Councillor Joe Anderson

Councillor Joe Anderson is the leader of Liverpool City Council.

The former Merchant Seaman, who has been a Liverpool councillor for 14 years, became leader of the city council following the local elections in May 2010.

Born in 1958, in the south end of the city centre near Dingle, Councillor Anderson attended St Vincent Primary School – where he has been a governor for the last 12 years- and St Martins Secondary School.

Councillor Anderson was elected to the council in 1998 to represent Abercromby ward (now called Riverside) – the area in which he grew up. He was elected as leader of the Labour group just five years later.

Joe’s life is very much intertwined with the sea. His career with the Merchant Navy and later P&O Ferries (where he first became politically active), took him all over the world.

But home remained very much where the heart is for Councillor Anderson. His subsequent career on Merseyside took him into education welfare, before he was appointed to lead a social inclusion unit for young people with behavioural and emotional difficulties – where he continues to work to this day.

He has been married to Marg for 31 years and has four children – Joanne, (who was also elected to the council in the May 2010 elections), Tony, David, Michael and a grandson.

Ian Ayre

Ian Ayre is the Managing Director and main board director of Liverpool Football Club. Originating from Kirkdale, Liverpool, and educated at Litherland High School, Ian has over 25 years of experience gained across the Technology, Sport and Media sectors.

Early positions in the Royal Navy, global satellite television and communications industry included a position as the regional director and subsequently the role of Chief Executive for Pace Micro Technology PLC in Asia. Responsible for their Asian manufacturing, sales and distribution, Ian established sales offices, dealer distribution networks and sub contract manufacturing across Asia and later formed part of a US$ 500 million IPO. In a strategy to penetrate the emerging drive of football as a key subscription driver in digital television, Ian was later instrumental in the buyout of a UK professional football club, Huddersfield Town FC becoming CEO and Chairman. Ian also developed a business plan for the collective exploitation of football clubs new media rights in 2001, with over 80 of the 92 professional clubs in the UK agreeing to seed rights into the business, the plan was supported by investment from NTL Inc of over US$ 500 million. He went on to build and launch the new media business Premium TV Ltd as its Managing Director. The business at the time was the world’s largest provider of streaming football content with over 5 million users.

In 2003, recognising the importance of Asia to sports clubs Ian returned to the region to form part of a senior management team for a fledgling sports marketing business Total Sports Asia. With its then single operation based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the business distributed sports media rights, sold sports sponsorships, developed merchandising and licensing programs and ran live events, Ian was responsible for the successful delivery of new offices and staff in China, Thailand, Japan, UAE and India, and developed local teams with local market knowledge and skills, developing a key knowledge of the local cultures and Asian business complexities.

In August 2007 Ayre was recruited to spearhead the development of Liverpool Football Club’s commercial operations. During March 2011, Ayre was offered the Managing Director position by the club’s new owners, a position which he holds today.

Sir Richard Branson

Richard Branson is one of the world’s most recognised businessmen and one of Britain's most respected entrepreneurs. The Virgin Group that began with the creation of a small mail-order record retailer in 1970 has since grown to encompass 400 companies in more than 30 countries and operates in businesses from travel and telecommunications to health, finance and now space travel.
 
Richard is now focused on building the group's foundation Virgin Unite to help address some of the world's major issues around health, poverty and climate change. As well as inspiring many to take a fresh and revolutionary approach to business. Liverpool will benefit from his wealth of experience and witness first-hand the ‘screw it, let’s do it’ attitude and sheer force of will that has underpinned his rise to success.

Neil Clitheroe

Neil Clitheroe is Chief Executive Officer of ScottishPower Generation Holdings Ltd.

He was appointed to this role on September 1, 2011 and has local operational responsibility across both the
Retail and the Generation businesses in the UK, working closely with the Global functions.

While Neil previously held a variety of roles in the Retail business in the UK, including Customer Service
Director and Business Transformation Director, his most recent role was Vice President - Customer Service,
within Iberdrola USA. During this period, Neil made an invaluable contribution to the wider transformation of
Iberdrola USA while also expanding his experience within the Regulated Business.

Katherine Corich

Katherine’s passion for business dared her to grow a small team into a global enterprise. Her ‘can do it’ pioneering spirit drives Sysdoc to take on projects and deliver solutions which the industry has not dreamed possible. As a result, Sysdoc has earned a reputation for producing world-leading innovations in knowledge management, business process and online solutions.

