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Fellowship Programme launched to bring top-level industry expertise to national recovery

The Be the Business Fellowship Programme, chaired by Nigel Whitehead of BAE Systems, has been created to bring top-level expertise and leadership to our national recovery programme.

Fellows will support our team to secure and deliver strategic partnerships with the best of UK businesses, along with national and regional organisations, with the ambition of supporting thousands of SMEs to rebuild and recover. Each member will join the Fellows Board, an exclusive group of senior leaders, which will meet quarterly and play a critical leadership role in driving the UK’s economic recovery, gain new perspectives on UK business and the workings of national and regional government.

Meet our first cohort of fellows

Nigel Whitehead

Nigel was appointed CTO in January 2018. In this role he has responsibility for coordinating technology investment, collaboration and exploitation across the organisation’s products, services and operations. Nigel is focussing his efforts on building the contribution of businesses from around the UK to the mission of Be the Business. The team at Be the Business engage Nigel to spread best practice and to talk to the leaders of industrial sectors and those with responsibility to maximise economic performance of the regions around the UK.

Andrew Cowdery

Andrew has 40 years industry experience working in the aerospace, defence and space sectors. He has held senior management positions with GEC Marconi, Ferranti, Astrium NV, BAE Systems, and most recently Leonardo. He trained as a barrister before joining industry and has worked in general management and functional roles, leading teams in legal and commercial, strategy, business development, sales and marketing and government affairs.

Dame Fiona Kendrick

Dame Fiona Marie Kendrick, DBE is the former chairman and chief executive of Nestlé UK & Ireland.

Colin Glass

Colin is a chartered accountant who started his own practice, Winburn Glass Norfolk (WGN), with two partners, in 1975. On 1 August 2019 WGN merged with Murray Harcourt, Chartered Accountants, which has a similar ethos to WGN in its approach to clients, namely to add value with every aspect of the service that it offers. Colin is, or has been, a non-executive director of several companies, some of which are quoted on AIM and which came out of the WGN portfolio.

Jenny Knott

Jenny Knott is a non-executive director, and board advisor to a number of companies. As former CEO of an investment bank, with over 30 years’ experience, as well as a leading innovator in financial technologies, Jenny is widely respected for her regulatory, technical financial and commercial knowledge. Jenny is a keynote speaker, author and public advocate for the radical technological modernisation of the financial services industry. She is the founder of FinTech Strategic Advisors.

Neil Crockett

In 2018 Neil was named in the global top 150 business transformation executives as voted by peers, vendors and industry analysts (Constellation). He has experience in large global blue chip companies including as chief digital officer for Rolls-Royce and a 15-year career in Cisco where he held several global and UK senior management positions.

Professor Veronica Hope-Hailey

Veronica is a respected leader with senior management experience in higher education. She also has significant experience and knowledge of leading and implementing change across a range of organisations in the private, public and non-profit sector. In her different roles as manager, consultant, board member and trustee she has developed practical skills in governance, strategy development, and organisational design. She has worked internationally and has insight into the challenges faced by organisations working globally.

For more information please contact partnerships@bethebusiness.com.

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