Conference Speakers and Panellists

Ursula Lidbetter has chaired the Greater Lincolnshire LEP since it formed in 2010.

She is Chief Executive of Lincolnshire Co-op, an independent co-op which is owned by its 280,000 members.  The Society’s services include food stores, pharmacies, travel agencies, funeral homes and property development.  It records sales of over £320m and profit of £17.7m, which is all reinvested locally, including over £4m to its customer members.

Ursula served as chair of the national Co-operative Group from 2013-15, leading it through a period of major reform.  

She led the Lincolnshire Chamber of Commerce for almost 20 years, and is currently Chair of the Lincoln Business Improvement Group and a member of the University of Hull’s Council.

Alongside fellow senior industry leaders, Ursula sits on both the government’s Retail Sector Council and Food and Drink Sector Council.

In June this year, Ursula was awarded an OBE for services to the local economy after 15 years as CEO of the Lincolnshire Co-op and nearly 10 years at the helm of the Greater Lincolnshire LEP. She is a Deputy Lieutenant of the County and has honorary degrees from the University of Hull and Bishop Grosseteste University in Lincoln.  

Susannah Streeter is the anchor for World Business Report on BBC World Service and BBC World TV, delivering breaking stories and gaining insight into unfolding economic events from entrepreneurs, economists and analysts.

Prior to covering an international news agenda, Susannah was a regular face on BBC One Breakfast, reporting live from across the UK. She also reported for the consumer affairs programme Working Lunch and the BBC Budget programme.

Between 1997 and 2007 Susannah served in the Royal Auxiliary Air Force, joining 7644 Squadron, a media operations unit, where she rose to the rank of Squadron Leader.

Susannah regularly hosts corporate events focused on international business themes and challenges and is an experienced moderator and speaker having worked on a huge range of events and speaking engagements. Specialist topics include Brexit and digital disruption.

Susannah is a fluent French speaker and has a hosted a major conference for the French company conglomerate Total and bilingual events in her role as UK representative for NATO’s Interallied Confederation of Reserve Officers.

Gill entered the educational sector as a lecturer in 1986 and has worked in many different roles during her 30 years in the sector.  In 2010 she left Grimsby Institute as the Deputy Principal to take up the post of Principal and CEO of Rotherham College. During her time at Rotherham College she developed the campus significantly to provide state of the art resources for learners whilst focussing on continuous quality improvements and in 2015 initiated a merger with another college.  

In 2015 Gill was appointed as the CEO of the Grimsby Institute Group and returned to the Humber area where she is passionate in supporting the Humber to flourish and prosper.  The Grimsby Institute Group (campuses in Grimsby, Scarborough and Skegness) offers outstanding provision from entry level through to degree level and in 2017 the Grimsby Institute Group was judged to be Outstanding by Ofsted and it is currently the only college in the region to achieve this status.

In 2017 Gill was appointed to both the Principals’ Reference Group and the National Leaders in FE. The Grimsby Institute is also providing support to two national Colleges to help improve their performance in their upcoming Ofsted Inspections via the Strategic College Improvement Fund process.

Debbie Barnes is Executive Director of Children's Services and Head of Paid Service after taking up the Head of Paid Service role in December 2018.  Debbie has been Director of Children's Services since 2013. 

Through Debbie's leadership, Children's Services – Social Care has been judged as good with adoption rated as outstanding.  Recently designated as a Partner in Practice, Debbie has chaired the improvement board at Rotherham Borough Council, resulting in Rotherham being judged as good by Ofsted with services for care leavers judged as outstanding.

Under Debbie's leadership, Lincolnshire County Council's approach to support education has moved to a sector led approach which has received national and international interest and has been shared at conferences in Switzerland, Scotland and Canada.

Debbie was awarded an OBE in the 2018 Queen's Birthday Honours List.

Born in Skegness, Chris went to the local grammar school before studying Business Studies at Sheffield Polytechnic. He went on to qualify as a chartered management accountant working for Fogarty’s, LinPac and British Fuels before moving to Butlins.

