Panelists

Our ‘Scottish Business and the Economy’ and “Funding and Investment’ panels will be a fascinating opportunity to hear the views of some of Scotland’s leading topic experts and business leaders. The sessions will incorporate Q & As on each topic above, giving delegates plenty of opportunity to ask questions & join in the debate.

SCOTTISH BUSINESS AND THE ECONOMY

KENNY KEMP

CHAIR

Kenny Kemp – co-founder of the newly launched Edinburgh Inquirer, business journalist and prolific author (including co-authoring ‘Go: An Airline Adventure’ with Barbara Cassani and ghost-writing Sir Richard Branson’s ‘Business Stripped Bare’). He is former founding Business Editor of The Sunday Herald and was Editor of BQ Scotland for 5 years.

GILLIAN BOWDITCH

Gillian Bowditch – entrepreneur, Chair of the British Association of Women Entrepreneurs, Founder/Director of the Institute of Ecommerce and columnist and commentator at The Sunday Times, specialising in writing about Scotland, the Scottish economy and ecommerce. Gillian is the founder and Director of Wow (Scotland), trading as Lily Blanche and Tartan Twist – jewellery designers, manufacturers and retailers.

MICHAEL GLACKIN

Michael Glackin – award-winning UK based freelance journalist who specialises in UK, European, and US finance and economics, and Middle East politics and economics. He is a Scottish business columnist and correspondent with The Sunday Times and former News Editor of London financial daily newspaper City AM.

MAIRI SPOWAGE

Mairi Spowage – Director of Strathclyde University’s Fraser of Allander Institute for over 4 years. The Institute is a leading economic research institute, which carries out impactful research to inform the big challenges and opportunities facing the nations of the UK. Mairi was formerly a visiting researcher at the Institute, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Scottish Fiscal Commission for 2 years and Head of National Accounts at the Scottish Government for over 2 years.

FUNDING AND INVESTMENT

PAUL ATKINSON

Paul Atkinson – serial entrepreneur and Founding Partner and active investor with Par Equity, one of the UK’s top performing Venture Capital firms, supporting high grow technology businesses in the North of the UK. Additionally, he is Chair of PR & Communications business, Clark Communications and the fast-growing Digital Transformation business, xDesign. Paul is Chair of Crowdx, a private capital markets platform and a visiting Professor at Edinburgh Napier University Business School. He is also Chair of Converge, whose aim is to accelerate company creation within Scottish Universities, in addition to being Chair of the Cyber & Fraud Centre Scotland. Paul won our Inspiring Leader Award in 2021.

ANDY TAIT

Andy Tait – winner of the WeDO 2019 Entrepreneur of the Year Award, Andy has recently launched Sallyport Commercial Finance, a new invoice finance provider based in Glasgow. Previously, Andy led the MBO of Greenacres Group from the parent company and simultaneously a merger with another PE backed business. He was Managing Director of Bibby Financial Services Scotland for 11 years, UK Sales & Marketing Director for 2 years before becoming Commercial Director for Bibby Line Group.

SARAH HARDY

Sarah Hardy – Director, Head of New Investments with Archangel Investors. Archangels is a prominent business angel syndicate, which has been at the forefront of early stage investing in Scotland for more than two decades. It invests in promising start-up and early stage companies across Scotland. Archangels focus on technology and life-sciences companies, and has invested in sectors ranging from software development and alternative energy to biopharmaceuticals and bionics. Sarah has extensive international experience of financing early stage opportunities in the technology sector, with specific focus in life science and healthcare arena. She has managed a large portfolio of academic programmes, charitable organisations, SMES and larger companies (public and private) to add value and achieve a commercial exit.

BELINDA ROBERTS MBE

CHAIR

Belinda Roberts MBE is the founder of WeDO Scotland. WeDO has been championing Scottish entrepreneurship since 2008 and was founded with the ethos of providing peer learning and support to Scotland’s most ambitious entrepreneurs and business leaders. Previously, she founded a sales and management training company sold 3 years from inception. She was awarded an MBE for services to business and entrepreneurship in 2019 and is an Non-Executive Director and Mentor to multi-sector growing businesses.