Meet Our Award Judges

Joe Calder is a philanthropist, charity fund-raiser and leading tech innovator in Silicon Valley.

Having previously held senior positions at Google, Intel Corp and PayPal, he is now spearheading research at Meta into extended reality (XR), augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) wearables as well as use of AI as a voice assistant.

A graduate of the MBA programme at Cambridge University, he sits on the advisory board of the University of California and he is a top-level patron of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) and the conservation charity Tusk.

Specifically, Joe is Patron of the BAFTA Chair’s Circle, focused on philanthropy and strategic planning. He is a passionate advocate and fund-raiser for Tusk, focused on wildlife conservation in Africa. As a Tusk Patron, he is part of the Tusk Patrons’ Circle. Over the last few years, he and his family have attended Tusk events in Aspen, The Hamptons, and London and he is currently bringing a major Tusk fund-raising event to the Bay Area of San Francisco. 

Alex Boucher MBE is a multifaceted creative and influential figure in the UK video games industry. Beginning his journey as a signed musician and television sound-engineer, Alex later transitioned into games, where over a 15-year career he has championed entrepreneurship and commercial growth across the sector. He has played a pivotal role in elevating UK games businesses on the international stage through effective sales leadership and strategic development.

Alex is also known for founding grassroots initiatives such as Game Dev Heroes, Games Growth Summit, and VIVA! —all now key fixtures in the UK games calendar. In addition, he serves as a trustee for Safe In Our World, a charity focused on supporting mental health in the games industry.

Steve Pailthorpe is a marketing expert, AI strategist, and award-winning British entrepreneur, recognised as one of the world’s leading voices in marketing strategy, search, and artificial intelligence. 

As the Founder and Chief Executive of Iconic Digital, Steve has spent over 15 years building one of the fastest-growing digital marketing agencies in Europe. Under his leadership, Iconic Digital has delivered measurable ROI for thousands of businesses – from SMEs with £1m–£5m turnover through to global brands. His systems-driven approach combines search, content, and AI-powered automation to generate leads, track performance, and scale growth predictably. 

Visit: https://www.iconicdigital.co.uk/

David Empson is the Founder and CEO of Generous APE, a marketplace solely for Stylish Sustainable Brands. David is an Entrepreneur and Business advisor with a lifetime career in retail rooted in M&S, Director of Sainsbury’s, MD of JVs with Boots and Sainsbury’s launching their respective clothing offerings re Mini Club and TU.

Visit: https://generousape.com/

Dave is the founder and Managing Director of Thornton & Lowe, a nationally respected consultancy that supports organisations across the UK to win and deliver public sector contracts. Since establishing the business in 2009, Dave has built Thornton & Lowe into one of the UK’s largest and most experienced supply chain, bid writing, and procurement consultancies. 

With a background in procurement and a strong understanding of public sector commissioning, Dave is recognised for his strategic insight and deep knowledge of the tendering process. Under his leadership, Thornton & Lowe has supported thousands of organisations to navigate complex procurement requirements, while also developing innovative tools and services to improve efficiency and outcomes across supply chains. 

Visit: https://thorntonandlowe.com

Following 20 years in executive director of HR/workforce roles in healthcare/charity sectors at local, system, regional and national level, Julia now has a portfolio of consultancy, NED/Trustee, teaching and coaching roles. Julia is the Managing Director of Zenon Consulting, a boutique people management and development consultancy, Non-Executive Director at the Liaison Group, Founder and Board member of the London HPMA (Healthcare People Management Association) Academy, Board Member at the Association of Chairs and Association of Professional Executive Coaches and Supervisors and Senior Teaching Fellow at the University of Greenwich.

With an MSc in Strategic HR management and organisational change and as an alumnus of Cranfield’s Business Growth Programme for SME owner/managers, Julia enjoys developing herself and others. Julia is a L7 qualified, experienced Executive Coach and Executive Coaching Supervisor. Her key areas of teaching and design are consultancy, coaching, strategic HRM, organisational change, development, politics and leadership and she teaches at undergraduate, postgraduate and executive levels.

