The Entrepreneurs’ Lunch is a joint initiative between Smith & Williamson and www.freshbusinessthinking.com bringing together a select group of entrepreneurs and business leaders to allow high-level networking and exchanges of ideas.
Date: Wednesday 17th July 2019
Time: 12.30 – 15.00
Location: Private Dining Rooms of Smith & Williamson
Address: 25 Moorgate, London, EC2R 6AY (see map)
Speaker:
Will King
Following redundancy in the early 1990’s recession, Will King created the King of Shaves brand, www.shave.com and its first product, a shaving oil sold at Harrods.
Under his leadership, King of Shaves has been the stand-out innovator in men’s grooming products for over two decades, and he’s renowned for ‘zagging’ when his competitors ‘zig’.
In October 2014, Will stood down as CEO, remaining Founder and the largest individual shareholder. He is now immersed in a variety of projects via his ‘Entrepreneur-in-Residence Company’. And in October 2015, he announced the debut of Savage & King, a creative agency for those who ‘Dare to Do’ with his wife, globally renowned creative director Tiger Savage.
The guests:
Chris Forbes | The Cheeky Panda
Chris Forbes spent 20 years working in capital markets and management consultancy around the world at up to board level before taking his passion for sustainability and co-founding The Cheeky Panda, a bamboo tissue business, with his wife Julie Chen in 2016. The Cheeky Panda is a high impact green consumer goods company with a multi-million-pound turnover, selling in over 20 countries, with a market cap of £25 million. Chris does public speaking and regularly feature in the mainstream media.
Kaushal Shah | envoPAP
Kaushal Shah is the founder of envoPAP, which he set up to make sustainable paper out of Sugarcane fibres sourced from India. Every metric tonne of envoPAP produced saves 50 trees from being chopped down for manufacturing paper. Currently, envoPAP is working on creating the most earth-friendly straws, crisp packets, food packing materials and more from waste materials of agriculture residue. Kaushal sees sustainable development as a core business of the sector, paving the way for securing a safe and healthy working environment and the desire to develop sustainable products.
Dylan Watkins | Poppy’s Picnic
Dylan Watkins is the founder of Poppy’s Picnic which makes it easy for people to feed their dogs a raw food diet the way nature intended. With no hidden nasties, the balanced meals contain all the goodness a dog needs for optimal health and wellbeing.
Poppy’s Picnic received four offers on BBC 2 Dragons’ Den in 2018 and has since been featured on Channel 4’s Come Dine With Me (yes, he did feed dog food to contestants!) and on ITV’s This Morning as well in national news titles.
Sukhi Jutla | Market Orders
Sukhi Jutla is an award-winning entrepreneur and author of 3 books. She is the co-founder of MarketOrders, an online B2B platform for the gold and diamond jewellery industry. She is a leading international speaker, influencer and thought leader in tech and a qualified IBM Blockchain Foundation Developer. She is recognised by a number of industry awards including the Asian Women of Achievement Awards, Management Todays ’35 Women Under 35′ and named a Top 100 European Digital Pioneer by The Financial Times and Google. In April 2018 Sukhi made global headlines when she became the World’s First #1 Bestselling ‘Blockchain’ Author.
Kieron Yeoman | imployable
On leaving the Marines after a 10 year career, Kieron specialised in coach-mentoring and set up a company working with government departments, educational establishments and training providers on a national scale supporting every walk of life move closer to employment.
Shahzad Younas | muzmatch
Shahzad Younas left the world of investment banking to pursue a career as an entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of muzmatch, which is backed by Y Combinator, a backer of Airbnb, Stripe and Dropbox. It is a revolutionary mobile platform which has raised $1.75 million to help shape the way Muslims find their partner. Featured on the BBC and Sky, with over 1.5 member members worldwide and over 30,000 successes, muzmatch is the largest Muslim marriage app globally and is transforming how Muslims marry.
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Tony Craddock | Emerging Payments
Tony Craddock is the founder of Emerging Payments, which sets out to enable trust in and access to payments globally. It promotes the UK as a global hub for payments and the interests of its 130+ members, including MasterCard, Barclays, Amazon and Fiserv. Tony is also a lively public speaker, colourful social media commentator and avid networker, passionate about payments and the difference it can make to lives everywhere.
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Neil Crowther | Ardent
Neil Crowther founded Ardent in 1993 with a clear vision in mind – to give customers complete peace of mind knowing that their people and vehicles are in safe hands. Ardent is a total vehicle fire protection specialist company, offering fire suppression systems to a host of plant vehicles including John Deere, Caterpillar, JCB and more.
