2012 Voting Panel

In early 1993 the club was re-opened as Fitness First and during the next 17 years Mike created an international chain of health clubs in the UK, Continental Europe, Asia and Australia. Fitness First floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1996 and was taken private in a £415m management buyout in 2003.

With 550 clubs, 1.5 million members operating in 21 countries worldwide and over 20,000 employees, Fitness First is now the largest chain of health clubs in the world. In November 2005 BC Partners, a private equity firm, acquired Fitness First for £835m in a management secondary buyout. After 17 years Mike left the Board in September 2009 to pursue his other interests.

Mike is Chairman of The Hideaways Club which is now Europe's largest private residence owners' club.

Mike became PWC Entrepreneur of the year in 1999 and the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the year in 2001.

Married to Margaret Balfour for 31 years he has two children, Sarah 30 and James 27.

In 2008 James Balfour climbed Mount Everest and became the 5th youngest Britain to do so. James is now working with his father to develop a chain of health clubs in Eastern Europe.

His interests are as a seed capital investor in start up businesses, golf, travel and sailing.

In July 2008 Mike was awarded the OBE for services to business.

In August 2010 Mike was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by The American Fitness Industry, the first time the award was made to a non American.

When she was 26, Linda spotted an opportunity:- she realised that there was a huge gap between the designer shoe market and what was available on the high street. Linda identified this area as being the "affordable luxury market" in beautifully made, well designed products at accessible prices. The idea for LK Bennett was born and she struck out on her own with £13,000 of her savings and a bank loan of £15,000, which she repaid within three months of opening her first shop; despite there being a recession on.

Now dubbed the 'Queen of the Kitten Heel', Linda spotted another niche in the market and LK Bennett launched a clothing and accessories range creating items for women that were a cross between mainstream high street and designer wear.

The combined successes of these enterprises has made Linda Bennett one of the most celebrated business women in Britain and winner of numerous accolades including Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award (Consumer Product category) in 2002; Best Women's Footwear Retailer (UK Footwear Award) in 2003; Veuve Clicquot Businesswoman of the Year in 2004; and Entrepreneurs' Entrepreneur award in 2009. She is a trustee of the Hepworth Wakefield, a new art gallery in Yorkshire.

In 2006, Bennett was awarded an OBE for services to the fashion industry.

After running the company for 18 years, Linda sold the majority stake in her fashion chain in 2008. Ms Bennett is still very much involved however and L.K. Bennett continues to expand internationally with 120 locations across the UK, USA, and Europe including 66 stand alone stores and 54 concessions. Clientele includes Kate Middleton, now known as Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, Penelope Cruz, Kate Moss and Gwen Stefani amongst others.

Returning to the UK, Hugh worked with International Distillers & Vintners (now merged into Diageo) looking after the finances of their international spirits business as well as the Justerini & Brooks Wine Business in the UK. Hugh then changed industries and spent several years in the Forest Products Industry in both Finance and General management roles before returning to the Drinks industry joining Berry Bros. & Rudd as Finance Director in 2001 and being promoted to Managing Director in 2006. When not working Hugh enjoys family life and all forms of outdoor activity.

In summer 2006 Jim left as Director of cycling company, City Cycle Hire, in Cambridge where he had purchased 600 bikes from a disbanding company, relocated premises and made profit within a year.

After working on the business plan for Bikeworks with his partner Zoe, Jim started up the enterprise, secured some initial funding and began activities in the spring of 2006.

Jim has previously worked with young people, including those with disabilities in East London, including the delivery of DJ Workshops and Life Skills and has a former life as a DJ and Manager of the Blue Note Club in Hoxton.

He was appointed Chief Executive of Wates Group in September 2004 and became Chairman and Chief Executive in April 2006. The Wates Group is one of the UK's largest privately-owned construction and development companies with annual turnover of £1 billion providing construction services and land value enhancement.

The Wates Group serves a number of public and private sector markets including affordable housing, education, government services, and commercial and retail markets. It employs over 2000 people and is headquartered in Leatherhead in Surrey, UK. In 2007, the Wates Group won the best UK Family Business Awards by J.P. Morgan and Coutts banks. Wates was named BitC Company of the Year in 2011.

Prior to joining Wates, Paul spent 24 years with ICI PLC, holding senior positions and living in the UK, Brazil, the USA and the Netherlands, which culminated with five years as Chief Executive of one of ICI's principal international businesses and as a Main Board Director. He was also Chairman of the ICI Group Pension fund and a member of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

Paul was appointed a Non-Executive Director of Filtrona plc in May 2005 where he is the Senior Independent Director and also Chairman of the Remuneration Committee.

Paul is a member of the Trinity College Dublin Business School Advisory Board, a board member of Business in the Community and Chairman of its Education Leadership Team.

