Sophie Cornish MBE co-founded notonthehighstreet.com in 2006.
From its initial network of 95 of Britain’s most creative small businesses, the company now works with 5,000 small business partners selling over 100,000 products and employs over 250 staff at it’s offices in Richmond, London.
The business has secured several rounds of venture capital funding and after ten years of consistently past-paced growth, achieved a turnover of £158million in 2015.
Previously both a journalist and marketer, Sophie Cornish began her career at Hearst Magazines on the staff of Cosmopolitan, then Good Housekeeping, as a beauty writer and editor.
Her marketing and advertising career, built on her fashion and beauty market experience, included creative brand development for Boots No 7 and 17 cosmetics, and the management of marketing campaigns in top ten advertising agencies.
While she continues her role at notonthehighstreet.com as a founder and ambassador, Sophie is now Managing Partner of Busby & Fox, her newest retail venture. She also works as an NED and advisor to a number of fast growth businesses.
Caroline Dowling, Advisor, Board member & Former Group President at Flex
Caroline Dowling is current advisor to start ups, SME & large Enterpise as well as board member in various industry sectors.
Caroline is former business group president at Flex, a $26 billion, industry-leading, Fortune Global 500 electronics manufacturing services provider with more than 200,000 employees and operations in 30 countries.
In this role, she led a $9Billion group, including the Communications and Enterprise Compute Business segments, comprised of an international team focused on design, manufacturing and services providing end-to-end solutions worldwide for the telecom, networking, server, storage, and converged infrastructure markets.
She was also responsible for managing Flex’s Global Service & Solutions, a $1 billion business unit.
Christina Noble, Christina Noble Children's Foundation
A staunch unorthodox champion of children’s rights, Christina established her Foundation in Vietnam 1989 and in Mongolia 1997. Christina and her Foundation’s efforts to highlight the plight of disadvantaged and street children has assisted in motivating social change and reform in Vietnam and Mongolia and has in turn promoted the need for cross cultural understanding, communication and shifts in individual attitudes from government representatives to street and working children. Her inspirational true story of a woman who believes that it only takes one person to make a difference was depicted in the movie NOBLE.
Susan HayesCulleton - Host
Susan is Managing Director of HayesCulleton and a professional speaker to audiences all over the world. Susan co-authored of “Positive Economics”, a Leaving Certificate Economics textbook and published “The Savvy Woman’s Guide to Financial Freedom” and “The Savvy Guide to Making More Money” with Penguin Ireland. Hayes Culleton Ltd delivers financial markets, economics and entrepreneurship education to corporate audiences and organisations in Ireland, Malta, UK and the US. Susan is co-founder of #SavvyTeenAcademy, a Summer Camp for people going into 5th & 6th Year with a focus on careers, communication and confidence. She regularly contributes to the national and international media including The Sunday Times (Malta), Irish Post (UK), RTE, TV3, Newstalk and Today FM (Ireland), as “The Positive Economist” on matters relating to economics, the stock market and entrepreneurship.
Clare Guinness, CEO, Warrenpoint Port
Clare was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Warrenpoint Port in January 2018.
A banking and finance graduate from Loughborough University, Clare spent 17 years in Corporate and Business Banking in Bank of Ireland, working in Belfast, London and Dublin. Clare then joined the Agri – Food Sector working for Fane Valley Group as Director for Corporate Services.
Clare is an active IOD member and completed the IOD Certificate and Diploma in Company Direction in 2016. Clare holds the record as the first female chief of a port on the Island of Ireland.
Libby Jackson - Global Head of Practice, Alternative Legal Services, Herbert Smith Freehills
As Global Head, Libby leads the strategic part of the firm's business to ensure it delivers new ideas and excellent value to clients, as well as access to an expert team of lawyers and technologists around the world, who together form a vibrant, diverse and high-performing team.
Libby was Director of the pioneering Belfast office when it opened in 2011 – the first UK-based near-shore legal operation to be set up by an international law firm. The office began life with 19 fee earners and has since expanded to a team of over 240.
Deb Lange - Board Member, Belfast Harbour Commissioners
Deb was Head of Global Tax for Oracle Corporation for almost 20 years during a time when revenue and profit growth often exceeded 100% per year and in one 18 month period Oracle acquired companies worth more than $20 billion. Oracle always challenged, no day ever went as planned, but it had energy and excitement.
In the book “Multipliers – How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter” by Liz Wiseman one person described working with Deb as “….like an intense workout. It was exhausting but totally exhilarating.” Deb believes in being a Multiplier – expecting great things and driving people to achieve extraordinary results.
Deb worked in London; Portland, Oregon; Hong Kong; and Silicon Valley and travelled the world discussing and negotiating tax policy, for high technology companies, with governments. Travel and working in different environments gave her insight into the business and cultural environments of many countries.
Hilary McGrady - Director General, National Trust
Hilary became Director-General of the National Trust in 2018. She's worked for the Trust since 2006 since joining as regional director for Northern Ireland. Hilary later became regional director for Wales and the London and South East region and in 2014 was appointed chief operating officer, leading the operations and consultancy teams.
Originally trained in graphic design, Hilary’s career path started in the drinks industry in brand and marketing. In 1998 she moved to become director of a national arts charity and was seconded in 2002 to become CEO of Belfast’s bid to become European Capital of Culture.