Joe Manning, Managing Director, MIDAS

Joe Manning joined the Growth Company in 2023 as Managing Director of MIDAS, Manchester’s Inward Investment Agency, charged with driving significant levels of new investment into Greater Manchester.Prior to joining, Joe gained extensive experience in the public sector, having led Cheshire and Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership and Marketing Cheshire. Previously he was a Senior Civil Servant in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities. In these roles he led on a range of economic areas including Industrial Strategy, devolution, and Innovation. Before joining Government, Joe worked in think tanks and the third sector.Joe was born and raised in Bradford but is now enjoying life on the other side of the Pennines. He believes in the importance of creating great places and maximising opportunities for everyone.

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Lucia Villamor, Partner - Investor Relations, Endless LLP

Lucia Villamor heads Investor Relations at Endless, where she is responsible for managing the firm’s fundraising activities and investor communications. Lucia joined Endless in 2008, after qualifying as a Chartered Accountant with Deloitte. She spent seven years working in the Investment and Portfolio teams at Endless, prior to taking charge of Investor Relations in 2015. Her investment experience brings a deep understanding of the firm’s deal-making and value creation strategies to the Investor Relations function. Endless’ investors include leading Universities, pension funds, family offices and prestigious foundations.

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Andrew Cope, Chairman, Gilbanks

As an investor and Chairman of Gilbanks, Andrew has provided a multi-million-pound facility to the company. A founder of Zenith, he steered the business to a turnover of £600m and successfully navigated five private equity buyouts between 2003 and 2014. Currently working in a non-executive capacity, Andrew actively supports Gilbanks' Board strategy, concentrating on future growth plans.

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Erika Brodnock MBE, CEO, Kinhub

Erika Brodnock is an award-winning entrepreneur, philanthropist, and angel investor. She is also an MBA, a Visiting Research Fellow at King’s College London, and a PhD candidate in the Inclusion Initiative at the LSE. She authored Diversity Beyond Gender and co-authored the TRANSPARENT Framework and Better Venture - Improving Diversity, Innovation, and Profitability in Venture Capital and Startups.Erika is Sky News’ resident parenting expert, co-founder at Extend Ventures, The Black Funding Network, and Kinhub, providing data-driven coaching and personalised employee support. She is one of 16 Black women in the UK that has raised more than £1m in startup funding. Erika is also a Non-Executive Director of The Good Play Guide; and serves on the APPG for Entrepreneurship advisory board.

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Tom Ray, CEO, Appsbroker & CTS

Tom is a leader in the cloud technology space, with a passion for digital transformations that deliver real, sustainable impacts.Tom heads up the largest Google-only digital consultancy in Europe as CEO of Appsbroker CTS, following a strategic merger between the two companies. Under his leadership, the merged company is focused on how AI, data, security, and martech technologies can solve the biggest business challenges.Prior to this, Tom spent a decade in senior roles working with cloud computing companies in both the UK and the US, achieving significant international growth and helping to secure investments from companies like Amazon and Blackstone.An engineer at heart, Tom spent his early career in hands-on IT roles. In smaller circles, he’s also known for his penchant for Dad jokes.

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Jess McCreadie, Investment Director, Northern Gritstone

Jess is an Investment Director at Northern Gritstone where she invests in deep tech, health tech and life sciences businesses.Northern Gritstone supports innovative, fast-growing businesses in the North of England based on a profit-with-purpose philosophy, combining attractive returns with wider positive societal and economic impact, including Levelling Up and high-skilled job creation.Prior, she was a Principal at Octopus Ventures, one of Europe’s most active VC funds and earlier an Investment Director at L&G where she led the Health Tech team. Jess started her career as an Investment Banker in London, financing Energy and Infrastructure projects. She is passionate about investing in science and technology that drives a positive impact on human and planetary health, and in her spare time mentors underrepresented founders on capital raising.

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Zara de Belder, Associate Director - Transactions & Sustainable Finance Team, Anthesis

Zara is an Associate Director in the Transactions & Sustainable Finance team at Anthesis Group. Zara provides ESG advisory services to Anthesis’ financial services client base, covering private equity, banks, asset managers and private companies. She works with clients to help them mitigate risks and capitalise value creation opportunities, within the context of a changing regulatory landscape.Zara is an MBA graduate from Alliance Manchester Business School, the University of Manchester, and has an MSc in Social Investment from Bayes Business School, City of London University. Zara is also a guest lecturer on ESG and sustainable finance at The University of Manchester.

