The Lloyds British Business Excellence Awards Advisory Board has been curated to welcome independent and professional counsel to the awards, it's categories, judging processes and partnerships
Each member is chosen on their independent merits to bring specialist knowledge and insight to business awards. The Advisory Board meets three times a year and is chaired by Event Director, Sarah Austin. The boards collective specialisms provide key discussion, ideas and action to progress the awards each year and provide honest feedback and counsel to improve the programme.
Members include:
Joe Lynam
Presenter & Correspondent, BBC
Joe Lynam is a respected broadcaster, podcaster and moderator who was the BBC’s senior Business Correspondent for a decade. He now presents the current affairs show ‘The Newsroom’ on BBC Radio 4 and the World Service.
Joe has won many awards for his original journalism including the 2018 Headline Money Award for his BBC One exposé of how RBS (GRG) treated many of its own business customers. Joe was also the first to broadcast on Radio 4 a phone fraud (Vishing) in almost real time as an elderly lady unwittingly handed over her life savings to fraudsters. For that, he won the Wincott prize for Journalism in 2016.
Joe has travelled the world with the BBC covering the financial crisis (2007-2010), followed by the Eurozone crisis (2010-2013), the economic and political fallout from Brexit (2016-2021) and most recently the COVID-19 pandemic. He has presented on the Today programme, Newsnight, BBC One Breakfast as well as Five Live and the BBC News Channel. He has lived in Germany, UK, Netherlands, Australia, Belgium and Ireland and speaks five languages.
Peggy Jean-Louis
Senior Global Partnerships Manager, King's Business School
Peggy has built her 20-year career as a connector - supporting talented creators, educators and learners through catalysing collaborations and strategic partnerships. She has worked across multiple sectors -fashion, media publishing, creative arts and higher education which has contributed to her vast network of global leaders.
Peggy pivoted into UK higher education from the creative sector by first working for The London School of Economics as their Business Partnerships Manager. She is currently the Senior Global Partnerships Manager at King’s Business School.
Declan Curry
Broadcaster, LBC
Allyson Stewart Allen
Chief Executive, International Marketing Partners
A Californian based in Europe for 30 years, Allyson is an international business advisor, author, speaker, broadcaster and Non-Executive Director. She is the Founder and CEO of International Marketing Partners, having advised over 240 businesses across 26 countries to successfully internationalise after starting her career with PwC, PA Consulting Group and Hay Management Consultants.
Besides appearing on the past four seasons of BBC’s The Apprentice, Allyson spent several years as Sky News' "Muse of Marketing" and appears as a regular expert for BBC News, Deutsche Welle, France 24, FT, Sky News and many other outlets.
Allyson is author of both editions of best-selling book Working with Americans, the first-ever manual on the US business culture.
Miles Nolan
Director, Sterling Investments
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.
Natalie Calvert
Founder & Chief Executive, CX High Performance
Natalie delivers increased business performance through exceptional, award-winning customer service training, consulting and engagement programmes that supercharge customer service success
Her extensive proven track record extends across 100+ customer service and sales organisations reaching over 200,000 employees across Europe, Asia, Middle East and USA.
Natalie is the trusted, independent go-to person when it comes to increasing professionalism, raising standards and improving customer service.
With phenomenal expertise, an inspiring and a very real approach, Natalie has worked across both private and public sector organisations advising many leading brands including O2, The AA, Royal Mail, Audi, LEGO, The Cabinet Office, BT, Gala Coral, Staples, Camelot and Marks & Spencer.
Her career spans over three decades and roles have included:
- Non-Executive Director Think London - the Inward Investment Agency
- Joint Chair of a London Free School
- Fellow of the Institute of Direct Marketing
- Author Handbook of Call & Contact Centre Management
- UK Ambassador for the European Contact Centre qualifications
- Chair of London First Customer Contact Task Force
- Director of Team Leader of the Future programme
- Best European Customer Service Transformation, Best Training, Outstanding Performance client led awards received
- Keynote speaking and presentations for organisations, industry groups and media
Natalie puts the customer at the heart of organisations and delivers significant results for clients, always achieving increased business performance, and guaranteed to improve customer experience and greater employee engagement.
Natalie’s 3 beacons are Passion, Purpose and Pace.
Please contact Natalie at natalie@cxhighperformance.com
Andrew Webb
Founder, Connectopia
Andrew has an extensive background leading commercial teams in media and publishing, including News Corp, The Economist and Mail Metro Media.
Andrew has recently moved to found his own ad-tech company Connectopia.
Jon Peet
Director of Communications, Commercial Banking, Lloyds Bank
Jon is the Director of Communications responsible for the internal and external communications of Lloyds Banking Group’s Commercial Bank. The division has a rich heritage of supporting businesses and the economic prosperity of the nation, primarily focused on UK businesses and those with strong links to the UK. He brings a very strong focus on the audience whether that is employees or external stakeholders and aligns communications objectives with business priorities.
Jon has experience in the IT, Finance and Telecommunications industries having worked in the UK, Finland, Austria and France for large global companies in times of great change and transformation. He was most recently Vice President, global head of corporate communications for Nokia and has also led communications teams at ABN AMRO, Barclays Capital and IBM.
Dan Stewart
Head of Marketing, Lloyds Bank
Katie Hilton
Head of Membership, BITC
Kate joined BITC in 2010 as an Account Manager, working alongside some of the UK’s leading responsible companies including Sodexo, Unipart and Veolia, who she supported to gain BITC’s highest accolade, Responsible Business of the Year, in 2016. She is now part of BITC’s Senior Leadership, leading the Membership and Diagnostics functions and additionally playing an active role on BITC's cross-directorate Operational Leads group.
Business in the Community (BITC) is leading a movement to create a fair and sustainable world in which to live and work. Formed in 1982, and with HRH The Prince of Wales as our Royal Founding Patron, it is the largest and longest-established membership organisation dedicated to responsible business. BITC works and campaigns with more than 600 members to continually grow their responsible business practices, uniting their efforts for greater social and environmental impact in our communities.
Kate spent her early career in the city, joining Deutsche Bank on their Graduate scheme and working for them in London and Frankfurt as a Credit Analyst. She has a degree in Economics and History from the University of Durham.
Kate is a passionate environmentalist and ‘walks the talk’ with her husband and young children, always on the look-out for more ways to reduce the family's footprint.