Chris started in the finance department prior to moving into operations and becoming Resort Director in 2000. He joined the Greater Lincolnshire LEP in 2011 as the representative for the visitor economy and the coastal strip in general. He is also the Chair of the East Lincolnshire Destination Management Organisation, chair of the Greater Lincolnshire Visitor Economy Board, a member of the board of Visit East Lincolnshire DBID, a member of East Lindsey Local Strategic Partnership, and sits on the Skegness Academy Advisory Council.
 

Janet has considerable industry experience spanning over 30 years and working across a number of different roles from factory manager to head of operations. Sectors include produce, salads, dips and dressings, ready meals, soups, sauces and dairy. As a member of a busy manufacturing team she led and delivered varied projects including innovative automated and robotic solutions, new packaging formats and even new factories. 

With extensive supply chain experience including planning, procurement, forecasting, supply chain management, warehousing and distribution and time as a business implant developing supermarket and category performance, this experience is reflected in both her academic teaching and her work in factory development that meets the needs of a real industry and the challenges that the future may present. 
 

Duncan is Managing Director of Global Smart Transformation Ltd. He works closely with customers, academia, industry, utilities, government and regulators to deliver innovative technical, commercial, environmentally balanced and culturally acceptable solutions to market challenges and also provides mentoring and business acceleration services to SMEs to help them achieve their strategic aims. 

Duncan has over 40 years’ experience covering the complete spectrum of technical and commercial roles. Some of his previous roles are Director of European Utilities Telecoms Council, Business Innovation and Growth Director at Parsons Brinckerhoff (Balfour Beatty Group), Executive Chairman of the Scottish European Green Energy Centre, MD of ITI Energy, Head of Technology & Business Development for ABB, and Departmental Head of Schneider Power Projects. 

Duncan gained his degree from the Open University in Mathematics and Physics. He is a visiting professor at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow and previously was a visiting professor at Imperial College London. 

Duncan was voted one of the top 40 influencers in Europe on Smart Grids in 2014 and continues to shape future thinking and deployment across the energy, telecommunications, technology and future cities sectors by challenging traditional approaches to benefit societal outcomes. He is invited on many influential panels, advisory boards and committees at a National, European and International level.
 

James' career began in leisure as School's Liaison Officer and Community Coach at Lincolnshire Cricket Board. He went on to manage cricket development for Greater Manchester at Lancashire County Cricket Club, and from there onto the public sector for a period managing cultural and Health and wellbeing services.

In recent years James has developed significant experience in the cultural sector, undertaking Culture within the service area from 2008.  James worked with East Lindsey to host the International Black/North SEAS project, a collaboration between many European countries, and in 2009 delivered the first SO Festival, which has since grown from a 3 to ten day event and generates £1m to the local economy each year.  The SO Festival is now a leading cultural festival and is recognised by Arts Council England as a National Portfolio Organisation, which is a regular funder.

James also leads on the health and wellbeing services developing very bespoke intentions to improve the communities' health and has a specific focus on expanding the Trust's health and cultural programmes.

As a qualified chartered surveyor, Freddie started his career working for asset management companies in London looking after properties throughout the UK. He joined Lindum in 2012 as Business Development Manager and was appointed Group Director in December 2016, joining his father, David Chambers, and his brother Edward on the main board.

In addition to business development responsibilities Freddie also helps oversee the group’s training and development activities. Founded in 1956, Lindum continues to be primarily a construction company and currently directly employs in excess of 650 people in both skilled trade and professional roles from offices based in Lincoln, York and Peterborough.
 

Nick is a member of the Chartered Institute of Management and has over 27 years' housing experience. Based in Lincoln, he leads an association specialising in housing and support services for older and vulnerable people across Greater Lincolnshire. 

Over the past 20 years, Nick has managed the association's development programme, incorporating an innovative approach to partnership working involving the health and social care sector. A collaborative approach has won a number of awards including a Chartered Institute of Housing Midlands Award in 2016 and Nick was subsequently a finalist in the Lincolnshire Business Awards. Administered by the National Housing Federation.

Nick is Chair of the Greater Lincolnshire Housing Association Partnership and is currently Chair of a large single academy trust, having also been involved in education for over 16 years.

Naomi has more than 14 years’ experience in policy and research with specialisms in employment, skills and labour market disadvantage issues.