When Dunstone transferred from selling computers to mobile phones, he realised that corporate clients got good deals and were well looked after, but no one was catering for small businesses, the self-employed and Joe Public - for whom mobile phones would be the most useful. And that's where The Carphone Warehouse (CPW) came in.

Dunstone built the business on the premise that what the company stands for is more important than what it sells; in this case, a promise of great customer service and the ability to deliver 'simple, impartial advice' in the ever-complex world of mobile phone purchasing. In a sector where the product was all that customers cared about, The Carphone Warehouse was established to make customers realise that it is equally important to buy your phone from the right people.

With the same principles of impartial advice and unbeatable customer service, The Carphone Warehouse has expanded beyond the UK into nine countries in Europe and today has over 2,400 stores across Europe and is continuing to grow its distribution base.

In July 2000 the company floated on the London Stock Exchange and based on an issue price of 200p, the company was valued at approximately £1.7 billion.

In November 2002, The Carphone Warehouse Group acquired Opal Telecom, a corporate fixed line, voice telecommunications network provider. The acquisition provided the opportunity to launch a cost effective residential fixed line service to compete with BT. The company's landline service, TalkTalk was launched in February 2003 with the unique service proposition that all customers talk to each other for free, forever.

In April 2006, TalkTalk launched the UK's first ever free broadband service changing the broadband market place forever. Through both acquisition (Tele2's UK business and OneTel in 2005 and AOL in 2006) and organic growth, TalkTalk became the fastest growing telecoms business in the UK.

In May 2009, The Carphone Warehouse acquired Tiscali's UK operations for £236million making TalkTalk the UK's largest residential broadband provider in the UK with 4.1 million subscribers.

In November 2006 the company opened its first stores in North America as part of a joint venture with Best Buy Co., Inc under the Best Buy Mobile brand. The venture also brought a home computer service business to the UK under the Geek Squad brand in 2007. The group now has 1,070 Best Buy Mobile store within stores and 77 standalone stores in locations across North America.

In 2008, following a £1.1billion investment from Best Buy Inc, and the formal separation of the Telecoms division from CPW's Retail and Distribution business, The Carphone Warehouse created a new European consumer electronics company in partnership with the international retailer.

On March 29th, 2010 The Carphone Warehouse and TalkTalk separated to form two new holding companies, TalkTalk (which will be the holding company for the fixed line voice and broadband telecommunications business) and CPW plc (which will comprise a 50 per cent interest in the Best Buy Europe Group, a 47.5 per cent interest in Virgin Mobile France, a property portfolio consisting of four freehold properties, and a number of minority investments in other businesses).

Dunstone became Chairman of both TalkTalk and CPW PLC and remains actively involved in both businesses.

Dunstone remains passionate about his original aims; to put the customer first and to ensure that all employees share in the company's success. He is also Chairman of the Princes Trust. In December 2005, he was voted The Daily Telegraph's Business Person of the Year.

Prior to joining Dechert, Ms. Gonzalez led the trade practice of a major international law firm. She previously served seven years as a Senior Member of the Cabinet for EU External Relations Commissioners Chris Patten and Benita Ferrero-Waldner, where she had responsibility for trade policy as well as EU relations with the Middle East, the U.S. and Latin America.

Ms. Gonzalez also acted as lead EU negotiator for the WTO telecoms agreement and led the services negotiations for EU bilateral and WTO accession agreements on e-commerce as well as on energy, postal and construction services.

Ms. Gonzalez frequently authors articles on EU trade issues.

In 1989 Peter joined the corporate finance group of Clifford Chance in London. After completing an MBA in Finance, Peter joined Cavendish in 1994 and was appointed a director in 1997. Since that time he has been involved in the sale of over 50 companies including such household names as Avent Baby Products, Antler Luggage and Plymouth Gin. Peter is a frequent lecturer and author on the subject of mergers and acquisitions. He has published a book entitled "Maximising Value on the Sale of a Business".

Subsequently he was Export Director of Bottomline Technologies and European Managing Director of Derivion now part of Metavante Corporation. Keith was Commercial Director and CEO of Moneycorp for over 8 years.

Charlie is a qualified lawyer, his background grounded in corporate finance at Freshfields, before moving to structured finance and then private wealth management. Charlie is an MBA, Member of the Securities Institute, nominated Private Banker of the Year (Spears 2008/Citywealth MagicCircle 2010); Winner of Spears Award 2010; Top10 Rising Stars in European Wealth Management/Top100 in European financial markets (Financial News).

Before this he spent five years in the FT’s New York office, where he held a number of positions, including technology, media and telecoms news editor. He covered the 1990s dotcom bubble and the aftermath when it went pop, most notably the collapse of Worldcom, the US telecoms group. Jonathan also helped cover the 9/11 terrorist attacks which he witnessed first hand in Manhattan.

Earlier in his career, Jonathan was a senior technology writer at the Economist Group and one of original team of journalists at the Sunday Business newspaper. He was lucky enough in the early 1990s to have joined Computing, the IT industry’s trade magazine, just as the worldwide web came on the scene. He subsequently became an expert in the internet by knowing just a little bit more about the subject than everybody else. He has been a bit of a gadget geek ever since.