Julia is also a qualified swimming teacher and Day Skipper (RYA) and sailed for many years. She completed her first Trans-Atlantic sailing on a 42-foot yacht as Co-skipper in 2023.

juliatybura@zenonconsulting.com

@juliatybura

j.htybura@gre.ac.uk

Visit: http://www.julia.tybura.com/

Kate is a strategic communications expert specialising in food, markets and community inclusion. For 12 years, Kate was part of the corporate leadership team at Borough Market. Her work at Borough Market, which was driven by a strong belief in the central part that markets can play in revitalising communities and driving the sustainability agenda, included building the market’s brand, developing its printed, digital and in-person communications, increasing engagement, and ensuring that the thoughts of the institution and its traders were regularly heard through the national media.

She helped shape the responses to some extremely challenging circumstances, including the 2017 terrorist attack, Brexit and the Covid pandemic, as well as playing a key role in overhauling the strategic development of London’s oldest market.

Kate sits on the boards of the The Mayor of London’s Markets Board, which promotes the social and economic contribution markets make to London, and Better Bankside, the business improvement district for London’s Bankside district. She is a Liveryman of The Stationers Company and a Freeman of London and enjoys judging the Great Taste Awards for the Guild of Fine Food.

Award winning CEO of innovative and proven technology TCW, Ryan Dempsey believes that if you support and empower people by giving them visibility of data and information, things will change for the better. As a Fellow of the IET, his electrical engineering career and concept for TCW started in the housing sector where he saw a need to understand and manage vast amounts of data more efficiently. It soon became apparent that the benefits of the technology translate across multiple sectors. TCW turns asset, supply chain, logistics and compliance data into actionable, reportable insight that has a tangible impact on your organisation.

Dr. Baoli Zhao is the founder and Managing Director of Allsee Technologies Ltd, a manufacturer of Digital Signage Displays. The company was awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation in 2017. The company has been recognised for their flexible all-in-one Digital Signage solution that allows users, regardless of budget and IT resources, to implement future-proof commercial displays in a diverse range of settings. Their innovation makes Digital Signage accessible to everyone, allowing small businesses to promote their services and products in an exciting and dynamic way.

Baoli is a mentor at Oxford University Innovation to help the university spin-outs with Intellectual Property, new venture creation, investment raising and technology marketing. Baoli is also an Ambassador of the Be the Business movement that was established to bring together companies large and small and make the UK home to the most ambitious firms in the world. Recently, he started an arttech company Vieunite. This innovative platform revolutionise how we consume art on a daily basis. It combines the Textura™ digital canvas with an online art community where artists can share and sell their work to art lovers all over the world.

Baoli holds a PhD in Speech Recognition from Nottingham Trent University and an Executive MBA from Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. Baoli is also an Associate Fellow of Management Study in HSBC Business School (PHBS), Peking University. His responsibilities in this role include teaching practical management for MBA students to understand the roles of innovation, marketing and strategy in business.

Matt attended the University of Manchester to study political science. Finding the college schedule a little relaxed, he spotted an opportunity to practice his entrepreneurial skills alongside his studies and started organising club nights for his fellow college students. As the business grew to other college cities, Matt met Jeremy Simmonds, who was at the University of Leeds. They became business partners (starting a partnership that has lasted over 20 years) and launched Rough Hill, a business that by 2010 had grown to over 15 UK cities, running up to 25 events per week and selling tickets to a million college students a year.

Before long Rough Hill was helping brands to reach the college demographic through their grass roots marketing channel, and this brought them to the attention of Chime Plc, who in 2012 acquired the business and placed it into VCCP, the international advertising agency. There Matt and Jeremy continued to run their core business as well as taking on youth and experiential marketing contracts for the agency clients, working for blue chip brands such as Telefonica, McDonalds, Coca-Cola and McLaren.

In 2014, Matt and Jeremy completed their earn-out at VCCP and with their unique perspective of both the nightlife and experiential industries, they formed Competitive Socialising. They tested their concept ‘Swingers – the crazy golf club’ with a pop-up in east London that ran from September 2014 to February 2015. It was an instant, viral success and sold out in days, convincing them that the concept had enormous potential.

