Entrepreneurship

Alex is the founder of 9MM PR, a strategic communications consultancy that helps business owners to build profile, presence and profits. His journey began at Bite, one of the UK’s leading communications groups, where he executed campaigns for some of the world's biggest technology companies. Today, he continues to use his skills to help the owners of established B2B businesses to achieve their vision by creating content that influences and attracts their most profitable prospects.

Alberto is the Founder and CEO of alva (www.alva-group.com). For more than twenty-five years, Alberto has worked in business information and analysis firms, developing intelligence solutions for Fortune 500 companies. He has held roles in marketing, strategy, and corporate development at few global companies before founding and serving as CEO at alva, a technology-enabled company that provides decision intelligence for some of the largest companies in the world.

Alberto is a published author of the book “The Connecting Leader” and has been a visiting professor at Bayes Business School. He earned an Executive MBA also at Bayes, and holds an honours degree from the University of the Arts London.

Andrew Priestley is qualified in Industrial and Organisational Psychology, an award winning business coach, and ranked in the top 100 UK Entrepreneur Mentors. He is also the bestselling author of several books - The Money Chimp, Starting, Awareness, Sales Genius and Fit For Purpose Leadership. He developed the Business Leadership Profile, The Sales Profile, The Entrepreneurs Profile used by companies worldwide.

He still has the publishing company; and he is the Chair of Trustees for a children’s' charity.

His first business was an entertainment/lifestyle publication; and then a marketing/advertising agency. He then transitioned into business coaching and specialises in business leadership.

He speaks two languages - English and Australian.

Andrew Carroll is Director of Business and Corporate Development (Europe) at San Francisco headquartered OneMarket, previously Westfield Labs. Onemarket’s Customer Activation Platform helps retailers unify their data to ensure more meaningful and profitable relationships with their customers.

He set up his own company, Yocuda (eReceipts) in 2011 which was acquired by Westfield Corporation in 2017. Westfield were subsequently acquired by UnibailRadamco. OneMarket demerged from Westfield Corporation and listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in June 2018.

Andrew has expert knowledge of the retail sector, market research, real time customer engagement, marketing and communications, raising investment and exit strategies (Yocuda was acquired by OneMarket). Andrew is also an non-executive director at family owned insurance brokerage Carroll Insurance Group Ltd.

I had co-founded a P2P lending start-up in 2015 in Korea, which evolved into the largest P2P lending company for business loans (similar business model to Funding Circle) in the country. Then after working as the product manager/ business developer at two other companies within the Fintech space in Korea for five years, I had recently been appointed as the CEO of Plain Vanilla Co. Ltd (a new subsidiary of KB Financial Group, the biggest banking corporate group in Korea pursuing a similar business concept as Robinhood the stock trading App).

I have expertise in new business development, business model generation, pitching to VCs, organizational culture, and thorough knowledge of the recent trends in Fintech and Artificial Intelligence, although my first-hand experience is mostly focused on a specific geographic location (Seoul, Korea).

Dan is the CEO and Co-Founder of EventsTag, a company that provides experiential technology for live events. EventsTag brings together videos, pictures and posts from events around the world into full digital experiences, creating an intersection between live experience and social media. EventsTag is a global entity with 120,000 clients, including the likes of Nike, Google, Facebook, Red Bull and O2.

In this video Dan recalls how his passion for doing business started at college when participating in business competitions. He also reveals some of his ingredients for success: a good team, a mentor, and the importance of testing the market!

Dudley Jacobs is a serial entrepreneur who loves helping others succeed.  A Nashville, Tennessee USA native who is now based in London, he has enjoyed numerous successful launches, profits and exits over a 25+ year career.  As a founder, co-founder, partner or investor in 17 different businesses, Dudley has experienced many of the joys (and sorrows) of the entrepreneur’s journey.

Industry-specific knowledge includes healthcare, hospitality, telecommunications and entertainment.  Functional expertise includes ideation, business models / canvas, market research, bootstrapping / funding, organizing / legal / accounting, intellectual property, systems / IT, business development / sales, operations, human resources, acquisitions and dissolutions.

“The entrepreneurial life is a good life - one that is filled with hope, optimism and much personal fulfilment.  I looking forward to connecting with Bayes students and helping them build something amazing!”