Katherine has developed a unique people framework for Sysdoc, which seeks to build solid teams by providing a forum that caters to individual working needs and the exploration of personal talents and ambitions.

Katherine brings the same people focus and trademark eclectic-thinking to customer projects.Twenty years of experience has given Katherine a deep knowledge of many industry sectors and business issues. This enables her to identify the special needs of a business and deliver practical solutions to meet those needs. These solutions enable Sysdoc customers to excel and revolutionise the way they do business, and in turn serve their customers.

Stephen Felice

Stephen Felice serves as president, Consumer, Small and Medium Business, for Dell. In this role, he leads the organization that creates and delivers specific solutions and technology to more than 10 million small and medium sized businesses globally. His organization is responsible for a portfolio of consumer products, including desktops, laptops, software and peripherals, as well as product design and sales. In, addition, Steve’s organization is responsible for global online platforms for Dell, including Dell.com, one of the leading ecommerce destinations for people around the world.

Prior to his current role, Steve was senior vice president and president, Asia Pacific and Japan, where he led operations throughout the region for Dell. He has also served as vice president, Corporate Business Group, Dell Americas, responsible for global corporate customers based in the United States. Before that, he held various executive roles in sales and consulting services organizations.

Steve joined Dell in 1999 from DecisionOne Corp, where he served as chief executive officer and president. Under his guidance, that company became the largest independent provider of multivendor computer maintenance and technology support services in North America. Steve also worked for Bell Atlantic and served as vice president. Planning and Development, with Bell Atlantic Customer Services. He also spent 5 years with Shell Oil in Houston.

Steve earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of lowa and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Houston.

Martha Lane Fox

Martha Lane Fox is a self-made entrepreneur, best known as the co-founder of the internet travel and leisure phenomenon lastminute.com.

At the forefront of online business development, Martha has become an outspoken advocate of digital participation. She has served as the UK Government’s Digital Champion since 2009 and chair’s Race Online 2012, the national campaign to help millions more people benefit from access to the internet by the end of the Olympic year 2012.  There are still 8.2M people in the UK who have never experienced the life-changing power of the web!

Martha is also a Non-Executive Director for Marks and Spencer as well as Mydeco.com - the online designer furniture site founded by Brent Hoberman.

Mark Gerhard

Mark Gerhard is the current CEO of Jagex.  Jagex is the UK’s largest independent developer and publisher of online games and is best known for RuneScape, the world's largest free-to-play MMORPG. Gerhard has held many executive positions and he has over 14 years of experience working in many companies in the technology sector.

Michael Hayman

Michael Hayman is co-founder of campaigning agency Seven Hills.

He is also co-founder of StartUp Britain, a national initiative for early stage enterprise supported by HM Government, which was recently launched by the Prime Minister, Chancellor and Secretary of State for Business.
 
Michael is chairman of entrepreneurs at Coutts & Co, a columnist for Real Business and is the chairman for MADE: The Entrepreneur Festival.

He serves as deputy chairman of the Ministerial Ambassador Group for Global Entrepreneurship Week, an initiative chaired by the Minister of State for Business and Enterprise.
 
Michael is also a non-executive member of Festivals Edinburgh, is listed in Debrett's People of Today and is an ambassador for the Courvoisier Future 500.

He served as a non-executive director with the cities of Westminster, Sheffield and as a commissioner on the Inquiry Into The Future Of Cities And Local Government Finance.

Lord Heseltine

One of the most recognisable and respected British figures of the last forty years, Lord Heseltine has combined hugely successful careers in both politics and business. He served for 34 years as a Conservative MP, during which time he assumed both the roles of Cabinet Minister and Deputy Prime Minister.

Lord Heseltine also founded his company Haymarket at the age of 24 and it has since become one of the biggest privately owned publishing houses in the UK, with a vast array of print and online publications in the consumer, business and professional sectors. He has been Chairman since 1999 following his retirement from politics.

The Congress looks forward to receiving first-hand the insight and vast experience that Lord Heseltine holds.

