WEINSOCIALTECH - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Strategic Communication Advisor and Coach

Annette Kramer, PhD is a strategic communication advisor and coach for executives in government, education, corporations, high-growth companies, SMEs and the third sector. Annette's expertise lies in collaborating with leaders to tell their story with impact to grow their organisations globally. Annette began her career in the New York theatre and by teaching at Brown University before turning her had to content development in the early days of the web. She was one of PwC's first hires on thought leadership consulting when Price Waterhouse merged with Coopers & Lybrand. After 8 years, Annette was recruited to advise an American philanthropist on establishing and running a literacy charity in London. Annette is now considered a thought leader in innovation and leadership, perhaps most notably as part of the leadership team at the international support organisation Upward Women, an advisor to the Cambridge Centre for Social Equality and as one of nine life-long Fellows at St.George's House, Windsor Castle.

Antonella Socci is a passionate Marketing, Brand and Communications leader with expertise in technology, financial services and start-ups. She combines a classical marketing approach with the dynamics of digital marketing, and has broad experience in marketing strategy, value proposition development, product launches, brand management, communications, business development and strategic partnerships. She is the Founder of We Marketing, an international hub of senior marketers with the expertise and passion to grow innovative businesses. Antonella collaborates with disruptive companies that aspire to become the next market leaders. From innovators that champion transparency in financial services to tech enterprises that are driving transformative changes with sustainable solutions. She believes in growing a business and building a brand at the same time and does so by blending the art and science of marketing. For most of her career, Antonella worked at Visa Inc Europe where she held senior roles in international B2B and B2C marketing, including Vice President Client Marketing, Head of Product Marketing and Head of Sponsorship & Promotions. In 2020, she launched The Future Takes Visa brand campaign in Europe. The brand strategy and its execution focused on new biometric payment methods, a strategy which was years ahead of their launch in markets. For London 2020 she played a pivotal role in the commercial engagement with key international clients and in bringing to life Visa's innovation agenda with included the marketing launch of the first mobile payment app (the result of a partnership between Visa and Samsung). Her interest in the intersection of loyalty, data and payments led her to launch and grow the Card-Linked-Offers business in partnership with Edo Interactive, a US venture-backed start-up. Antonella is an Advisor to Women Who Tech and has been a judge on their 2018 Women Startup Challenge Europe 2018. She is also an Advisor at Skipping Rocks Lab, the winning start-up of the 2020 Wired Retail Award which is on a mission to make plastic packaging disappear.

Debbie Forster MBE is a recognised figure in the areas of diversity, tech, innovation and education. She currently works as a portfolio consultant and freelancer and serves as Co-Founder and CEO for the Tech Talent Charter, an industry collective which aims to deliver greater gender diversity in the UK tech workforce. She frequently lectures at the School for Social Entrepreneurs and offers both coaching and mentoring, particularly for women entrepreneurs or those working in the "for good" space. She has found that for most of these women, a blended approach of standard business mentoring as well as personal coaching to develop confidence and resilience has the most effect, growing both the women and their business. Debbie was awarded an MBE in January 2020 for "Services to Digital Technology and Tech Development" and Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) named her Woman of the Year for 2020. She has also been named on Computer Weekly's list of "25 Most Influential Women in UK IT" for the last 5 years and came in at #3 for 2018. Debbie has deep experience in taking a start up through scaling. Prior to the TTC, Debbie was the Co CEO of Apps for Good, an award-winning education charity. Debbie took the organisation through a period of exponential growth, from 2 centres in London to almost 2020 schools around the world; reaching 75,000 young people in just 5 years.

Job Titles:

• Co - Founder of Women Shift Digital
• We in Social Tech Spokesperson

Ghislaine Boddington is a Co-founder of Women Shift Digital and Creative Director of creative design collective body>data>space. With a background in performing arts and technologies she has, across 25 years, converged her innovation knowledge between business, creative industries, education and culture sectors, consulting and directing projects with clients worldwide. Awarded the IX Immersion Experience Visionary Pioneer Award 2020, Ghislaine has keynoted and presented in over 30 countries, is a Reader in Digital immersion at University of Greenwich, and co-presents bi-weekly for BBC Click, the BBC World Service Radio flagship technology show. She has always engaged in her work with a passion for equality and diversity, believing this is the route to real innovation and change in the world. In particular she has focused on women in creative and social tech, exploring the opportunities raised through the merging of value and values, supporting sustainable businesses that have social impact into particular communities and consequently into the wider global scenario. This has led her to work closely as Advisor for the Stemettes and with Tech London Advocates Women in Tech working group.

