Invest Midlands Forum & Reception

Alfredo Ramos Plascencia

Investment Director, High Value Manufacturing Catapult

 Alfredo Ramos Plascencia is Investment Director at the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, where he leads investor engagement and strategy to improve access to finance for advanced manufacturing businesses. His experience spans technology commercialisation, corporate venturing, deep-tech investment and executive leadership.

Alfredo held senior roles at Process Systems Enterprise contributing to its international growth and acquisition by Siemens in 2019. He subsequently established CPI’s corporate venturing and investor engagement activities before serving as President and CEO of Medallion Resources, a listed clean-technology company. He holds an MBA with Distinction from London Business School and an MSc in Mechanical Engineering from RWTH Aachen University.

Alex Hyde

Partner, TAS, Grant Thornton

Alex Hyde leads the Birmingham transaction advisory services team, which was recognised as the Transaction Services Team of the Year at the Insider Midlands Dealmakers Awards 2018.

His focus is very much on supporting clients and adding value on transactions across the Midlands, although in a world of ever-shrinking international barriers his work has taken him to more exotic locations including the US, Canada, Europe, Hong Kong, Japan, Australia, South Africa and Zambia.

During his career at the firm, he has completed a wide variety of assignments in all manner of sectors including full list and AIM flotations, and acquisition and funding due diligence for corporates, private equity houses and banks.

Antonia Bance MP

MP for Tipton, Wednesbury and Coseley

Antonia Bance has been the Labour MP for Tipton, Wednesbury and Coseley in the West Midlands since 2024. She is a member of the Business and Trade select committee, a member of the Economic Security sub-committee, and an officer of the APPG on Manufacturing. She speaks frequently on industry, skills, jobs and housing issues in Parliament.

For nine years until her election to Parliament, she was a senior trade union official at the Trades Union Congress. She has previously worked for the domestic abuse charity SafeLives and was head of campaigns for Shelter. 

Antonia is a member of Unite, and is a former board member of Hope not Hate and Generation Rent. She was previously a Labour councillor and cabinet member.

Dan O’Connell

M&A Practice, Lead - North, Gallagher

Dan O’Connell is M&A Practice Lead (North) at Gallagher, one of the world’s largest insurance brokerage, risk management and consulting firms. Dan works closely with private equity investors, corporate acquirers and their advisers, helping them manage transaction risk and protect value throughout the deal process.

Before joining Gallagher, he spent more than a decade as a corporate lawyer advising on M&A, private equity and capital markets transactions. At Gallagher, Dan specialises in supporting mergers and acquisitions through solutions such as warranty & indemnity insurance, tax liability cover, insurance due diligence and broader risk management advice.

Gallagher’s M&A practice works with investors, management teams and advisers across the UK to help facilitate transactions, manage deal-related risks and protect portfolio value both at acquisition and exit.

David Tindall

Senior Investment Manager, British Business Bank

Dave joined the British Business Bank in 2016, helping launch and deliver the first generation of regional funds. He worked across the Northern Powerhouse, Midlands Engine, and Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Investment Funds before Establishing the Bank’s middle-office function.

In 2022, he joined the team designing, launching and managing the £2.1bn Nations and Regions Investment Funds programme, supporting smaller businesses across the UK, particularly in the Midlands and East of England.

Previously, Dave qualified as an accountant and held finance roles at a FTSE 100 company, including business partnering and regulatory accounting.

Gareth Davies MP

Shadow Financial Secretary to the Treasury

Gareth Davies MP has been a Member of Parliament since 2019 and serves as Shadow Financial Secretary in His Majesty’s Official Opposition.

In the previous Conservative Government, he served as Treasury Exchequer Secretary, with ministerial responsibility for the UK’s infrastructure investment programme across energy, digital, and transport.

Before entering politics, he worked in senior roles for a global asset manager in London and Boston. 

He is currently a Senior Fellow at Harvard University.

Gurdip Singh

Chief Executive Officer, Kallik

Gurdip Singh is CEO of Kallik, a SaaS provider of artwork management and labeling solutions for enterpise regulated industries. Appointed in 2019 by FPE Capital, he has led the business's full transformation. Under his leadership, Kallik has more than doubled its customer base, strongly grown recurring revenue, built a high-performing organisation and earned recognition from Gartner as the leader in its space.

Gurdip brings over 20 years of experience leading and transforming businesses across industries. Before joining Kallik, he led the healthcare and life sciences software business at DXC Technology. He is driven by a passion for building great teams and delivering great outcomes.

