BUSINESS LEADERS

Choosing work over higher education was a risk, but one that’s paying off. Developing quickly and delivering results in early Sales and Management roles provided a strong platform to build a successful career. I joined Sage at the age of 20 and over the course of 15 years have fulfilled roles across multiple business functions including Sales, Marketing, Events, Project Management, Business Development, and for the last 5 years building and developing Sage Foundation’s product programme.

Karen is an award- winning entrepreneur who started Key Production back in 1990 with a small redundancy from her first place of work. Through several acquisitions, Key has become the largest agency of its kind in the UK, a team of over 50 people across various sites, specialising in manufacturing Vinyl ,CDs, DVDs and Cassettes, bespoke packaging, global sourcing, project management and high end promotional items for both music and other industries.

Ian is a Board Member of The Growth Project.

After a 30 year corporate career where he held board positions in some of the UK’s leading publicly owned food and drink companies like Grand Metropolitan and the Compass Group , Ian has for the last 15 years worked with entrepreneurs and investors in the Hospitality sector as an Advisor and as an Executive and Non-Executive Director.

Having gone to work at 17, I pursued various career paths before deciding on a future in the not for profit sector. I became a professional youth and community worker in the London Borough of Hackney and worked in this sector for 12 years, before deciding to move into business consultancy specialising in the property and construction industry. I have been developing and investing in property in London for the last 20 years 

I am a young divisional director at the world’s biggest shipbroker, Clarksons. Having worked at Clarksons for almost 10 years I have extensive knowledge of the shipping industry across all sectors. Currently, I work in a global team of 8 brokers who cover the VLCC (very large crude carriers) segment of the business across London, Singapore, Geneva & Houston. We are leaders in our sector and service an array of Major Oil companies, Traders and shipowners in the movement of oil across the world.

Debbie joined Sage to set up Sage Foundation in September 2015. Previous to this she ran her own marketing company for 15 years. During this time Debbie worked with Sir Richard Branson and his foundation Virgin Unite on a project to engage Virgin businesses around the world through Virgin's sponsorship of the London marathon. Debbie started her career in F1 motorsport where she set up and ran global sponsorships for companies such as Jaguar, Orange mobile, Thomson Reuters & Tata Communications.

I am a Regional Manager for Beaverbrooks and we are a family run independent Jeweller with 70 stores across the UK and expanding. I am part of a team of 4 responsible for all aspects of the operational effectiveness of the stores, covering all HR and people functions, store operations as well as Regional and company strategic planning and implementation. 

  I lead PwC's Tax Transformation business for mid cap Plcs and large private businesses in London and the South East, helping them to improve the way they manage tax - often enabled by technology. I also look after a portfolio of clients to ensure that we’re bringing the best of the firm to help them across any area of expertise, collaborating and sharing insight.

Neal Watkins joined Sage in January 2020 to lead the Global Small Segment.  

Neal has over 25 years of experience across the software delivery lifecycle with a specific focus on both product management and commerciality. Most recently, Neal operated as the Chief Product Officer at BAE Systems Applied Intelligence and continues to be an active Board Member for a number of technology focussed companies.