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Paddy Dowdall, Assistant Director, Greater Manchester Pension Fund

Paddy is Assistant Director at Greater Manchester Pension Fund with responsibility for Property, Local Investments and GLIL sitting on the Investment Committee) The GLIL partnership is the first of its type in the LGPS and has mandate to invest over £2.5bn into direct infrastructure in the UK. The partners are looking to encourage collaboration within the LGPS on investment in infrastructure and believe that scale and appropriate governance structures can enhance returns.Northern Pool has led the way in the LGPS investing in housing and property development in its local area with the twin aims of achieving commercial returns for the Fund whilst having a positive impact on the local economy.Paddy has significant experience of investment in a wide range of assets including listed securities, infrastructure, private equity, and property and has previously worked at Merseyside Pension Fund.Paddy is a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy and a graduate of Durham University.

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Darren Powell, CEO, NRG Riverside,

Darren is CEO of NRG Riverside, having joined as Group CFO in 2021. Having gained over 20 years’ experience within Private Equity, Owner Managed and PLC businesses, Darren’s passion is leading them through significant change and growth, working with skilled and diligent management teams, to deliver a world class customer experience that delivers profitable growth together with
stakeholder value.With exposure ranging from B2B/B2C services, mobile workforce, Technology and Manufacturing both nationally and internationally, in businesses with revenues ranging from £10m to £2bn. Darren has been a key part of the leadership teams delivering successful business plans and 3 value enhancing PE exits.

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Kerry Battiscombe, Partner – Head of Due Diligence, Endless

Kerry joined Endless’ investment team in 2010 and in 2019 set up and formalised the due diligence team as an independent standalone function across both the Endless and Enact funds. With the majority of financial due diligence (FDD) being undertaken in-house, Kerry is responsible for FDD on all new investment and bolt-ons as well as oversight of any specialist due diligence requirements. She enjoys nothing more than working with the team to “get under the hood” of prospective new investments across a wide range of sectors. Kerry is also the Partner lead for Diversity and Inclusion at the firm.Prior to joining Endless, Kerry spent 6 years at KPMG within their Audit, Commercial Due Diligence and People & Change departments.

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Steve Byrne, CEO, Travel Counsellors

Steve Byrne, CEO of Travel Counsellors since 2016, has been instrumental in the company’s growth since joining as Managing Director in 2004. Under his leadership, Steve orchestrated
a successful MBO in 2014 with backing from Equistone Partners Europe Limited and led a secondary buy-out in 2018 with Vitruvian Partners.Steve has overseen the development of Travel Counsellors to become the UK’s largest and fastest-growing technology platform and community for travel entrepreneurs, connecting over 2,000 independent business owners and enabling them to deliver exceptional levels of customer service. The company operates across six countries (UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, South Africa and the UAE) and employs a 300 strong support team in its UK headquarters and overseas offices, all underpinned by the knowledge and power of a global community and strong people first culture.The company is currently investing £15m in its technology platform and aims to facilitate rapid growth for both individual travel counsellors and the company. Despite challenges posed by the pandemic, Travel Counsellors has not only recovered but thrived, achieving Total Transaction Value of over £900m through the platform in the last financial year (to 31 October 2023).The company's commitment to excellence is reflected in its multi-award-winning status and a consistent five-star 'Excellent' rating on Trustpilot. Its numerous accolades include three Queen’s Awards for Enterprise and listed in The Sunday Times Best Places to Work 2023.

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Keven Parker, Joint Managing Partner, NorthEdge

As Joint Managing Partner, Keven has lead responsibility for the NorthEdge portfolio, alongside involvement in organisational development and investor relations. He holds a number of Board seats across the NorthEdge portfolio.He is a trained ACA having worked at KPMG for five years before joining the Northern team at 3i plc in 1997. Over the next twelve years Keven worked on a number of northern based growth capital deals and buyouts as well as secondments to Madrid and Lisbon. His last role within 3i was as partner responsible for buyouts in the regional market. He has over 20 years’ experience in private equity and M&A.Prior to joining NorthEdge Keven was CFO at Shepherd Group, an £800m turnover family owned construction business based in York. Over the course of six years and nine corporate transactions the Group has reshaped operations transforming earnings and shareholder value.

