Marian spent over 20 years in local government and her last post was as an Area Housing Manager, responsible for an area office and 5,000 properties, including some very large estates. She was responsible for 80 office staff and a dispersed workforce of 200 (Caretakers and Sheltered Housing Officers) and ensuring the effective management of all human and financial resources. In addition she worked closely with tenants associations and a wide variety of statutory and voluntary agencies, local politicians and MP’s.

For a number of years Marian also worked as a Management Consultant working with organisations at senior management level on a wide variety of projects, from restructuring, business planning to the development of practices and procedures and effective monitoring systems. Marian has a great interest in the arts but more particularly a belief that if properly managed, it can provide one of the few non-discriminatory accessible opportunities for growth for people of all ages and particularly those who are vulnerable because of age.

Laura is a Chartered Accountant with over 10 years experience, specialising in setting up finance departments in small or newly formed companies. Laura was the first in house accountant of Belu Water Limited, seeing it grow from £2m to nearly £6m turnover and is now Global Financial Controller of Escape Hunt Plc, an AIM listed company owning and operating escape rooms in the UK, France and Dubai and sub franchising in 13 countries around the world.

Matthew has worked in marketing for 20 years, in a range of senior positions.

He is Principal Lecturer in marketing at the University of Greenwich and Director of Face Value Consulting and Professionals Ltd. He is visiting professor at the Grenoble Graduate School of Business.

He has worked with companies such as Philip Morris, Anheuser Busch, Tarmac, Fiat, Barclays, Barclaycard, Swiss Reinsurance, the London Business School, the Royal Mail, Microsoft, The DTI and GUS.

His books include:

• Direct and Digital Marketing in Practice, A and C Black
• Successful Market Research, Hodder and Stoughton
• Strategic Marketing Management, Butterworth Heinemann
• Market Research for Managers, Butterworth Heinemann
• International Marketing in Action, Kogan Page
• Direct and Digital Marketing in Practice, Butterworth Heinemann
• Marketing Research and Information, (CIM/MRS course guide), Butterworth Heinemann
• Project Management in Marketing , (CIM/MRS course guide), Butterworth Heinemann

His current activities include writing and research into marketing research, digital marketing and interactive and relationship marketing.

He is a senior consultant, tutor, examiner and member of the IDM, syllabus advisor to CAM and a tutor and former examiner at the CIM. He is a full member of the Market Research Society and ESOMAR.  He is an Institute of Direct Marketing Educator of the Year.

Kate Jones is a freelance Producer, Consultant and Project Manager and has worked across the private, public and broadcast sectors.

She began her career at Kallaway Ltd, one of the UK’s most successful arts sponsorship consultancies and was involved in a wide range of corporate sponsorship programmes including Sainsbury’s Choir of the Year, Barclays New Futures and the Folkestone Menuhin Violin Competition. In 2002, she was head hunted by the BBC to head up BBC Wales’ new Music Projects Team and produced large scale public facing events and competitions including BBC Radio 2 Voice of Music Theatre, Singer of the World and Proms in the Park. In 2008, Kate left the BBC to embark on a freelance career and clients have included the BBC Performing Arts Fund, London Symphony Orchestra, Initial TV and currently she is Programme Director for Gigs, the Mayor of London’s annual busking competition. Kate also co-owns and runs a TV and media studio facility in MediaCityUK in Salford and is a Director of Roar of the Crowd, an independent production company specialising in corporate training through singing.

Hat’s background is in Drama – with a BA(Hons) in Drama at Bristol followed by several years working in the art department and in acting roles for tv and film. Hat then set up her own photographic representation agency in 2008, Lucid Representation and since then works with international and UK clients in advertising and corporate marketing.

Raj is a Director at NatWest Markets where he leads Electronic Trading for UK Interest Rates. Prior to this he has had a range of roles ranging from Portfolio Optimisation, Web Communications and Operations at NatWest and prior to that Barclays.

Before working in finance he read Mathematics as an undergraduate at Nottingham and has a masters in International Development from the Open University.

A passionate proponent of community involvement, he is a board trustee for the urban tree planting charity Street Trees for Living, an organiser of Runhead community running club, and the New Cross and Deptford Free Film festival. As a volunteer with Flysheet Camps, who take underprivileged children on camping holidays, and having served as a former school governor, he is a dedicated advocate for the development of young people.

When he is not taking his kids to mini montage classes he enjoys running, football and badminton as well as tinkering with web design and data science projects.