Judges

Alderman Nicholas Lyons was elected as the next Lord Mayor of the City of London on 29 September 2022, taking office as the 694th Lord Mayor on 11 November 2022. He previously served as Sheriff of the City of London in 2021-22 and in that capacity supported the then Lord Mayor, undertaking numerous engagements and activities at home and abroad.

Nicholas will champion his Financing our Future theme – promoting a resilient, resourceful, and responsible City. It will focus on fuelling the growth economy by deploying capital and expertise to supercharge economic growth nationwide and advancing our global competitiveness. Financing our Future will seek to drive growth and investment especially in the areas of long-term infrastructure lending, green and sustainable financing, boosting the early-stage growth economy by mobilising private savings and pension funds, and attracting international asset owners to have more of their money managed by asset managers in the UK. All of which will be underpinned by a commitment to financial inclusion for all.

After graduating with a BA (Hons) in European Business Administration and a French Business Diploma from Reims Management School, France, Vanda Murray joined ICI’s graduate trainee scheme and her career progressed with International Marketing and General Management roles with BET plc and Expamet plc.

From 2001-2004, she was Chief Executive Officer of Blick plc, a FTSE quoted international Group of manufacturing and installation businesses. She doubled the value of the business on the London Stock Exchange as she refocused the business on higher value differentiated products and restructured the Group before it was acquired by The Stanley Works Inc, a US corporation.

Vanda now chairs Yorkshire Water and Marshalls plc and is Senior Independent Director and Chair of the Remuneration Committee at Bunzl plc and is a non-executive Director at Manchester Airport Group, chairing the Remuneration and Corporate Social Responsibility Committees.

She was appointed OBE for Services to Industry and to Export in 2002.

Tim is a passionate and recognised advocate of talent and inclusion. With a focus on Education, Empowerment and Entrepreneurship, he has established a ground-breaking charitable foundation, currently chairs an outstanding school board and regularly speaks on these topics at conferences and after dinner events internationally. This has led him to his most recent activity as Regional Head of Africa and Trading Futures lead for the recently voted best Proprietary Trading company in 2020, OSTC Group and Diversity and Inclusion strategic advisor for global talent acquisition company AMS. Tim has also been appointed as the latest advisor to Lord Alan Sugar on the BBC One show The Apprentice, sitting alongside Baroness Karren Brady.

Tim is an established and in-demand motivational Public Speaker having spoken at various global events, hosted international conferences and represented the UK Government and the City of London on business delegations. Tim is a commercially aware, business savvy and conscientious leader with a record of adding value and successfully supporting the government’ s now labelled ‘Levelling Up ‘ agenda having been a selected small business and social enterprise advisor.

Tim is married to his teenage sweetheart, has two children and is a keen fitness enthusiast who is either running, cycling, lifting or trying to keep up with the next generation of Muay Thai boxers.

Julie Devonshire is the Director of the Entrepreneurship Institute at King’s College London supporting students, alumni and staff to learn entrepreneurial skills, have entrepreneurial experiences and, perhaps, start a venture of their own. The institute helps to start and scale +30 ventures each year in health, technology, culture and many other areas. Before joining King’s College, Julie was the Director of Ventures at UnLtd supporting exceptional, early stage social entrepreneurs across the country to scale and to raise investment. Julie and her team delivered support in partnership with the Big Lottery Fund, the Cabinet Office, Santander, Coutts and many others. Julie is an award-winning social entrepreneur and business-scaling expert; she scaled One Water, a range of bottled mineral water donating 100% of its profits to build water pumps in Africa. During Julie’s time with One Water, the business grew from £0 profits to £8.2 million. Julie is an ACCA fellow who is passionate about early-stage entrepreneurs.

Gerard Grech is the Chief Executive of Tech Nation, an organisation focused on accelerating the growth of digital businesses in London and across cities in the UK. He is also a Board member of the Barbican, Europe’s largest arts centre based in the City of London. Gerard has over 15 years’ experience in the world of digital media, web, mobile, venture capital and start-up development. His international experience in London, Paris and New York, building digital products and rolling them out across 5 continents, has given him global vision and local expertise, spanning product development, business strategy and venture capital. Before that he was a new media journalist and started his career in the music business.

Recently appointed to the Board of the FCA,  Sophie Hutcherson has 30 years’ experience in financial services having worked as senior advisor to the CEO at Wells Fargo and held various senior positions at Deutsche Bank UK, including serving as Chief Operating Officer – UK, Ireland & Channel Islands for Deutsche Bank from 2016-2018.

Aedamar was elected Linklaters’ Senior Partner and Chair in May 2021 and is the first female Senior Partner in the Firm’s 183 year history. In the five years leading up to this, Aedamar was the Global Head of Corporate, responsible for managing the Firm’s corporate practice around the world. She currently chairs the Partnership Board and, before that, was a member of the Firm’s Executive Committee for five years.

Aedamar is recognised as a leading public and private M&A lawyer. She leads the Firm’s relationship with seven large international clients, including HSBC, Visa, Capita and Tate & Lyle, for whom she is a trusted Board adviser.