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Dr Somayeh Taheri, CEO, Urban Chain

Founded by Dr. Somayeh Taheri in Manchester in 2017, UrbanChain is the only company in the UK that runs an energy market just for renewables.Its trading platform is called the peer-to-peer (P2P) exchange which is driven by AI and blockchain technologies.The P2P exchange profiles consumption behaviours and production patterns and secures the best match between green energy consumers and generators of renewable energy.Private companies from multiple sectors, generators of renewable energy, local authorities, social housing associations, manufacturers, energy suppliers and households are all part of the company’s established renewable energy trading market.Dr. Taheri has often been labelled as an individual who is 'pioneering new ways of addressing the climate crisis'. Prior to UrbanChain, she was a research associate at the University of Manchester.
UrbanChain's turnover pipeline is £22m and the company has received £7.35m in funding to date, including from Eurazeo, Innovate UK and various government bodies.Dr. Taheri has ambitions for an IPO within the next three years, as UrbanChain continues to disrupt a highly regulated market by reducing the energy bill prices for businesses and households.

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David Foreman, MD & Founder, Praetura Ventures

David Foreman is the MD and founder of Praetura Ventures, an award-winning tech and life sciences focused VC, born-and-bred in the North of England.Praised for its early backing of northern success stories such as Peak, Reacta, XR Games and Culture Shift, the Manchester-based VC has now become known for its ‘more than money’ approach to supporting early-stage founders post investment.Praetura’s portfolio companies benefit from active mentorship from the company’s operational partners, who are industry heavyweights that have led businesses such as AO, ANS, Apple, Co-op Bank, Dr Martens, Social Chain, OSTC and MPP Global.As the largest partner on the British Business Investment’s Regional Angels Programme, Praetura’s team are focused on backing northern-based businesses with global potential. Having raised over £140m since 2019, the team typically looks to invest £1-3m in tech and life sciences businesses through their EIS Growth fund and £50k-2m through the GMC Life Sciences Fund By Praetura, which includes partners Bruntwood SciTech, Greater Manchester Combined Authority and Cheshire & Warrington LEP.

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Stephanie Wall, Sustainability Director, Palatine

Stephanie Wall is Sustainability Director at mid-market private equity house, Palatine.Steph is passionate about sustainability and investing to create a more balanced, greener, cleaner and successful society.She delivers sustainability leadership throughout the investment lifecycle, engaging with management teams to assess and manage sustainability risks and value creation opportunities. Applying the sustainability lens to investments stimulates innovative thinking that helps business leaders respond to the challenges we’re facing and grow a future-ready, sustainable business.

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Sophie Lawler, CEO, Total Fitness

Driven by a belief that the potential of a business lies in the growth of its people, Sophie is known for her people powered approach, and passion for leadership – going so far as to deliver Total Fitness’ leadership programme personally to all levels of the business.Since taking the helm at Total Fitness, Sophie set out to repair Employee Engagement and retention levels as an urgent priority, reviving the brand’s great purpose and belief and bringing it to life with a shared culture and powerful values. A 59% increase in Employee Net Promoter Score, to a world-class level of 46%, led the revival of the mid-market health club chain demonstrable by a 10% growth in its membership base over an 18-month period leading to a doubling of EBITDA performance.Sophie received national recognition for her success in transforming Total Fitness with a string of accolades, being awarded 2019’s National Businesswoman of the Year and named as one of the Top 100 Women in Hospitality and Leisure and the Insider’s 42 under 42, to name just a few.Re-setting and re-invigorating the direction of the business in the years since re-opening the team under her stewardship have developed an industry reputation for thought-leadership and a pioneering approach. Despite the inflationary headwinds the industry has faced in 2022, the business is on track to deliver 8% EBITDA growth in the financial year underpinned by strong membership and revenue growth.

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Jonathan Jones, European Managing Partner, Squire Patton Boggs

Jonathan is European managing partner at Squire Patton Boggs. Jonathan advises on all aspects of corporate finance work and has a particular specialism in private equity. He acts for financial institutions, private companies and management teams in the acquisition and disposal of private companies, many of which are cross-border.

