Chi-chi Ekweozor is a social media marketer turned front end developer and software engineer. Four years ago, she decided to tackle the problem of getting questions from an audience up on a screen during a Q&A session and ended up building the interactive platform at assenty.com which has been used by companies as varied as PwC, pro-manchester, BusinessCloud, Newcastle Startup Week, and more. She also organises Manchester's acclaimed #FemaleTechFounder, a monthly meet-up that started out as Assenty's launch event and has since become one of the region's foremost communities for supporting and nurturing female founders starting out in technology and business.

Liam joined NorthEdge’s Manchester office as a Director in April 2020. Prior to this Liam spent six years as Investment Director at NVM Private Equity. During his time at NVM he completed a number of investments into high growth businesses across a wide range of sectors, including SME energy broker Love Energy Savings, automotive software provider Rockar, digital mortgage broker Mojo, e-commerce beauty retailer CurrentBody and leisure operator The Climbing Hangar. Prior to that Liam spent two years at GCA Altium having qualified as a Chartered Accountant with EY. In 2018 he was named as one of the top 40 emerging European deal makers by Real Deals Future 40.

Based out of the Manchester office, Victoria works with a range of ambitious clients supporting them on their growth journey and she also leads the EY national Private Tax team supporting high net worth clients and privately owned businesses. Victoria is a huge supporter of entrepreneurship and recognising inspiring leaders, acting as the leader for EY’s flagship Entrepreneur of the Year programme which celebrates high-potential entrepreneurs and their contribution to the UK economy.

Born in 1974 Elan graduated in Accounting and Finance from Leeds University in 1992 and continued with the profession to become CIMA qualified. Soon after his qualification Elan joined the family business and is now the CEO. Scan is based in Bolton and employs 400+ Teammates with annual revenues of £210million as of FY 2021 and on target to achieving a billion by 2030. Leading Scan is all about three things – tech, heart and soul, Elan is driven by these passions and core-values of physical and mental wellbeing keep Scan moving forwards as an innovator. Scan works with customers and partners to tackle the latest cutting-edge areas in IT and bridge the gap these challenges present. Building on our reputation within the computing industry as a leader in E-commerce and PC gaming, Scan has used this knowledge and experience to provide specialist IT solutions for business verticals including deep learning and AI, healthcare, financial services, retail, education, AEC and manufacturing. Scan was awarded Royal Warrant to Her Majesty The Queen 2014-2019, Ai Innovator of the Year by Nvidia 2018-2020 and consistently wins other industry awards year on year for its innovation and service lead approach called “3XS".

Matthew is founder and CEO of Matillion. Before starting Matillion in 2011 he worked in commercial IT and software development for 15 years at a number of British and European SIs - this after co-founding his first startup aged 18! He's a native of Altrincham, near Manchester, though now spends half his time in the US (Covid-permitting!) - particularly in Denver, Matillion's US HQ, in New York, their other US location, and in the Bay Area, at the beating heart of the enterprise software industry. Matthew is married with two young daughters, who he enjoys horse riding with on any given Sunday.

Vikas Shah MBE is an entrepreneur, investor & philanthropist. He is CEO of Swiscot Group, Co-Founder of GSI Consulting and is a venture-investor in a number of businesses internationally. He is a Non-Executive Board Member of the UK Government’s Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy and a Non-Executive Director of the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Vikas was awarded an MBE for Services to Business and the Economy in Her Majesty the Queen’s 2018 New Year’s Honours List. He is an Honorary Professor of Business at The Alliance Business School, University of Manchester and Visiting Professors at the MIT Sloan Lisbon MBA.

Proud to be in the top 50 Computer Weekly Most Influential Women in UK IT 2018, 2019 and 2020. Naomi is an experienced growth and innovation consultant with established relationships across the UK. She has extensive experience working with start-ups and growth businesses particularly in the tech, digital and creative sectors. Naomi has been a mentor for 8 years and mentored several hundred businesses. She an Honorary Industry Fellow at the University of Salford Business School and chair of the Industry Advisory Board and on the Board of Future Everything as well as charity Digital Inc and social Enterprise PIE. She is Project Director of FreelanceHER100 a programme for female founders and freelancers.

Neil Tolley and colleagues started the voice and data solutions provider, Fourteen IP on the 14th April 2011: the date was the inspiration for the name, Fourteen IP. The Wigan-headquartered company helps hotel chains all around the world to give their customers exceptional service through Integrated Unified Communications, Data networking and Artificial Intelligence. The pandemic accelerated take-up of Fourteen’s AI technology so instead of battening down the hatches, they expanded into Mexico and Canada. Fourteen IP provide and support voice and data solutions covering 300,000 hotel guest rooms in 22 countries, from small independents to some of the worlds largest and most famous resorts.