John has 25 years of experience in general management and sales & marketing in leading-edge technology companies. He specializes in start-up and transformational management in B2B and B2C markets and has been responsible for revenue streams and capital investments in excess of $200 million as well as for small high-growth companies. He has held senior executive and CEO roles with international mobile and fixed multimedia and internet service providers, software developers and network infrastructure suppliers in both Europe and the USA. He has served on the boards of companies in Belgium, Netherlands, Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal.

John is the founder and managing partner of Santiva, which facilitates and provides international sales channels and routes to market for high technology companies. Santiva provides access to its extensive local partner networks and to its expertise, accelerating time to market while lowering risk. Santiva specializes in helping companies bridge between China and USA into Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA).

John was formerly the CEO of RAM Mobile Data, where he led the $150 million build out and operation of wireless data networks in Netherlands and Belgium and led the company to profit. He was also VP business development EMEA for NextWave Wireless where he sourced and developed new large scale sales and joint venture opportunities in mobile broadband (WiMAX, UMTS 3G/4G, etc), mobile TV, and public safety. At KPN Qwest he was senior vice president for global enterprise connectivity product sales (internet access, broadband, hosting and IP transit services) which grew to €200 million in 3 years and he was responsible for 500 plus people in 8 countries. At VIA.NETworks, an international ISP, he was EVP for Europe and CEO for Netherlands and Germany and was responsible for revenues of $40 million.

John has worked with multinational telecom and IT companies, including AT&T/BellSouth, Global Crossing and Digital Equipment, where he has operated at VP level and above in international roles in data services, software development and systems integration. He has been involved with a number of start ups including EA Systems, a Silicon Valley-based software company, where he was a member of the executive team and started the European division, and Wireless LAN Systems based in Finland, where he led a small technology-focused team from a concept to a company with a multi-million euro funding arrangement.

John holds a BSc (first class honours) degree in Chemical Engineering from Birmingham University, UK and an MA in International Management. He has UK and USA nationalities and is skilled in Dutch, French and German languages. He is also an MBA guest lecturer at the business schools at the universities of Birmingham, Exeter in the UK and University of Phoenix in The Netherlands. He is involved in community charity work through Rotary International.

Hor Chan is responsible for technical training at the EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development).  

Until recently he was a Director at Financial Markets Advisory & Training Limited and a Partner of Reoch Credit Partners LLP, a specialist credit derivatives consultancy.  Before that, he was responsible for delivering and providing both in-house and client training at ABN AMRO.  

Prior to moving into training full-time, he worked in Emerging Markets trading and sales at Raiffeisen Zentral Bank, preceded by a period at Unibank A/S where he helped to set up the Asset Structuring Group.  He also spent 8 years at SG Warburg where he held various sales and trading positions in Fixed Income, OTC Options, LIBOR trading and Credit Derivatives, and was Head of Structured Euro-MTN issuance.

He has previously been an Associate Lecturer at the Open University Business School, teaching Corporate Finance within the MBA programme, and was also a visiting lecturer at City University Business School.

Hor is a CFA Charterholder and a CAIA Member.  He studied Corporate Finance at London Business School and holds an MSc in Management Science from Imperial College, the University of London.  He earned a BSc in Physics from the University of Birmingham..

Alan Peachey worked in various offices of Barclays Bank and its subsidiaries from 1960 until his retirement in 1999. Latterly he served in Internal Audit from 1983 to 1987 and in Group Treasury from 1987 to 1999. 

Since retirement, he has presented seminars on Treasury Risk in Liberia, Ghana and Sierra Leone and on Operational Risk at seminars in Indonesia and Germany. From 2004 to 2006 he worked as Executive Director for Operational Risk in the London branch of WestLB.

The initial volume of “Great Financial Disasters of our Time” was published upon Mr. Peachey’s retirement in 1999, since when three further editions have been published, the most recent of which was in Spring 2011. This chronicles the latest events up to 2010, but Mr. Peachey is well aware that the next great financial disaster is waiting just around the corner, waiting to burst upon an unsuspecting world. .

