ARU Business Advisory Board

Suzanna embarked on her journey with the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) in January '23, assuming the position of Development Manager for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and Hertfordshire.

Her professional background is enriched by a multifaceted career. Starting within the corporate sector, her experience then turned to growing a small family business, followed by contributions in the realm of policy and campaigns for a prominent national political party. This diverse career path has spanned 26 years, encompassing a spectrum of industries including logistics, services, and politics.

Suzanna's career has extended to a wide range of business entities, ranging from budding start-ups to well-established multinational corporations and not for profit organizations. Her academic pursuits in psycho-social and social sciences have further deepened her insights into the challenges encountered in contemporary business landscapes.

Throughout Suzanna's career, there has been a consistent dual focus on the principles of equity and accessibility. Her initial foray into the business world as a teenager culminated in the debut of a slow fashion concept at London Fashion Week, in collaboration with a marginalised community group shunning the then-norm of power dressing.

Subsequently, in 2014, her own business became a trailblazer in its sector by being the first to receive the National Living Wage Award covering all employees, and attaining accreditation for its sustainable and transparent supply chain across three continents.

In the realm of politics, Suzanna's policy research and manifesto contributions were driven by a commitment to dismantling structural barriers hindering social progress, a dedication that led to her recognition as a finalist for the 2018 Patsy Carlton award.

Within her current role at FSB, Suzanna consistently interfaces with local media highlighting the concerns and challenges faced by small businesses. Working closely with local business groups, small businesses and stakeholders Suzanna effectively bridges the gap between the organisation's local members and central teams.

Paul joined Anglian Water in January 2023 as Head of Public Affairs, having worked in a variety of public affairs roles including in political parties, environmental NGOs, and the water sector.

In his current role, Paul is the strategic lead for Anglian Water’s public affairs and regional engagement work, ensuring the company has strong relationships with regional and national stakeholders and that the company is represented in national policy debates.

Martin Clark is CEO of Allia Impact Ltd and Group Director of Impact for the Allia group, a social enterprise founded in Cambridge in 1999.

Allia Impact runs business support programmes to start and grow impact ventures and local job-creating businesses and develops innovation projects for major social challenges such as housing for the homeless and technology to enable growing numbers of older people to live at home independently.

Martin has been with Allia since the late '90s, as the first project manager of what was then called Citylife, developing a service to issue charitable bonds which began in Sheffield, Newcastle, and East London, and has evolved now into a major social investment company issuing retail bonds on the London Stock Exchange.

He saw the opportunity for Allia to diversify into providing property to support social impact businesses which led to the creation of the Future Business Centre portfolio and model, with delivery in Cambridge, Peterborough, and East London.

Passionate about using social enterprise to tackle social problems, he is the author of The Social Entrepreneur Revolution (Marshall Cavendish, 2009) which set out to popularise social entrepreneurship.

George is Co-Director at Nano Foundation, Industrial Fellow at the University of East London's Centre of FinTech, United Nations Summer Academy Speaker for 2023 Trend Talks, Advisor and Lecturer at The Global Blockchain Initiative, and Faculty Member of the ZIGURAT Innovation & Technology Business School Global Masters in Blockchain.

With a background in evolutionary anthropology and finance, George is driven by a passion for creating a fair and accessible global economy. As the Director of the Nano Foundation, she actively embraces the dynamic nature of decentralised finance, working towards an inclusive and equitable financial landscape.

George has been recognised as a female leader within the blockchain sector as a Judge for the 'Rising Women in Crypto Power List' by Wirex and UKTN for four consecutive years (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023).

Andy Elphick is Head of Innovation (interim) at Barclays. He has 16 years’ experience in Financial Services, working across innovation, strategy, HR and business management.

Andy currently leads innovation for Barclays globally, with teams in India, New York and the UK, and has extensive experience of mentoring start-ups, supporting value proposition design and validation.