Jalak Jobanputra

Jalak is currently Senior Vice President at the New York City Investment Fund (NYCIF) where she oversees technology and digital media venture investments. Jalak spearheaded the formation of NYC Seed in 2008, a seed fund dedicated to funding early stage tech entrepreneurs in NYC, and sits on its Investment Committee and Venture Advisory Board. She is a current investor in outside.in, Imagespan, Thumbplay, TXVia, Partsearch and Marketing Technology Solutions.  Prior to NYCIF, she was a Principal at New Venture Partners, a $300 million early stage venture fund that commercializes technology out of corporate labs. At NVP, she founded and served as interim CEO of Real Time Content (spun out of British Telecom) and was a Director of Procelerate Technologies, a SaaS workflow management tool for the aerospace industry. She also incubated a range of other technologies, including speech recognition/NLP, wireless infrastructure, 3Ddisplays and recommendation engines. 

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.

Dr. Paul Kedrosky

Dr. Kedrosky is an investor, speaker, writer, media guy, and entrepreneur. In his spare time he is an avid user of Twitter, contributing editor for Bloomberg and the editor of Infectious Greed, one of the most popular financial blogs.  Dr Kedrosky founded one of the first blogging sites, GrokSoup. Under his leadership the business grew to become one of the largest blogging sites of its kind, prior to the boom in the use of such sites. Dr Kedrosky demonstrated his unerring ability to enter fast-growing markets before they take off, and exit before they lose value. Dr Kedrosky now has more than fifty early-stage  investments to his credit. 

Will King

The King of Shaves brand was created by Will King in the depths of the UK recession in the early 1990's.

Following redundancy, King decided to build his own business, King of Shaves, and his first product was shaving oil, which solved his personal problem with shaving - razor burn. It wasn't long before he was filling thousands of small plastic bottles in the kitchen of his home, and then his big break came when he landed a deal for Harrods to stock his product in September 1993, followed by Boots in May 1994.

Fast forward seventeen years and today over thirty different King of Shaves brand products, including the iconic wet shave system razor, the Azor, are stocked in all major outlets across the UK as well as being available in the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Africa and Brazil.  King of Shaves products are also sold throughout America in a landmark distribution deal with Remington and the company has recently launched its first electrical range, sold exclusively in Argos.  Combining its wet shave hardware and software products, King of Shaves is second only to Gillette in the UK. King is a multi award-winning businessman and considered by many as one of the UK's most creative and passionate entrepreneurs.

George Kirk

George Kirk, Director, Smart Cities, ScottishPower, has more than 20 years experience in the energy sector, particularly nuclear generation, transmission and distribution, asset management, construction and risk management.

George has held director level positions in Scottish Power for the last 14 years. In his current role George’s focus is on developing innovative and creative energy solutions for communities and cities based on an energy master planning approach delivering energy savings and reduced CO2 emission.

George is a member of the Sustainable Glasgow Steering Group the Liverpool Low Carbon economy Board and the Liverpool Smart City Board helping to develop and deliver a sustainable energy future for Glasgow and Liverpool. He is also a member of the UK Research Council Heat and the City Advisory Board.

He holds professional qualifications in engineering, business and risk management.

He lives in Glasgow and is married with twin sons.

Sir Terry Leahy

Sir Terry Leahy transformed Tesco from a successful British store into the UK’s leading supermarket and the third biggest in the world, with over 350,000 employees and 2,000 stores worldwide.

Joining the company as a marketing executive in 1979 he steadily progressed up the career ladder, becoming a director in 1992 and chief executive in 1997 at the age of 40. He was named European Businessman of the Year in 2004 by Fortune magazine and in 2005 by the Wall Street Journal.

Since leaving Tesco, he has taken up an advisory role at private equity house Clayton Dubilier & Rice.

Deborah Leary

Having started Forensic Pathways Ltd in 2001 as a result of developing the world’s first transparent ‘Stepping Plate’ (for which she was awarded British Female Inventor of the Year 2005), Deborah has gone on to be the front face of Forensic Pathways and has developed and led the Forensic Pathways team in terms of business strategy for the past 10 years.

Deborah has significant experience in innovation, research & development, business build and entrepreneurship and has ensure that Forensic Pathways has continued to develop its brand and range of product/service offering to diverse market sectors.

