Industry Equals

Kath Shackleton

CEO and Producer, Fettle Animation

Kath Shackleton is CEO and Producer of multi-award-winning animation studio Fettle Animation.  Kath has produced over 50 projects in the past seven years for the BBC, ITV, agencies, museums, businesses and charities and has produced an award-winning graphic novel.  The company have won a Japan Prize, Sandford St Martin’s Children’s Award, two BAFTA nominations, five Royal Television Society Awards, and two book awards and was part of a BAFTA-winning team for a Children’s ITV project.

Sue McHugh

Co-founder and Managing Director, Carbon Digital

Sue is co-founder and managing director at Carbon Digital. She is mum to two children; Eddie (14) and Holly (11). She is an avid runner and fundraiser and raised over £20,000 for Children With Cancer UK, running the London Marathon in a lime green ‘Mankini’! 

Sue graduated in 1996 with a BA Interactive Fine Art degree at Manchester University. She began her career working for several years within the computer games industry. Her hands-on 3D artist roles included Lead artist at Rage Software, 2002-2003, Art manager at Jester Interactive, 1998 – 2002, Lead artist at Sony Psygnosis, 1996 – 1998. 

Karen Blackett

Country Manager, WPP

Karen is a proven business leader with a track record in creating vibrant cultures, energising teams and consistently delivering business growth and success. She is UK country manager for WPP, the world’s largest marketing services group, and Chairwoman of MediaCom, the largest media agency in the UK.

In June 2014, Karen received an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday honours and in November 2018 Karen won the Inspirational Leader category at the Ethnicity Awards.

Karen was appointed Race Equality Business Champion by the UK Prime Minister in 2018, and most recently as a director of the new Sussex Royal Foundation.

Belinda Budge

Chair, Creative England and Co-Founder, The MultiKids

Belinda Budge is a textile designer and maker. She is Chair of Creative England and Co-Founder of The MultiKids Foundation (a non-governmental organisation, based in Accra, Ghana which supports children with special needs to access high quality education and achieve their potential).

After becoming CEO of a start-up publishing company she joined HarperCollins, where she managed a large portfolio of global content, and provided strategic, commercial and operational leadership to the worldwide business. During the last few years her focus was on managing business transformation through the use of creative thinking, to maximize opportunities and reach a global audience by embracing the disruptive technologies in the digital space.

Helen Oldham

Founding Board Director, NorthInvest

Helen Oldham is a Founding Board Director of NorthInvest, a not for profit early stage investor connector for tech start ups. In just over twelve months Helen has led a team which has grown the NorthInvest Angel Investor network by 450, closed five deals in 2018 and secured a £1m coinvestment fund with Innovate UK. 

As the Chair of SmartWorks Leeds, which provides coaching and clothing to unemployed women, Helen is leading team of Trustees in the run up to the opening of the 7th SmartWorks in the UK. She is also on the Fund Raising Board of Maggies Yorkshire, a cancer support charity, and is a member of the Advisory Group for West Yorkshire Common Purpose.

Pardeep Duggal

Head of Digital Marketing, Lowell

Currently working in a VC backed founder- led global business, Pardeep has secured multi-million pound investment in marketing and digital transformation. Previous to this, Pardeep led E.ON’s customer transformation, joining in 2011 to build capability as part of the marketing leadership team and co-create a digitisation strategy with E.ON’s CEO.
 
Over five years Pardeep secured investment of more than £25m and drove savings of £36m. She transformed E.ON’s UK digital team from the smallest in marketing by size and budget, growing it to the largest with 60 colleagues.

Outside of work, Pardeep is passionate about diversity and coaches individuals to build confidence and achieve their potential.

Rachel Hannan

Director, The Hannan Partnership

After an earlier career with one of the big 4, including time in tax, corporate finance and global HR consulting, Rachel has since successfully founded and grown businesses herself. The executive search and leadership consultancy she founded in 2002 went onto to become a £multi-million market leader in its sector, delivering over £4m profit before tax p.a. by 2010. She became an Angel Investor in 2011 with investments spanning companies in a range of sectors including technology, education, medical devices, robotics, food manufacturing and human capital, as well as social enterprises.

Rachel also works as an advisor for a range of companies across sectors around growth and leadership, and has gained experience as a Non-Executive Director or Chair across companies, charities and a University. 

Roberta Lucca

Founder, Bossa Studios

Roberta is a founder of the BAFTA-winning Bossa Studios, a London-based games developer & publisher renowned for their most iconic, viral and category-defining games created with influencers, and played by millions of people worldwide.

Roberta and her team have grown Bossa from a blank canvas into a multi-million-dollar business with critically-acclaimed games hits such as Surgeon Simulator and I Am Bread. The company is now backed by Atomico, London Venture Partners and Makers Fund.

Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, the Brazilian-British creative spent 10 years spearheading innovation, technology and new product initiatives within corporations such as Nokia and Globo TV.

Bianca Best

Founder, Energy-Scape™ 

Bianca is a best selling author, award-winning advertising executive, entrepreneur, Global MD and founder of the transformational Energy-Scape™ programme.

Bianca built The Bespoke Gift Company, a pioneering personalised gift platform, and joined Dentsu Aegis to lead global advertising accounts where she won the IPA & Campaign’s 2016 Woman of Tomorrow accolade.

Bianca energises, teaches and motivates ambitious individuals to maximise their impact without burnout through her 6-step model offering coaching/mentoring, delivering keynotes and hosting workshops for large corporates such as Amazon, Snapchat and NewsUK. Her book ‘Flourish:Redefine Success & Create More Time, Energy, Impact and Happiness’ hit the best-seller list in July 2019.