Elena Jacobson – CEO & Founder – Infinity Advisory and Management Elena established her legal consultancy, Infinity Advisory and Management  in 2016, prior to which she had over ten years of experience in the legal sector, having trained at Herbert Smith Freehills and then gone on to work as a legal manager both in-house (including for UHNW families) and at a number of well-known private/family offices. Before founding Infinity, Elena involved herself in a number of entrepreneurial pursuits. These ranged from opening the first UK franchise of the children’s clothing store Mayoral, running her own children’s events company and to creating an after-school activity company.

She is fluent in English, Russian, Romanian, and Italian. Her broad legal experience includes complex High Court litigation and international arbitration, mediation, transactional and strategy advice as well as co-ordination of third-party service providers.

I completed MSc Energy, Trade and Finance three years ago and now work in shipping at Navigator Gas. The company is based in London, NYSE listed and I focus on Business Development in all areas of the business.

I am also part of the strategic team in the company and have wide exposure to corporate strategy development and implementation.

Previously I worked as a shipbroker in Singapore and London over 10 years and have had the opportunity to start a ship broking business in Singapore from its inception, thankfully it turned into a success, but I have had my fair share of tough moments.

Gillian has LLB. (Hons) in Law by the National University of Singapore and a MBA (International Business and Export Management) from City University's Business School in London, under Chevening Scholarship (formerly the British Council FCOAS Scholarship).

Currently Gillian is a Senior Process & Tech Consultant at KorumLegal; Mentor with WILTM program; and Children's Ideation magazine Author. She has expertise in knowledge management, workflow processes and information governance in Legal Tech. Using Design Thinking, Gillian combines critical human POVs with technological offerings for economic viability.

Janet Thomas is a Senior Executive with over 25 years’ public sector and international banking experience.  Janet’s political and commercial astuteness enables her to negotiate efficiently, determine quickly whether proposals are financially attractive to be perceived positively. Janet has a unique ability to execute in either large global matrix organizations or start-ups due to her broad and deep business experience.

With her strategic marketing experience, she has transformed markets, differentiated businesses, exploited the application of innovative technology to realise significant market opportunities to create high-profiled profitable global businesses with a sharp focus on customers. She is experienced in building talented teams and driving sustainable businesses.

After graduating from the Business School (formerly Cass) in 2009, Jason faced a challenging decision: whether to join a major company and fight his way up the corporate ladder or channel his energies and passion into building his own company. He chose the latter.

In April 2012, after a couple of years of researching the travel market and using his educational experience, he launched his online company: TravelStaytion. The company is a letting and holiday rental website that within its first month managed to feature more than 2,000 properties across Europe.

In the early days Jason benefited from using the incubation facilities offered by the Bayes Entrepreneurship Fund. With this support, he was able to start operating his company in London and employ seven members of staff, three based in London and four in Greece. Jason's favourite part of his job is to travel around the world, getting to know new cultures. That way, his company can offer the best service for holiday makers looking for accommodation, as well as attracting suitable property owners. "Every day feels like a trip for me and for the team. They provide the local feel for each destination we cover around the world."

Jeffrey Lawrence is COO of Ardmore Healthcare Ltd, a company he established 10 years ago. It is a UK organisation which develops and sells medical devices for hollow organ assessment and evaluation using a range of non invasive products and proprietary software for adults and children. He holds an MBA from Bayes having studied at City University Business School far too long ago to remember exact dates! A BOC scholarship funded his studies.

His business career started with BOC where he worked in sales and marketing roles in the UK, Japan and Singapore where he developed the BOC health care businesses. Whilst in Singapore he joined Glaxo Group as a Director responsible for the medical devices business for the Pacific Basin. Upon his return to the UK he was responsible for production activities before setting up Ardmore Healthcare. He is an active member of the City University mentoring programme having been involved with it for 3 years. As a member of the British Society of Gastroenterology he remains at the forefront of new product development and innovation committees, principally with the Royal London Hospital.

Juhi has helped startups, SMEs and listed companies grow through business development, product development and partnerships.

