Entrepreneurs Panel Talk

Join us at the Entrepreneurs Panel Talk for a discussion with Nigerian and UK entrepreneurs about growing viable businesses. You will also get the opportunity to ask the panel questions and meet the speakers.

Learn more about our speakers:

 

 

ANTHONY CATT

 Anthony is a graduate of Aston Business School where he received a BSc in Management & Strategy and a full academic scholarship to read for his MSc in Entrepreneurship & International Business.  Over the past six years Anthony has worked across the globe supporting and growing start-up, tech and innovation ecosystems.  Anthony is one of the heads at Pollen8, a Future of Work company working with some of the world’s biggest companies to solve big challenges through employee lead Innovation.

 Previous to Pollen8 he was the Managing Director of Oxygen Accelerator, one of the UKs longest standing programmes for early stage startups. During his time as director he mentored, coached and supported the growth of hundreds of startups in Europe, Asia, Africa and North America. This has included fundraising £6million in venture capital funding for some of the UKs fastest growing tech companies and working with several government institutions and large corporates to help build incubators, accelerators and training programmes for entrepreneurs at every stage of the start-up journey.

DOTUN OLOWOPOROKU

Dotun is the Managing Partner at Starta, a platform that makes it easier to build, discover and track high growth businesses in Africa. He is the founder of Yhello Technologies (previously meals.co.uk) an on-demand food delivery platform in the UK.

He was responsible for investing in early stage startups in Africa via Potential.VC, a UK-based angel syndicate fund. He was the recipient of 2014 Southwest England Breakthrough Business Prize, and has been identified as one of the 42 under 42 most influential business person in Southwest England.

Dotun has a PhD in environmental management and worked as a Post-doc Research Fellow, but found it more interesting to be a startup pirate than join the academic navy.

SANDRA ITU

Sandra is the CEO of Leyi Ush, a Calabar-based retail store that offers emerging and established designers space in its studio to showcase their merchandise and grow their brands.

Sandra Itu grew up in Calabar and studied Social Work at the University of Calabar. She is a certified Fashion Stylist from the School of Style, California and University of the Arts, London.

In 2016, she was nominated for the Future Awards Africa Prize for Fashion and in 2017, chosen as one of the 50 "Future Leaders: Young People to Watch" in Cross River in recognition of her efforts to promote indigenous fashion globally

Sandra remains committed to promoting the Nigerian fashion industry and putting Cross River State on the global fashion map.

RISHI CHOWDHURY

Rishi Chowdhury ran 2 startups at university, one which was successful and one which failed. He then joined Huddle, the UK's fastest growing B2B startup at the time, holding a position in the marketing team overseeing the growth of the enterprise lead generation team in the UK and worked closely with the sales teams. Rishi then co founded IncuBus Ventures which develops corporate innovation labs and hosts pop ups on a double decker bus.

In addition he recently co founded Momentum to support better collaboration between startups and corporates. Momentum supports later stage B2B startups validate their proposition with large enterprise and corporates future proof their business. Rishi also regularly advises and mentors on acceleration programmes around the world. Rishi's main strengths are in marketing, strategy, enterprise sales and business model development.

 

MIKE BANDAR

Mike is a founding Partner of Turn Partners, a start up studio focused on the acquisition, turnaround and creation of digital businesses. Mike led the turn around of the niche-dating agency Toyboy Warehouse, achieving over a 2000% revenue growth in 18 months. Turn Partners are also behind Hopper HQ, the Instagram scheduling tool, now servicing clients in over 75 countries. Turn Partner’s also run various other ventures as well as a small investment portfolio.

Mike is a graduate from Aston Business School and has owned and operated businesses since the age of 15. His background is mainly within sales, marketing and startup enterprise with experience ranging from the position of Head of New Business at a global advertising agency to providing independent consultancy for clients such as PETRONAS oil.

In 2017 Mike was featured on the Queen’s Birthday Honours list to receive a British Empire Medal for ‘Services to Young Entrepreneurs in the West Midlands’.  Mike has recently been awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Science from Aston University for his contribution to Enterprise and Entrepreneurship, making him one of the youngest ever recipients of a DSc.

 

DEBORAH OKENLA

Deborah Okenla is the founder of YSYS; a thriving startup community for founders, developers, creatives and investors. Deborah is experienced in launching accelerator programmes and building engaged communities, with a shared mission. She currently works as the Membership Manager of Huckletree West; a co-working space for tech businesses, entrepreneurs and corporate innovation teams across media, fashion and design. Formerly at IncuBus Ventures, Deborah played a pivotal role in the launch of their scale-up programme, working with mentors including Facebook, Instagram and Amazon. Following this, Deborah worked with Capital Enterprise to launch their investment-readiness programme alongside Data Pitch, a Europe-wide accelerator offering startups equity-free funding to innovate with data.

She is a passionate advocate for black women in tech and a #poctech ambassoder at Campus London, where she supports their BAME community. In December 2017, Deborah received a TechWomen50 Awards, celebrating emerging female talent in tech.

 

.

DAVIES OKEOWO

Davies Okeowo is a thought leader and entrepreneur who is passionate about creating business solutions to social problems. He is the CEO of Enterprise Hill, one of Nigeria’s foremost provider of accounting, tax and business development services to MSMEs. Davies works passionately to help entrepreneurs build profitable and sustainable businesses by helping them identify the right business model, build strong business structures, setup accounting systems, and develop effective growth strategies. 

Davies holds a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Osun State University, and has acquired diverse trainings and certifications from organizations such as The British Council, The Commonwealth, Hewlett Packard, University of Michigan, YALI, and GEMSTONE to name a few. He is a certified SageOne adviser and a member of the Institute of Strategic Management of Nigeria.