (DIT) is London Export Champions and Relationship Manger. The main purpose of this role is to manage an ambassadorial/focus group of high exporting SME’s in London. This group is known as the London Export Champions. The main purpose of this group is to Encourage low and potential exporters to export through our marketing campaign and DIT led events. We also used the group for insight into business challenges and barriers that helps shape future policy including Free Trade Agreements.

Anna Panczyk is a highly accomplished business executive, tech investor, and entrepreneur. As the Chairwoman of Brand New Galaxy’s Supervisory Board, she leverages her extensive experience in driving synergies across the Stagwell Network. With a background in leading WPP group’s CEE and UK markets, Anna has spearheaded successful business transformations and integrated various marketing disciplines. She has been recognized for her leadership, winning industry awards and titles such as Agency of the Year and AdWoman. Anna is an economist by education and a champion of women in leadership. Outside of work, she enjoys food, travel, and advocating for bold movements.

Dr Alka Patel, also known as The Health Hacktivation Doctor ™ is leading the world’s most impactful strategic self-care revolution.

Her ethos is one of synergy. “No system in the body works alone, hurts alone or heals alone.”
Her passion is to merge transformative technology with innate intuition.
Her ambition is to empower impact-driven people to achieve soaring success whilst reversing ageing through lifestyle optimisation.
Her own biological age is 30 years younger than her chronological age.
Yours can be too!
Dr Patel’s mission is to help 1 million people reach their potential to live a 1-million-hour life of Longevity, Impact, Vitality and Energy - it is time to L.I.V.E!

Neeta was, until May 2022, CEO at The Centre for Entrepreneurs,

which supports UK entrepreneurs through independent research,

networks and entrepreneur communities. It also runs the NEF+

programme which is the UK’s leading development programme

for first time founders.

She is currently Non- Executive Director at the FTSE 250- listed

Allianz Technology Trust and Albion Venture Capital Trust. She is

a mentor and adviser to numerous start-ups led by young

entrepreneurs, and previously was an Entrepreneur-Mentor-In-

Residence at London Business School and a board adviser at

Tech London Advocates and a board member of City Ventures,

City University.

She has over 35 years of experience in the corporate and startup

world, spanning financial services, media & publishing, education

and private equity advisory. She has also led her own Fintech

startup.

She was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s honours in October 2020

for services to technology and entrepreneurship.

Guy is the Head of Growth Capital at Santander UK a team within the Structured Finance division of Corporate & Commercial Banking. He has been at the bank for over ten years working within a variety of asset backed and corporate lending teams covering Structured Real Estate, Hotels and Leveraged Finance. Most recently Guy spent five years as the Head of Hotel Finance, before moving across to lead the Growth Capital team 12 months ago. The Growth Capital team have cumulatively provided in excess of £1.6bn of funding since they were set up in 2012, supporting well over 200 high growth SMEs across the UK.

David Rawaf is a surgeon researcher, technologist and policy

developer. As well as studying and working in both UK and US,

David is involved with Imperial College WHO Collaborating Centre

(for Public Health Education & Training), as well as medical writing,

research and hosting conferences. In addition, David is the Clinical

Excellence Lead for Inovus Medical, the world-leaders in

high-fidelity medical and surgical simulation. David is also heavily

involved in medical device & software consulting, including

validation, accreditation and approval through bodies such as the

FDA.

Brie Read is the founder and CEO of Snag Tights. Describing herself as an ‘elder millennial’ Brie is a passionate believer in the power of digital technology to change the world and people’s lives, and has built her career by being at the cutting edge of the digital revolution. Snag is her first direct-to-consumer e-commerce brand and was inspired by Brie’s own daily struggles to find tights that really fit.

Seb began his career at creative agencies in the very early (and genuinely disruptive) days of social media. He learnt how people-centric technology could change any industry for the better. And then in 2015, he founded Gophr. A new, smarter kind of of courier company that gives businesses of any size access to enterprise grade, super efficient same day delivery services.

Stuart has covered the UK’s growing businesses as an editor and writer for 35 years and that includes being a founder of the Growing Business Awards in 1998 and of Real Deals in 1999. He is currently a contributor and content adviser to the ScaleUp Institute and London Stock Exchange Group. He is particularly interested in British companies that are genuinely and evidently world class.