Andy is responsible for the Rise FinTech Platform and Rise academies, which enables him to work with Fintech’s leading founders, helping their businesses to scale at pace. He also leads on Barclays' global IP strategy, incorporating portfolio development, licensing and enforcement of all patents across the bank.

Previous to this role, Andy has held several senior roles in business management, providing a strong understanding of people, risk, finance and performance. He has also been a founder of his own business, building a company from the ground up, providing an innate understanding of the FinTech companies he collaborates with today.

Andy is an Industry Fellow for the Centre of FinTech at the University of East London, sitting on the Advisory Board for FinTech and Business; a mentor on the Oxford CDL FinTech stream; and a mentor with Unreasonable Impact, scaling socially impactful start-ups.

Stuart is a Chartered Town Planner and has over 30 years of local government experience in a variety of planning, economic development, communications, and project delivery roles.

Stuart currently manages the Economic Development & Implementation Service at Chelmsford City Council. The Team is responsible for inward investment, business support, heritage and master planning advice, and infrastructure project delivery.

Appointed as Director of Cambridge Science Park in August 2022, Jane Hutchins brings a wealth of experience of the science park sector and the innovative companies and people it serves.

Working in partnership with Trinity College Cambridge and managing agents Bidwell’s, Jane is responsible for delivering the College’s future vision for the Park. This includes an ambitious new cycle of investment focused on sustainability, amenity enhancement and the creation of diverse and inclusive employment opportunities for the wider Cambridge community.

Jane also plays a key role in supporting existing and new businesses on the park, which is at the heart of one of the best-known and economically successful science, technology and innovation ecosystems in the world – Cambridge.

Jane is also the current chair of the Cambridge Forum for Place, established by Cambridge University Health Partners and the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority.

Donna Kelly leads the CGI Business Unit for South & Midlands UK. She is responsible for the client relationship development and IT service delivery, including the delivery of consulting, systems integration, managed IT and intellectual property solutions.

Having previously worked at IBM, Fujitsu and Capgemini, Donna has over 25 years of experience. Donna also chairs and is the executive sponsor for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

Dr Duncan Russell is the Head of External Collaborations at Ocado Technology, which provides end-to-end ecommerce, logistics and fulfilment solutions to some of the world’s largest grocery retailers.

He is leading collaborative research projects in areas of robotics, autonomous mobility, artificial intelligence, big data, and the customer experience, along with outreach activities into education from schools through to universities.

Before joining Ocado over seven years ago, Duncan worked in commercial and academic research and development in domains such as mobile phones, pro-audio, grid computing for aircraft engine diagnostics, medical imaging, and risk modelling.

Pratap Tambe is a consulting partner in the BFSI consulting team at TCS. His team provides cyber risk consulting services to TCS customers.

With nearly 30 years of experience in client facing roles in the IT industry across BFSI, Telecommunications, Retail and Travel domains, Pratap has worked with customers in USA, UK, Canada, Europe, India, and APAC. He is well known for his thought leading articles and talks across multiple platforms in insurance, blockchains, cybersecurity and ESG, including modern slavery.

Pratap was the first globally to write publicly about how blockchains can be applied to insurance and has been part of multiple projects to successfully deploy such solutions into productions.

While Pratap is primarily professionally focused on cybersecurity consulting, he continues to pursue interests in security (food, energy, climate, cyber) and systemic risk (financial, insurance, cyber).

Hamish Watson is the Founder and CEO of Polysolar Ltd, an award-winning solar technology company based in Cambridge.

Established in 2007, Polysolar is a producer of innovative Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV), specialising in transparent solar glazing for building facades and skylights as well as canopies and urban infrastructure. The company is also a pioneer in next-generation printed organic polymer based photovoltaics.

Hamish sits on governmental and academic advisory bodies on solar and renewable energy, and is involved with the MCS working group on solar.

Hamish has a varied background in international entrepreneurship and technology commercialisation. Starting his career in management consultancy in London, he went on to help establish and run the first foreign licenced market research and strategy consultancy firm in China. Educated and resident in Cambridge, he has a wife and four children.