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Gary Davison, Founding Partner, TDC

Gary founded TDC in 2015 after identifying a gap in the private investment market where the needs of regional SMEs were underserved. TDC is the only private credit investor outside of London serving the whole of the UK, and following its recent partnership with KKR has now cemented its leading position in the UK lower mid-market. From its Manchester base, TDC is developing a team of world-class finance professionals who would have traditionally been drawn to London to further their careers. With £1bn raised to date, TDC is committed to unlocking finance for SMEs and helping to drive forward the Northern Powerhouse agenda.

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Claire Lewis, Co-Founder & CEO, Baltic Ventures

Claire is the co-founder and CEO of Baltic Ventures, an early-stage tech accelerator and angel syndicate based in Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle. She began her career in finance, then went on to become the founder of a digital sustainable beauty startup which was acquired by a technology investor.Since then Claire has taken on a number of roles including CFO for an impact investment bank that helped tech for good startups raise angel and seed stage capital, launching Tech North, a government initiative that was part of Tech Nation, and Ventures Director at Coop Digital.

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Daniel Martin, Senior Director, Corporate Lending, Shawbrook

Dan joined Shawbrook in January 2021 to support SMEs and advisors across the North West region. With over 15 years of experience across both high street and specialist banks, Dan has a demonstrated history of structuring bespoke solutions to support growth in the SME/Lower mid market.Dan has worked across numerous sectors and arranged transactions to cater for a wide range of needs, from MBI’s to Private Equity backed buyouts. Since joining Shawbrook, Dan and the Manchester team have transacted over £200m of facilities.

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Lucie Mills, Partner, Value Creation & ESG, Northedge

With eight years’ experience working in a private equity backed business, Lucie joined NorthEdge in 2019 to bring her experience of delivering change in a fast growth business to the private equity house itself.Given her role on Value Creation, she has always taken an interest in the wider ESG spectrum, recognising the role it plays in building better businesses. At NorthEdge, Lucie has supported the business to integrate all aspects of ESG into the value creation plan, supporting NorthEdge and its portfolio to implement initiatives that create positive change and drive long-term value for businesses, people and communities. Lucie was appointed to BVCA’s Responsible Investment Advisory Group in September 2023.

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James Mitchell, Head of Strategic Partnerships, Phoenix Group

James Mitchell is the head of Strategic Partnerships & Research for Phoenix Asset Management within The Phoenix Group, the UK’s largest long-term savings and retirement provider, with c £300bn of Assets under Administration on behalf of 14m Policyholders.
James is a member of the Am ExCo and reports to the Group CIO Michael Eakins.In addition to managing and monitoring Phoenix’s existing asset management partners, James and his team assesses the changing market landscape and work with existing and new partners to ensure our services continue to provide our
customers a life of possibilities.

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Jen Murray, Head of Financial Sponsors, Shawbrook

Jen joined Shawbrook in 2019 to build out the Financial Sponsors proposition. The team has delivered over £400m in funding during this time, with a focus on the lower mid-market supporting UK SMEs. Jen has 20 years’ experience in banking and mid-market leveraged finance, and previously held senior roles at Clydesdale and NatWest.She is a graduate of Cambridge University and a qualified accountant. She spends what free time she can on a tennis court or in the mountains, and is passionate about diversity in the industry.

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Samuel Robberts, Chief Strategy Officer, The LCap Group

Samuel is the Chief Strategy Officer and plays a pivotal role in harnessing the power of Leadership Dynamics, a cutting-edge evaluation and optimisation platform for leadership teams, that drives our work across our talent businesses. With his extensive knowledge of the private equity marketplace and expertise in product development and innovation, Samuel is instrumental in successfully predicting the value of leaders in any business
environment.

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Mae Salem, Partner, Squire Patton Boggs

Mae is a partner in the Corporate Practice Group at Squire Patton Boggs in Leeds. Mae advises clients on private acquisitions and disposals, with particular expertise in transactions which have a private equity element to them. She has extensive experience in acting for individuals, management teams and private equity houses on such transactions.Mae has won multiple 'young and emerging' awards giving her deserved recognition as a next-generation dealmaker and future leader.