The first permanent Swingers location followed in 2016 in London’s Financial District and again it was a runaway success, offering mini golf, cocktails and street food in a totally original and unique environment. A second location followed in London’s West End in 2018. In June 2021 the first Swingers venue in the US opened its doors in Washington, DC. A second US venue followed in 2022 in Manhattan, New York. In late 2024 Swingers will open its flagship venue at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Resort in Las Vegas as well as a venue on Bluewaters Island in Dubai.

Jeremy is a co-founder and co-CEO of Competitive Socialising which is the company that created Swingers, a pioneering entertainment concept that has established itself in both the UK and USA. Swingers combines miniature golf with elevated hospitality and is a pioneer in the fast-growing activity leisure sector. Jeremy alongside his co-founder and co-CEO, Matt Grech-Smith, have grown this business from zero to $60m of sales.

They are the creative and strategic forces behind Swingers which is fast becoming an established international brand. Prior to founding Competitive Socialising, Jeremy and Matt, successfully established, grew and sold their first business, a UK-based youth and experiential marketing agency, Rough Hill, to international ad agency VCCP, part of listed marketing services firm Chime.

Mark is a globally recognized advisor and academic known for his ground-breaking work in AI, legal tech, and innovation within the legal sector. With an exceptional ability to solve complex issues, Mark has been acknowledged as one of the ‘Top 50 most influential Brits in the UAE’ and listed among the 100 Inspiring Leaders in the Middle East.

His distinguished career spans diverse leadership roles, including his tenure as Chief Executive of the DIFC Dispute Resolution Authority and Registrar General of the DIFC Courts. Mark’s pivotal contributions have led him to be twice shortlisted as the UK’s Solicitor of the Year – In-House and as one of the UK’s most innovative lawyers by the Law Society of England and Wales.

Mark’s passion for technology and justice is evident through his role as Chairman of the AIFC LawTech Advisory Council and his active participation in the UK Government’s LawTech Delivery Panel’s Commercial Dispute Resolution Taskforce.

As a Visiting Professor of AI and the Law at Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, Mark continues to shape the future of law. He co-founded the Deep Tech Dispute Resolution Lab at Oxford University, a pioneering research centre dedicated to leveraging AI for dispute resolution.

Mark is a sought-after speaker and lecturer on LawTech, blockchain, smart contracts, and the implications of emerging technologies in commerce and dispute resolution. His relentless commitment to advancing the rule of law through technology has made him a leading authority in the global legal community.

Mark has worked within the globally iconic Lloyd’s insurance Market for nearly 50 years. He was originally a front-line practitioner for 20 years at a Lloyd’s insurer. He left this world in the late 1990s when he founded his first company that pioneered a new service solution for the industry. Growing this company to significant scale within a short timeframe, Mark exited and began what has become his primary focus for the last 20 years.

With this first business he gained a reputation for his expertise in launching startups, scaling them, operational organisation and creating brands that deliver mission and cause. This has seen him found a number of organisations helping optimise these various elements of critical structure and much else aside. Carrying on his own entrepreneurial journey, he is an insurance fintech founder and occasional angel investor. He is an active mentor and advisor, including at the Lloyd’s Lab, its own innovation hub. Most recently Mark has taken on the Chairman’s role of Breathe Points, a startup focused upon building behavioural changes in City citizens, encouraging them to reduce their personal carbon impact.

In 2017 Mark was elected a Freeman of the Company of Entrepreneurs, an aspirant Livery Company within the City of London. November 2023 will see him be installed its Master for the following year. He is passionate about social inclusivity and equity and serves a number of charities, foundations and other organisations that strive to make the workplace fairer for underserved communities. He is also an occasional visiting lecturer on Entrepreneurial Mindset and Leadership.

An entrepreneur since an early age, Sadie founded Bubble, a global PR, marketing and events company focusing on the entertainment technology, sports and AV business, in 1999 and is still very much the driving force. Sadie not only looks after the business side of Bubble and client strategy but also heavily promotes the role of women in the industries she works in. In 2017 she founded the Rise – Women in Broadcast group which is now a global group offering mentoring, training and awards across all job roles.

Sadie has been awarded the Women in Business Champion of Change and IABM Shining Star for her work on gender diversity. Sadie is also on the board of the DPP and Buckinghamshire New University.

