2024 Judges

James is CEO at Jude’s. Jude’s is recognised as one of Britain’s most sustainable ice cream companies, with over 100 Great Taste Awards and supplying top restaurants, chefs, and retailers. Jude’s are a certified B Corp committed to being a Force for Good and with a driving purpose to Bring Life to People and Planet.

Amanda has enjoyed 37years with the Group with 28 years within the SME division of the business in various relationship and leadership management positions. The last 6 years, Amanda has been a Regional Director, formally in the Midlands, South Wales and latterly in the South of the UK. Amanda leads a team of locally based relationship managers from Kent to Cornwall. The team support and work with local businesses ranging from £3m to £25m turnover and help business owners deliver on their goals and aspirations. In addition, Amanda is the Co-head of Inclusion and Diversity - committed to ensure that the division is an inclusive place for all colleagues to work in.

Alex Evans is Managing Director of TALiNT Partners, which brings together a global network of HR, Staffing, Talent Solutions & HR Tech leaders to learn, share and connect through a year-round programme of events, awards, benchmarking, advisory, research and digital content. Alex has specialised in B2B media, events, awards, and executive networks to raise industry standards and inspire innovation for over 25 years. Alex heads up the membership programme for Staffing, RPO & Talent Tech leaders, curating insights from global TIARA awards campaigns and providing access to leading industry experts and business advisers to help them make better strategic decisions.

Steve founded and oversees the Global Executive Headhunt business 360xec. The company places and advises C-suite executives across a diverse range of business verticals with specialisation within Commercial Marketing, Sustainability, Communications and Technology globally. Steve is an investor/Director at DNApal.me, Remote Coach.fit, MVB/Future Kings, Rocket Thinking and Megs Menopause. He is Chairman at Hubly (preventing online abuse) and a Board Advisor to Tensei (Second Harvest pioneers). He is also NED at DTLX Drone services. Steve was Chairman of IOTG – now Silver Bullet Data Services Group Plc. He led a PLC Group flotation onto AIM in 2008 whilst purchasing one of the most regarded Publishing recruiters, and was Chairman of the REC Recruitment Trade body for Marketing, Media and Creative; the MMC. In his agency years, Steve was a member of the founding team that launched what became the largest media agency in the world; Zenith Media and was Head of Strategy on the UK Board serving clients that included B.A. Land Rover, Saab, News International, Mars and Mondelez. His full-service agency days were at Saatchi & Saatchi and at FCB prior to this.

Saira is CEO at SF Recruitment, a specialist recruitment firm headquartered in the Midlands. Saira joined in 2018 having previously been UK CEO and CFO at Ignata where she played a key role in building the group to over £40m of Turnover today. Her knowledge of recruitment and talent solutions was honed during six years spent in Deloitte’s M&A strategy team, where she was involved in a number of high-profile deals in the recruitment sector. Saira is passionate about employee engagement and since joining SF has introduced a new people-centric business model which has delivered an increase of over 60% in individual employee performance and reward. Outside of the boardroom, Saira is also a dedicated adventurer, she previously climbed half of Mount Everest and loves to travel the world to pursue her love of open-water diving.

Ezekiel Johnson is a distinguished University of Warwick Politics graduate, visionary Director, and dynamic Property Manager. Renowned for his captivating speaking engagements, Ezekiel has addressed esteemed audiences at venues such as No. 10 Downing Street, the House of Commons, Microsoft, EY, HSBC, and Soho House. In his role as Director of Community and Engagement at Global Purpose Enterprise, Ezekiel leads transformative initiatives that foster inclusive environments, drive community engagement, and create pathways to success for young black and underserved individuals. His dedication to these causes has made a profound impact on countless lives, demonstrating his commitment to youth empowerment and social change. Ezekiel's real-life experiences and corporate expertise uniquely position him to bridge the gap between Gen Z and older generations in the workplace. He understands the complexities of creating a harmonious, multi-generational work environment and is adept at fostering connections that enhance productivity and mutual understanding. A powerful orator and innovative leader, Ezekiel inspires audiences with his compelling vision and actionable insights. His ability to resonate with diverse groups makes him an invaluable speaker for corporate audiences seeking to engage with the next generation of leaders and cultivate a forward-thinking organizational culture.