Prior to joining L&W, Naomi was Deputy Director at the What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth, and Policy and Research Manager at Centre for Cities where she was responsible for developing and overseeing programmes to support effective policy and practice.  She has worked with partners across the UK to support them to use evidence and demonstrate impact through the implementation of skills strategies, youth employment support and in-work progression pilots, and the development of local industrial strategies.

Prior to this, Naomi was at the Work Foundation where she led a major programme on labour market disadvantage. She has also completed a Fellowship with the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust exploring US cities’ approaches to improving young people’s employment prospects.

For the last 30 years, Martin has combined a career as an academic, with farming, importing, and consultancy, and since 2001 has run his own specialist economic development consultancy, Collison and Associates Limited.

With a focus on economic development, innovation and education, Martin has developed and launched a series of major projects in the agricultural and food sectors.

Martin works with Greater Lincolnshire LEP as agri-food lead, and helps co-ordinate the national DEFRA/LEP Food Group. He worked with government to develop the UK Strategy for Agricultural Technologies and has worked for the EU to review EIP Agri.

Whilst most of Martin’s work has related to the agri-food supply chain and rural economy, he has also worked on projects in the digital, life sciences, energy, water and education sectors.

Pat has worked in Lincolnshire for 30 years and leads NatWest Bank’s commercial offering in the area which includes specialisms in manufacturing, leisure, agriculture, healthcare, professionals, distribution and technology.

He is a board member of the Greater Lincolnshire LEP and chairs the European Structural and Investment Fund for the LEP.

He retains a close involvement in education, being a previous Vice Chair of Lincoln College Group, and is currently a member of the University of Lincoln’s International Business School Advisory Board.

His modest fitness regime revolves around cycling but his spectator-based activities are much wider and include Welsh rugby and football teams as well as delighting in the recent success of Lincoln City FC which mirrors the county’s growing ambition.

Tim has over 30 years' experience in the UK and East Midlands Property and Business community and is an equity director with Pygott and Crone, the East Midlands leading and award winning Property Consultancy with 13 offices across the Midlands and London, and recently voted Best UK Estate Agency by the Sunday Times.

Tim is also involved with number of other business to include Hemswell Court, Lincolnshire's premier AA 5 star Hotel and banqueting Facility (Home of the Dambusters Movie), Downing Developments Ltd, a Commercial and Residential property investment company, and is a founding member of Team Lincolnshire. He was previously Chairman of Aviation Heritage Lincolnshire and is a trustee of LIVES Charity, The Entrepreneurs charity; The Star Trust, and the City of London Rugby Foundation. A freeman of the city of London, Tim is an ambassador for Klas International, working with wealth management, sport, commercial and residential, portfolio insurance, finance, and advising business on marketing and growth strategies.

Norwegian-born Halvard Grimstad holds an MSc in Mechanical Engineering from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. After graduating, Halvard remained with the university, field-testing the Thorvald platform - an autonomous and modular robot for agriculture.

Halvard moved to the UK as Senior Technician in Mechatronics with the Lincoln Centre of Autonomous Systems (LCAS) at the University of Lincoln where he continued to work in agricultural robotics, developing soil measurement tools for the Thorvald platform. 

Since leaving the University of Lincoln he has been a key driver in setting up Saga Robotics Ltd. Saga Robotics Ltd is involved in multiple InnovateUK projects  developing tools and autonomy for in-field transportation, strawberry picking, weeding and more. The aim is to tackle labour shortage while making agriculture more sustainable and energy efficient. The commercialisation of the technology is mainly focused on soft fruit production with the first commercial pilots starting this year on farms in both the UK and Norway, with robots performing UV treatment to suppress mildew on strawberry plants.  
 

Jon Hinde has more than 25 years’ experience gained from the economic development and regeneration sector, working at a regional, sub-regional and local level in the East and West Midlands. During that time he has supported companies and entrepreneurs to achieve their business growth ambitions and to develop the relevant employment skills in the local workforce.

A specialist in inward investment and business growth, Jon has supported the relocation of global businesses and their supply chains, assisted in land acquisitions for major overseas investors, built customised packages of support to retain existing local companies and managed start up grants and property searches for new and growing businesses.

