Overview
The Invest Yorkshire & the North East Forum & Reception is part of a series of policy engagement events looking at driving investment in the nations and regions of the UK and will provide an opportunity to engage with policy makers, investors from leading private equity and venture capital firms, local institutional investors and portfolio companies.
The forum will feature expert-led panel discussions alongside networking opportunities throughout the afternoon to connect with fellow leaders and stakeholders from across the industry. The event will conclude with a drinks reception.
The reception will feature the presentation of our Vision 2026 Awards for North East, Yorkshire & Humber, our annual initiative aimed at recognising the best business leaders within our members' portfolio companies.
Please note: Tickets are complimentary, but as space is limited, places must be confirmed by UK Private Capital. Please register your interest using the online form.
Agenda
13:00 |
Registration & Lunch |
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14:00 |
Welcome Address
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14:10 |
Presentation - The role of private capital in Economic Growth
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14:20 |
Supporting start ups in Yorkshire and the North East
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14:50 |
Vision Nominees Spotlight Session 1
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15:00 |
Networking Break |
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15:30 |
Fireside Chat
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15:45 |
Vision Nominees Spotlight Session 2
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15:55 |
Yorkshire’s position as a financial service hub and its impact on regional investment
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16:25 |
Vision Awards |
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16:45 |
Closing Remarks |
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16:50 |
Reception |
Speakers
Ed Whiting
Ed was born and grew up in Leeds and started as Leeds City Council’s Chief Executive in January 2025. Ed has spent most of his career working in a number of central Civil Service Departments, including in the Financial Stability Unit of HM Treasury through the 2008-09 financial crisis and as Deputy Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister between 2014 and 2016. Most recently, Ed was Director for Cities and Local Growth, leading a joint unit shared between the Business and Communities Departments working on the Government’s local economic growth priorities.
Between 2016 and 2022, Ed was Director of Strategy at the Wellcome Trust, where he led the creation of a new strategy to solve the urgent health challenges of infectious disease, mental health and the impact of climate change on health. He developed new global policy and strategic partnerships functions and sponsored Wellcome’s new mental health research and equity, diversity and inclusion programmes.
Kieran Lawton
Kieran brings over 20 years of M&A and private equity experience, with a career built around working alongside entrepreneurial, high-growth businesses. As a board director he has developed a deep understanding of the challenges management teams face at every stage of growth, across a wide range of industries. Kieran has led investments across sectors including financial services, healthcare and consumer, with portfolio experience spanning My Pension Expert, Lucion Services and The Alchemist, among others.
Lucy Armstrong
Lucy has spent more than thirty years working with mid corporate businesses to accelerate their growth and long term success, with a particular focus on stakeholder and management development, and succession planning. Her career spans funding start ups and early stage manufacturing businesses in the North East through to leading mergers, acquisitions and disposals of international operations.
She currently works with a diverse portfolio of organisations, including Cumbria based Holker Estates, Gresham House VCT plc, Cyberhawk Innovations-specialists in drone inspection and aerial data management and Drinkaware, the alcohol awareness charity. Lucy has chaired the Port of Tyne since 2017 and is a member of the Maritime Commission. Earlier in her career, she held roles in private equity, corporate development and executive search with 3i plc. She is a former chair of the National Enterprise Research Centre, which focuses on the growth of private and family businesses, and of Northumbria University.
Educated at Oxford University, Lucy also holds an MBA and an MSc in forensic psychology and criminology. Outside her professional life, she continues to chainsaw, scuba dive and ring church bells.
Will Schaffer
Will Schaffer grew up in the greater Chicago area but always wanted to see as much of the world as possible. Swimming was a big part of his early life and gave him the chance to compete all over the country including at the US Olympic Trials. After completing a history degree at Princeton University Will returned to the Chicago area with Wilton Industries before taking a researcher position at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a bipartisan thinktank in Washington DC, to support Dr Harold Brown, Defense Secretary for Jimmy Carter and Raymond DuBois, Director of Administration and Management to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. He then moved into M&A advisory with The McLean Group, primarily supporting government contractors serving the intelligence, security and government services sector, exiting businesses to the likes of Booz Allen, Novetta Solutions (now part of Accenture) and Digital Barriers.
In 2015, his wife was awarded a scholarship to do a PhD at the University of Leeds, so they made the transatlantic move, and he joined KPMG’s Corporate Finance Team in Leeds. In 2017, he took at secondment to build a Northern angel investor network with NorthInvest and completed his transition into venture investment in 2018 when he joined Mercia.
Since joining the fund, Will has been involved with 15 companies. He is primarily focused on growth investment in Yorkshire with a special interest in cybersecurity, defence, and B2B SaaS and services.
Sponsors & Supporters
Principal Sponsor
Associate Sponsor
Supporting Partner
Supporting Partner
Vision 2026 Headline Sponsor
Vision 2026 Supporting Sponsor
Date and Timings
Thursday, 4 June 2026
13:00-19:00
Location
The Met Hotel
5 King Street
Leeds LS1 2HQ
Vision 2026 Awards
Vision 2026 celebrates the best teams backed by private equity and venture capital, awarding portfolio companies and their investors. The reception will feature the presentation of the Vision 2026 Awards for North East, Yorkshire & Humber.
These annual awards consider growth, competitiveness, innovation, sustainability, and the challenges of the year, with a focus on the future, business sustainability as well as past performance.
Find out more about the awards here.
Dress Code
Business Attire
Privacy Information
Following the introduction of GDPR, UK Private Capital will continue to share attendance lists with sponsors and other attendees (names, job titles and company names only) with the exception of events of a sensitive nature.
Please contact our Events team if you would NOT be happy for us to share this personal information with other attendees. Our full Private Policy & Accessibility Statement can be viewed here.
Code of Conduct - Attendance at Events
UK Private Capital is committed to bringing members together in a professional environment to collaborate and network. We have established this code of conduct to provide guidelines to participants, and to ensure that all participants understand what behaviour is expected of them at our events.