Diana Florescu is the CEO and Founder of mediaforgrowth, a global media investment platform specialising in raising and deploying media capital in startups and other funds. In 2022 she made it to Forbes 30 under 30 Europe – Media & Marketing. Diana has specialised in building and delivering marketing and innovation programmes for growth-stage startups and Fortune 500 corporations including LG and PwC. She formerly led global marketing for two of the world’s largest early-stage investors and network of accelerators in the UK, USA, and Qatar – Startupbootcamp and Rainmaking (Rainmaking APAC was acquired by Bain & Company, Inc). Diana is a Strategic Advisor to Mercurius Media Capital - the US's 1st independent media capital fund.

Carmina Lees is a Managing Director at Accenture within Financial Services, joining in September 2017. Carmina is part of the UKI Board and leads one of the biggest financial clients, leading a team of 550. Prior to joining Accenture, she spent 19 years at IBM, leading and growing Technology and Consulting businesses cross Industry. The last 4 years of her IBM career she was the Vice President of the Cyber Security Business for UKI, Carmina was leading an end-to-end business from setting the strategy, growing market share, leading Sales, Delivery, and technical teams. Driving a high-performance culture with the objective to grow market share and become the leading security provider in UKI. Carmina is recognised internally and externally for STEM, people development, and as a Technology leader with a passion for I&D. Computer Weekly has named her on the top 50 most influential women in IT for the last 3 years, she was a Finalist in the "Women in IT awards”. Carmina is passionate about technology and has always been an active supporter and ambassador for promoting the presence of women in IT, talking on panels externally and at Schools. Carmina led the Inclusion and Diversity agenda for IBM and for Accenture Security globally. Carmina actively drives initiatives to help retain and attract more women into the Technology sector. Outside of Accenture, she has 2 daughters, who keep her very busy.

Sam McAlister is a former barrister and BAFTA-nominated interviews producer who has negotiated with everyone from Buckingham Palace to The White House, Tesla to Facebook. With skills honed over a decade in the BBC’s elite news programmes, notably BBC Newsnight, she is used to persuading reluctant individuals to participate in a news programme renowned for its rigour and bite. Exclusives include, most famously, that interview with HRH Prince Andrew — but also Sheryl Sandberg, Prime Minister Trudeau, President Clinton, Prime Minister Netanyahu, Elon Musk, James Comey, Stormy Daniels, Julian Assange, Trevor Noah, Amy Schumer and Eric Schmidt. Sam’s book Scoops: Behind the Scenes of the BBC’s Most Shocking Interviews was released in 2022. The book details the secrets of a former BBC producer who found her way to Buckingham Palace, giving a backstage pass to the most unforgettable journalism of our times. The book was optioned for a documentary for Channel 4, which will aired in May. It has also been optioned for a Netflix film, with the acclaimed screen writer Peter Moffat (Your Honor, Silks and Criminal Justice). Sam will be played by Billie Piper with Gillian Anderson as Emily Maitlis, Rufus Sewell as Prince Andrew and Keeley Hawes as Amanda Thirsk, his private secretary. The film is scheduled for 2023.

Award-winning entrepreneur and bestselling author, Donna O’Toole, is the founder of August Recognition - a global awards agency and part of the Dent Global group, which helps entrepreneurs to stand out, scale up and make a positive impact in the world. Named one of the world’s Top 25 Customer Experience Influencers and an award-winning national and international awards judge, Donna has helped hundreds of businesses from start-ups to FTSE 100 organisations, brands, entrepreneurs, and leaders across the world to raise their profile by achieving valuable awards and recognition for their achievements. Renowned for achieving an outstanding success rate in the most highly regarded awards such as The Queen’s Awards for Enterprise, and bestselling author of WIN! the ultimate guide to winning awards.

