David leads the Management of Trade and Export Financing Products for NatWest Bank and the Royal Bank of Scotland. These products provide thousands of loans and advances each year to UK businesses of all sizes who seek funding for their domestic and international trading activity. David has experienced a broad-based banking career of c.25 years. Including roles in Retail Banking, SME Banking, E-Commerce, Marketing & Communications and latterly various roles in Global Trade & Export Finance. David is a Fellow of the Institute of Communication and a member of the UK Finance Export Committee

Frazer Mackay has been Operations Director at Crowcon since May, 2018 and sits on the Board of Director within the business. The company design and manufacture gas detectors and are part of the FTSE 100 Halma group. Prior to Crowcon he spent 15 years heading operations at Siemens Magnet Technology in Oxford, driving change and guiding the workforce on their lean journey, which culminated in the company winning the Best Factory Award in 2015. Mackay graduated with an MEng from Warwick University and also holds an MBA. He is a Fellow of the IET, which offers him the opportunity to augment the business mentoring professional engineers. Mackay is highly passionate about employee engagement and continuous improvement and is a strong advocate of best practise sharing and benchmarking.

Laura has been Managing Director of RTITB since 2015. She works tirelessly to improve the standard of transport and equipment training across a wide variety of sectors and industries. Laura is a qualified Transport Manager, ISO9001 Lead Auditor and has completed Cranfield University’s Business Growth Program.

Ruth has been working in logistics for over 10 years, starting out in marketing before moving over to operations. In her role as Talent in Logistics Business Development Director she spends her time showcasing the amazing people that work in our sector and helping companies with their talent attraction, workforce development and employee engagement.

Pat is Managing Director and co-founder of VRAI, a leading technology company who have created an AI powered virtual reality simulation training service. VRAI are working with some leading companies and organisations such as Pfizer, IAG in Heathrow and the United Nations. Pat is an experienced leader having spent 20 years in the Irish Defence Forces including operational deployments to Syria, Liberia and Israel. Pat’s final years in the Defence Forces were spent leading strategy development and communications efforts. Pat now leads on strategy, marketing and investment for VRAI.

Peter Houghton is Tata Chemicals Europe’s (TCE’s) Energy Director and is a Director of Winnington CHP Ltd, Tata Chemicals Europe and British Salt Limited. A Chemical Engineer by background, Peter is responsible for Tata’s stand-alone Energy business and drives the energy and decarbonisation agenda across all TCE businesses. Having re-engineered Winnington CHP in 2013, Peter has driven a growth phase for the business and the latest achievement is the building of the UK’s first commercial scale Carbon Capture and Utilisation plant, capturing CHP flue gas to make chemicals. Peter is a strong advocate of industrial CHP in the UK.

Ian has worked for Nissan for 29 years, initially working in production before moving to Training. He setup the award winning GTC-UK which delivered training of all staff during setup and launch of new Car Plants in Russia and India. Established Nissan Skills Foundation which bridges the gap between Manufacturing and schools , working with over 62k students in last 7 years. Ian is actively involved in promoting education and skills at both a regional level and national level. Passionate about giving young people the best possible chances and to help schools to do this.

Bekki Philips is the Managing Director of In-Comm Training, one of the UK’s fastest growing providers of specialist training and apprenticeships for engineering, manufacturing and professional services. The former Wolverhampton University Graduate has been at the company for more than 20 years and leads on the operational management of its academies and the launch of new centres, including the £4m Marches Centre of Manufacturing & Technology in Bridgnorth and Shrewsbury. She is rightly proud of In-Comm Training’s recent Ofsted ‘Outstanding’ rating, putting it in the top 12% of providers in the UK.

Guy’s career began in the automotive industry, where he was apprentice trained and completed both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. After seventeen years he moved into the Aerospace sector where spent eleven years in senior operational leadership roles. With a burning passion for coaching and people he chose to follow his passion and completed the Diploma in Executive Coaching with the Academy of Executive Coaching in London and soon established Re-Create Coaching & Mentoring. Combining his industrial experience with his passion for coaching and people, Guy challenges the industry in which he once thrived until a major personal life event gave him a wakeup call and the opportunity to Re-Create who he is today.

Highly accomplished, results-driven Management professional with special expertise in environmental, energy, sustainability and quality systems. Experienced at group and program management, including direction of national-level operations. Co chair British Ceramic Confederation's Heavy Clay Energy & Emissions Working Group

Andy Watt is a founding member of the Theory of Constraints International Certification Board (TOCICO) and a Chartered Fellow of CILT. He is the owner and driving force behind Goldratt UK, increasing the exposure of TOC in the UK. A Mechanical Engineer for ten years prior to starting his consulting career, Andy held several senior management positions within the Aerospace and Defence industry. Over the last fifteen years Andy and Goldratt UK have implemented TOC in hundreds of organisations including: Bentley, Honeywell, Bombardier, Eurostar, Siemens and many more SMEs. Andy is also a Director of Tenon Engineering and RopeWeaver – a TOC based software company.

Professor Dave Allan has worked internationally for companies including Ford Motor Co, Nissan Motors, BTR, Garratt and Bentley Motors, and established and managed a design consultancy. As a change agent and industrial trouble-shooter. He has for the last 5 years focussed on the implementation of change in the design and delivery of HE Engineering education, concentrating on the development of the resilience and capability of the graduate and the development of the practices which influence the learning process; particularly the motivation and engagement of students during learning, curricular design and the management of threshold concept learning, and

Lance joined the Prison Service in 1986 as a workshop Instructor at HMP Maidstone following an apprenticeship in the print industry. He is Commercial Business Manager at the New Futures Network, a specialist part of the prison service which was set up to broker partnerships between businesses and prisons, with responsibility for the manufacturing sector. He supports prison governors in their role to enhance offender’s employment prospects upon release. Lance does this through supporting business to take forward opportunities in prison such as in industries workshops. They produce goods and services for companies outsourcing production, as well as for internal needs.

With a career spent predominantly within the automotive industry Colin has had extensive exposure to and experience with TPS methodologies and techniques. Whilst holding key senior CI positions within engineering, Pharma, Food, Beverage and FMCG industries, Colin has developed and introduce Lean production systems that have provided sustainable improvement to operational metrics while assisting business turnaround and growth. Colin was a co-developer of GAMe™ a process designed to accelerate the cultural transformation required to deliver Operational Excellence within any business.

An experienced CI Director with a demonstrated history of working in the management consulting industry, Kim possesses vast experience of successfully implementing sustainable improvement programmes in a broad range of Blue-Chip organisations. Kim’s experience of creating and deploying business improvement strategies, together with her interpersonal skills have made her a recognised expert in change management as well as a respected speaker on the conference circuit.