As a result of recognition for her achievements in business build and entrepreneurship, Deborah is also involved in a number of other organizations:

• National President of the British Association of Women Entrepreneurs reporting into the FCEM World Association of Women Entrepreneurs
• Chair of the Midlands World Trade Forum, a West Midlands regional network supporting businesses involved in international trade.
• Deputy Director of the United Nations UK Global Compact Network supporting multi-nationals and SMES in Corporate Social Responsibility, reporting directly to UN Headquarters in New York 
• Development Council Member of the Young Vic Theatre Company
• Fellow of the Royal Society for Arts
• Marie-Curie Fellow

In addition to her role as CEO of Forensic Pathways, Deborah runs her own consultancy practicesupporting new and growing businesses in terms business strategy, developing their brand, CSR policies and international trade.

In recognition for her commitment to entrepreneurship Deborah was awarded an O.B.E in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2008 followed by being voted one of the Top 100 WomenEntrepreneurs in the UK by Real Business Magazine. Other awards have included the Joyce Award 2009, for commitment to the British Association of Women Entrepreneurs, FCEM International Woman Entrepreneur of the Year 2007/8, European Woman of Achievement 2006 and British Female Inventor of the Year 2005.

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, connecting with parents and most importantly kids. In 2011 families spent over £50m on Ella’s Kitchen foods. In each of 2009, 2010 and 2011 Ella’s Kitchen was ranked in the top 25 fastest growing private companies in the Sunday Times Fast Track 100 and in June 2010 was voted the Best Food and Drink Brand in the 2010 Grocer Gold Awards, beating Hovis, Walkers, Doritos and Cadburys. Paul also won the Entrepreneur of the Year Award at the 2011 National Business Awards.

Having won numerous awards for its customer focus, Ella’s Kitchen has co-founded The Consumer Forum, to promote customer excellence in business. The brand launched in Scandinavia and the US in 2009 and by 2011 every second of every day someone, somewhere around the world ate an Ella’s Kitchen product.

Robert Litan

Robert E. Litan is the vice president for Research and Policy at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City, where he oversees the Foundation's extensive program for funding data collection and research relating entrepreneurship and economic growth. Dr. Litan also writes frequently with the Foundation's president, Carl Schramm. Their book, Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism, and the Economics of Growth and Prosperity, co-authored with William Baumol, (Yale University Press, 2007) has been translated into ten languages and is used as a college text around the world.

Dr. Litan is also a senior fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution, where he previously was vice president and director of Economic Studies. During his career, Dr. Litan has authored or co-authored more than twenty books, edited another fourteen, and authored or co-authored more than 200 articles in journals, magazines, and newspapers on a broad range of public policy issues. His other recent books include: Competitive Equity: Developing a Lower Cost Alternative for Mutual Funds (with Peter J. Wallison, AEI Press, 2007); Worldwide Financial Reporting (Oxford University Press, 2006, with three co-authors); Financial Statecraft (with Benn Steil, Yale University Press, 2006); and Follow The Money: The Enron Failure and the State of Corporate Disclosure (AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies, 2003, with 3 co-authors).

Dr. Litan has been a lecturer in banking law at the Yale Law School, consulted for numerous organizations (public and private), and testified as an expert witness in a variety of legal and regulatory proceedings involving domestic (banking, antitrust) and international (primarily trade) issues. He also consulted for private sector firms and the Department of Justice on antitrust matters. Among his various assignments, he has written a number of influential federal reports. He co-authored two Congressionally-mandated studies for the Treasury Department on the role of the Community Reinvestment Act after the Financial Modernization Act of 1999. During 1996-97, he served as a consultant to the Treasury Department and was the lead author of its report to Congress on the future of the financial services industry (American Finance in the 21st Century), and in 1998-99, he was the main author of the Report of President's Commission to Study Capital Budgeting. In 1998, he also chaired the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Assessing the Costs of Natural Disasters, which produced a report, The Impacts of Natural Disasters: A Framework for Loss Estimation.

Dr. Litan has served in several capacities in the federal government. During 1995 and 1996, he was associate director of the Office of Management and Budget, where he was responsible for overseeing budgetary and other policies of six cabinet agencies. From 1993 to 1995, he was Deputy Assistant Attorney General, in charge of civil antitrust litigation and regulatory issues at the Department of Justice (where among other matters, he supervised the first Microsoft investigation, which resulted in a consent decree; and the investigation against NASDAQ). From 1977 to 1979, he was the regulatory and legal staff specialist at the President's Council of Economic Advisers. In the early 1990s, Dr. Litan was a member of the Commission on the Causes of the Savings and Loan Crisis.