Alexandra (Alex) Leader is the SME Lead at the City of London Corporation and is responsible for co-ordinating the delivery of services for Small and Medium Enterprises across the square mile. In her 8 years at the City of London Corporation, she has developed and expanded the support services for SMEs, most recently leading the move of the Small Business Research + Enterprise Centre to a new location with better facilities and accessibility. She is continuously striving to find new ways to support small businesses, and has a strong career background in entrepreneurship, employability, and skills development. Alex is particularly passionate about supporting founders from diverse backgrounds and driving social mobility. She wants everyone, regardless of their background, to feel empowered to start their own business and achieve economic freedom.

Miles started his career as a financial journalist, working for the Investors Chronicle as a staff writer before moving to the position of Smaller Companies Editor. He later moved on to be the Editor of Growth Company Investor. He has worked as an analyst and fund manager and held the role of Head of Communications for a wealth manager and has also spent time in Investor Relations. His current role is as a Partner and Director at Sterling Investments which runs a UCITS fund focused on small to mid-cap companies. He is also a Judge at the Small Cap Awards.

Abdul R Shiil is the Co-Founder and Director of Sahan Cares CIC, a pioneering social enterprise that empowers refugees in West London to secure qualifications and meaningful employment within the healthcare sector. In addition to his doctoral studies, he serves as a trustee for ActionAid UK.

André Spence is a social entrepreneur, author, and mentor, who has been in the entertainment industry for over 10 years. Finding youth fame on a reality show on MTV, he presented and blogged for MOBO and organised events, bringing together global brands, and world-class talent in support of charity Finding the power of mentorship on his journey, in 2017 he founded Global Purpose Enterprise, which exists to level up young black people and help them walk in purpose through events and mentorship. His organisation has worked with top-tier firms from EY to the highly sought-after private members’ club, Soho House. Now Andre and his team are on a mission to impact the lives of 1 million young Black and underserved people in the next 5 years through their upcoming app PRGRSS that connects mentees to mentors through 12-minute video calls to help them navigate their careers.

Sophie Milliken MBE is founder and CEO at Moja Group. Moja work with entrepreneurs and senior executives to amplify their personal profiles and become known authorities in their industries. In her first business, Sophie led recruitment and employability experts, SRS, to become the leading provider of assessment-centre simulations for universities and trained over 30,000 students at these events. Sophie also worked with employers such as M&S, JP Morgan, Expedia and AXA to design and deliver their graduate recruitment campaigns. Sophie was awarded an MBE for services to Business and to Education in the 2023 New Year honours list. Sophie has been a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development since 2013 and was awarded a Fellowship of the Royal Society of Arts in 2019. Her first book, From Learner To Earner was published in August 2019, becoming a best seller in October. Sophie’s best-selling second book, The Ambition Accelerator was published in February 2021 and includes advice from Dragons’ Den star Sara Davies MBE and The Apprentice’s Linda Plant. A podcast accompanies The Ambition Accelerator and includes interviews with the women included in the book. A multi award-winning businesswoman and proud mum, Sophie also enjoys supporting the North East region. Sophie is a supporter of Northern Power Women and co-founder of City Ladies Networking. She is Chair of Smart Works Newcastle and has achieved huge success delivering the aim of doubling the number of unemployed women supported with interview clothing and coaching across the North East and securing Sara Davies MBE as the charity’s ambassador. In June 2021, Sophie became a Founding Ambassador for Every Child Needs a Mentor.

Scott is an entrepreneur, investor and speaker in the entrepreneur media industry for the last 20 years. Has founded and co-founded national media companies, 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 Brand Director at CEMG the combined publishing and events brand behind Elite Business, Elite Business Live and Elite Franchise, expanding it’s purview includes a range of content for supporting SME fast-track growth companies and digital marketing solutions He’s an experienced host and speaker and known face in entrepreneurial circles.

