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The Speakers


Julie Meyer Julie Meyer: CEO of Ariadne Capital

Julie Meyer has 18 years of investment and advisory experience, helping start-up businesses and industry standards to emerge and establish themselves. As Chief Executive of Ariadne Capital, she has overall general
and financial management responsibility for the group which she founded in August 2000. Ariadne is an investment and advisory firm focused on the Digital Media, Music and Entertainment, Communications, Net
Development and Life Services [consumer financial services, e-Health, Digital Home] sectors.
Julie is well-known for founding First Tuesday, the largest global network of entrepreneurs, which many credit for igniting the Internet generation in Europe. It was sold for $50 million in cash in and shares in July 2000.

Julie has raised hundreds of millions of capital for start-ups in addition to oerseeing another $150 million of seed capital found for start-ups hrough First Tuesday. From 1998 to 1999, Julie was part of the team at
NewMedia Investors [which became Spark Ventures, an early stage nvestment firm, in October 1999] where she helped several companies, including lastminute.com, WGSN and Arc Cores raise significant venture
capital financing and internationalise. Each of these businesses has had successful exits for their investors.
Ariadne is backed by 45 Entrepreneurs who became founding investors in order to build the market leading companies of the new Millennium. They include the founders of lastminute.com, betfair, worldpay, hotmail and SES Astra. Headquartered in London, our network of Executives, Investors and Partners extends from Asia to North America to Europe, giving Ariadne global reach.

Ariadne Capital was an early advisor to Skype [Ebay] and Espotting [MIVA], two of Europe’s biggest VC-backed successes in the early 21st century. Julie advises leading corporates such as British Telecom,
CarPhone Warehouse, EMAP, Morse, as well as a portfolio of start-ups including Intamac, Monitise, SpinVox and Zopa.

Named a “Global Leader of Tomorrow” by the World Economic Forum and one of the top 30 most powerful women in Europe according to the Wall Street Journal, Julie’s mission is to back the best entrepreneurs in Europe with global ambitions. She was awarded “Entrepreneur of the Year” Award in October 2000 by Ernst & Young U.K.

 

 Avril Carson Avril Carson: The Happiness Project and Success Intelligence

Avril Carson brings 20 years experience and inspiration with work committed to success, communication, confidence and happiness.

Success Intelligence
Success Intelligence is a creative consultancy supporting people and organisations who want to experience greater success and happiness. We offer inspirational keynotes, training programs, coaching experiences and other media on the psychology of success (IQ), the heart of success (EQ), and the vision of success (SQ).

The Happiness Project
The Happiness Project is a unique project featured in the highly successful BBC TV QED documentary called “How to be Happy” – now shown in 16 countries to over 30 million television viewers. Avril has loved and the Happiness Project and been involved since it’s earliest days
Irish, passionate and exuberant, Avril’s signature strengths lie in her insight, experience and inspiration in Successful Personal Impact.  After graduating from Manchester University, Avril enjoyed some years in the creative and performing arts, acting with the RSC and working as a presenter and newsreader for BBC and ITV. In 1987 she established a highly successful consultancy, offering workshops and coaching. 10 years ago she joined the SI and Happiness Project team.

She has had a loyal and impressive client base including: Rolls Royce, Marks and Spencer, DLA Piper, Virgin Media, E-on, Premier Foods, Job Centre Plus and many more. Committed to life-long learning, Avril is a Master practitioner in NLP, a graduate of Interfaith seminary and is currently training in the Enneagram and the work of Byron Katie.

 

 Pauline Crawford: Co-founder of Gender Dynamics

Pauline is a Change Agent, Situational Coach and Conference Speaker. Her background spans Emotional Behaviour, Psychology, Image Consultancy, Corporate Culture Transformation, Reputation & Personal Branding and a new focus on physicality with Gender Dynamics.

Pauline’s experience comes from graduating as a Sociology & Statistics BA, a career in Tourism Marketing; Creative Design Projects; Presidency of the Federation of Image Consultants; High Impact Communication Workshops and a wide range of Personal & Professional Transformational Programmes with her own Consultancy Corporate Heart since 1990, working with individuals and teams across the UK and Europe.

Over the last 20 years, with clients such as The Metropolitan Police, BT, News International, Coutts, Watson Wyatt Worldwide, HP Consulting, ICI, Whitbread and the MOD, Pauline has seen how diverse work cultures can develop the best working practices.

Her passion for best performance has evolved from transforming her own life from being an un-ambitious housewife to a confident entrepreneur, with a national reputation in the field of personal and professional development for men & women alike. Pauline specialises in confidence building, personal transformation, professional image, wellness and stress management, gender types, relationship and communication skills, team strategy and engagement.

 

Janette Faherty CEO of Avanta Janette Faherty: CEO of Avanta
Janette Faherty is one of the UK’s leading entrepreneurs. She is the CEO and shareholder of Avanta Enterprise Ltd, a leading nationwide employment, skills and enterprise company.

Avanta, which brings together two specialist businesses; TNG and InBiz, has helped over 40,000 job seekers improve their skills, gain and sustain employment, and has supported the creation of over 23,000 businesses.

Janette has a ‘can do’ approach to life, the business and its employees and inspires those around her to achieve, adapt and grow. She has created a working environment that enables people to develop. Janette was awarded Entrepreneur of the Year 2005 at the London Business Awards and was the sole UK honouree at the Sydney 2004 ‘Leading Women Entrepreneurs of the World’ Awards.

Janette dedicates her time to issues surrounding employment and enterprise through her work with advisory groups, Women in Management and Prowess. She is a member of the local Learning and Skills Council (LSC) and on regional LSC bodies. She is a regular and sought after speaker on entrepreneurship, management and women’s development topics.