His mantra is ‘Do the right thing’, because Ardent is all about protecting people and saving lives. He believes that if he puts that at the centre of every decision he makes, he can’t go wrong.
Alex Doyle | Altr for Men
Alex Doyle is the founder of Altr, a fusion of skincare and cosmetics for men. Alex launched the company after failing to find a suitable option to help his own personal skincare problems. Not only did he struggle to find a product that worked for his skin, but he also found that none of the brands spoke to him as a 21-year old guy.
Christopher Kenna | Brand Advance
Christopher Kenna is CEO and co-founder of Brand Advance, which has launched the industries first Diversity driven global media ecosystem across On & Off Line media for agencies and In-house brand teams.
BA partners with over 250 global platforms across diversity media, BAME, LGBTQ+, female empowerment, tech, disabilities, lifestyles, queer (GenZ) fashion and many other specialist and hard to read demographics.
Julia Jones | Found in Music
Julia Jones launched her company Found in Music as an experiential marketing & CX agency in 2003 using the same neuroscience principles. Found in Music now advises on and delivers a range of music services for public and private sector clients including the Greater London Authority, SAGA Group, Network Rail and British Land.
Julia sits on the Mayor of London’s Music Board, the BBC Music Steering Group, the All Party Parliamentary Group for Artificial Intelligence, is an advisor to the NHS’ new dementia village, the Secretariat for the Music in Society inquiry at the House of Lords, advisor to the WELL Institute and a Trustee of Young Voices.
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Niamh Barker | The TravelWrap Company
Niamh Barker is the founder of The Travelwrap Company, which was founded in 2007 and the signature product, the Scottish cashmere Travelwrap was brought to market. The Travelwrap won UK Luxury Gift of the Year the same year and the following year Best New Business in the International Stevie awards for Women in Business. Last year Niamh was a finalist in NatWest Everywoman Entrepreneur of the Year.
Jacob Hinson | eLocker
Starting at 17, 10 years on, Jacob Hinson has been involved in a number of businesses, from festivals to fulfilment centres. He describes himself as a drive and passionate person who prides himself on his ability to turn customers from lions into pussycats.Gemma Bloemen | Elder
Gemma Bloemen is the Chief Operating Officer at Elder. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Yale University after leaving her hometown of Utrecht, Netherlands. Gemma was a Strategy Consultant for McKinsey & Company before getting her MBA at INSEAD. In 2014, she joined Uber where she managed a variety of operational teams as Senior Operations Manager before joining Elder in early 2018. At Elder, she leads the Supply and Community Operations departments, as well as being responsible for Safety, Clinical and People. She feels passionate about the inclusion of women in business and has led the Women in Business club at INSEAD and co-chaired the Women of Uber resource group. She has an interest in all things tech, politics, workplace diversity and is a dedicated foodie.
Aliza Marogy | Inessa Wellness
At 18, Aliza was living with an autoimmune condition which was unresponsive to medication. Facing a life-changing medical procedure she pursued a combination of diet and nutraceuticals and managed her condition into remission, where she remains nearly 20 years later. Retraining as a Nutritional Therapist to help others in a similar situation, she went on to found a clinical practice going on to create an industry leading nutritional supplement company with customers and operations across the world. Her expertise has been sought by companies including Barclays, NewsCorp & Deutsche Telekom to advise on improving employees working environment and productivity via nutrition.
Maurice Ostro OBE | Ostro Fayre Share Foundation
Maurice Ostro OBE is a serial entrepreneur and active philanthropist. Having founded, run and sold many successful businesses including Air Fayre an award-winning company, which changed the global model of airline logistics and catering, he is now CEO of the world’s largest supplier of blue topaz to the gemstone industry. As founder of the Ostro Faye Share Foundation, Maurice has spearheaded innovative projects including collaborative spaces for charities to work together in London, economic development projects abroad and interfaith initiatives, including the Faiths Forum for London and Strengthening Faith Institutions.
Chris Tingley | Conjure
Chris Tingley is co-founder and chief technology officer at Conjure, a digital agency specialising in future technologies. As CTO, Chris helps Conjure’s clients understand, embrace and adapt technology to their products, services and processes. He also runs the London Blockchain Meetup as well as speaking at other professional events on topics such as software development and e-leadership.
Thish De Zoysa | Their Perfect Gift
Thish De Zoysa is the founder of Their Perfect Gift, the spend anywhere gift card. Their Perfect Gift’s prepaid gift cards can be used anywhere that accepts MasterCard, which means over 30 million places worldwide.