The UK Government’s Department for Business & Trade (DBT) English Regions works to increase the number of UK exporters and support the UK to attract inward investment. We directly support businesses to export and match high profile investment opportunities with foreign investors. Our work covers the majority of England - the Northern Powerhouse, the Midlands Engine and the Southern England. As International Trade & Investment Director (SCS1) for the Midlands, I lead the delivery of these export support services to businesses across the Midlands using a network of International Trade Advisors (ITAs) and I lead the DBT Midlands Investment Hub, which is a focal point for Foreign Direct Investment in the Midlands. We do this by directly providing export and investment services, forming partnerships with key partners, business representative organisations & stakeholders. We build the exporting capability of high growth potential businesses through one:many and one:one upskilling, help and support to businesses through our Exporting Academy and our regional ITAs, directly connecting them with opportunities across through the world, breaking down barriers to trade, market diagnosis, trade missions and so much more. With a career spanning over 25+ years in the public and private sector where I have successfully led and managed large, national teams for major digital organisations and UK Government departments; delivering key strategy, policy, change and transformation to help and support businesses of all sizes and complexity. Successfully delivering policy, building advocacy and influencing notable business boards, forums and international stakeholders. Alongside building critical business capability to meet the needs of now and the future. My roles have been high profile and demanding in the best sense possible, where my passion for building teams and meaningful partnerships has been stimulating for growth and prosperity. Having lived and worked in the Midlands for majority of life, it means a great deal for me to represent the best of the Midlands and help showcase that to the rest of the world. I am a firm believer in the value of collaboration, partnering and inclusivity to help drive the Midlands to exceed our export and investment ambitions and ensure we work toward our ‘race to a trillion’ worth of exports by 2030.

Allyson Stewart-Allen is an international marketing advisor, broadcaster, award-winning educator and author of both editions of the best-selling book Working with Americans. Originally from Los Angeles and now based in London for over 30 years, she has advised over 260 businesses across 27 countries including BAE Systems, Burberry, Chanel, HSBC, Lufthansa, Ricoh, the UK’s Department for Business & Trade and more. Besides her work with C-suite leaders to develop their leadership brands, she is a regular TV, radio and print contributor including for Al Jazeera, BBC, Deutsche Welle, Financial Times, France 24, and The Wall Street Journal. She is also the creator of the recently-launched LinkedIn Learning course Leading International Growth. Allyson earned her MBA with Dr. Peter Drucker and learned her craft working for PwC, PA Consulting Group and Hay Management Consultants. Allyson is CEO of International Marketing Partners and an Associate Fellow at Said Business School Oxford University, Churchill College Cambridge University, Member of the Advisory Board of the British Business Excellence Awards and recently served as a Non-Executive Director for the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

Based in London Paul is a recognised education technology leader and a promoter of inclusion and diversity. He serves as the UK&I Education Lead for Zoom and the interim co-chair of Zoom Soul UK Employee Resource Group. This has led Paul to oversee many initiatives such as Zoom's UK Black History Month events, including an engaging fireside chats with The Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London, Sir Kenneth Olisa OBE and Dr Delroy Hall, a counsellor, dynamic trainer and EDI leadership specialist, to a global Zoom internal audience. Marking Paul’s first year at Zoom, he was awarded Zoom UK Most Valuable Player for Public Sector as a great testament of Paul's ongoing outstanding contributions to the team. Passionate about empowering and raising the aspirations of under-represented young people from diverse and disadvantaged backgrounds, Paul serves as the Chair of the Professional Advisory Board at the University of the West of Scotland. The Board provides practical advice and supports the new London campus to meet its strategic objectives and to provide links with businesses and the community. Paul is also the founder of Idare2inspire, A programme used to impact the lives of many thousands of young people. This includes being the sponsor of Portsmouth's biggest Anti-bullying Conference with an attendance of over 1500 students and arranging tours of the Houses of Lords for boys attending schools in London. This has led Paul to win a global recognition award which was presented to him by Rev Jesse Jackson, The civil rights activist. Paul also offers leadership and transformational coaching to professionals including a former Special Advisor to the Prime Minister. He recently worked with a small group of business leaders in No.10 Downing Street to drive change for the better, for boosting mental health, enhancing wellbeing and debugging the stigma around mental illness.