Charles set up his own corporate finance business in 2005 advising on corporate transactions and investing his own funds.  He has over 20 years corporate finance experience gained in investment banking, industry and as a corporate finance partner with both KPMG and Grant Thornton. He also has experience as Finance Director working on the successful turnaround of a significant private group of companies.

To date he has personally advised on over £3bn worth of corporate transactions including hostile and recommended takeovers, acquisitions, disposals, equity and debt fund raisings, delistings and IPOs.

Charles is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) and a Fellow of the Securities and Investment Institute. He also holds the ICAEW corporate finance qualification. He earned an MBA from Birmingham University where he also read commerce as an undergraduate.

He has been a director of a number of public and private companies and is currently Chairman of Glide 2 Limited, a non-executive director of Mediwatch PLC and the Chairman of the West Midlands Regional Advisory Group of the London Stock Exchange.

Paul Forrest is Director of Forrest Research, which provides economic, country and sectoral risk research tailored to meet the specific business needs of clients.  Forrest Research provides effective understanding of the real risk of developing business and market activity outside of traditional areas of operation.  As a regular contributor to financial journals and having provided advice to government institutions on attracting inward invest inflows, he is aware of the problems and difficulties but also opportunities for regions seeking to make an effective pitch in a globally competitive market.

For the past three years, as part of our local activities Forrest Research has established the West Midlands Economic Forum as a neutral independent forum, bringing together representatives if the public, private and voluntary sectors to evaluate the real trends in the local economy.  Recent research has included financing economic recovery in the SME sector and the comparative performance of the manufacturing sector of the West Midlands economy.  

Prior to establishing Forrest Research, Paul developed extensive global financial experience working as an economist for over 20 years in the City Of London, for British, Japanese and Russian financial institutions.  Prior to his career in the City, he worked in Papua New Guinea for 6 years.

Clive is a Director at award winning international corporate finance advisor Catalyst, which has its main office in central Birmingham. Catalyst advises management teams on how to raise capital, owners on their growth and exit options, and corporates on their merger & acquisition strategies.

A languages graduate of Birmingham and Thessaloniki Universities, Clive trained with KMPG as a chartered accountant before working internationally for FTSE250 distribution company Inchcape plc.

He then joined French conglomerate Saint-Gobain, where he became a chartered marketer and was responsible amongst other things for a new online business unit, developing a customer knowledge department and an award winning customer magazine.

Clive is a former chairman of the Institute of Directors Young Directors Forum, a role which included representing the UK at the G8 Young Business Summit in Italy in 2009. Clive holds an MBA with Distinction from Birmingham University, and is a trustee of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

John Connell studied Modern Languages at Cambridge University and then joined Barclays Bank International as a graduate trainee, He worked for Barclays overseas operations for 20 years in Europe, the Middle East and Australia, obtaining the A.C.I.B. qualification during this period, after which he worked for Barclays Trade Services in London. In 2001 John joined Moscow Narodny Bank where he worked in Corporate Banking and latterly in Capital Markets. Since moving out of London in 2007, John has worked part time as a consultant for Intercontinental Bank (UK) PLC, where he is currently also Company Secretary, and he has worked occasionally as an expert witness in banking cases. He has attended various past events at the Birmingham Business School, in particular meetings of the West Midlands Economic Forum. John lives in Malvern and is married with two daughters.

Dr Steve Walker has been Chief Executive of ART (Aston Reinvestment Trust) since launch in 1997.

From 2000-2006 he was a member of the Small Business Investment Taskforce, advising the Government on all matters relating to finance for businesses and has become one of the leading UK practitioners in the Social Finance sector. 

He has been since inception a member of the West Midlands Regional Finance Forum (Advantage West Midlands Regional Development Agency) (8 years) and is a Director of Fair Finance Consortium Limited.

In December 2007 Steve was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of the University of Birmingham recognizing his support for enterprise and access to finance.

ART (Aston Reinvestment Trust)

ART is a Community Development Finance Institution. The fund is created from a combination of member investment, private and public sector support.  ART provides loans at commercial rates to Small Businesses and Social Enterprises in the Birmingham and Solihull, that are unable to access finance from conventional sources.

Website: www.reinvest.co.uk