Harriet Hunt

Investment Director, FPE

Harriet Hunt is an Investment Director at FPE. She joined the firm after spending four years in the PwC Corporate Finance team, primarily advising on mid-market transactions and capital raises within the Financial Services sector. At PwC, she worked on a number of owner-managed, lower mid-market transactions, an experience that drove her interest in growth capital-focused private equity. Harriet is a CFA Charterholder and holds a BA (Hons) in Chinese and Economics. 

She speaks French, Spanish and Mandarin. In her spare time, she enjoys globe-trotting, most recently exploring China and Indonesia, but is equally happy visiting friends and family in 
the Midlands.

Helen Stokes

Chief Executive Officer, Eden Futures

Helen Stokes became Eden Futures’ Chief Executive Officer in December 2021. With over 30 years working in and leading health and social care settings, Helen’s focus is to lead the organisation to excellence in care, support and enablement, keeping quality at the top of the agenda, for some of the most vulnerable and complex people in the UK.

Jason Zillwood

UK Sales Director, PNC

Jason Zillwood is UK Sales Director for PNC Business Credit. He is responsible for leading the PNC UK Business Development Team and driving the growth strategy and deal execution with Private Equity Groups, Credit Funds, Corporate Finance and Debt Advisers across the UK and Ireland. He has a wealth of experience across a variety of Senior Secured financing including Asset-Based Lending – both on a bilateral and syndicated basis, Stretch Cash Flow, Unitranche and Super Senior structures.

Jason is a qualified chartered accountant and prior to joining PNC in 2015 he spent time working for a ‘Big 4’ advisory firm in Audit and Corporate Finance, time in Debt Advisory and in a European and a US owned lending institution.

Jonathan Gibson

Director of Strategy, WMCA

Jonathan Gibson is the Interim Director of Strategy at the West Midlands Combined Authority, where he has worked since July 2023, and a Policy Fellow at the University of Manchester’s Productivity Institute. Prior to joining the WMCA, Jonathan worked at the (now) Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government as Devolution Policy Lead, and before that as Infrastructure Team Leader in the Office of the Secretary of State for Wales.

Joshua Hawkins

Assistant Director, Midlands Innovation

As the Assistant Director of Midlands Innovation partnership of eight research-intensive universities, Josh works with universities on projects to support research collaboration, commercialisation, and investment. This builds on experience leading regional investment initiatives with government and industry, and a background in university partnerships and at UKRI.

Juliette Gerstein

Head of Public Affairs, UK Private Capital

Juliette Gerstein leads the Public Affairs Team at UK Private Capital, spearheading UK Private Capital’s political and parliamentary engagement and working alongside the Policy and Communications teams.

Juliette has spent over 10 years working in financial services public affairs, including a number of years at the FCA. Having started her career working in Parliament, she also previously supported clients with their external communications at agencies Portland and Lexington.

Karim Palant

Director of External Affairs, UK Private Capital

Karim Palant is Director of External Affairs at UK Private Capital, where he leads the organisation's public affairs, communications and research work.

With over twenty years' experience spanning politics, technology and economic policy, Karim works at the intersection of business, government and public debate. He leads UK Private Capital's engagement with policymakers, stakeholders and the media, and oversees the industry's flagship research programme on investment activity and long-term fund performance.

Prior to joining UK Private Capital, Karim held senior public policy roles at LinkedIn and Facebook. Earlier in his career, he served as Head of Policy to the Shadow Chancellor.

He studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford and was educated at Calderstones School in Liverpool.

Laura Wiggins

Investment Director, YFM

Laura Wiggins is an Investment Director at YFM Equity Partners, where she leads on new investment opportunities, providing capital to support high growth businesses across the UK in their next phase of growth. YFM invests £3-15m in both growth capital to help commercially proven businesses scale, and buyout capital to facilitate management buyouts or equity release scenarios. Prior to joining YFM in 2020, Laura worked at KPMG and Morgan Stanley.

Mark Payton

Chief Executive Officer, Mercia Ventures

Mark Payton has extensive investment and scale-up experience. Since co-founding Mercia, he has led the sales of Hybrid Systems Ltd (to Myotec) to create PsiOxus Therapeutics Ltd, Warwick Effect Polymers Ltd (to Polytherics Ltd) to create Abzena plc, Oxford Genetics Ltd (sold to WuXi AppTec) and led the founding investment in Allinea Software Ltd (sold to ARM).

