Birmingham Mentors

Alexandra Tomkinson is Director of External Relations at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

Ali joined the CBSO in 2010 and is responsible for marketing, communications and fundraising. With over 10 years experience of arts marketing, learning and fundraising, Ali is a graduate of the University of Birmingham and started her career as an intern at the CBSO. Before returning to Birmingham, she was working at Battersea Arts Centre as Participate Director, where she led BAC's pioneering learning programme, secured a Stage 1 Heritage Lottery Fund award of £2.3million for the re-development of the Grade II* listed Old Town Hall and developed a new passion for experimental theatre. Prior to that, Ali spent three years at Arts Council England, London as Senior Officer, Public Engagement with responsibility for building audience intelligence in the region; developing partnerships with regional broadcasters, development agencies and local authorities; and advising arts organisations on marketing and audience development strategies. She was a Churchill Fellow in 2002, visiting a range of music organisations across the US, Australia and New Zealand, and has also worked at Wiltshire Music Centre, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the National Children's Wind Orchestra.

 

Alice Vickers is the Community Regeneration Manager in the Midlands region for leading support services company Carillion. Principally covering Nottingham and Wolverhampton Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programmes, she is responsible for delivering social and economic benefit commitments made to local authority customers across both portfolios.  With a proven background in project management in the construction industry, Alice has achieved significant success in the delivery of socio-economic impact for the portfolios she is responsible for and is the architect of the Community Footprint – a socio-economic impact tool which measures and monitors the outcomes of Carillion's intervention in local communities.

Whilst initially carving her career in construction project management, Alice was lucky enough to have the opportunity to be seconded to a Birmingham based neighbourhood management forum, which has recently been seen as the model for The Big Society.  Since then Alice has been delivering programmes around the social impact agenda in support of Carillion’s sustainable communities strategy.  Recently Alice has been part of the Carillion plc committee responsible for designing the company’s 2020 Sustainability Strategy.

 

Andy Comyn has been Commercial Director for a top 25 UK and International law firm, Wragge & Co LLP, for the last 4 ½ years where he focuses  on the operational, commercial and strategic financial performance of the Firm. 

In addition to his current day to day role at Wragge & Co Andy has been a Governor of Halesowen College (the 3rd largest college in the West midlands) for 2 ½ years, working with College management in the strategic direction and oversight of both the financial and non-financial performance of the College.

Andy is 43 years old and lives in Coventry, with three children.

His interests include sport, theatre and reading.

 

Anna Blackaby is a business reporter on The Birmingham Post, with special responsibility for the finance sector and creative industries. Prior to switching to a career in journalism she lived in Italy as a teacher of English to business students.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ateeq Ahmed is an Associate Corporate Lawyer at Harvey Ingram LLP specialising in MBOs/MBIs, private equity, company acquisitions and disposals and group reorganisations. He works with management teams and company board directors on various company law and corporate governance matters and regularly acts for SMEs and OMBs as well as venture capitalists. Ateeq’s clients operate in a broad spectrum of industries such as manufacturing, construction, food & drink, IT and media. He is also an active member of the young professionals networking organisation, Birmingham Future.

 

 

 

 

Basharat Dad has a background in continuous/business improvement, ICT and Project Management working in manufacturing and has over 10 years experience of working in the voluntary sector. Since 2006, he has developed a number of enterprises developing programmes for young people around youth work, projects engaging young people and adults in to sport and helping people find the required training and job opportunities which they seek. Basharat is currently in the process of developing Our Community CIC, a social enterprise based in East Birmingham. For more info visit www.ourcommunity.org.uk.

 

 

 

Ben Williams obtained a first class degree from the University of Birmingham and several academic prizes; he secured a Tancred scholarship from Lincoln's Inn whilst on the BVC at Nottingham Law School. He works mainly in Crime - in a range of cases including s18, Rape, Kidnapping, drug offences and Fraud; and Regulatory - acting in a mixture of non-CPS criminal prosecutions, licensing work, and civil police cases. He also practices in Personal Injury. He has been led as a junior in a number of cases, including a large-scale Conspiracy to Burgle and a 12-handed Conspiracy to Defraud, drug-related confiscation proceedings, an historic rape case, and a civil fraud claim.

