Speakers Archives - Page 5 of 7 - St Andrews Business Club

Pauline Randall

25th September 201511th February 2019 sabc-admin

On 24th September 2015 Pauline Randall, of Florizel Media Ltd ran a seminar about using LinkedIn. Pauline took us through some of the most important factors to consider with Linkedln.

She looked at:

o Completing your profile. What to include (not forgetting your photo!) and what to leave out.

o Connections. Who to join up with, who to avoid and watching out for fakes.

o Recommendations and endorsements. Getting them and giving them.

o Groups. Creating and utilising more controlled environments on Linkedln.

Sir Henry Aykroyd

9th September 201521st February 2017 sabc-admin

Our September speaker was Sir Henry Aykroyd (CEO of Intelligent Growth Solutions).

Henry was born into an entrepreneurial family and was destined to join a family textile business. However, this was taken over in 1971 and in 1972 and Henry decided to go to university to study for an MA in Economics. His big choice came in 1976 – attend Harvard or pursue farming! It was a great time to go farming .

As a tenant farmer he started grain farming in partnership with his landlord, later growing his business to the point that he owned 1,000 acres and was farming 3,000 acres of vegetables. He expanded his business fast as new technologies came in during the 1970’s and 1980s. The business diversified into, strawberries, daffodils, potatoes, carrots, swedes and high tech refrigeration with Nestle. In the late 1980s Henry pioneered late season carrots and by mid-1990s grew 30% of UK carrots (supplying Tesco, Sainsbury, Safeway etc) for the six weeks mid-April to mid-May. At this time the business was hugely profitable. It was expanded into East Germany and the business also started a joint venture with Californians for producing Carotini snack carrots. Henry’s businesses (Howegarden and Aberdeen and Moray Growers) were growing 3,000 acres of root vegetables and employing 200 people by 2000. He was also growing 800 acres of potatoes in a joint venture with United Biscuits and ConAgra.

In 2000 Henry formed TIO as Tesco’s dedicated organic carrot supplier (it still is today) and in 2002 he formed a farm paper and fibre business based on hemp.

Alison Hunter

17th February 201521st February 2017 sabc-admin

Our March speaker was Alison Hunter. She is director in Scotland for ASC Finance for Business, a firm of commercial finance brokers established for more than 40 years and covering the whole of the UK.

Alison is a Chartered Accountant, having qualified with Touche Ross. She moved to Coopers and Lybrand and spent 4 years working in consulting in Russia. She also undertook projects from Azerbaijan to Sakhalin Island in the far east of Russia. Her next project was for a telecoms company in Kazakhstan helping to develop their finance and sales functions. This was followed by a spell with Siemens, Belgium running the telecoms export division to deliver telecoms infrastructure across sub-Saharan Africa, notably Mali and Kenya. She then moved on to Travelex to restructure their European and Middle East region. Alison then spent some time at London Business School on the Sloan Fellowship Program before joining Nutmeg.com as the Chief Operating Officer to help operate their online wealth management business.

ASC Finance for Business seeks to maintain a traditional personal relationship between bank manager and clients by spending time to understand each client’s situation and help identify the right finance for them. Communication is direct to an experienced Regional Director and not via call centres.

Julie Collier

9th January 201521st February 2017 sabc-admin

Our February meeting will be held at 5.30 pm on Wednesday 11 February 2015 in premises of the Highland Chocolatier, 145 South Street, St Andrews.

Julie Collier, the Commercial Director will give a talk and demonstration on chocolate manufacturing. This may provide an opportunity to buy the ideal Valentines present!

The Highland Chocolatier produces artisan gourmet chocolates handmade by award winning Chocolatier Iain Burnett, in a 4 star tourist attraction specially designed chocolate kitchen. Highland Chocolatier provide top European chefs with gourmet chocolates of a quality unavailable elsewhere – set like a jewel in the heart of Highland Perthshire.

Kevin Grainger

26th November 201421st February 2017 sabc-admin

Our next meeting will be held at 7.45 am for 8 am on Wednesday 3 December 2014 in the Alexander’s Restaurant at the Best Western Scores Hotel, St Andrews. The cost of the meeting will be £11 per person. As usual any guest who may be thinking of joining the Club will be welcome free of charge.

Our guest speaker will be Mr Kevin Grainger, founding member and ‘gatekeeper’ of the EOS Technology Investment Syndicate (“EOS”)

EOS is Scotland’s newest Angel Investment Syndicate which has been founded to provide seed equity funding to start-up, or early stage, science or technology businesses operating in a range of sectors such as software, renewables, bio-medical, oil and gas, marine, etc.

EOS holds 6 members meetings a year– all held in St Andrews on mid-week evenings – at which 2 or 3 carefully selected investment opportunities are presented out of dozens reviewed.