Neil Russell is chairman of PJ Care Ltd, a family owned and run business providing, specialist neurological nursing care. Neil is very active across all media promoting and protecting the care sector, he sees diversity and inclusion as one of the most important elements of the work he does, and engages across his entire team to ensure that everyone is able to achieve everything they are capable of achieving whatever their heritage, history or background. Prior to joining PJ Care, Neil was in the Diplomatic Service, serving in Abu Dhabi, Brasilia and Warsaw.

Jonathan Sanderson is Managing Director of Corecom Consulting, one of the UK’s most successful IT & Tech recruitment agencies. Based in Leeds and the Netherlands, Corecom partners with multi-sector clients on recruitment strategies across BI & Data, Cloud & Infrastructure, DevOps & Platform, Software Development, and Software Testing & Automation. Jonathan has been behind the exponential growth of the business, achieving £7m turnover and expanding to an award-winning team of 40 in recent years. Corecom Consulting is a values-led recruitment consultancy with a unique process that guarantees success and inspires repeat business from clients and candidates alike. ED&I and sustainability sit at the core of Corecom’s work and Jonathan’s priorities, and Corecom provides ED&I consultancy services to many clients.

Previously a finance manager, I came to PJ Care in March 2019 as a Management Accountant, with the aim of getting the accounts ready for our first year end post the restructure. 6 months later I became Financial controller and began a project to modernise the accounting function. We have collectively come along way and that project is ongoing. 2 years on from becoming FC, I have been given the opportunity to become Finance Director and am truly honoured and humbled to have been considered. I genuinely believe that PJ Care is the best company to work for in the country and where absolutely everyone has the opportunity to make an impact and where ANYONE can achieve their career goals and ambitions, no matter what they are!

Since launching in 1997, Guy has been on a mission to not only develop and grow Bambino Mio but the entire reusable nappy industry.

To supercharge the brands growth, in 2021 Bambino Mio announced a £13m investment by BGF - the largest investment into a reusable nappy firm in the UK, demonstrating the potential of the sector and the scale of Bambino Mio’s growth ambitions.
Bambino Mio is driving a reusable revolution, dedicated to educating parents about the benefits of reusable nappies. The reusable product category continues to grow in relevance and popularity all over the world.

Emma focuses on new and existing investments within Bridges’ Sustainable Growth Funds strategy, which partners with high growth, purpose-led companies to help them scale-up their operations and impact. Prior to joining Bridges in 2015 Emma spent ten years working with high-growth companies, as a member of the investment team at Phoenix Equity Partners, with a start-up in Hong Kong, and at Deloitte as a strategy consultant.

Mandy has over 20 years’ experience as a Corporate Technology leader as well as being the CEO and Founder of Mandy Tucker Consulting and the “Startup Culture Code” framework helping founders and entrepreneurs scale using corporate strategies and insights. She speaks on leadership techniques, operational strength as well as Culture enablement based on Wellbeing and Emotional Intelligence as a bedrock of any successful new business. Mandy is determined to galvanise new businesses to depart from the norm and improve diversity and inclusion as a way of promoting great places to work and a people centred strategy.

As the CEO of the APEM Group Adrian leads the overall strategic direction of the Groups’ multiple companies around the globe. With 20+ years of Environmental Consultancy experience and a deep knowledge of the Environmental Sector he understands the contours but focuses on the horizon. Seeing the potential that was ‘out there’ and having been appointed Managing Director of APEM in 2018, he led the MBO that saw WestBridge invest in him and the senior management team in 2019. The freedom this allowed has meant that the potential he saw has begun to be realised; with the APEM Group having more than quadrupled in size in terms of revenue, profit and people since the investment. That expansion is set to continue as Adrian drives APEM’s global expansion through continued organic growth alongside a planned fourth and fifth acquisition in 2023. Having gained his Masters at Kings College, London and his Doctorate at Liverpool University, where he later lectured in Aquatic Ecology, Adrian left academia 20 years ago to join APEM as its ninth employee. Adrian is a keen walker and likes nothing more than heading to the hills with his partner and two children (moaning aside) at the weekends. When not on a hillside he also helps coach a junior rugby team.