Julie Devonshire is the Director of the Entrepreneurship Institute at King’s College London supporting students, alumni and staff to learn entrepreneurial skills, develop entrepreneurial mindsets and, perhaps, create start-up and spinouts of their own. King’s College London engages an audience of +30,000 in entrepreneurship annually, helping to start and scale about 40 ventures each year in health, technology, creative industries and many other areas. Julie leads accelerators at King’s for start-ups and spinout along with the King’s Investor Network. Before joining King’s Julie was the Director of Ventures at UnLtd supporting exceptional, early stage social entrepreneurs across the country to scale and to raise investment. Julie and her team delivered support in partnership with the Big Lottery Fund, the Cabinet Office, Santander, Coutts and many others. Julie is an award-winning social entrepreneur and business-scaling expert; she scaled One Water, a range of bottled mineral water donating 100% of its profits to build water pumps in Africa. During Julie’s time with One Water, the business grew from £0 profits to £8.2m, donated to build hundreds of water pumps across sub-Saharan Africa. Julie is an ACCA fellow who is passionate about early-stage entrepreneurs. In 2016 Julie was awarded an OBE, in the Queen’s 90th Birthday Honours List, for her service to entrepreneurship

Genevieve is a Chartered Tax Advisor with over 20 years’ experience advising both corporate clients and private individuals. She joined Blick Rothenberg in January 2013 having previously worked in the Big 4 and a Top 10 firm. Genevieve heads up the Corporate Tax department for the firm and specialises in advising large private companies on their UK corporation tax obligations, including advising on refinancing, restructuring and overseas expansion.

Carl joined UKEF in September 2019 from Lloyds Banking Group, where he spent 31 years in a variety of roles. He was a Relationship Director, managing and developing a portfolio of customers within the Manufacturing & Industrials sector. Prior to this he was Head of Cash Management and Trade Finance, delivering cash and trade products to large London corporates. As Co-Head of Business Group, he is responsible for the Trade Finance Division and Small Delas & Emerging Sectors business functions. These incorporate various underwriting units helping UKEF grow its support for smaller exporters with a range of Guarantee and Insurance products whilst being supported by a business development function through UKEF’s 27 strong team of Export Finance Managers (EFMs), as they drive the uptake and adoption of the export credit agency’s products across the country. Additionally, the Marketing & Communications team sits within his remit, delivering UKEF’s external press and communications, driving external stakeholder relationships and creating Events and Marketing material to help raise awareness of UKEF’s stated objectives.

Andrew has an extensive background leading commercial teams in media and publishing, including News Corp, The Economist and Mail Metro Media, owner of the Lloyds Bank British Business Excellence partners i and metro.

Ele is an award-winning ATT-CTA qualified Corporate Tax Partner specialising in R&D tax credits. Ele has worked at start-ups through to the Big 4, and currently leads the R&D specialist team at leading accountancy firm Blick Rothenberg, a part of Azets. In a previous business, Ele’s team were shortlisted for Small Business of the Year, so she’s excited to be on the other side!

Paul Hemsley is head of change for cash management, payments and merchant services at Lloyds Banking Group. He has over 25 years experience of strategy, change and technology roles in transaction banking, both in the UK and Asia Pacific.

Dax Lovegrove advises business on ESG strategy and implementation. He has worked in corporate sustainability at board level for 23 years across NGO and business sectors advising different kinds of companies on their sustainability and innovation strategies. He has been highly active as CSO and advisor – advancing and implementing ESG strategies in home improvement, food and beverages, fashion, FMCG, retail, technology, energy and other sectors. He is a Trustee at Earthwatch and on the steering committee for the British Fashion Council’s circular program. Dax’ Masters is in Sustainable Development, he works with the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership program and he is trained in leadership at the Ashridge Business School.