With expertise in economy and skills, Jon has managed numerous central government and European-funded training programmes and initiatives that have supported individuals to upskill, re-skill and secure employment opportunities.

Jon has worked for training and enterprise councils, Business Link, learning and skills councils, Further Education colleges, unitary and district authorities. He is now Head of Economy and Skills at InvestSK, the economic growth and regeneration company for South Kesteven.

Charlotte is responsible for managing and developing relationships with MakeUK member companies in Midlands & East to advance manufacturing within the region. By working with partner organisations and regional media, Charlotte is able to raise the profile of MakeUK member companies locally and nationally. She’s also responsible for designing and delivering a programme of regional events which enable members to network, share best practice and learn from experts. Another key part of her role is to engage with regional stakeholders ensuring manufacturers’ interests are represented to LEPs, the West Midlands Combined Authority and Midlands Engine.

Charlotte gained her undergraduate degree from The University of Leeds in Biomedical Science before completing her Masters at The University of Nottingham. Before joining MakeUK (formerly EEF) in 2013, Charlotte worked in food manufacturing where she focused on business development and food safety management.

Mark Lam is Chairman of Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust. He is an experienced board director and digital technologist with global experience in both private and public sectors. Mark is a non-executive director on the board of Social Work England, the new national regulator for social workers. He has previously held a variety of board positions in public healthcare and was a trustee of the University of Essex. 

Mark began his technology career during the dotcom boom, training at web start-ups before moving into telecommunications and IT. Mark’s longest association was with BT Group, where he was a senior executive, finishing his career there as Chief Technology and Information Officer of Openreach, the national infrastructure provider. Prior to BT Group, Mark led a number of digital initiatives at major global businesses, including Carphone Warehouse and Siemens. 

Mark comes from Singapore originally and lives in London. He holds a degree in English Literature from Oxford University and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

John Henry combines his strong combined technical, business and project management background to deliver improvements through engineering solutions and by motivating behaviour change, primarily in the energy and water treatment side for medium to larger SMEs, particularly in the food and drink sector.  He has delivered extensive and detailed technical and project management of environmental engineering projects and environmental management consultancy in over 30 countries. This includes the role of Client Advisor / Bank’s Engineer on large EPC contracts in Europe and leading the project to start the Life Cycle Carbon Balance for the Swansea Tidal Lagoon.

John Henry has extensive experience with delivering many energy and environmental projects in the built environment working in improving building performance for numerous clients. He has recently delivered energy generation projects for the Country of Alderney, and several manufacturing clients and is progressing several waste to energy projects in Cornwall and Wales. 

John Henry teaches at MSc Level at the University of Bristol on Environmental Assessment, Engineering and Management. 

Mark has been with CITB since January 2017 and leads on engagement with industry and federations. He joins from the property and contracting business Simons Group where he was Customer Development and Relationship Director. 

Before joining Simons, Mark worked in construction for 6 years for Wates Group in a range of project delivery roles. Prior to that, he spent many years working for the supermarket chain, Safeway, including a key role in their conversion to Morrison’s.

A biologist by background with a special interest in population biology, Richard has worked in public health or higher education for most of his professional life.  Formerly an NHS Chief Executive, Richard has also held senior academic posts in several universities and was Principal of the first NHS multidisciplinary higher education college. 

Until 2014, he was CEO of the Royal Society for Public Health.  He has also acted as Managing Director for several commercial concerns and was been an adviser to the World Health Organisation for over 30 years, as well as a number of individual countries.  He was a Board Member of Public Health England (appointed by the Secretary of State for Health) until April 2019 and Chaired the Board for the 32 nation initiative to improve primary care services for children and adolescents until the beginning of this year. 

In 2017, Richard chaired the External Review of the United Nations Global Health Programme at the United Nations University.  Richard is a Fellow of the Royal Biological Society and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health. He was awarded Honorary Fellowship of the American Public Health Association in 2006 for his international work and Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in 2013.  He was made a CBE in the 2014 New Year’s Honours List.

