www.nbwn.org www.natwest.com/business

CONNECTED WOMANPANEL DISCUSSION

Tuesday 7th June 2016, 6:00pm - 8:30pm

RBS, 2 St Phillips Place, Birmingham

www.nbwn.org www.natwest.com/business

6:30PM

Panel Discussion

Andy Lee, Regional Enterprise Manager, Midlands & East of England, NatWest Business Banking

Cleo Morris, Managing Director, Marketingmaker Ltd

Anisa Haghdadi, Founder and CEO, Beatfreeks

Joel Blake, Entrepreneur, Business Speaker and Consultant

Johnny 'Bob' Spence, Principal, ASBIRO UK - Alternative School of Business & Personal Development

Manjit King, Women in Business Ambassador, NatWest Business Banking

Q&A

8:00PM

Feedback and recommendations

Closing comments

Networking and refreshments

End of event

!

6:30PM

Welcome

Opening comments by

Sonia Brown MBE

www.nbwn.org www.natwest.com/business

ANDY LEEAndy is the Regional Enterprise Manager for Business Banking in the Midlands and East of England, working with the specialist business banking teams within Natwest to connect with the local enterprise support environment, local government and Education bodies, to ensure there is robust support in place for anybody wanting to start a business.

Andy has been with Natwest for 9 years, enjoying a variety of roles, from personal banking in the early years to Corporate project management most recently, he also uses the skills he has gained at work to support local good causes, where he is a Governor at Selly Park Technology College for Girls, and a trustee at Relate Birmingham.

When not at work Andy spends his time educating himself on the independent coffee scene in Birmingham and within the social enterprise quarter in Digbeth where a number of his friends own and run businesses, one of his passions is reducing the barrier to entry when starting a business, as an accredited women in business specialist, he works with groups across the region to understand the barriers they face and works with colleagues in the bank to provide support in these areas to ensure the midlands and east of England is an easy place to start and run a business.

SONIA BROWN MBESonia is a business communicator, brand strategist, diversity maverick and uber connector.  She has over 20 years in marketing, branding and life skills development.  She is an authority on many areas of business, leadership, sales and marketing, as well as supporting individuals to achieve success in all areas of life.

She founded the National Black Women’s Network; Let’s Talk Business Networking Forum and Sistatalk the UK’s leading online forum for women looking to connect with leading companies, decision makers and industry peers.  More recently she launched the Inspirational Women’s Super Summit at the Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh and designed EVOLVE; a six-step business growth programme aimed at solo and micro entrepreneurs.

Sonia has successfully worked with the who’s who in business and is endorsed by government departments and ministers, leading banks and financial institutions including top FTSE companies as well as working with a number of high profile champions to build alliances between entrepreneurs, government and banks.  She was a member of the GLE One London Start Up and Growth Panel; MOD Diversity Champions Panel and MOPAC Task Force; as well as sitting on the British Bankers Association (BBA) Diversity and Inclusion Panel.

Sonia was the former business editor for New Nation and the Voice Newspaper, the UKs leading paper for the Black British community.  She contributes to a number of radio shows, magazines and newspapers on women, diversity and enterprise issues. 

Sonia was named one of the Top 50 diversity figures in public life on the Economist Global List and is the International Alliance for Women (TIAW) 2015 World of Difference 100 Award Recipient for the economic empowerment of women. She contributes to a number of radio shows, magazines and newspapers on women, diversity and enterprise issues.

ANDY LEENATWEST BUSINESS BANKING

SONIA BROWN MBENBWN

www.nbwn.org www.natwest.com/business

JOEL BLAKE FRSAJoel is a multi-award-winning Entrepreneur, Business Speaker and Consultant with over 15 years of experience in developing small business owners, mentoring for aspiring leaders and advising professional service firms on their social impact strategies.

He is the Founder of leading social impact consultancy www.cultiv8solutions.com and Co-Founder of BizBritain Finance Ltd and has developed a credible reputation for his passion for integrating entrepreneurial thinking into corporate strategy; developing young people and his natural ability to connect with leaders at all levels.

