Kwasi is the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and has been the Conservative Member of Parliament for Spelthorne since 2010.

Born in London in 1975, Kwasi has a BA and PhD in History from Cambridge. Prior to entering Parliament, Kwasi worked as a financial analyst and author. Since being elected, Kwasi has served on a number of Select Committees and has served as Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Leader of the House of Lords and the Chancellor of the Exchequer as well as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department for Exiting the European Union.

In July 2019 he was appointed Minister of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

Kwasi has consistently supported local enterprise and regularly calls for business-friendly reforms in Parliament. To find the local entrepreneurs of tomorrow, he launched the Spelthorne Business Plan Competition in 2013. The competition has run successfully every year since.

Stephen Kinnock is the Labour MP for Aberavon. He was born in Tredegar in 1970, and has kept strong and continuing links to South Wales throughout his life. He joined the Labour Party when he was 15 and is a proud member of Community trade union and the Co-operative Party.

Born in London in 1975, Kwasi has a BA and PhD in History from Cambridge. Prior to entering Parliament, Kwasi worked as a financial analyst and author. Since being elected, Kwasi has served on a number of Select Committees and has served as Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Leader of the House of Lords and the Chancellor of the Exchequer as well as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department for Exiting the European Union.

In July 2019 he was appointed Minister of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

Kwasi has consistently supported local enterprise and regularly calls for business-friendly reforms in Parliament. To find the local entrepreneurs of tomorrow, he launched the Spelthorne Business Plan Competition in 2013. The competition has run successfully every year since.

Tyler Campbell is a 20-year-old Coventry entrepreneur full of ideas and creativity. Last year Tyler responded to the spate of knife crime in the city by founding Fridays - a young person’s youth club and entertainment space providing support to young people within schools and community centres offering them an alternative to anti- social behaviour.
He has interacted with over 500 young people and over 13,000 via social media. Within months of setting up with the help of the Princes Trust, Tyler was nominated as a young entrepreneur of the year. Tyler was also asked to speak at the annual police crime summit and continues to make local and national news headlines. Tyler aims to set up a Friday’s in every city in the country.
Tyler wants to see young people given more opportunities to unlock their potential in whatever they want to be and become. He wants to see more young entrepreneurs that can be encouraged to chase their dreams.

Martin is Chief Executive of Coventry City of Culture Trust and has been leading the team since 2018, having previously been Chief Executive of Royal & Derngate Theatres in Northampton and a theatre producer, working across the UK and internationally. In 2019 he was invited by Andy Street to establish a new Cultural Leadership Board for the West Midlands Combined Authority, and has Chaired this since 2020

Eleanor Hevey joined the Eleanor Crook Foundation in February 2021 as the UK Advocacy Director. Eleanor has more than 15 years’ experience as a senior advocate and strategist for leading multilateral and non-profit organizations. Prior to joining ECF, she served as the Head of Humanitarian Policy at the British Red Cross, leading policy, research and advocacy on international issues including food insecurity and famine prevention. She also served as the Head of Health and Resilience, leading domestic policy and thought-leadership on public health and major emergencies. Eleanor led international policy for UNICEF Canada and managed stakeholder relations for the Sick Kids Centre for Global Health, working on issues including global child health and nutrition, child protection and financing for global education. She is an accomplished advocate in multilateral processes and negotiations, including the Sustainable Development Goals, the Global Compact for Safe Migration, the Paris Climate Agreement, and the Convention on Cluster Munitions, among others. She has played an instrumental role in building coalitions and leading successful G7 and UNGA campaigns. She is passionate about multi stakeholder initiatives and has led a range of innovative finance and private-sector partnerships. Eleanor holds a BA in International Development Economics from UEA (Norwich, UK), and a Graduate Certificate in Sustainability and Innovation from Harvard. She is currently completing an Executive MBA at the University of Oxford Saïd Business School and is the recipient of the 30% Club Oxford Women’s Scholarship.

Nadhim was born in Baghdad to Kurdish parents in 1967. Under threat of persecution from Saddam Hussein’s regime, his family immigrated to the UK when he was 9. In 2000 he founded YouGov, a leading market research company and floated the company on the London Stock Exchange in 2005. In January 2010 he stood down from YouGov to run for election as Member of Parliament for Stratford-on-Avon.

In 2011 he co-authored Masters of Nothing with fellow MP Matt Hancock. In January 2018 Prime Minister Theresa May appointed Nadhim as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children and Families at the Department for Education. He held this position until July 2019 when he was appointed by Boris Johnson as Minister for Business and Industry at BEIS. In November 2020, Nadhim was also made Minister for COVID Vaccine Deployment.