As a Startup Founder she’s raised investment, acquired thousands of users through strategic partnerships and digital campaigns and sold new technologies to enterprises as Proof of Concepts and Commercial products.   At Nokia, she worked with new technologies based on Internet of Things, Big Data and Corporate Transformation.

As an Angel Investor, she’s championed female-founder led businesses like BuddyBounce (exited 2016) and SilkFred amongst others.

She currently works with early stage impact focused businesses, social enterprises and the ecosystems helping them to succeed.

I have run my own business and finance consultancy firm since 1996 and as well as being a Mentor at Bayes Business School I am also a Mentor for the UKs largest Entrepreneur Accelerator and a Fintech Mentor for Europe’s largest Fintech Accelerator. In both capacities I work with SMEs at any stage from start up to mid-size and act as mentor, trouble shooter, advisor, Advisory Board member and much more.

I have an MSc in Global Management and have worked in some 45 countries on 4 continents.  In addition I am a prolific published author, international speaker, & BBC Radio contributor, have written 3 books and many published articles/chapters on topics including developing M/SMEs, Fintech, finance, renewable energy, and PPPs.

After an IT engineering degree from CNAM Paris, I graduated from Bayes Business School EMBA in 2012 with electives in Strategy and Entrepreneurship. My BMP was an academic business plan to setup a language institute in Dubai.

It then took me few years to implement my project and 8 years ago, I ventured in Entrepreneurship with my first project that was a language institute in Dubai. Since then, I have learned a lot in this field and also started a consulting firm specialised in Business Setup in UAE.

In parallel to that, I have decided to go back to IT and joined an IT Start-up from Silicon Valley that settled down in Dubai last year and I take care of Strategic Alliances.

Finally, I have also founded Bayes Entrepreneur club 3 years ago in Dubai and organised few events locally. On a personal note, I am passionate about Public Speaking and toastmaster’s member since 2017.

Brian is an entrepreneur turned CFO – passionate about start ups and SMEs every since his MBA as Bayes Business School (grad 2004), where he set up the Bayes Entrepreneurs Network. Having founded businesses ranging from online business networking and soft drinks to medical devices, he now supports entrepreneurs hands on as a CFO and as a mentor. Look forward to working with some of you, and what you will achieve.

Maria started her career at Grimaldi Shipping in 2007. For almost 8 years, she was an Average Adjuster and marine claims consultant with Richards Hogg Lindley both in London and Greece, also sharing her time with the Standard P&I Club as Claims executive, dealing with P&I claims. In 2015, Maria joined the American P&I Club as Business Development Manager looking to raise the Club’s brand name in the market and develop underwriting opportunities. Since early 2017, she is a Marine Insurance Broker handling all aspects from production to placing and claims handling.

In 2014, Maria set up and successfully runs her own business in Greece, namely Kallichoron Art Boutique Hotel. Maria has managed to promote a lesser-known destination with authentic beauty that is worth visiting and has created a strong brand that offers personalized and innovative services.

Marja is the founder & COO of Jump. Previous to founding Jump, Marja worked in Venture Capital, investing in Series A+ marketplaces at Piton Capital, and at McKinsey on Strategy & Private Equity projects. She has a MSc. in Sociology and B.A. in Economics & Management from The University of Oxford, where she did her thesis on the impact of social network structure on job performance.

Jump is the first people analytics platform that gives everyone a chance to succeed. By understanding what makes people unique and linking this to business outcomes, Jump gives more personalised job recommendations to professionals, in turn attracting much better job applications to businesses.

Hi, I am Manuel, a brand strategist, creative director, consultant, and author. I’ve spent the last 25 years in the creative / advertising industry in both entrepreneurial and corporate positions across branding, creative direction, digital advertising and design. And most recently, I have found my true passion - branding for conscious businesses - helping companies that do good, do well.

After a short stint in the Australian Civil Service, I spent 15 years in the UK (graduated from Bayes in 2013) and worked in digital media throughout that time. I held roles in smaller at-tech companies, large media agencies and with media owners such as ESPN. My roles were operational at the start of my career (managing campaigns, introducing new products, designing systems) throughout a period where automation and data became increasingly important. I moved into more commercial roles in recent years (owning revenue targets, managing large teams, launching new business models) where I was the key contact for large external clients.  At the moment I work for Amazon AU in their advertising team, partnering with agencies to run campaigns and promote their products on our site. I am the first person in this role in Australia and work closely with teams in other markets globally to set goals and share best practice.