 

 

 

Charles Barwell is President of the National Convention of the Conservative Party elected by senior volunteers to represent members on the Party's Board. A former Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party in the West Midlands Region, he was Constituency Chairman in Birmingham Edgbaston for three years until 2002.

 A private banker with Barclays Wealth, Charles was born in Birmingham, and educated in Worcestershire, and Connecticut USA. He was an undergraduate at the University of Manchester, and was a postgraduate at the University of Birmingham Business School.

Charles has strong trans-Atlantic links in politics, commerce and the Arts, and attended the Republican National Convention in 2008. He was a governor of international educational charity, The English-Speaking Union, for ten years until 2001, and worked with schools cross the country developing children's confidence in presentation and public speaking.

 

Charlotte Dicken is the founder and Managing Director of Charlotte Dicken Consulting Limited. Charlotte has vast experience helping organisations identify their key talent, develop future and current leaders and create productive and rewarding working environments.

 

Damian Johnson is head of structured products legal for Deutsche Bank in Birmingham. Damian is a qualified solicitor with 13 years experience in the financial services sector. He gained his legal qualification whilst working for West Bromwich Building Society, which sponsored his law degree. Damian takes part in Outward Bound Trust activities, including rock climbing, canoeing and orienteering to help raise money for charity. He also supported the Raise the Roof Campaign, an initiative pushing for a rise in the stamp duty threshold to assist first-time buyers, joining a delegation of financial services organisations in delivering a petition to Downing Street.

 

 

Dominic Geoghegan is a project manager at Turner & Townsend, advising on capital projects and programmes ranging from £1m to £100m. Originally from Burton-on-Trent, Dominic began his career as a building services engineer, starting work as soon as he had completed his A-levels. Dominic is a keen sportsman and he regularly plays football for a local team. In 2007 he cycled from Paris to Milan in aid of Cancer Research and the NSPCC, completing the 700-mile route in just six days. He is also a committee member of the Birmingham Best Practice Club (BBPC).

 

 

 

 

 

David Smeeton is the Head of Colliers CRE’s Birmingham office. The Colliers CRE Group provides a broad range of real estate consultancy services including agency, valuation, property management and building consultancy to both UK and international clients. The Birmingham office is the largest of Colliers’ regional offices with over 70 people and 15 services lines. David’s specialism is property investment and over the last 20 years he has been involved with a broad range of institutional, property company and corporate clients, advising on sales and acquisitions of commercial property across all sectors throughout the UK. David took over the running of the Birmingham office in May 2007 and it has grown steadily during this period despite the challenging economic conditions. He has recruited a Corporate Recovery Team which is now six strong and has been heavily involved with the expansion of the Rating function who act for a range of major plcs and FTSE 100 Companies. He has also overseen their recent office move to Brindley Place. David also sits on the Midland’s Board of the NSPCC’s Child’s Voice Appeal.

 

 

Fraser Battye leads GHK’s work on health and wellbeing. He has managed and directed numerous studies in this area for a range of clients including NICE, Strategic Health Authorities, Primary Care Trusts and the voluntary sector. Fraser has a particular specialism in formative evaluation and is currently managing GHK’s evaluation of the West Midlands strategic framework Investing for Health for NHS West Midlands. Fraser also has an interest in health economics and its application to complex public health interventions.

 

 

 

 

 

Dr Giles Brindley is a Partner of The Infinite Group. Born and brought up in the West Midlands, Giles took his first steps in learning the ins and outs of a small business at the tender age of 15, working alongside his father for a group of companies involved in photographic retail, developing and printing and training. Giles learned the basics of business from the ground up and continued his professional development through hands-on experience in a wide variety of sectors, including retail, recruitment, defence, research and development, education and training, healthcare and medical, software, chemical, agrochemical, pharmaceutical, publishing and manufacturing. This experience has seen Giles work with organisations across the UK, Western Europe, US, Canada, Australia and Africa.