Prior to Mercia, Mark played a leading role within Oxford University Innovation (“OUI”), the technology transfer operation of the University of Oxford, spinning out BioAnalab Ltd (sold to Millipore), Oxford Immunotec Ltd (listed on NASDAQ), Oxitec Ltd (sold to Intrexon) and Natural Motion Ltd (sold to Zynga). Following his time at OUI, Mark was the vice president of corporate development at Oxxon Therapeutics Inc, prior to its sale to Oxford BioMedica plc.

Mark gained his PhD jointly between the University of Oxford and the University of London (King’s College). Mark also has an MBA from the University of Warwick, is a Sainsbury Management Fellow for Life Sciences and was awarded the 2015 EY Entrepreneur of the Year (regional and national).

Mary Creagh CBE MP

MP for Coventry East

Mary Creagh was elected as the MP for Coventry East in July and immediately appointed as Minister for Nature shortly afterwards. Since then she has brought in laws to ban single use vapes, introduce a deposit return scheme on drinks bottles and cans, planted the first new forest in England for 30 years (the Western Forest near Bristol) and released the first wild beavers for over 300 years. She left the government in July 2026.

Mary was the Labour MP for Wakefield and councillor in Islington, campaigning for environmental & social justice, tackling poverty and climate change. She led parliamentary scrutiny of UK Conservative Government environment policies as Chair of the cross-party Environmental Audit Committee, where she delivered ground breaking policy change in green finance, single use plastics, fast fashion, and the EU's first microplastic ban.

She has served as a Labour Government Health Whip (Minister), Shadow Cabinet Minister (Environment, Transport, International Development), and as a Member of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.

She was awarded a CBE for Political and Parliamentary Services in the 2021 Birthday Honours. She was Business Green's politician of the year in 2018. 

Mary is former Chair of the Responsible Business Practice at Lexington, ex-Chair of the Ethical Trading Initiative and was a visiting Professor at Cranfield University where she taught for 7 years. Ex CEO of Living Streets, (Pedestrians Association) where she introduced paid membership, raised the charity's campaigning profile, and led an organisational restructure.

Matthew Rowe

Investment Director, Sovereign Reign Capital Partners

Matthew Rowe has over 15 years of experience in corporate finance and private equity. Prior to joining Sovereign Capital Partners in 2018, he worked in Barclays’ UK M&A Advisory team, advising corporates and private equity investors on transactions across the Business Services and Technology sectors.

As Investment Director, he drives Sovereign’s healthcare investment strategy, identifying and executing new investments and supporting portfolio companies through growth and transformation initiatives. During his time at Sovereign, Matthew has completed more than 18 transactions spanning acquisitions, bolt-ons, refinancings and exits. He is passionate about partnering with ambitious management teams to create sustainable value.

Michael Moore

Chief Executive, UK Private Capital

Michael Moore is Chief Executive of UK Private Capital (formerly BVCA).

Michael and his colleagues are focused on supporting the development of the private capital industry, as it invests in thousands of businesses and supports millions of jobs across the UK. As policymakers work on the competitiveness of the UK’s investment climate, Michael is confident that private equity and venture capital will continue to create significant public value through investment in growth, innovation and people.

Over the past 30 years Michael has operated at senior levels in both politics and business. In his political career he served in the Cabinet at the time of the Coalition Government, as Secretary of State for Scotland. He was a Member of Parliament for 18 years.

After the 2015 General Election, Michael became a Senior Advisor at PwC. Prior to entering politics, he qualified as a chartered accountant with the firm.

Nick Howard

Director, Financial Sponsors, Santander

Nick Howard has been a Director in Santander’s Financial Sponsors team since 2014, where he specializes in originating, structuring and executing senior and super senior financing solutions for private equity-backed businesses with EBITDA between £2.5 million and £100 million.

Noreen Aldworth

Head of Commercial, Events, Learning & Development, UK Private Capital

Noreen Aldworth is UK Private Capital’s Head of Commercial, Events, Learning & Development. Prior to joining UK Private Capital in 2023, she held several commercial and operational event roles, including leading the events programme at techUK, the UK’s technology trade association.

Noreen has a BA in European Studies and French from University College Cork and an MA in Gender, Globalisation and Human Rights from the University of Galway. 

Philip Nell

Director of Commercial & Investment, EMCCA

Philip has over 30 years of experience in investment and regeneration, holding senior roles in both the private and public sectors. He is currently supporting EMCCA as Interim Director of Commercial and Investment, helping them build an investment delivery framework to optimise co-investment opportunities and funding structures.

Philip has held senior roles at Aviva Investors, Hermes Investment Management and LaSalle Investment Management, where he led multi-billion-pound portfolios and pioneered early UK build-to-rent strategies. He later headed LaSalle’s £3.5 billion UK real returns business and led the development of a social impact investment fund that secured around £300 million in soft commitments before leaving in 2022 to pursue broader impact-focused opportunities.

