ISBE 2019: Opening Session Keynote Speakers

Opening Session Keynote Speakers
Thursday 14th November 2019, 9am – 10.30am
Boiler Shop, Newcastle

Join us at the Opening Session of ISBE 2019 for what promises to be a fascinating start to the conference, bringing together leading local and international experts in small business & entrepreneurship policy, practice and research.

Lucy Batley
Founder of creative design agency JUMP

Lucy was appointed as the Ambassador for Creative and Digital for the North East sitting on the regional committee of the Institute of Directors. She is also an after-dinner speaker and sits on a number of Boards and Advisory Panels, most notably for Newcastle University and membership body Digital Union. She has won prestigious international and national awards and spent five years in Milan specialising in research and brand strategy development.

Since establishing JUMP in 2007, Lucy has directed and led a number of design and marketing campaigns for multi-million pound organisations including the National Trust, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and NE1, the international award-winning Business Improvement District company.

For information about JUMP, please visit their website

Dinah Bennett OBE, FRSA
Founder, ICE International Consultants for Entrepreneurship and Enterprise

Dinah Bennett has enabled people and organisations all over the world to attain enhanced insights into enterprise and entrepreneurship for more than twenty-five years.

Through an award-winning combination of consultancy, project design and delivery, grounded in academic research and practical experience, Dinah has persistently pushed the boundaries of current thinking in entrepreneurship. Her work has exposed vast opportunities for the improved empowerment and development of economies, communities and society through enterprise, at a global, local, institutional and even a personal level.

As a published author, acclaimed speaker and a recognised expert in her field, Dinah Bennett has the capability to inspire, inform, challenge and provide insight into enterprise and entrepreneurship.

Her expertise has added value to economic policy and practice; institutional leadership and entrepreneurship; and engagement with the small business community.

Dinah was one of the first women to be honoured with the Queen’s Award for Achievement in Enterprise Promotion in 2005.

For more information about ICE, please visit their website.

Paul Lancaster
Founder & Director, Plan Digital & Newcastle Startup Week

Paul is an award-winning ‘SuperConnector’ working to make the North East of England the best place to start or grow a business in the UK.

After spending over 15yrs helping other people start & grow their businesses in the North East & across the UK whilst working for Generator, Project North East, Shell LiveWIRE, Sage & Tech North (part of Tech City UK, now known as Tech Nation), Paul launched his own ‘Plan Digital’ business in 2016.

With a particular focus on accelerating the growth of tech/digital/creative businesses in the North East of England through Inbound Marketing, Community Engagement & Events, Paul was voted ‘Collaborator of the Year’ at Dynamo North East’s Dynamites awards in 2016 & 2017.

Paul is the Founder & Event Producer of the hugely successful annual 5-day Newcastle Startup Week festival which has taken place in May every year since 2017 & the monthly Founders’ Friday events which launched in July 2018.

He is also a regular columnist for The Journal newspaper, co-author of the ‘Small Business Marketing For Dummies’ book published by Wiley, Founder of the annual global #NoEmailDay & a Senior Consultant for the ANGELFYSH Brand Communications Collective.

Find out more by following Paul on Twitter @lordlancaster

Professor Susan Marlow
Professor of Entrepreneurship, University of Birmingham

Susan Marlow is Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University Of Birmingham. As a previous Vice President for Research at ISBE, she initiated the RAKE research fund with support from the ESRC and Barclays Bank. Her current research focuses upon entrepreneurship with a particular interest in gender issues and entrepreneurial processes with her work published in leading UK and US journals; she is a field editor for Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Editor for the International Small Business Journal and Distinguished Visiting Professor at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her overall contribution to this field has been recognised through the Queens Award for Enterprise and as a Fellow of ISBE.

Chi Onwurah
Labour Candidate for Newcastle upon Tyne Central

Chi Onwurah has been the Labour Member of Parliament representing Newcastle upon Tyne Central from May 2010 to the current dissolution of Parliament. Chi was Shadow Minister for Industrial Strategy Science & Innovation from October 2016 to November 2019.
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.
Chi is a Presidency Member of the Party of European Socialists (PES), and a Fellow of both the Institution of Engineering & Technology (FIET) and the City & Guilds of London Institute (FCGI).

Professor Monder Ram OBE
Director of Centre for Research in Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship (CREME)
Aston Business School, Aston University

Monder is Director of Centre for Research in Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship (CREME). He has extensive experience of working in, researching and acting as a consultant to small and ethnic minority businesses. He is a leading authority on small business and ethnic minority entrepreneurship research and has published widely on the subject. He regularly speaks at conferences across the world on the importance and value of ethnic minority businesses and has also advised Government on this. Monder is responsible for initiating the annual Ethnic Minority Business Conference in 1998, which has developed into the most important event in the calendar for disseminating policy and research on ethnic minority firms. Monder also holds the positions of Visiting Fellow at the Industrial Relations Research Unit at Warwick University, and Visitng Professesor at the University of Turku in Finland. He was named as one of the country’s most influential Asians by the Institute of Asian Professionals and was awarded an OBE in the 2004 New Year Honours List for his services to black and ethnic minority businesses.

Monder is an ISBE Fellow.

For more information about the work at CREME, please visit their website.

Margo Thomas PhD
Founder and President, Women’s Economic Imperative

Throughout her career spanning more than two decades as a senior official at the world’s premier development organization – the World Bank Group, Margo Thomas, PhD has provided policy advice to over 50 national and sub-national governments.

With a Doctoral Degree in Public Policy and Private Sector Development, her areas of focus include trade and competitiveness, women’s economic empowerment, business environment reform, regulatory reform, and investment policy.

In April 2017, Dr. Thomas successfully completed her appointment as the Chief of Secretariat for the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment. In her ongoing role as Founder and CEO of Women’s Economic Imperative, Dr. Thomas serves as a catalyst for initiatives aimed at increasing opportunities for the economic empowerment of disadvantaged and under-represented groups globally.

To visit Dr Thomas’s website, please click here.

Chair: Professor Kiran Trehan, University of Birmingham & ISBE Deputy President

Kiran Trehan is Professor of Leadership and Enterprise Development at Birmingham Business School at the University of Birmingham. She is also Director of the Centre for Women’s Enterprise, Leadership, Economy & Diversity (WE LEAD), Director of Business Engagement and Head of subject group Entrepreneurship and Local Economy.

 

To book your place at ISBE 2019, please visit here.