Dr. Litan received his B.S. in economics (summa cum laude) from the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania; his J.D. from Yale Law School; and both his M. Phil. and Ph.D. in economics from Yale University.

Dr. Chris Luebkeman

Chris is a bridge builder of many kinds.  He has been formally educated as a geologist, structural engineer and architect.  Chris believes that successful design cannot be separated from breadth of knowledge and steadfast inquiry.  He is a cum laude Bachelor of Engineering (Honors) graduate of Vanderbilt University and a Masters of Science (Civil Engineering) graduate of Cornell University.  At Cornell he was introduced to the Engineering marvels of Robert Maillart and traveled to Switzerland to become an understudy to Prof. Christian Menn at the ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology).  In 1987 he was asked to join the design office of Santiago Calatrava where he introduced structural computer modeling to this new office.  He returned to the ETH to study architecture and completed his doctorate there in 1992.  During this time he founded his consultancy 'Second Generation Design' in which he worked with artists and architects to realize their design dreams. He was also a full-time faculty member of the Department of Architecture teaching structural engineering.  Since leaving Switzerland, he has since been a faculty member of the Departments of Architecture at the University of Oregon, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  At Oregon he created the first Architectural Portal on the Web entitled 'the Architectonics Studio'. His architectural practice focused on low-impact zero-energy homes; his engineering practice on mobile and deployable structures, and his teaching practice on the integration of building systems.  His research program at MIT which continues today, is entitled 'house_n; MIT’s intelligent home of the future.' 

Chris joined Arup in 1999 and is now global leader of Foresight and Innovation group.   He is jointly responsible for developing the role of the group with a focus on design research and has particular responsibility for future projects. 

John Maltby

John joined Lloyds TSB in November 2007 to lead the Commercial business with an ambition to create the Bank that’s best for Businesses. In January 2009 John was appointed to lead the Commercial business for Lloyds Banking Group following the acquisition of HBOS and in September 2011 he was appointed to the Group Executive Committee.  Finance Director’s of UK businesses has voted Bank of the Year Lloyds Banking Group for the last 7 years. Prior to joining LTSB he was Chief Executive of Kensington Group Plc, floating the company in 2000, growing the business to be a FTSE 250 company in 2006 and selling the business in 2007 for 130% of the price at IPO.

Bernard F. McKay

Bernie McKay is Intuit’s Chief Public Policy Officer and Vice President for Corporate Affairs. In this role, Mr. McKay is Intuit’s senior officer responsible for government affairs, industry relations, global public policy, and national corporate philanthropy.

Bernie joined Intuit in January 1998. Prior to that time, he served in a variety of capacities in both the private and public sectors. A former Vice President for AT&T, Mr. McKay served in government relations positions there in the corporate Public Affairs department, and later led the Emerging Global Markets business development group in AT&T Federal Systems. He also previously served as deputy director of Hewlett-Packard’s Washington Government Affairs office.

Prior to joining the private sector, Bernie served in positions in the US Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency, and also previously served in the Rhode Island State Department of Health. Before joining government, Mr. McKay served in a number of staff and management positions in Presidential, Senatorial and Gubernatorial election campaigns

Bernie holds a BA in Political Science from Providence College, and a Masters in Business and Public Administration from Southeastern University. He studied business, government and international affairs at the University College of North Wales (UK), the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France, and at the Indiana University School of Business.

Mr. McKay is a Board member of Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA), the Council for Electronic Revenue Communication Advancement (CERCA), the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA), and is Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of John Cabot University in Rome, Italy. Bernie is married to the former Mary McNulty of Newport, Rhode Island; they have four children.

Lara Morgan

Lara Morgan is an entrepreneur and inspirational speaker most widely known for building her own international business, Pacific Direct, over the course of ten years. Pacific Direct now has customers in over 115 countries and Lara sold a 99% holding of the company for £20 million in 2008. The experience has left her with a wealth of experience in creating and building a business from scratch, right the way through to exit.