I am operationally driven, able to design processes, craft the story, and get things moving. I'm more about bringing things to life rather than being a blue sky thinker and originating those ideas.

Nic is the founder and currently the CEO of Sledge and also the Non-Executive Chairman of Events Tag.

My career began in the eighties in the world of live music. I had returned to UK after spending 1980 in France as a roadie and became a lighting designer for British music acts. I saw there was a crossover opportunity to bring these media innovations into the conservative world of corporate film and live event production and this led directly to the creation of Sledge. I was delighted when I sold Sledge to an Australian media group in 2007: it was the exit strategy I had planned. Then the crash happened.

Capitalising on the opportunity, I took the company back into private ownership on favourable terms in 2010, and once again found myself at the helm. These days, as well as running my own business I am Non-Executive Chairman of Events Tag – a live event experiential technology company.

In 2008 my life seemed perfect. I was a rising star, doing everything most people would love to do. After attaining my MBA from Bayes Business School, London in 2000, I worked in the City for a few years. In 2003, I set up my own consulting firm.

Over the past three years, I have personally helped more than 100 companies achieve massive growth. I put all the knowledge I gathered – and much more – into what is today known as Business Lens™, a toolkit to identify what business owners don’t do well or enough of in their company.

This was the start of Tooliers, the platform with smart business solutions for small enterprises to increase profitability and become leaders in their niche. We now have clients around the globe and what’s most important is not that we are making money, but that we help those who need us and our tools to smarten their businesses and achieve bigger profits faster.

Parveen is the Head of Programmes (Future Fifty, Upscale, Rising Stars, Founders' Network, Cyber, Fintech, AI and alumni) at Tech Nation.

She is also the co-founder of Stubble and Strife. Previously, Parveen was the Incubation and New Ventures Manager at London City Incubator.

She was also the Chairwoman of Bayes Entrepreneurs Network. Parveen has an Executive MBA in Entrepreneurship, Strategy by Bayes, Business School.

I’m a Business Mentor because I like people and people create, develop and run businesses. I am very skilled at getting to the root cause of business issues and problems – creating successful solutions for you and your colleagues to implement.

My skills as a Business Mentor and competent coach are underpinned by my extensive, direct and practical business experience.

Before starting my mentoring consultancy I spent more than 15 years working in owner managed small businesses. I have set up and run a marketing communications agency taking it from start up to a profitable, sustainable business in 5 years. I’ve had considerable hands-on senior management and advisory experience in established companies as well as an eclectic blend of start-ups.

My experience also rests on my specialist business education. I hold an MA in Marketing at Distinction level and also received a distinction for my executive MBA, Masters in Business Administration, (5th in the UK – Financial Times 2015) from the Business School (formerly Cass) in London, ranked 3rd in London, 6th in the UK, 21st in Europe (Financial Times 2015).

I have been working for over 12 years in the corporate world. I was the Commercial Technology Sales Lead (Northern Europe) - Sales Business Development Manager at Cisco Systems. In the last 2.5 years I have launched a couple of start-ups which I am currently still working on, such as travelin (https://travelin.ai) and Disrupt Industries (of which I am the CEO). I am a member of the Bayes Alumni Board and currently I live in Oslo.

An experienced risk manager and Non-Executive Director with a career spanning more than two decades. I work effectively with board and senior management teams using appropriate skills to communicate effectively, influence, challenge and build rapport.

I have developed a broad range of skills and an international commercial acumen. In my current role as Executive Director, I lead RGA’s design, delivery and assurance of its Enterprise Risk Management Framework across a diverse geographical region.

My passion for education, coaching and executive training resonates through teaching Risk Management at the Business School. As a Non-Executive Director and ex-Chair at the IRM I have had the opportunity to lead Strategy and Innovation initiatives.

Uyen Ngo is Co-founder and CEO of London tech startup eSwapp, using Machine Learning to instantly identify matches for colleagues to swap skills with each other, such as swapping communication skill for IT know-how. Her background is in marketing and management, having worked for multinational companies such as GlaxoSmithKline and Danone as well as her own entrepreneurial ventures.