Joel is also the Co-Founder of The Hot500, the Midlands peer learning network for small business owners, and Regional Ambassador for the national Start-Up Britain enterprise campaign.

His voluntary and community roles include Founder of Annual Birmingham CSR Summit; Chairman of Career Academies UK (Midlands Region); Advisory Board Member of Birmingham Metropolitan College Enterprise Academy; Trustee of Birmingham Town Hall and Symphony Hall (Performances Birmingham Ltd).

MANJIT KANGManjit Kang is an Accredited Relationship Manager and Women in Business Specialist at NatWest, with 25 years’ experience and continuous service in the banking sector, pecializing in real estate finance and women in business sectors. Manjit is also the bank’s Diversity Ambassador for the West Midlands region.

Manjit supports and encourages local female entrepreneurs and diverse communities to launch and grow businesses – making it simple for them to gain access to finance and offering expertise relevant to their industry. Manjit also runs highly-successful networking events for women in Greater Birmingham, enabling them to connect and collaborate with other like-minded entrepreneurs.

She has won a number of awards, including Outstanding Business Woman of the Year 2014 (Institute of Asian Business), Signature’s Diversity Award and the NatWest Focused Women Global Sapphire Award 2015.

Manjit is an executive committee member of Asian Business Chamber of Commerce and the Sikh Network.

JOEL BLAKE FRSACONSULTANT

MANJIT KANGNATWEST BUSINESS BANKING

!

!

www.nbwn.org www.natwest.com/business

ANISA HAGHDADIAnisa Haghdadi has been a social entrepreneur since the age of 15, before she even knew what the words meant! Born, raised and educated in Birmingham, Anisa is a recent graduate of Aston Business School where she read Business and Management. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Anisa has won multiple awards for youth and social enterprise and was awarded a British Empire Medal, aged 23, for Services to Education and Young People.  She is an UnLtd Fast Growth Winner 2014, which “backs ambitious entrepreneurs solving Britain’s social problems at scale”.

Founder and CEO of Beatfreeks, she is passionate about youth, art for change, and redefining the culture of enterprise so that business and social are seen as inextricable. Out of 1000 applications, Anisa was awarded a Sky Academy Arts Scholarship offering mentoring from senior executives at Sky and senior leaders in the Arts and Cultural Industries as well as financial support to develop Doink. Doink is a do and think tank which collects and communicates data creatively to help people make better decisions.

An experienced trainer, speaker and host, including hosting TEDxBrum 2014, lobbying for social enterprise apprenticeships at the Conservative Party Conference 2014 and facilitating a conference in Krakow, Poland for over 10 international partners on how young people using innovative practices to tackle social inequalities on behalf of Aston University. Anisa blogs for Huffington Post UK and is a guest lecturer for the Creative Enterprise module at Birmingham City University. She is a part of the Impact Hub Birmingham maker team, where she is based.

Anisa is fiercely passionate about telling stories, building communities and inspiring action. Her life mission to facilitate amazing collaborations which help people to get 'how their worlds work'.

CLEO MORRISWith a degree in Business and Combine studies. Straight of University, Cleo founded Marketingmaker in 2014, with the objective of increasing business’s growth and development through targeted marketing, consumer psychology practices and business analytics.

Marketingmaker is a multi-award winning marketing company  based in the heart of Birmingham, UK. Her vision is to ensure all SMEs and charities are provided with second-to-none  marketing services, branding and business support; irrespective of their size.

Having worked with clients in the UK, USA, China and Europe, Cleo believes SMEs  are the backbone of any economy, and this is why her company champions the smaller business.

Since its creation, Marketingmaker have won the BBA MentorsMe Award for Start-up Growth and The Phoenix Award for Business and Enterprise 2015.

ANISA HAGHDADIBEATFREEKS

CLEO MORRISMARKETINGMAKER LTD