Philip held senior leadership roles at Birmingham City Council, initially overseeing its £2 billion property and investment portfolio before being promoted to Executive Director to lead the council’s financial recovery, regeneration, planning, transport and net zero programmes during a period of government intervention. After supporting the West Midlands Combined Authority’s investment and development strategy, he joined Metro Dynamics in 2025 to lead work on investment and regeneration, with a particular focus on blending public and private capital. He left Metro Dynamics in June 2026 to launch Hambridge Strategic Partners.

Preet Kaur Gill MP

MP for Birmingham Edgbaston

Preet Kaur Gill, elected in 2017, is the Member of Parliament for Birmingham Edgbaston and was the first female Sikh MP elected to the UK Parliament. Since 2024, Preet has served in the Government as Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health Innovation and Safety and as Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology and PPS to the Secretary of State for Business and Trade. During her time in the opposition, Preet served as Shadow Minister for International Development, Shadow Secretary of State for International Development, and Shadow Minister for Primary Care and Public Health.

Born and raised in Birmingham, Preet was a children’s services manager in the city for over 20 years. She was also a Councillor and Cabinet Member for Public Health and Protection at Sandwell Council.

She has campaigned for regulation in the exempt sector, leasehold reform, fuel poverty, offensive weapons and fairness in data collection. She also called for making it a criminal offence to own 3D printed firearms templates, a measure which has now become law.

Richard Parker

Mayor of the West Midlands

Richard Parker was elected as Mayor of the West Midlands in May 2024, representing around 2.8m people across the region. He is also chair of the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA). Prior to the election, he sat on the Board of the West Midlands Forum and was Chair of The West Midlands Labour Finance and Industry Group. 

As Mayor, Richard’s priorities for the West Midlands include driving regional economic growth, addressing youth unemployment and low skills, improving public transport, building more affordable housing, and improving relationships between different parts of the community in the region.

Prior to becoming Mayor, Richard had a successful career in finance, becoming a partner at PwC in 2006. He managed the firm’s relationship with the Labour Party for five years, from 2010 to 2015. Whilst at PwC, he led a team to advise on the establishment of the West Midlands Combined Authority, and the devolution settlement that this involved. 

He has advised Labour politicians at a national and regional level and on major legislative change in housing and devolution, including the 2009/10 reforms to Local Authority housing finance (HRA reforms). He was a member of the 2014 /15 Commission on Housing, chaired by Sir Michael Lyons. 

Richard worked with council leaders to set up the WMCA in 2016, before leaving to set up his own company, the management consultancy RP Strategy, in 2017. The firm works with SMEs and social enterprises on initiatives focusing on regional housing, green investment and the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.

Sarah Windrum

Head of Cluster Development, Horiba Mira

Sarah Windrum is a technology business founder and investor currently leading the development of MIRA Tech Park’s future mobility cluster at the heart of the Midlands. MIRA Tech Park is now home to over 40 global organisations and anchored by the world-class blend of facilities and expertise at HORIBA MIRA to enable the accelerated delivery of new technologies to market. It was named as a world-class asset in the Defence Industrial Strategy and the chosen location to launch the UK’s Industrial Strategy in 2025.

Sarah’s technology career includes mobile communications, ICT infrastructure, and cloud technology alongside her recent MSc in Data Science and AI. She was formerly Chair of Coventry & Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership and continues to serve on the Midlands Connect Steering Group as the new technology champion. She is Deputy Chair for the West Midlands Combined Authority’s Innovation Board and a member of the Steering Group for the West Midlands Regional Defence & Security Cluster looking to bring expertise in accelerating innovation in civilian sectors to the MoD.

She is a practicing educator for two international fellowship programmes supporting the next generation of global entrepreneurs sponsored by Ford Motor Company and Google.

Seb Saywood

Partner, BGF

Seb Saywood is focused on leading the investment Team on new investments across the Midlands from their Birmingham and Nottingham Offices. His more recent investments and Board seats include Blue Light Card, Brisant Secure, Jola Cloud Solutions and Metpro.

BGF invests up to £30m in minority stakes in growing, owner managed businesses across a range of industries.

Seb has over 15 years of experience in leading investments and supporting management teams with their growth aspirations. In that time, he has been able to partner with and learn from some incredibly talented people that have achieved extraordinary things. He has a previous background in corporate finance lead advisory, having originally trained as a chartered Accountant in restructuring.