Ben Collier | Ocasta
Ben Collier is the founder of Ocasta, who focus on boosting performance in businesses through technology. With a mix of bespoke projects and their own platform, Oplift, Ben has helped retailers, field teams, universities and enterprises transform how they work. Out of the office, Ben can be found eating tofu, watching fireworks or at a theme park.
Franco & Caroline Beer | Boka
Franco and Caroline Beer are the co-founders of Boka Food, an energetic, innovative company, making great tasting snacks The company’s mission is to bridge the gap between healthy and delicious with products that are portable, affordable and deliver in taste. Boka is committed to making snacks people can eat every day helping them to make better decisions when it comes to food. The first product launched was the Boka cereal bar with all four green traffic lights with a patent on the technology used.
Alexander Martin | Envy Group
Beth Jones | Pirate’s Grog
Beth Jones is the co-founder of Pirate’s Grog Rum, one of the leading boutique rum companies in the UK. Discovered on Roatán, Honduras, in 2012, whilst house sitting in the jungle, the couple partnered with the creator, the Dutch Pirate, and hatched a plan to begin exporting rum across the globe.
Two years later, Pirate’s Grog Rum Ltd launched in the UK, and the crew set up HQ in London. Since then, the product range has grown to include four rum expressions; Pirate’s Grog Five Year, Pirate’s Grog Spiced, Pirate’s Grog No.13 and Black Ei8ht Coffee Rum, which have scooped awards for both taste and design in prestigious competitions such as the World Rum Awards, Spirits Masters, Great Taste and the IWSC.
Kelly Allison | KVA Digital
Kelly Allison is the founder of award-winning agency KVA, with over 15 years’ experience within the digital communications landscape. Setting up KVA in 2013 with zero investment, she has created an ambitious and kind team of people who truly care about the work they carry out, meaning a positive working environment for all. Having tripled her team from 11 to 33 in the past year, Kelly is firmly committed to pushing digital boundaries and driving innovation for the agency’s clients.
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Dom De Vetta | Shay and Blue
Dom De Vetta created Shay & Blue in 2012, a new-generation purpose-driven company that makes fragrances with real flowers fruit and spices and markets them to millennials and Gen Z’ers.
Dom spent many years at Chanel before being asked by Leonard Lauder, chairman of the Estée Lauder Companies, to accept the position of global general manager of Jo Malone London, taking over from the founder when she chose to exit the business. Dom grew the brand from a small, local UK brand into the £1 billion+ it is today.
James Morgenstern | Ideal Insight
James is the Founder of Ideal Insight, an award-winning content marketing agency that works with many of the UK’s largest brands to produce creative and effective marketing campaigns.
Started from his bedroom and entirely self-funded, Ideal Insight has grown to produce over 4,100 shoots across the UK, Europe, US and Asia.
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Eloise Frank & Adam Chaudhri | Big London Bake
Eloise and Adam are founders of The Big London Bake, London’s highest-rated event. It is a 5 star rated event and voted as the Best Experience in South London. They both have decades of experience in the travel/tourism, communications and events sectors. As experts in PR & marketing, they have generated over 36 million impressions for The Big London Bake.
Adam & Victoria Cozens | Perky Blenders
Adam and Victoria Cozens are the co-founders of East London’s specialty coffee roasters; Perky Blenders. Since starting, alongside brother-in-law Tom in 2015, Perky Blenders has created four cafes, two ‘roasteries’, moved all consumables and packaging to eco-friendly-options, rebranded, held talks and training, and switched websites.
Simon Harmer | Marmalade on Toast
Simon has been working in the creative industry for twenty years. As Founder of Marmalade on Toast, he has led an award-winning creative studio to over ten years of success, working with clients such as Harrods, Samsung, Imperial College London and Unilever.
He is also a published author and illustrator, having been commissioned by Mazda, Tate Galleries, The Guardian and Hugo Boss.
Rebecca Sciliano | Tiger Recruitment
Rebecca Sciliano is managing director of Tiger Recruitment. With over fifteen years’ experience recruiting support staff, Rebecca’s expertise and naturally engaging character make her an invaluable and leading member of the Tiger team. Rebecca is the trusted recruitment partner to some of London’s premium blue-chip companies, from private equity firms through to creative companies, tech firms to professional services.
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Peter Rossi | Equals Collective
Peter Rossi is co-CEO of Equals Collective, working with investors and founders to understand how they deliver on the objectives that they have set themselves. He provides trusted advice and strategy which enables the projects to deliver quickly, at scale and are sustainable moving into the future. Equals Collective works with businesses of all sizes, using its diverse team’s skills to accelerate the delivery of digital initiatives.