Margot James has had a wide ranging career which has spanned working for the UK Government and as a business woman. Both in business and government Margot has championed the need to expand opportunities for diverse groups of young people.

Margot served as Minister of State for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with responsibility for Digital, Telecoms and the Creative Industries, piloting the Data Protection Bill through Parliament, incorporating GDPR into UK law. Previously she served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with responsibility for small businesses, consumers and corporate governance, including labour markets.

Margot co-founded Shire Health Group and led its growth to over 100 staff, having created a market for industry sponsored public health campaigns. She led the successful transitioning of Shire Health Group to the multinational WPP in 2000.

She served on the Europe, Middle East and Africa Board of Ogilvy Mather, leading European healthcare programmes.

The Rt Hon. Liam Byrne MP is the Shadow Mayor for the West Midlands, MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill, Chair of the Global Parliamentary Network of the IMF & World Bank, and Gwilym Gibbon Research Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford.

A former Cabinet minister, Liam undertook some of the toughest jobs in the last Labour Government at the Home Office, in 10 Downing Street where as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, he coordinated cross-government programmes to combat the Great Financial Crisis, and in Her Majesty’s Treasury where, as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, he designed Labour’s fiscal consolidation strategy. In Opposition, Liam served in a number of frontbench positions, chaired Labour’s Policy Review, founded and chaired the All Party Parliamentary Group on Inclusive Growth, and served on the Council of Europe.

A former Fulbright scholar at the Harvard Business School, Liam has written twenty books, chapters and pamphlets about economic history, development and foreign affairs. His history of British capitalism Dragons: Ten Entrepreneurs Who Built Britain was published in 2016. He is also the author of Black Flag Down: Counter Extremism, Defeating ISIS and Winning the Battle of Ideas; and Turning to Face the East: How Britain Prospers in the Asian Century. Liam is one of Westminster’s leading authorities on China. He helped kickstart the Economic & Finance Dialogue, co-founded the UK-China Young Leader’s Roundtable, and helps anchor the UK-China Leadership for the Future Forum.

Melissa Smith is an illustrator, live scribe, community organiser, city of culture leader and co-founder of Street Art Strategy. Melissa's passion for the healing benefits of creativity is the driving force of her creative work - she believes that getting creative and being involved with community activity can be life changing for people and wants to ensure that others can have opportunities to explore their own journey into creativity. As a co-founder of Street Art Strategy Melissa is working alongside City of Culture & Coventry BID to bring to life the In Paint We Trust programme for Coventry's year of culture.

Originally from the North East of England, Dr Nik Johnson trained at St. George’s Hospital Medical School, University of London and qualified in 1993. He was appointed as a Consultant Paediatrician at Hinchingbrooke Hospital in 2006.
Outside of work, he is proud to be the Patron of Eddies – a local charity supporting people with learning disabilities in Cambridgeshire. He also enjoys watching his children take part in sport and drama activities.
He was elected as district councillor for St Neots East in 2018 – the first Labour councillor in the town for two decades – and sat on Huntingdonshire District council’s planning committee.
On May 10 2021 he was elected mayor of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority.
He lives near St Neots with his wife, who is a fellow doctor, and three children.

At the age of 16, Cory Barrett began his career training as a part- time sales assistant in Coventry, whilst completing his Diploma in Graphic Design. During this time, he found a love of clothes, styling, window dressing and ultimately visual merchandising.
Cory dedicated his time to the craft of visual merchandising through a series of high profile moves - including Director-level roles at Tiffany and Gap in New York, as well as managerial roles at Bally, COS, and Liberty in London. His passion has seen him travel the world, gaining inspiration from new cultures and people, as well as developing the skills needed to set up his own company in 2018 CBGC Creative Industries
Besides his creative and brand work, this dedication to supporting emerging talent has seen Cory lecture at Brooklyn College, Coventry University, BCU, Fashion Retail Academy and more recently at the Sarabande Foundation by Alexander McQueen.

Siraj Shaikh is a Professor of Systems Security at Coventry University, where he is also the Director of Research for the Institute for Future Transport and Cities (IFTC). He is interested in transport security and the narrative of risk. Siraj is also an entrepreneur, having co-founded CyberOwl that provides threat monitoring for the maritime sector across the world. Having been embedded in West Midlands for over a decade now, he is very interested in Coventry’s identity and heritage.