A self-motivated, adaptable and highly qualified Business Advisor with a wealth of success in providing and working with others to deliver innovative, quality solutions to business problems from inception to completion in the public and private sectors, Giles possesses a high degree of commercial acumen and entrepreneurial flair, demonstrated through an outstanding record of achievement, providing exceptional customer-facing, communication and presentation skills and helping to deliver stakeholder buy-in to cultural change. 

 

 

 

Helen Higson completed her first degree in English Literature from Newnham College, Cambridge University and followed this up with an MA with the Open University and a PhD at Birkbeck College, London University.  She has worked in Higher Education since 1983, first at Southampton University and then at Aston.  She is currently Senior Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Aston University where she leads on international relations, work placements and employment, outreach and Schools Liaison.  Her previous role was as Head of Learning and Teaching at Aston Business School.  She is Professor of Higher Education Learning and Management and runs the Research Centre of that name.  Her current work includes intercultural training for staff and students and research into employability competencies.  

Helen was awarded an OBE in the 2011 New Years Honours.

 

 

 

Hilary Allen is an Associate at Davis Langdon, An AECOM Company.  She is a Chartered Quantity Surveyor who works broadly with contaminated land and bringing difficult to develop sites back into use. 
    Outside of work, Hilary is an active member of Birmingham Future serving on the Leadership Team and Community Development Committee.  The latter committee led to her taking up a role on the steering group for UpRising, which has grown into mentoring roles for an UpRising Social Action Plan group and an UpRiser on an individual basis.  As the winner in this years Birmingham Young Professional of the Year, Hilary is a big advocate of life in this city.    
 

 

 

 Ian Forrest is a partner in Squire Sanders Hammonds. He is based in Birmingham where he has worked for 24 years. Ian is a member of the firm's pensions law department and deals all aspects of pensions law and trusteeship.
    During his career with Squire Sanders Hammonds, Ian has been head of the pensions law department, senior partner in the Birmingham office and jurisdictional head in the Brussels office. Ian is heavily involved with Business in the Community and Marie Curie.

 

 

 

 

John Atkinson is KPMG’s director of Infrastructure, Government & Healthcare, Performance & Advisory. Before joining KPMG, John was responsible at the Leadership Centre for Local Government for leadership development at senior level across English local government, including Total Place, Leeds Castle and Political Leadership. John is currently Director of Infrastructure, Government & Healthcare, Performance & Advisory at KPMG.

 

 

John Rainford’s insights into business development have transformed business models and stimulated business growth for many companies. His ideas for removing the blocks for business development and boosting business growth have won him world acclaim for his work. He is regarded as a strategist, a creative facilitator, an educationalist, a mentor and marketer whose goal is to empower business and individuals by helping them to find and develop their own ‘unique’ competitive advantage, using his own brand of proven creative analytical business tools, such as the Innovation Matrix, see www.creativediagnostic.com.

 

 

 

John Slinger is an experienced communications consultant, who has advised a diverse range of organizations, including a leading mobile phone company, the UK's largest trade union, a multinational pharmaceutical company, a housing charity and a number of professional bodies.

John gained his expertise in parliamentary matters working as researcher to senior Labour MP, Ann Clwyd. During this time he developed a detailed understanding of domestic and foreign policy-making, and accompanied Ann Clwyd on two official visits to Baghdad in her capacity as the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy to Iraq on Human Rights.

John studied politics and philosophy at Durham University as an undergraduate, and later gained an MA in international studies with distinction.

 

 

Keith Gabriel is a Birmingham-based writer and PR professional, working in media communications for over 14 years. He works for Citigate Dewe Rogerson, Birmingham’s leading financial PR firm.  As Senior Account Manager, Keith handles media and investor relations for companies in sectors such as media, IT and engineering. His career has spanned both public and private sectors.  He has managed communications teams for NHS Trusts and for the UK Film Council. Aside from his day job, Keith is a freelance writer, producing a regular business blog and column for the Birmingham Post newspaper.  He’s also a travel writer, especially when it comes  to  all things Birmingham-related.
 

