The future for young business leaders - IoD panel debate with Minister for the Digital Economy Ed Vaizey

"What does the future hold for our next generation of business leaders?"
"How will that affect our aspiring leaders and change the companies they are running?"
"What challenges will our next CEOs face?"

These are some of the big questions posed to our panel. Joining us will be some of government and industries leading figures - sharing their insights into what they see the future challenges might be.
Chairing the panel will be the Editor of City AM, Christian May. There will be a Q&A session where you will have a chance to pose your questions directly to the panel. 
The IoD is proud to host this event in association with Kleinwort Benson, one of the UK’s leading private banks which has a rich heritage in merchant banking. Kleinwort Benson has been helping clients create, conserve and grow their wealth for over 200 years. Many of its clients today are in business, either as entrepreneurs, professionals or senior executives.
This event will form part of 2015 Global Entrepreneurship Week, and the programme of events which begin on the day of the conference/panel discussion.
This event is supported by the Conservative Party Young Professionals, engaging young working people with the political process.
 
Our Speakers:
Ed Vaizey
Minister for the Digital Economy. Ed is a former barrister, director of a public relations company and writer.
In 2005 Ed was first elected MP for Didcot and Wantage. In 2006 Ed was appointed Shadow Arts Minister, and in 2010 became the Minister for Culture Communications and the Creative Industries. In that role, Ed has been responsible for the roll out of the successful rural broadband programme, the introduction of 4G, and tax credits for film, television, animation and video games, which have made the creative industries the fastest growing part of our economy. In 2014 Ed was appointed Minister of State for Culture, Media & Sport, and Business, Innovation & Skills (Digital Industries).
Jackie Fast
Jackie Fast is the award-winning founder of disruptive sponsorship agency - Slingshot.
Jackie Fast is the Founder of Slingshot Sponsorship, an innovative agency that is transforming the sponsorship industry forever by pioneering “commercialised marketing”. Jackie is driven by the belief that sponsorship- specifically sustainable, synergistic commercial alliances- has the power to transform business. By identifying an organisation’s proposition and core values as the first step, Slingshot helps clients recognise the value of their assets and audience, and then find the right commercial partners for mutual benefit, for the long term. 
Rajeeb Dey
Rajeeb is the Founder and CEO of Enternships, a portal connecting students and graduates to work placements; in over 6500 startups and fast growing businesses for which he was named the “02 X Young Entrepreneur of the Year” and the youngest recipient of the Queen's Award for Enterprise Promotion in 2013. Rajeeb is also the Co-Founder of StartUp Britain, a national entrepreneurship campaign launched by Prime Minister David Cameron in 2011. He is a Trustee of UnLtd, the Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs, and was named as one of the 1,000 Most Influential People in London by The Evening Standard and recognised in prestigious publications "Who's Who 2014" and "Debrett's People of Today". He graduated in Economics and Management from the University of Oxford and was appointed as the world's youngest Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2012. You can follow him on Twitter @rajdey
Joanne Smith
Joanne Smith is the CEO of The Consulting Consortium. Joanne Smith has worked in Financial Services for over 20 years. Her expertise is in compliance related matters, across all sectors of the industry. Since 1990 she has worked in a number of Financial Services Companies including Royal Insurance, HBOS and KPMG, as well as the Financial Services Authority. She has an MBA from Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussees in Paris. In 2000 she founded The Consulting Consortium (TCC) which specialises in providing compliance services and resources. Joanne’s drive and passion has turned TCC from an initially small outfit to the award winning company it is today. Always an innovator with a passion for compliance, Joanne conceptualised a unique and powerful solution to regulatory requirements, called RecordSure. When she’s not busy running an extremely successful compliance services company, Joanne likes to travel.
Archie Ravishankar
Archie is the cofounder of bizbaze. Archie has been a serial entrepreneur and founded his first company at the age of 16. He has served on the advisory board of Bond University Enactus team and at United Nations Association of Australia Youth Council Queensland. His personal business experience handling success and failures during cross-border trade helped him understand the barriers that prevent small businesses from become micro-multinationals. Archie has also represented Australia in many UN and G20 Conferences. Archie and his team have extensively been working on AI applications for micro-multinationals and he strongly believes that Artificial Intelligence is the cheapest resource available to mankind that could solve one of World's greatest problem - Youth Unemployment. Bizbaze is a collaborative commerce platform with digital banking to help SME’s and micro-enterprises find new markets and customers through trusted and evidence-based insights using revolutionary social network blockchain and Artificial Intelligence. Bizbaze aims to put artificial intelligence in the hands of every small business Bizbaze is incubated by IBM and Dublin Business Innovation Centre. Bizbaze has been nominated as Top 50 European Startups and has won Europe's disruptive startup award in Madrid. Bizbaze is currently classified as " High Potential Startup" by the Irish Government and has been nominated among the Top 5 companies in Europe for ACE “ High Growth Startup “. Bizbaze was nominated to Y-intelligence Awards for application of AI in Commerce by the Chinese Government.
Troy Collins
Troy Collins is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer ofEndource.com. Endource.com is the pinnacle of curate fashion. We scour the most influential fashion magazines, websites and blogs to bring you the ultimate directory of the latest trends and most sought-after brands. Each and every product has been endorsed by leading editors and bloggers. It is the ultimate guide to the most fashionable wardrobe.
Troy is also the Founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Secret Escapes. Secret Escapes is the number one private sale travel club in the UK, US, Germany and most of continental Europe with over 10 million members worldwide. The company operates a "Flash Sale" model with exclusive discounts on 4 & 5 star boutique hotels & holidays. Backed by Index Ventures, Octopus Investments and Atlas Ventures.
In July 2015, they announced a $60m investment by Google Ventures to fuel global expansion plans as part of a series C round of funding. The predecessor to Secret Escapes was DMC Digital Limited, operating the travel sites Deal Checker and Cruise Line Fans. In January 2010, dealchecker.co.uk was acquired by French price comparison heavy weight Easy Voyage.