CLUB EVENT
Tees Valley Special
In partnership with:
The £500 million Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF) was launched in February 2017 by the government-owned British Business Bank with an aim to assist the region’s businesses with their growth plans. Working alongside 10 Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs), NPIF is a key part of the government’s ‘Northern Powerhouse’ vision, which aims to help reduce the North / South divide and help to create economic prosperity in the North of England on par with London and the South East.
NPIF’s funding supports new and growing SMEs, creates jobs and encourages and attracts additional private sector investment by providing finance and support for small and medium businesses. At the Spending Review in October 2021, the Chancellor pledged a further £660m for the next generation of NPIF, which is set to cover every corner of the North, including the North East LEP area.
The event will take the format of a panel session, chaired by Caroline Theobald CBE, followed by a BBQ.
Running order for the evening is as follows:
5.30pm Registration and networking with tea and coffee served
6.00pm Welcome and introduction from Jane Reynold MBE, Chair, Tees Valley Business Club
6.05pm Introduction to the British Business Bank by Sean Hutchinson, Senior Investment Manager
6.15pm Introduction to the fund managers hosted by Caroline Theobald CBE (Will Clark from Mercia, Joanne Whitfield from FW Capital and Lee Vickers from BEF)
6.45pm Panel and case studies (Nova Pangaea, JH Mechanical and Red Button Marketing and Training)
7:15pm Q&A
7.30pm An Introduction to Open North Foundation, Colin Hewitt
7:40pm Summer BBQ, entertainment by Jason Isaacs and informal networking
9.00pm Close
Presenter bios can be found to the right of this page.
Attendance to this event is without charge for members and eligible guests*.
*Guest booking: We enable up to six guests to attend each of our events. If you have not attended one of our events in the past, and would like to come to an event to find out if the club is something you would like to be part of, please get in touch info@teesvalleybusinessclub.co.uk for further information.
All places will be allocated on a first come first served basis.
Sean Hutchinson
British Business Bank
Sean has over 20 years’ experience in managing the delivery and performance of regional debt and equity funds investing in small businesses across the North. He has been an integral member of the BBB’s Regional Funds team since 2016, launching the £500m Northern Powerhouse, £250m Midlands Engine and £40m Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Investment Funds.
In his role at the Bank, Sean is responsible for the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund, working with the NPIF Fund Managers to ensure that all parts of Yorkshire & Humber, Tees Valley and North West have access to NPIF Equity, Debt and Microfinance funding. He also ensures the funds are performing effectively and works closely with the 10 Local Enterprise Partnerships and Combined Authorities that make up the NPIF geography.
Caroline Theobald CBE
Bridge Club Ltd
Caroline’s non-executive roles are focused on contributing to a vibrant and sustainable regional economy in the north of England. She is a founding director of the North East Initiative on Business Ethics (NIBE) and Teesside’s Power of Women campaign. As chair of the Advisory Board to Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University, she is working with the executive on a new strategy for the School to become a force for good; and in the Tees Valley she has been involved in gathering community evidence for the UK2070 Commission’s Teesside Task Force as an associate of Teesside University. She is also an Ambassador for the Open North Foundation.
Over the past 14 years she has served as an honorary diplomat to the Swedish Government and as the north east region Swedish Chamber of Commerce’s chapter chair through which she promotes the north east region as an inward investment destination for Swedish companies. Caroline is an associate of the Tees Valley Business Club, an honorary member of The Infant Hercules initiative at The Teesside Charity and a member of The Extol Multi-Academy Trust.
Caroline was awarded a CBE for services to business and entrepreneurship in 2016 and is a lifelong holder of a Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion.
Colin Hewitt
Open North Foundation
Colin is senior partner at Ward Hadaway one of the North’s leading law firms which has offices in Manchester Leeds and Newcastle. He has been a commercial and corporate lawyer acting for companies and public authorities across the North for 40 years, many of them located in the Tees Valley. Colin is, amongst a number of voluntary and charitable positions he holds, also a founder and director of Open North Foundation a private, wholly voluntary organisation set up to assist companies which had been affected by covid 19 but which also supports business set up during covid.
The Foundation is wholly independent of government and all of the Foundation’s funds come from companies and institutions based in the region. Its geographic footprint is west of the Pennines from Northumberland to Tees Valley.
Jason Isaacs
Entertainer
Jason was born in Newcastle and grew up with the dream of travelling the world and playing music, ambitions that gained roots one Christmas morning when his parents gave him a saxophone. Self taught, he locked himself away for hours at a time practising with total dedication. By the age of 21, when his taste for adventure took him to Thailand, Jason was a highly accomplished musician, able to support himself through regular gigs with a rhythm and blues band in Bangkok.
Moving next to New York, personal highlights of his Big Apple year included playing with Blue Lou of the Blues Brothers fame and singing with the legendary Tony Bennet at an Emmy awards party. Jason spent much of the next ten years in Munich, Germany, then Marbella, Spain, where he performed to growing crowds night after night. He soon realised he could bowl an audience over not only with his saxophone playing but also, indeed especially – with his voice. By the time he moved back to Newcastle, Jason the singer was in full flow, and a love of the rat pack classics meant he was destined to seek out big band accompaniment and star in his own theatre shows.
Please check back after the event to view any show notes...
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