 

 

 

Kuldip Phull. I am of Indian Sikh ethnicity, from Uganda and came to the UK as a refugee. I secured a degree in Sociology and a Certificate of Qualification in Social Work in 1989. As a single parent I managed my studies with the needs of my child.
Following my degree I worked for one year in Child Advisory Social Work Services.  
I decided to pursue a post-graduate Diploma in Law and Law Society Finals Examinations in 1991 and was entered on the Roll of solicitors in 1995. I set up my own legal aid practice concentrating on childcare and immigration & asylum in 1999. In 2002 I was appointed, as a First Tier Judge of the Tribunal. In my spare time, I spend time with family and friends. I also enjoy, walking, swimming and travelling.
 

 

 

Lizzie Nolan manages the Young Film Fund programme at First Light in Birmingham. She has expertise in project management and with youth leadership programmes of activity.
Lizzie began her journey as part of a new team who launched the successful Mediabox funding programme. Mediabox funding enabled thousands of young people across England to gain industry standard media production skills and produce media projects using a range of media including film/TV, radio, photography and digital/print media. Lizzie is passionate about supporting young people, encouraging positive change and youth empowerment using media activity as a dynamic tool of engagement.

 

 

Lotifa Begum

Lotifa is a graduate of Politics and East European Studies from University College London and currently works for the international development NGO Islamic Relief as the Development Education Coordinator. She has completed the Uprising Leadership Programme with The Young Foundation in 2011 and is passionate about addressing global citizenship issues and educational disadvantage. She has been a committee member of Education Without Borders in the UAE and has undertaken the NicheHero Leadership course in London. Lotifa is also a Global Poverty Project Ambassador for the Global Poverty Project in partnership with The Co-operative this year which aims to mobilise action to end poverty, her other roles include being a member of the Jubilee Debt Campaign Multi-faith Steering Group and working with the Development Education Awareness Raising NGOs in Europe as well as being a RSA Fellow. 

 

 

Michael Kuo is a consultant otolaryngologist at the Birmingham Children’s Hospital and at The ENT Clinic having trained in Birmingham and Hong Kong. His clinical expertise is in ear, nose and throat problems which babies and children experience, with a particular interest in airway and head and neck disorders. He was elected to a Hunterian Professorship of the Royal College of Surgeons in 2001 for his research into the molecular genetics of head and neck cancer. Grateful for the opportunities that surgery has afforded him, Michael sets aside time for the training and mentoring of aspiring ENT surgeons. He is also privileged to participate in ear camps in Nepal to bring ear care where there is no such provision.

As a passionate musician and an adopted Brummie,  Michael supports the Hippodrome Theatre as a Development Trustee. He devotes whatever spare time he has after that to improving his piano playing and pursuing the unashamedly “middle-age professional” activities of skiing and cycling!

 

 

Michael Ngene has been working in the inner city areas of Birmingham and Coventry for the past 17 years as a Management Consultant, Mentor, Trainer and Lecturer. He has worked mostly with small to medium size firms and has undertaken hundreds of Business Development Reviews and marketing briefs of commercial businesses on behalf of Business Link West Midlands. His specialist area is in strategic planning, marketing and financial management.

His key areas of work are in Organisational Transformation and Modernisation, Capacity Building & Institutional Strengthening, Monitoring & Evaluation, Business Development, Organisational Reforms, Systems Improvement, and Training & Development.

 

 

 

Michael Ryan Letheren works in Business Development for the Big Lottery Fund (BIG), having previously managed BIG’s International programmes and worked on their Environmental and Voluntary & Community sector programmes. Michael has worked with young people in the UK and overseas on a variety of projects in the past, most recently through Envision’s (envision.org.uk) programme with 16-19 year olds seeking to make a difference to matters important to them in their communities and around the world.