Lara is now focusing her passion on Company Shortcuts, a platform for entrepreneurs to access unique short cuts, check-lists and business performance measurement systems to free up time, increase effectiveness and help accelerate growth.

Jonathan Ortmans

Leading the development of Global Entrepreneurship Week on behalf of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Jonathan Ortmans has worked to align more than 120 countries to inspire, connect, mentor and engage the next generation of entrepreneurs. In doing so, he has helped assemble an informal coalition of more than 25,000 organizations dedicated to stimulating entrepreneurial activity. The November 2011campaign engaged over 10 million people in 40,000 concurrent activities.

Ortmans brings a wealth of experience to the project, serving as a senior fellow at the Kauffman Foundation. Principally, he advises the Foundation on its global footprint and its interface with policymakers through the Policy Dialogue on Entrepreneurship (hosted at www. entrepreneurship.org), a public policy initiative to focus attention on the importance of entrepreneurship to the economy and society. Based in Washington, DC, Ortmans serves as an interface between new research and initiatives to advance entrepreneurship at the Foundation and the questions and concerns that arise from policymakers in the nation's capital.

He started his first business at the age of 19 in his native United Kingdom and his second at 34 following a juncture on Capitol Hill working for the U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee focusing on trade policy.

Previously, Ortmans served as executive director of the Columbia Institute for Political Research, concentrating on health care economic policy. Currently, he also serves as president of the Public Forum Institute, an independent not-for-profit organisation that enjoys strong bi-partisan congressional support in fostering public discourse on major issues of the day.

Jonathan lives in Washington, DC and can be reached at jortmans@unleashigideas.org
or through his policy blog or his Global Entrepreneurship Week blog.

Mark Prisk MP

Mark Prisk was appointed as minister for Business and Enterprise in May 2010, in the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills.

Mark was elected as the Member of Parliament for Hertford and Stortford in 2001. His interests include small business and enterprise, urban planning and regeneration, as well as defence and foreign affairs. He served on the Conservative front bench from 2002, covering Treasury and Business portfolios.

Born in Cornwall and educated at Truro School and Reading University, 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.

Mark lives with his wife Lesley in Much Hadham, Hertfordshire. In his spare time he enjoys watching rugby and cricket and singing with the Parliament Choir.

Ashok Rao

Ashok Rao is a Serial Entrepreneur noted with four successful high technology start ups.  He took one of them public (IPO) with a market cap in excess of $400 million.  He is currently on his 5th start up, as Chairman & CEO of Whodini Inc. – developing cutting edge software for enterprises, utilizing Artificial Intelligence and Computer linguistics. He was also elected Chairman of the TIE Global Board of Trustees in 2011. TiE is the world’s largest organization of entrepreneurs.  Ashok was one of the first Indian-American to take a company public on NASDAQ.

In 2007, he was awarded the Distinguished Alumnus Award for Entrepreneurial achievement from his alma mater Marquette University. Ashok was selected as one of the top 100 South Asians in America in the book “Lights of South Asia” by the publication “Roshni”. In 2008, he received the APAHA George H. W. Bush award for Arts Achievement, and in 2007 he received the Literacy Advancement Award for his contributions to the advancement of Math and Science in the Houston School District.

Doug Richard

Doug Richard is a successful entrepreneur with over 20 years' experience in the development and leadership of technology and software ventures, who featured in the first two TV series of Dragons’ Den. He is an active angel investor, the founder of School for Startups, was Chairman of the Conservative Party Small Business Task Force, and is non-executive director of BrightPearl Software and Beats Digital.
 
In 2006 Doug was the first American to receive The Queen's Award for Enterprise Promotion and in 2007 he became a fellow of the RSA.

In 2009 Doug received an Honorary Doctorate of the University of Essex for his contribution to entrepreneurship education. In 2010 Doug was awarded Enterprise Educator of the Year. He is a Guest Lecturer on Entrepreneurship at Cambridge University for the Nanotech Masters and PHd Programme. He currently heads up a programme together with The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to train 3,500 small businesses in web exploitation skills.

Benno C. Schmidt, Jr

Benno C. Schmidt, Jr. is the interim president and CEO of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. He is among the world’s leading innovators in primary, secondary and tertiary education. He joined the Kauffman Foundation as a Trustee in February, 2007.