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Matthew Scullion, Co-founder and CEO, Matillion

Matthew began his career as a software and IT professional, going on to build and lead high-performing teams at both large enterprises and small startups. He founded data productivity provider Matillion in 2011 to help struggling companies turn their data into meaningful insights. Today, Matillion helps thousands of customers across the globe - including Docusign, Western Union, Slack, Tui and Cisco - accelerate their time to insights.Matthew has been named E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year UK, Datanami Person to Watch, and serves on the Capital Markets Industry Taskforce.

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Yael Selfin, Vice Chair & Chief Economist, KPMG

Yael is Vice Chair and Chief Economist at KPMG in the UK. She advises clients on the global economic outlook and its impact on their strategy.Her experience spans private sector clients across a wide range of industries and geographies, as well as public sector bodies. Her research looks at the impact major shocks, as well as new technologies, could have on the economy and on individual businesses. She has also written about productivity disparities across regions and ways to support weaker regions.Yael is a regular commentator on economic issues in the media. She won City A.M. Analyst of the Year award in 2016 for the research she published on the outlook for interest rates, global trade and equity markets and was named one of the City’s 100 most influential women, as well as named one of Cranfield School of Management’s Women to Watch in 2022.She is a Fellow at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, member of the Council of Management of SUERF and a Board member of NABE.

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Nisha Sharma, Partner, Deal Advisory, Corporate Finance M&A, KPMG

Nisha is the Head of TMT M&A for the North and Healthtech M&A nationally. She leads a team of eight TMT focused professionals in the region, and part of a national team of 40 TMT corporate financiers. Nisha advises on deals from £10m to £100m+ across Software, IT Services and Digital Media.She works with entrepreneurs, management teams and private equity to realise value through either a full or partial exit. Nisha has been at the firm for 18 years, Manchester born and bred.

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Gary Tipper, Group Managing Partner, Palatine

Gary is the Group Managing Partner of Palatine having co-founded the business with Ed Fazakerley and Tony Dickin in 2005. Gary is also the Chairman of Palatine’s Buyout Investment Committee.Gary’s passion lies in identifying and supporting ambitious, entrepreneurial management teams in achieving their ambitions. As an entrepreneur, Gary understands the challenges businesses face and how these challenges can be overcome. Gary is proud of the developments Palatine has led in sustainability and being the
first mainstream PE house to raise an Impact Fund. Gary is also responsible for fundraising and relationships with investors within Palatine.With over thirty years’ experience in private equity and having held several non-executive board positions, Gary has been instrumental in helping many management teams execute their business plan successfully, whilst generating excellent returns for investors.

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Richard Williams, Partner, TDC

A Founding Partner of TDC alongside Gary Davison, Richard is a chartered accountant with more than 20 years’ experience in the northern corporate finance market. His strong transaction, M&A and debt advisory experience has been instrumental in building TDC’s reputation in the regions, aiding the company’s success in fundraising and deployment.Richard’s varied role within TDC includes the entirety of the investment cycle, from supporting fundraising through to deal origination, underwriting and portfolio management. In addition to his stakeholder-facing activities, he’s also involved in developing and implementing the business strategy and driving TDC’s growth.

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Paul Waite, CEO, Rowan

Paul Waite is CEO of Rowan, a specialist executive search firm he founded in 2011 with minority funding from Mercia. Paul works with private capital and private equity backed SMEs to deliver complementary consultancy services; leadership analysis and optimisation, MDD and insights, alongside supporting with leadership change.With two successful exits, 3i and Mercia, Paul is currently rolling out the Rowan brand across the UK, following secondary investment from the privately owned LCap Group.

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Garry Wilson, Founder & Managing Partner, Endless

Garry Wilson is the Founder and Managing Partner at Endless, a private equity house which focuses on Special Situations – Turnarounds, Value Buy Outs and Carve Outs. The firm works closely with Management Teams, Advisors and Stakeholders to inject capital and drive improvement in Business Performance.Since its launch in 2005, the firm has invested in over 100 businesses in the UK and Europe, investing funds from world leading Universities, Charitable Foundations and Pension Schemes and its own money.To date, together with its SME Fund, Enact, Endless has raised over £1.5 billion and invested much of that. The firm’s recent and best known investments include Hovis, Findel Education, BSW Timber, Karro Foods, American Golf, Crown Paint, Imtech, Wonder and The Works Stores.

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