Charlie Casey | Loyalty Lion
Charlie Casey is CEO and Co-Founder of LoyaltyLion, a data-driven loyalty and engagement platform for fast-growth e-commerce merchants. LoyaltyLion helps thousands of retailers worldwide to build fully customised loyalty programs, proven to increase customer engagement, retention and spend. Prior to founding LoyaltyLion, Charlie joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as an economics advisor.
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Alex Durrant | JigTalk
Alex Durrant is the co-founder of JigTalk, the personality-first dating app which encourages people to ‘swipe less and talk more’. The app covers users’ faces with a jigsaw, only revealing the images once two people have exchanged at least eight messages each. The aim of the game is to swipe, match up, and reveal each other, piece by piece.
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Francesca James | Great British Entrepreneur Awards
Francesca James is the founder of the Great British Entrepreneur Awards. Now in its seventh year, the Great British Entrepreneur Awards acknowledges the hard work and inspiring stories of entrepreneurs in the UK.
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The hosts:
Guy Rigby | Head of Entrepreneurial Services, Smith & Williamson
Guy is an experienced chartered accountant and an entrepreneur. A natural and driven enthusiast, he built and sold his own accountancy firm, as well as pursuing other commercial interests. He has been a director and part owner of a number of different companies, including businesses in the IT, property, defence, manufacturing and retail sectors.
In an unusually varied career, he has been the senior partner of two accountancy firms, a finance director, sales and marketing director and an adviser and mentor to many entrepreneurial businesses and their owners.
Guy joined Smith & Williamson in 2008 and leads our entrepreneurial services group. His day to day activities include advising entrepreneurs and their businesses and coordinating Smith & Williamson’s activities in this increasingly important market.
Guy’s book ‘From Vision to Exit – The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Buying and Selling a Business’ has received significant critical acclaim. Click here to find out more. He often writes or provides comment for the press, has been interviewed on Bloomberg TV and on radio and is regularly quoted in, for example, the FT, The Times and The Telegraph, among other publications.
Nick Travis | Partner, Smith & Williamson
Nick assists a broad range of clients in structuring their long-term financial plans and discretionary portfolios. He works closely with accountancy, tax and financial planning professionals to ensure that all elements of a clients’ wealth (often including their businesses) are considered. Nick’s client base is broad and includes entrepreneurs, angel investors, professional sportsmen, personal injury settlements and charities.
Nick has a particular focus on supporting business owners in structuring their personal financial affairs whilst they grow and eventually exit their businesses.
Mark Benka | Partner, Smith & Williamson
Mark specialises on advising corporates and private equity firms, providing financial due diligence and SPA advice in respect of acquisitions and refinancings. He also helps entrepreneurs prepare for investment from financial sponsors.
He joined S&W in May 2018 from PwC and has over 17 years deal experience. He has deep sector experience in the following areas: Technology, Industrials, Healthcare, Business Services, Renewables and Consumer.
He is an ACA qualified accountant and member of the ICAEW.
William Reedman-White | Entrepreneurial Services, Smith & Williamson
William joined Smith & Williamson in 2016, having worked previously for large UK and French investment firms. He works closely with high net worth individuals and founders of SME businesses, helping them access services and solutions to achieve their personal objectives or fuel business growth. Key projects include working and engaging with young professionals, family businesses/offices, sports people and entrepreneurs.
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Sarah Callanan | Smith & Williamson
Sarah has been advising clients across a range of industries with respect to VAT for 9 years.
Sarah joined Smith & Williamson in 2015, having previously worked with KPMG in the Republic of Ireland for five years advising on VAT matters for both international and SME business clients across a range of sectors. While at Smith & Williamson, Sarah has become a key VAT advisor for its property clients (developers and housing associations) as well as continuing her experience in the international space. Sarah has recently been playing an active role in Smith & Williamson’s Making Tax Digital campaign. She has been able to provide practical insight and readiness solutions for a variety of Smith & Williamson’s clients
Tommy Roy | Smith & Williamson
Tommy is an experienced UK tax advisor with a focus on private clients and their businesses.
His clients range from UK entrepreneurs to established wealth and family owned businesses, with a particular technical expertise on the structuring and implementation of relevant structures for wealth protection purposes.
About the hosts:
Smith & Williamson are accountants and business advisers with a focus on entrepreneurs and growth businesses. They offer their energy and expertise to help their clients grow, delivering a personal, commercial approach and providing access to “end to end” services including corporate finance, accounting, tax and a wide range of other financial services. Clients include both the private and quoted sectors and range from early stage to mature businesses with values of tens and hundreds of millions.
Fresh Business Thinking is the leading online resource for business owners, directors and entrepreneurs.
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