Schmidt is chairman of the Council on Aid to Education, a not-for-profit organization that provides assessment and strategic planning services to colleges and universities both in the United States and internationally. He also serves as chairman of the Board of Trustees of the City University of New York (CUNY), the largest urban public university in the world. Schmidt led Mayor Giuliani’s Task Force on CUNY, and in 1999 authored a report that provided the blueprint for CUNY’s extraordinary renaissance.
In 2005, Schmidt led an elite task force in Kansas City to develop recommendations to advance higher education and research. The group explored ways to achieve that goal through partnerships between business, philanthropists and civic organizations.

Chairman of Edison Schools since 1997, Schmidt served as Edison’s chief executive officer from 1992 to 1998. Prior to joining Edison, Schmidt was president of Yale University from 1986 to 1992; under his leadership, Yale’s endowment grew at a higher rate than all other private universities. Schmidt developed a model public/private partnership between the University and the city of New Haven, led one of Yale’s largest building initiatives, and helped create several interdisciplinary programs in environmental sciences and policy, and in international studies.

Prior to his term at Yale, Schmidt was dean of the Columbia University Law School. He was named Harlan Fiske Stone professor of Constitutional Law in 1982. In his fourth year on the faculty in 1973, he became one of the youngest professors to receive tenure in Columbia’s history. Schmidt is recognized as a leading scholar of the First Amendment, the history of race relations in American law, and the history of the Supreme Court. Schmidt is a graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School. He was a law clerk for Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren; and, prior to joining the Columbia Law School faculty, he served for two years in the Department of Justice.

Nick Seguin

Nick Seguin is manager of Entrepreneurship for the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, where his responsibilities include developing and deploying programs, funding initiatives, and continuing to build networks that advance entrepreneurship both domestically and abroad. In addition, Seguin also works on programs for Kauffman Labs for Enterprise Creation.

Prior to joining the Foundation, Seguin was a principal, strategy practice lead for dynamit, in Columbus, Ohio, where he was responsible for the strategic direction of the agency and led new business development. He also was a principal and founder of weBuild, a web and mobile accelerator formed to help companies move to product, revenue, and seed funding quickly. He remains a partner in both ventures. In addition, Seguin is a facilitator for Startup Weekend and assists in running global events.

Seguin earned a Bachelor’s of Science in marketing with a concentration in international business from Miami University. During this time, he studied abroad in Luxembourg.

Max Steinberg

Max Steinberg joined Liverpool Vision as Chief Executive in July 2010, the Economic Development Company for Liverpool, bringing together the organisations responsible for physical regeneration, business support and enterprise promotion and investment marking in the City.

Max Steinberg, who was awarded the OBE in 1997 for services to Housing and Regeneration on Merseyside, began his career at Liverpool City Council in 1975 before moving to the Housing Corporation in 1978.

During 25 years at the Housing Corporation, Max worked in all aspects of housing, eventually becoming Director of Investment and Regeneration North before becoming Chief Executive of Elevate East Lancashire in 2003. In 2009 he became Chief Executive of Regenerate Pennine Lancashire Ltd, one of the largest Economic Development Companies in the UK.

Under Max’s leadership Regenerate Pennine Lancashire was responsible for an economic development programme which saw the creation of more than 1,000 new businesses and the attraction of £10m of private investment; the development of the Pennine Lancashire Brand through events such as the highly successful ‘Pennine Lancashire Festival of Food and Culture’; and agreement of an Integrated Investment Strategy with seven local authorities, the Northwest Regional Development Agency and the Homes and Communities Agency.

Max’s wider contributions have included:

• Chair of the Urban Task Force Working Party that developed the concept of Housing Regeneration Companies currently being piloted nationally
• A member of PAT7 (Unpopular Housing)
• Negotiating the £50m Merseyside Special Allocation   

In 1981 Max was part of the Secretary of State for the Environment’s team after the civil disturbances in Merseyside.

Max, who is 59, has also been on the board of Liverpool John Moores University European Institute of Urban Affairs since 1992 and its chairman since 2001. He also helped to found the Career Opportunities for Ethnic Minorities project. He is currently a board member of the National Housing and Planning Advice Unit, deputy chair of the Riverside Housing Group and was a non-executive director of Kensington Regeneration from 2003-2006.