The British Business Bank has recently produced a report highlighting the persistent disparities in business outcomes for business owners from ethnic minority backgrounds. 

We know the challenge but what comes next?

In Association with the British Business Bank we have brought together an incredible panel to discuss how we can all work to level the playing field to ensure greater success for minority entrepreneurs. The discussion will consider each of the key points raised by the report drawing on our panellists own experiences from their involvement in supporting diverse entrepreneurship.

It is important that we all get involved in these discussions to create greater awareness of how the barriers highlighted by the report affect different areas and types of business. By doing so the aim is to bring to light practical recommendations which can be implemented by businesses and individuals to support entrepreneurs facing disadvantage and improve diversity within the investment industry.

Benjamin Storey:

Benjamin Storey is Key Clients, Funding Solutions and Business Insights Lead for Barclays UK, specifically working alongside customers in the Business Bank. Benjamin is in his tenth year with the bank having had roles in corporate bank coverage, setting up the Eagle Labs proposition, a regional and national lead and now overseeing the banks engagement and support to entrepreneurial businesses.

David Fisayo:

David is a Director at Foundervine - a non-profit specialising in start-up and scale-up acceleration for underrepresented founders. Foundervine’s mission is to address the social and economic inequality faced by women and underserved communities when starting a business. David regularly speaks on entrepreneurship and digital innovation with an emphasis on technology for social impact.

Outside of Foundervine, David is the Co-Founder of Wealth8, a digital wealth and investment management service designed to democratize access to wealth creation opportunities. He is a Management Consultant by training, having spent 7 years at KPMG, where he specialized in customer and digital proposition design for Challenger and High street banks, such as HSBC, First Direct, and Lloyds Banking Group. He is also an angel investor at Ada Ventures

Fredi Nonyelu:

Fredi Nonyelu Founder and CEO of Briteyellow is a visionary technology entrepreneur and expert product designer. A post-graduate alumnus of Cranfield University, he has over 30 years’ experience in leading business and innovation. He created the first city-scale WiFi network in the UK. He was also Technical Lead on several InnovateUK funded R&D projects. Prior to Briteyellow he headed European Business for US software technology companies providing messaging, meta directories, and trouble ticketing solutions to tier 1 European telecom equipment and service providers including Noka and Cap Gemini. A former chair of Milton Keynes Science and Innovation Steering Group, Fredi chairs Biztech Technology Forum, a peer to peer group of technology leaders across the South East Midlands

Amy Crofton:

Amy joined Foresight in 2017 and is a Director based in our London office. Prior to Foresight, Amy worked at Lesmoir-Gordon, Boyle & Co (LGB), a boutique investment advisory and corporate finance firm in Mayfair. At LGB Amy focused on structuring equity and debt investments in UK SMEs. Prior to this, she spent seven years as a research analyst in the food retail sector, at both Barclays Capital and Citi.

Amy graduated from Oxford, where she was an open scholar and has a first-class degree in Materials, Economics and Management.

Alice Hu Wagner:

Alice Hu Wagner leads Strategy, Economics and Business Development at the British Business Bank. She is responsible for the overall strategy of the British Business Bank, all economic forecasting and analysis, as well as leadership on business / product development and innovation.

Conference details will be sent out approximately one hour prior to event start time.