Ian is a Development and New Business Manager for Longhurst Group, which is Housing Association that owns and manages 22,000 homes across the Midlands and East of England. Ian works within the Longhurst development team and was involved in the recent securing of a £71 million deal with Government to develop an additional 1,685 new homes in the next few years, directly delivering around 1,000 new homes per year, many of which will be in Lincolnshire.

Ian’s particular area of focus is partnership working, which includes local authorities, Homes England, other housing associations and the Greater Lincolnshire LEP.  Prior to his role with Longhurst, Ian has undertaken housing related roles at a charity, local authorities and Homes England, where he helped deliver the overall affordable homes programme and acted as the Midlands lead for two funding programmes, including one focused on Care and Support housing schemes.

Johnathan has a wealth of expertise and experience working across the energy and clean technology sectors, supporting high growth businesses and rapid technology commercialisation. His knowledge and understanding of the sectors means not only does he successfully coach a wide range of businesses, developing growth strategies, scenario planning and designing disruptive business development and marketing plans but has been responsible for authoring a number of regional and local strategies and advising on national and European policy.

Johnathan previously led the growth of OrbisEnergy as the UK’s leading innovation hub for offshore renewable energy, creating a major catalyst for innovation and investment across the East of England and beyond, creating more than 1,200 new jobs, and facilitated in excess of £7bn of regional investment in businesses, projects and infrastructure.
  
Johnathan is a non-executive director of New Anglia LEP, and previously a non-exec director of Adapt Commercial Ltd, part of the University of East Anglia’s Adapt low carbon group, and Chaired the implementation of New Anglia LEP’s Green Economy Pathfinder programme.

Lydia Rusling is Chief Executive of Visit Lincoln Community Interest Company, a Destination Management Organisation, which is promoting Lincoln as a place to visit, live, work and invest in.

Lydia has 15 years’ experience working across Lincolnshire’s tourism industry and has played a central role in many of the county’s prominent tourism projects. Since heading up the team at Visit Lincoln the partnership has grown and the team has picked up several awards. The city has attracted significant national media coverage and has had a record increase in both visitor numbers and the value to the local economy. Lincoln now welcomes over 4 million visitors each year, generating over £200m for the city.

Visit Lincoln is supported by over 190 businesses across Lincolnshire and the team are actively supporting the growth and development of the visitor economy across Greater Lincolnshire and marketing to international visitors through six multi-million pound VisitBritain projects.

Lydia currently sits on the Local Enterprise Partnership Visitor Economy Board, Lincoln Cultural Arts Partnership, Greater Lincolnshire Nature Partnership, Lincoln Business Improvement Group and England’s Historic Cities Consortium.

Nicky has led the IBCC project from the front since 2012.  With a background in sales and marketing across a variety of platforms - and a particular focus in the last twenty years on events and project management- Nicky has been responsible for raising £14.5 million of funds through grant applications and generating public and private donations, PR and marketing, organising all events from concept to delivery, and overseeing the whole of the design and construction stages. 

She has also worked with the Chairman on international engagement and has been invited to present the project to like-minded organisations and institutions in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Holland as well as across the UK. Nicky sits on the Greater Lincolnshire LEP Visitor Economy Board and is also represents the organisation with Aviation Heritage Lincolnshire and Visit Lincoln.

David currently enjoys a portfolio career, with a diverse background in corporate, public and third sector, including managing large-scale change programmes and managing start-up businesses. He runs his own small advisory company in which he applies his physics and engineering background to matters of leadership and governance of whole systems, particularly in healthcare.

He spent his early career in materials science research and gained a part time PhD in engineering. After spells in information technology, programme management, corporate finance and strategy, David left the technology sector to become a regional performance director in London’s NHS, before moving into consultancy and executive education. He spent some time as Visiting Professor at Cass Business School, where he managed executive education programmes for over 150 NHS directors and published research on public sector governance and leadership.

He is now part-time Chief Executive of BSHAA, the professional body for audiologists in private practice, a trustee of UK Council on Deafness and an elected governor of his local Foundation Trust. He is currently a Visiting Professor in the Centre for Governance, Leadership and Global Responsibility at Leeds Business School. He is both a chartered engineer and chartered physicist.