 

 

 

 

Born in the UK, Naz Koser considers herself more British than Pakistani and is considered to be a pioneering British Muslim contributing to British culture the essence of her Islamic faith. She founded Ulfah Arts after a personal tragedy born out of religious extremism and has worked with commitment and devotion to develop it in to an internationally recognised arts organisation. She is a strong supporter of public sector arts and was recently selected as one of 17 Cultural Ambassadors for City of Birmingham. Naz advises a range of government departments and NDPBs on policy and is currently a member of National Muslim Women's Advisory Group (MNWAG), Steering committee member of Creativity, Culture & Education (CCE) and Prince's Trust mentoring, Mosaic. Previously Naz helped to set up two businesses in Birmingham and after building her community experience through voluntary work she established Ulfah Arts in 2004.
 

 

Neil Rami is Chief Executive of Marketing Birmingham - the city’s strategic marketing agency. Marketing Birmingham has specific responsibility for growing the city’s visitor economy and attracting inward investment.

In January 2012 Marketing Birmingham established the Birmingham Business Hub, based at Baskerville House, which includes executives from Birmingham Forward, Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, Finance Birmingham, Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership and Birmingham City Council.

Previously as Chief Executive of Newcastle-Gateshead Initiative, Neil played a significant role in growing the visitor economy and enhancing the image of North East England. Prior to that at The Mersey Partnership he was responsible for devising the tourism and marketing strategies for Liverpool and Merseyside.  He has presented nationally and internationally on the themes of city marketing, tourism and urban regeneration.

He is a Governor of the Royal Shakespeare Company and a Director of RSC Enterprises.

 

 

 Paul Fielding is Investment Manager at Brewin Dolphin.

He is a member of the Birmingham Future Community Development committee. He is also a Director of the Colmore Business District BID acting as the Birmingham Future Stakeholder Director. The BID was set up just over a year ago, with the main aim of improving and promoting the Colmore Business District, which is an area where over 20,000 people work.

Paul is also a Director of Gigbeth, ‘the UK’s most diverse music festival’. 
  

 

Paul Kenna. Social Innovator.
 
Became first outreach youth worker in Birmingham based at City College in Sheldon. Started first young peoples social enterprise’s during recession of 1983 -86. Director of 3 social enterprises.
 
The MEB Community HUB: A 6.5-acre playing field site in Bordesley Green. Developing a new sports pavilion, Par-cour trail, and cricket and football pitches, jogging track, Forrest school and urban wild life zone. MakemyPlay: Designing wild play areas to support inclusive play for disabled children. Regeneration Factory: A social enterprise design and manufacturing innovative products for community development.
 

 

Paul Mason is a Principal Consultant at GHK.  He has over thirteen years experience of applied research and evaluation, specialising in research for ‘children, young people and families’ policy and practice and he leads GHK’s work under this theme.   He has managed and directed studies for a range of clients from the public and third sectors including: Child Poverty Unit; Welsh Government; Barnardo’s; Westminster City Council; Crown Prosecution Service; and the Big Lottery Fund.  The cross-cutting nature of his expertise means he has worked on studies in the areas of housing, crime, youth provision, school-based support, refugees, disability and social return on investment.  He has particular expertise in: early intervention and prevention; whole-family approaches; work with disadvantaged and marginalised groups; and, programme theory evaluation.

 

 

Peter Morrison has twice been awarded the prestigious title of British Inventor of the Year and is a highly motivated, conscientious, dedicated and results oriented entrepreneur and inventor with a proven track record in; coaching , mentoring and consulting individuals and businesses towards high performance and goal focused results, product innovation, conception and prototyping business strategic development, Strong leadership, High level business negotiations, Initiating and maintaining stakeholder relationships ie universities, RDAs, Government Offices, local authorities and private businesses, Focussed market research, PR and advertising, Experienced in TV, radio and newspaper interviews. Peter has appeared on Dragon’s Den, BBC Midlands News and Czech TV as well as in international newspapers.

 

Paul Russell is the Managing Director at Carillion (one of the UK's leading support services and construction companies, employing around 50,000 people.)

 

Philip Wood  is Head of the Midlands region for UBS Wealth Management, leading a team of 12 people advising some of the UK's wealthiest individuals. Prior to joining UBS in 2008, Philip was Head of the Wealth Advisory Team at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he worked for 12 years.

Philip has been married to Louise for 20 years.  They have a daughter and a son.