Uyen's startup was selected as one of 14 companies going on a British government mission to the Netherlands on Artificial Intelligence in 2019. eSwapp also participated in City Business School's Strategy Insight Lab and was one of three startups receiving Investors' Choice Awards, among other achievements.

Vincenzo is a serial entrepreneur with commercial acumen rising from his visionary instinct and technical insight. He has created and built technology companies, brands and negotiated multi-million GBP contracts. After initially working internationally with Sony and Panasonic he is personally launching a series of software companies, focused within Broadcasting, Media, and Security Industries.

His UK start-up ventures, 1999 Ark-e-media Technologies that grew to become PLC’s, all establishing a global presence with multi-million GBP of revenue and in 2005 Sicura Systems to develop IP products for security industry became a reality in Europe and the Middle East. Following acquisition in 2004 and 2014, Vincenzo has since dedicated most of his time to investment, coaching, advising and mentoring start-up ventures and SME’s within the UK technology industries.

Vincenzo also joined Richard Branson (Virgin Start-up) helping to develop the next generation of young entrepreneurs and he is often a guest speaker and has been on business panels at various events.

Simon is an entrepreneur. The first business he set up in 1997 was Aspect ltd. This is a top 10 UK creative communications agency with a mission to “inspire business performance”. Specialising in events, training and communications consultancy, Aspect works for a multitude of major corporations across the globe. Simon also owns a property investment business with interests around London.

Simon is a creative communications expert with nearly thirty years of dedicated industry expertise behind him.  His particular strengths lie in bringing communications creativity to all the projects he works on at a strategic level and he is also seen as an industry-leading presentation and performance coach.

Right now he has a keen interest to inspire young entrepreneurs and has delivered talks at Bayes Business School, Kent University and West London University. He has broad interests, and is currently undertaking a music performance degree at the London College of Music.  He plays Oboe and saxophones and is also a keen runner, swimmer and rollerblader. He is very proud to be a father and is married with three children.

Wendi Lai is the CEO and Co-Founder of Lonbrella, London's first umbrella sharing network. Lonbrella has won 6 startup competitions in the UK and China and are in the midst of launching their service in central London.

Aside from her startup, she possesses vast experience in business development and brand marketing and has consulted startups in Singapore and London, including Haberman Products, ChewyMoon, Raven Science, Eco-U and IncidentEye - helping businesses of all sizes with their market expansion strategies. She currently also works full-time in an advertising technology agency in London where she manages the end-to-end delivery of video content testing products.

Ypatios, has been described by many as a persistent serial entrepreneur. He has 16 years of international experience in management consulting, investment, innovation, Renewables & Cleantech. He successfully helped many start-ups and SMEs raise capital, optimise their operations, design new products & services and access new markets. He worked with large European and national organisations and participated in multiple cross-country and European collaboration projects.

Ypatios has developed and launched more than 4 product families both physical and digital, he designed more than 15 brands and fronted the launch of two business related publications.

In a true entrepreneurial spirit Ypatios has invested in more than 10 early stage start-ups, either as a founder or a business angel. He currently works with a large investment firm in the City and participates as a non-executive director, an associate or a partner in a number of SMEs. He holds a bachelor degree in Business Information Systems and has a Master in Design with specialisation in Product Prototyping. A blogger and wine enthusiast, he currently lives and works in London, UK.”

Despite a degree in economics, I started my career in the film business as a creative producer and marketer. Since 2014, I have been blessed with an entrepreneurial journey, combining my passion for tech and wellness. Together with a fantastic team, we created inKin Social Fitness, a global digital health platform that helps people around the world to preventively take care of their most crucial asset - their health and wellbeing.

inKin Corporate Wellness Solution helps companies and organisations to launch efficient and engaging corporate wellness programs online.

inKin corporate wellness platform motivates your staff to lead a healthier and more active lifestyle and helps them preventively take care of their health. It's a link between the wellbeing of employees and organisational health.

I hold BSc in Economics, Lomonosov Moscow State University and MSc in Management, Bayes Business School, London, UK.