In 2020 Sadie founded a new business, Marketing Leaders Circle, a global network for marketers in the media and entertainment industry, in July 2022 this business was expanded into The Circle Society welcoming the following job functions – sales, HR, finance, operations and leadership.

Sadie is a keen traveller for business and pleasure and would like to spend more time on the golf course.

Chris Tyler-Smith is the CEO and founder of Rooster Marketing, a full-service marketing agency with offices in London, Winchester, Birmingham and Manchester, supporting brands globally. Rooster Marketing works with some well-known brands such as the AA, Sodexo, Mercedes Benz, and the NHS but also supports emerging brands with strong marketing strategies. Rooster supports a wide range of sectors with their marketing services including Healthcare, Pharma, Construction, Manufacturing, E-commerce, Fitness, Food and Beverage, Aviation, Banking, and Law, to name a few.

Each year Rooster proudly supports a chosen charity with past charities that include Horatio’s Garden, The Boaz Project, Hampshire Air Ambulance and The Itchen Navigation Preservation Trust. Rooster supports these charities with their expert marketing services to elevate their brands and improve ROI, increasing the support that these charities deliver.

Chris is also the marketing expert for International Leaders, London, giving his time to support the next generation of privately owned companies in a dynamic, nurturing, business community. Recent talks at Leaders London by Chris and his team have included “Creativity Wins”, “Value in a Brand”, “Embracing The Metaverse”, “The Benefits and Risks of AI for Businesses” and “Inbound V’s Outbound Marketing”.

Chris also loves to mentor young talent looking to carve out a career in marketing, helping them to choose their path in the hugely diverse but exciting marketing world.

In his spare time, Chris loves spending time on the South Coast either by, on, in or under the sea.

Visit: Rooster Marketing

Neil Fineberg is the Managing Director of successful award winning recruitment & development consultancy, Finegreen – focused on helping organisations (predominantly Healthcare) recruit & develop the best people to Executive / Management positions within permanent, fixed term, interim and temporary positions. With over 20 years’ experience in his field, Neil has built up a business with excellent networks at the highest levels across the NHS, private healthcare and international healthcare arenas, as well as strong links to education, local government and large private sector providers of services to the Healthcare industry.

Finegreen helps healthcare organisations appoint to the full spectrum of specialisms – everything from Boards and Non-Executives to HR & OD, Finance, Estates & Facilities, Project/Programme Management, Procurement, Commissioning, Strategy, Business Development, Clinical & Corporate Governance and Operational Management – together with their Medical / Clinical Division where they have a particularly high quality database of senior clinicians. In short, Finegreen see themselves as a true one-stop shop for senior levels of the recruitment industry.

Awards include:

• Winner – HealthInvestor Awards – Recruiter of the Year 2013, 2014 & 2016
• Winner – Best Business Awards – Best SME 2013-2016
• Winner – CV Magazine – Best Upper Level Recruitment 2016
• Winner – Talk of Manchester Awards – Agency of the Year 2015
• Winner – Best4Recruitment Awards 2013 & 2014

Visit: www.finegreen.co.uk

Nicky McCrudden is an entrepreneur, L&D consultant and chocolate devotee, who recently returned to her first love, academia to study for a doctorate in humanistic leadership.

A fellow of Royal Society of Arts, Nicky’s career spans the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. After managing projects for the RNIB and leading strategic service redesign projects for the NHS, she founded McCrudden Partnership, a creative learning and development company dedicated to providing highly effective learning to operational managers in 2005.  As Managing Director, she guided the company from a ‘harry potter’ business operating from the cupboard under the stairs through a decade and a half of continual growth. Surrounded by a team of highly sought-after consultants and trainers Nicky worked with clients including the Natural History Museum, England Rugby, NHS, Canon UK and Europe, and British Gypsum.  She personally designed and developed a cutting-edge digital learning platform and her ‘partnership’ philosophy won her recognition in a host of awards, including the prestigious Training Journal Awards (2019) and CIPD People Management Awards (2021).

After 17-years at the head of McCrudden Training, Nicky transitioned back to academia, now studying for a PhD in Management with the prestigious University of Sussex’s Business School. Despite her full-time research commitments, Nicky is already working on a new company to launch in 2024.

Visit: mccruddenpartnership.co.uk