 

Rachel Carter is a film producer who runs the award winning film production company Fullrange. Fullrange produces television commercials, and marketing and communications films for corporate clients. Rachel’s films have been successful with various film festivals, and she has won several industry awards for producing including the award for ‘Best Production Craft Skills’, and also ‘Best Fictional’, at the 2009 Royal Television Society Midlands Awards.
Rachel also runs Paper Bird Productions with writer/director Anna Louise Shelton, for short film and film arts projects. Paper Bird’s first part animated short film ‘Trolley’ has recently been nominated for an RTS award for ‘best short’.
A keen interest in opportunities for young people has led Rachel to Chair Bournville College's Local Advisory Board for their UK Career Academies programme for Media. Rachel also sits on the National Leadership Team for the charity UK Career Academies.
 

 

Rebecca Mawdsley is operations director at eNL Legal Recruitment where she manages four divisions handling qualified permanent and locum legal recruitment for private practice, public sector and in-house positions. She is also involved in eNL’s strategy, finance, human resources and marketing. Rebecca, a member of the Institute of Recruitment Professionals, joined eNL in 2005 and has spent 12 years working in recruitment, including ten years specialising in recruitment for the legal sector. Rebecca joined the UpRising mentoring programme in 2011 and will be working with her assigned mentee over the coming 12 months.  Rebecca is also Chair of Birmingham Future's, Birmingham Young Professional of the Year committee and a mentor through the Birmingham Future Mentoring Scheme. On a more adventurous note, Rebecca completed a sky-dive in October 2010 in support of eNL's corporate sponsorship of The Prince's Trust.
 

 

 

Rebecca Quansah is currently a Project Manager at First Light. Her expertise is in designing creative leadership projects with young people that involve filmmaking, citizen journalism, blogging, blogging and campaigning. She supports Digital Documenters aged 17-25 from Manchester, Exeter, London and Birmingham, to access professional media training as they document and raise awareness about the exciting and innovative volunteering projects inspired by the 2012 Games in their local area.

 

 

 

 

 

Sue Southern has been part of the West Midlands Police Service for over 20 years. She has experience in Press & Public Relations and event management. She is currently responsible for Neighbourhood Policing as well as Equality, Diversity and Human Rights for the West Midlands.

 

 

 

 

 

Tim Foster is a partner specialising in corporate and commercial law at law firm Hill Hofstetter LLP based near Solihull. Hill Hofstetter advises international and national companies; over 80% of its work comes from clients headquartered outside the UK.
    Tim has spent a number of years working as a lawyer in industry with multi-national companies including Siemens and Courtaulds. From 2001 to 2007 Tim was the managing partner of the UK offices of US law firm Reed Smith.
    Tim championed pro bono and diversity initiatives while at Reed Smith, working with organisations like the Law Society and Business in the Community.

 

 

 

Waheed Saleem - Chair of the Steering Committee to the Birmingham Uprising Programme: Waheed has held a number of senior positions in the NHS and has been a member of numerous civic institutions and board, including executive member of the Lunar Society, Board Director Sustainability West Midlands, Board Director Birmingham Leadership Foundation, Non-Executive Director GOWM and Trustee of NACRO. Previously he has held a number of national leadership positions including Non-executive Director of National Crime Squad and UK Commissioner on the Sustainable Development Commission.

 

 

 

Waseem Zaffar was elected as Labour Councillor on 5th May 2011 for the Lozells and East Handsworth Ward. He gained 5,406 votes and was successful with a majority of 3,925 votes. Waseem Zaffar is an enthusiastic, hardworking individual with a high degree of self-motivation. From various voluntary and work experiences, he has gained and improved his interpersonal skills and has established that he can work easily as part of a team or equally comfortable on his own initiative. He is able to lead from the front and widely regarded as someone who is always willing to help others. He has strong communications skills that he have utilised in addressing conferences and large public meetings. He has also chaired meetings in a variety of capacities including large public gatherings. He has a strong reputation in the community as a mature young man with immense dedication and commitment in addressing issues and concerns affecting the community. These skills have been demonstrated in his professional and voluntary capacity.