Jonathan graduated from Liverpool University with a degree in economics and worked for local papers, such as the Cambridge Evening News, before moving to the business press in London.

Born on May 10, 1970, he is married with three children, one of whom he delivered himself.

Prior to joining the firm he gained experience in Corporate Finance with Close Brothers in London and Paris. He joined Equistone Partners Europe (formerly Barclays Private Equity) in 2000 and is a member of the Management Board and Investment Committee.

Rob has led private equity transactions across a range of sectors including the buy-outs of Salter Housewares, Deb, Hydrasun, MRH and Bounty Group. In 2004, Salter Housewares was successfully sold, generating a money multiple of 3 times and an IRR of 65%. In 2010, Deb Group was sold generating a money multiple of over 5 times and an IRR of 35%. Rob remains on the boards of Bounty, MRH and Hydrasun.

Keith's direction has helped Craneware to win multiple prestigious awards in such areas as international achievement, business growth strategy and innovation. Keith was named The Entrepreneurial Exchange's "Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year 2003" and was a finalist in the 2004 World Young Business Achiever Award, winning the Award of Excellence in the Business Strategy category. He received the U.K. Software & Technology Entrepreneur of the Year Award from Ernst & Young in 2008 and was the Insider Elite Young Business Leader of the Year in 2009. Prior to launching Craneware, Keith worked primarily in international management, where he handled sales, marketing and technical consulting for companies with operations around the world. He studied Physics at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, receiving a bachelor's degree in 1991.

She is an active client service partner spending the majority of her time in the market building relationships and advising on her specialist area of corporate and personal taxation.

His early career was as a stockbroker, analyst, broadcaster and financial journalist in this area, and since founding The Design Portfolio Marketing Services in 1991, he has been active in helping many companies in this sector with their investor communication and corporate reporting requirements. Ian is also Chairman of Flathill Communications Group plc, President of The Design Portfolio Marketing Services Inc. and a member of the Investor Relations Society.

In her current role as Chief Operating Officer for Virgin Management Limited, Carla is responsible for delivering an efficient, robust and value adding professional services organisation. She has full and direct responsibility for finance, IT, procurement and facilities, as well as having oversight of the Regional Offices and operating companies.

Carla also serves as a UK Ambassador to Schools where her role is to guide and inspire the next generation to excel and succeed. She is a frequent speaker on career planning and gender diversity and is strongly committed to the development of business opportunities for women today.

In addition to directorships on various Virgin companies, Carla is also a Non Executive Director and Trustee of LSN, an independent, registered charity committed to making a difference to education and training.

Carla joined Barclays in July 2005 as Chief Operating Officer for Barclays Asset and Sales Finance where she led major transformation activity. She was rapidly promoted to Chief Administrative Officer for Barclays where she was responsible for the strategic and operational management of the Global Retail Bank's operational risk, governance, process improvement and acquisition/divestment activity. Her role also included management of the group wide Anti Money Laundering Programme and the Treating Customers Fairly / Customer Relations agenda.

Prior to joining Barclays, Carla held a number of senior positions in banking and retail industries. She has had direct responsibility for corporate finance & post-merger integration, strategy, business operations, brand development & management and business transformation. Carla has operated at Board level in several countries for organisations including NatWest Equity Markets, ING, Barclays and the Thomas Cook Group.

Carla is a qualified chartered accountant and she was born and educated in South Africa. She is married to Martin and enjoys long-distance cycling and travelling (and has just entered her first ever half marathon!).

Amongst the clients she has advised are ASOS, A.G. Barr, Caffè Nero, David Lloyd Leisure, wagamama, Punch Taverns, Barracuda, London Clubs International, Wembley, Arena Leisure, SuperGroup and Coca-Cola. Justine joined College Hill from Arthur Andersen where she co-ordinated corporate positioning programmes across various business advisory divisions globally.

Prior to joining ECI in 1998, Sean worked as a strategy consultant for Gemini Consulting and Bain & Company. Based in London, Sean has overall responsibility for ECI's exit strategy across the portfolio and post-investment added value. He also heads ECI's Software and IT Services sector group. Sean's past investments include ClarityBlue, Bounty, Language Line and MM group; he is currently on the board of Clinisys and WCI Group.

SSE's core service is a year-long 'action learning' based programme supporting early-stage social entrepreneurs from a wide range of backgrounds. SSE also offers specialist shorter programmes e.g. Social Franchising, Public sector spin outs and Trading for growth. Over 500 have completed SSE programmes, and there are now 10 SSE franchises in the UK and overseas.

Alastair is also a trustee of UnLtd (foundation for Social Entrepreneurs), London Funders, the Social Enterprise Coalition and the Sheila McKechnie Foundation.