Job Titles:

• Business Development Manager With an Organic Bakery
• Creative Business Consultant

Jeff Gilbert is a Creative Business Consultant with over 50 years of experience in setting up and running own successful businesses, as well as managing international marketing for a large corporation. In 2020 Jeff began work at a record shop in Manchester. In 2020 he founded his own company, Rocking Horse Records. In the intervening 14 years he came to London to work for CBS (now Sony) Records. Eventually he headed up the Marketing Department and became the first salesman to progress all the way to becoming a director of the company. During that time CBS moved from 4 th position in UK market share to No 1. He was awarded Best Marketing Campaign two years in a row by his industry peers. In the midst of this period he took a two year sabbatical on a Greek island and wrote a book but returned to take on additional International duties as Marketing Director. He worked closely with many world wide superstars and was able to establish a unique working relationship with many of them including working on campaigns for Barbra Streisand, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Adam Ant, Paul Young, The Clash, Andy Williams, Johnny Mathis, Carlos Santana, Michael Jackson and Julio Iglesias. He is credited with introducing the Philly Sound to the UK with the first promotional tours and TV appearances for The Three Degrees, the Ojay's and Harold Melvin When he founded Rocking Horse Records he signed two artists. The first was a band named Latin Quarter whose first album produced a classic Top 20 UK single, ‘Radio Africa' which led to major success in Europe. The second artist was Lisa Stansfield who went on to sell 20 million albums worldwide. Jeff received an Ivor Novello in 2020 for publishing that year's biggest selling single ‘All Around the World'. Rocking Horse was sold to BMG records in 2020 and Jeff became A&R Director with his artists and staff forming the basis of BMG/Arista's UK artist roster at that time. He became managing director of Arista but left in 2020 to start his own management company. Jeff managed several artists including Louchie Lou and Michie One (No 1 in the UK with ‘Shout' (Hip Hop) and Alison Limerick (UK Top 20 ‘Where Love Lives' and International No 1 in the dance charts) He toured Alison consistently throughout the UK, US, Japan, Australia and Europe. Songwriter Lucinda Drayton who co wrote No 1 single The Real Thing. He also managed Catherine Zeta Jones's singing career before she left for the US. At the same time he retained consultancies with record companies and TV merchandising companies in the U.K. and Europe. This included a consultancy with a major studio complex and a co-owner of a publishing, production and management company. In 2020, with his new partner, he set up a retail, mail order and wholesale outlet in Stoke Newington Church St. London. This was the only company in London selling organic fabrics and goods designed and manufactured in Europe and the UK including clothing and homewares. At the time of writing there are now many companies, including well-known high street names selling organic cotton goods in the UK - ever the entrepreneur! In 2020 Jeff became Business Development Manager with an Organic Bakery in Cricklewood, North London. He was brought in to expand the opportunities for the company and increase its market penetration to a position where it turned over £1.8 Million p.a., changing the emphasis from manufacturing bread and operating market stalls to wholesaling and retailing its products by creating packaging and relationships with London supermarkets and restaurant chains. In late 2020 he left the bakery to take up a position at East London Small Business Centre as a business counsellor, a job he describes as ‘the culmination of his life's work'. As a business advisor he has worked on various LDA, ERDF, DWP and local government contracts with clients from across all ranges and capabilities including start ups and established SME's looking for advice and investment in order to grow. He's worked across all business sectors but specialises in creative and social enterprises. He currently works as a private Creative Business Consultant and current client list includes artists and galleries, fashion designers, music production companies and performing artists, restaurants, pop up supper clubs, photographers, independent TV and film companies and training organisations. He served as a volunteer director of The Islington and City Credit Union for four years He was a trustee of The touring opera company Opera Up Close for four years. He served on the board of The Prince's Youth Business Trust, East London for two years helping and advising on grants and loans to young people who were setting up their own businesses.

Job Titles:

• Founder and CEO of London Rebuilding Society

Naomi Kingsley is the founder and CEO of London Rebuilding Society. Naomi has 30 years experience in economic development, regeneration and social enterprise. She has operated at Director and Board level across public, private and third sectors. As an entrepreneur she has run businesses in the UK and south East Asia. After a year in the United States on a Harkness Fellowship researching Community Banking, Naomi founded London Rebuilding Society in 2020. Naomi is also a founding member and former Chair of the Community Development Finance Association (CDFA), and former chair of the training and education charity, NEWTEC. She was a member of the Charity Bank Credit Committee, and is one of the founders of the Change Account Partnership. She leads London Rebuilding Society to develop practical solutions to improve housing and well being where the market currently fails.

Job Titles:

• SVP, Mergers & Acquisitions at Sedgwick

Sarah is also an active angel investor, currently serving on the Board of two portfolio companies, where she assists management in growth strategy and financing alternatives, and manages a multi-family property investment portfolio. Previously, she was the former Director of International M&A for LexisNexis and Thomson Financial. In these roles, she led transaction due diligence and structured complex deal terms globally, including deals in the Middle East, Russia, China, India, South Africa and Europe. Sarah began her career at Merrill Lynch in Mergers & Acquisitions, where she advised companies in a myriad of sectors on strategic alternatives, and in Equity Capital Markets, where she marketed, priced and allocated IPOs, secondaries and convertible bond offerings. Sarah also has extensive mentoring and teaching experience. She has served as a business mentor in the Prince's Trust Enterprise Scheme as well as for Astia, a non-profit that advises high-growth start-ups on financing alternatives. She has taught investment banking analyst training programs, as well as MBA-level accounting and marketing courses, and serves as a career advisor at London Business School, where she advises students pursuing careers in finance.