The members then make up their own minds as to whether they may, or may not, want to offer an investment to any of these businesses. If investments are offered, EOS then manages the whole investment process, along with Thorntons Law LLP, on behalf of the members.

The opportunities presented will usually offer significant tax benefits to the investors through the HMRC SEIS or EIS schemes. EOS was launched this summer and has now held two investment meetings at which 5 companies have presented. We are currently in the middle of our first investment offer.

Their next meeting in on Wednesday 10th December at 6pm in St Andrew – Guests are welcome but should register with Kevin Grainger on 07712526866 or Kevin@EOS-tech-investors.com

Owen Hazel

19th October 201421st February 2017 SABC Secretary

Owen Hazel, Director of B Jannettas Gelateria

It’s not often a business club talk can be described as tasty as well as terrific, but the latest one heard by St Andrews Business Club members at B Jannettas Gelateria on South Street was both!

The reason was the speaker, Owen Hazel, who with his wife Nicola has been running the business for the last 20 years. As well as explaining the history of the business — which was started in 1908 by Nicola’s great-grandfather, Bennett Jannetta, as a soda parlour and tobacconist — Owen demonstrated how they make top-quality traditional gelato using a recipe and vertical drum, before giving samples to his eager audience. Earlier they also sampled a fruit sorbet.

Owen went on to explain how the fourth generation running the family firm, which won two prestigious awards this year, plan to transform the South Street premises next year into a single open-space ‘gelatorium’, allowing customers to see their ice cream being made. Other plans for the future development of the brand were also outlined, before Owen answered questions.

Club President Kenneth Russell, gave a vote of thanks.

Ken Dalton

3rd October 201411th February 2019 sabc-admin

Our guest speaker was Ken Dalton who spoke about St Andrews applying for Business Improvement Districts Scotland (BIDS) status.

Ken Dalton graduated in Environmental Engineering at the University of Strathclyde in 1970 and retired in 2011. Ken was Chief Executive of AECOM Europe a professional services consulting company with Architects/Engineers/ Transportation/Water and Environment designers.The business had 4,500 people in Europe with offices from Dublin to Moscow and was part of a Global company of 45,000 staff with HQ in Los Angeles.

Since retiring Ken is Chairman of Mardal the owners of the Adamson restaurant in town. He is also a non-executive of the Court of the University of St Andrews, Chair of BID St Andrews and Lord Dean of Guild of Edinburgh. Previous recent appointments include Master of the Merchant Company of Edinburgh, non-executive at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, and Renter Warden of the Worshipful Company of Plumbers in London.

Ken is married to Marge and they have two children Julie and Graham. His interests are music, theatre, art and bad golf.

Ken was accompanied by Viv Collie co-ordinator of the St Andrews BID project

Professor Matthias Klaes

10th September 201426th February 2017 sabc-admin

Professor Matthias Klaes, Dean of the School of Business and Professor of History and Philosophy of Economics at Dundee University, used the subject of his talk to the latest meeting of the St Andrews Business Club to amend the format of the meeting.

In line with his topic – “Crowdfunding: Disruptive Innovation or Old Wine in New Bottles?” – Professor Klaes first provided intellectual capital to his audience of members of the club and IoD Fife before receiving a dividend in return, in the form of feedback and views in the meeting at the Best Western Scores Hotel, St Andrews.

He presented the informal white paper “A Framework for European Crowdfunding” which is a colloborative exercise with other researchers in the EU. It details the origins of the novel web-based funding source, describes its many business models and poses questions about crucial topics such as regulation.

It was warmly received by the members, who asked questions on points of detail. Club President and 40-year Fellow of the IoD, Kenneth Russell, gave a vote of thanks before informal networking.

Paul Miller

7th May 201421st February 2017 sabc-admin

Our next meeting will be held at 5.30 pm on Wednesday 11th June 2014 at the Eden Brewery in Guardbridge.

The cost of the meeting will be £10 per person including any guests you may wish to bring.

Paul Miller, the owner of the brewery will give a presentation on its history and update you on their future expansion plans. This will be followed by a tour of the brewery with tastings.

There is also a shop offering beer, gin, whisky and various items of merchandise.

Eugene Clarke

25th April 201421st February 2017 sabc-admin

You are hereby notified that the 64th Annual General Meeting of the Club will be held at 5.30pm on Wednesday 30th April 2014 in the Conservatory at the Scores Best Western Hotel, St Andrews. Please confirm if you and any guests will be attending no later than Friday 25th April 2014.

Following the AGM our guest speaker is Eugene Clarke and he will speak about how involvement in the Children’s Hearing Scotland system can be both rewarding and can help develop management skills.

Eugene is MD of People Growth Ltd which focusses on improving communication within businesses. He has served as a Children’s Panel member for some years and would like to counter some misconceptions about it and encourage other business people to become involved.

Eugene’s talk will be followed by canapés and wine and a chance to chat to fellow members.