CREATIVE ADVANTAGE FUND - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Chairman
• Consultant
• Director
• Member of the Board

A skilled leader of groups, event host and speaker, Helga Henry is a consultant who specialises in bringing strategy to life by building communication skills and confidence. Clients include Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Firstsite Gallery, Colchester; Coventry City of Culture and Jerwood Arts. Before working in her own consultancy practice she was Director of Organisational Development at Birmingham Hippodrome, a role which focused on the organisation's culture and leadership (especially its investment in staff, board and volunteers). A former Clore fellow (2008-2010 NESTA supported fellow for Entrepreneurial Organisations), she now develops emerging cultural leaders, most recently in partnership with Lara Ratnaraja on the highly acclaimed RE:Present and ASTONish programmes - Transforming the Diversity of Cultural Leadership (both funded by Birmingham City Council and Arts Council England). In 2016 she published "NetworkAbility: Building Your Business One Relationship At A Time" with co-author Andy Bass.

Job Titles:

• Finance Director
• Member of the Board
• Finance Director of Advantage Creative West Midlands Limited

Qualifying as an accountant in 1993, Karen worked for several years in industry before establishing her own successful company where she continued to gain extensive knowledge working for companies across a variety of areas. In 2004 Karen was appointed as Finance Director of Advantage Creative West Midlands Limited (Advantage Creative CIC), assisting to invest over £5m public, European and self generated funds into 56 companies within the Creative Industry Sector. After 5 years once all funds were invested Karen resigned and was appointed as Finance Director of Creative Advantage West Midlands Limited, the pilot fund. Holding several directorship and company secretary roles within small to multi-million pound companies in both private and public sector, she has a strong work ethic and enjoys helping business owners to grow their businesses whilst remaining legally compliant.

Job Titles:

• Director
• Member of the Board

Kevin began his career as an engineer in the Midlands car industry and used his MBA to get into early-stage venture capital. Over 35 years he set up several funds and has been responsible for over 400 small venture capital investments, always seeking to address the ‘equity gap' faced by SMEs. He has written several books and interactive guides on the subject of SME finance including the first guide to financing a small business (in 1986) and the DTI handbook on how to set up and manage an early-stage equity and loan fund. In 1992 Kevin established East Midlands Venture Fund Managers (now MidVen) and managed the Birmingham Enterprise Fund and the Creative Advantage Fund). Between 2003 and 2015 he established and managed the Advantage Early Growth Fund which pioneered the concept of a co-investment fund which actively encouraged business angel investment in the West Midlands and made smaller equity investments (between £50k and £250k) available to SMEs in the region. In 5 years AEGF invested £10m in 61 businesses, alongside 507 co-investors who contributed £38m. For 3 years running AEGF made more investments than any other fund in England and Wales. In 2009, at the height of the banking crisis, Kevin identified two market failures; SMEs could not get bank loans and investors could not earn interest on their savings. He created ThinCats.com, the first peer-to-peer platform making secured business loans, and addressed both problems at once. Established with equity investments from local business angels, ThinCats arranged £1bn of loans in 5 years of which £200m was from 2,000 private investors. In November 2009 Kevin established the world's first peer to peer platform specialising in making secured business loans "ThinCats" which allowed private investors to lend directly to businesses. He is founder of the Ark Hub which is seeking to encourage business support and investment organisations to work together and address the poor performance of the West Midlands as a region in funding SMEs with growth potential. He is also chairman of an early-stage software business and a mentor to two charities, helping them develop ways to generate commercial income.

Job Titles:

• Director
• Member of the Board

Sally Luton is an experienced arts policy and strategic planning professional. She was the Executive Director of the Arts Council‘s West Midlands office from 2003 - 2010 having previously been Chief Executive of the independent West Midlands Arts Board. Prior to joining the Arts Council, she held a variety of roles in public relations, theatre, and gallery administration. She has a Degree in English Literature (1974), an MBA (1993) and is an NLP Master Practitioner. The Creative Advantage Fund was established by West Midlands Arts under Sally's leadership and she has been a member of the Board from its inception. Since leaving the Arts Council in 2010 Sally has worked in a freelance and voluntary capacities. She is currently Chair of the John Feeney Charitable Trust, Trustee of the Elmley Foundation and on the Board of C&T.

Job Titles:

• Director
• Member of the Board

Sarabjeet has worked in Economic Development for over 22 years at local and national levels, rising to Chief Executive for Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire partnership Ltd - an economic development partnership with responsibility for strategic co-ordination of Economic Development for the sub-region. He led the establishment of several innovative grant, loan and equity programmes to support restructuring and growth, including CAF. Since leaving the Partnership in 2005 Sarabjeet set up his own business, ITM Economic Development. He also served on several Boards including venture funds, universities, and public/private partnerships and has been advisor to government on finance for business. Sarabjeet was awarded an OBE for services to Business in the West Midlands in the Queen's Birthday Honours in June 2003.

Job Titles:

• Director
• Member of the Board
• Business Enterprise and Innovation Manager at Birmingham City Council

Suresh Patel is a Business Enterprise and Innovation Manager at Birmingham City Council. He is an experienced programme leader who has managed market-led programmes for the past 25 years: delivering business support, providing access to finance and leading on transnational projects designed to inform and influence policies. Having delivered £93m of business support programmes previously, he is currently delivering the £33m Business Growth Programme (BGP) for the sub-region, working across the Local Enterprise Partnership areas (LEPs) promoting sustainable economic growth. He will play an instrumental role in delivering £55m portfolio of programmes targeting business growth, supplier skills and clean air up to 2022. Suresh holds several Directorships.