Diversity and inclusion is something that Aedamar is passionate about and she is committed to progressing diversity of every type within Linklaters. She is an active sponsor of the Linklaters Women’s Leadership Programme which aims to support the firm’s women in reaching senior leadership positions. She has also been recognised by Financial News as one of the 20 Most Influential in Legal Services 2021, City A.M.’s Power 100 Women List and as a Leading M&A lawyer in The Lawyer magazine Hot 100 ranking.

Aedamar is the Senior Independent Director of FTSE company James Fisher and Sons plc, a leading provider of specialist services to the marine and oil and gas industries worldwide. She sits on the company’s audit, remuneration and nominations committees and is Chair of the Remuneration Committee. She is also a member of the Shanghai International Financial Advisory Council.

Clare Woodman is Head of EMEA and CEO of Morgan Stanley & Co. International Plc. She is a member of both the global operating and management committees and chair of Morgan Stanley Europe SE. Clare was previously Global Chief Operating Officer for Morgan Stanley’s Institutional Securities Group. She joined Morgan Stanley in 2002 from Clifford Chance.

Clare is a Trustee of the Morgan Stanley International Foundation, overseeing the firm’s longstanding partnership with Great Ormond Street Hospital, and she is an active sponsor of the firm’s Women’s Business Alliance.

Clare is a senior non-executive on The UK Finance Board and is a member of TheCityUK Advisory Council.

Clare studied at the London Business School where she obtained her MBA.

Anthony Impey MBE is the Chief Executive of Be the Business, a not-for-profit organisation that is working to boost the productivity of the UK’s small businesses.

He also chairs the Department of Education’s Apprenticeship Ambassador Network, the City & Guilds Industry Skills Board, and the Institute of Coding’s Postgraduate Artificial Intelligence Governance Board.

Since starting his first business at school, Anthony has started and scaled several businesses including Touchbase Network and Technology House.  As founder of Optimity, he built one of the UK’s leading providers of wireless internet services with a multi award-winning apprenticeship programme.  He also founded TechCity Stars and Tech Up Nation to help disadvantaged young people kickstart their careers.

Sushil is Chairman of Heart of the City.  He is also a Governor of Greenwich University and a Trustee of the British Council, where he chairs the Commercial Board.

He is senior business leader and advisor, focused on international business, technology-led transformation and education.  With over 30 years’ prior experience at Accenture, Sushil has led business units in EMEA (based in London) and Asia Pacific (based in Hong Kong), and launched FinTech accelerators in Hong Kong and Dubai.

Sushil graduated in engineering from Pembroke College, Cambridge. He was previously a Trustee of the Princes’ Teaching Institute (PTI) and on the Board of TheCityUK.

Ken is Founder and Chairman of boutique technology merchant bank, Restoration Partners. Ken’s technology career spans over 40 years commencing with IBM and then as a senior executive at Wang Laboratories working in the UK, Belgium and the USA.

He has considerable public company Board-level experience on both sides of the Atlantic. The first British-born black man to be appointed as a Director of a FTSE 100 company (Reuters) he has also served on the Boards of Open Text, Thomson Reuters, Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation and several AIM-listed businesses. Today he chairs a portfolio of high potential technology businesses including Nigeria’s leading payments company – Interswitch and Inogesis, inventor of the Virtual Technology Cluster approach to large company innovation.

Ken is equally committed to public service and has been an NHS Trust Director, an inaugural member of regulators, Postal Service Commission and IPSA (Independent Parliamentary Standard Authority); and a Governor of the Peabody Trust. He is the founder of the Aleto Foundation; President of Thames Reach (for which he received an OBE in 2010); Chairman of Shaw Trust; and President of London Youth. In 2011 he and his wife endowed the Olisa Library at his alma mater – Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge and in 2015 Her Majesty the Queen, appointed him as her Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London. He was knighted in 2018 for services to business and philanthropy and in 2021 he was appointed High Bailiff and Searcher of the Sanctuary at Westminster Abbey and a Trustee of the Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund.

Cyrus Todiwala is Chef Patron of three London restaurants, Café Spice Namaste, Mr Todiwala’s Kitchen, The Park Cafe in Victoria Park, as well as The River Restaurant at the Acron Waterfront Resort in Baga, Goa. In 2000, Cyrus was awarded an MBE for his contribution to education and training. In 2008, he was appointed Deputy Lieutenant of Greater London and in 2009, received an OBE for his role in UK hospitality and catering. Cyrus is a Trustee of Learning for Life, a charity dedicated to improving educational opportunities in the Sub-Continent and Afghanistan and an ambassador of The Clink Charity, Kitchen Social, Sustain, The Rare Breeds Survival Trust and Springboard UK. In 2013, he launched the student chef competition, Zest Quest Asia, to promote Asian cuisine as a career. Cyrus regularly appears in the media, including BBC Food and Drink, BBC UK Today, BBC’s Master Chef and Saturday Kitchen, as well as BBC Radio 4, Radio 5 Live, BBC World Service, and Talk Radio. In summer 2013, he appeared in a BBC 2 primetime cookery series, ‘The Incredible Spicemen: Todiwala and Singh’. Named the BBC’s Food Personality of the Year in 2014, Cyrus is an avid campaigner for the environment and sustainability. He is a Fellow of The Craft Guild of Chefs, Royal Academy of Culinary Arts, The Institute of Hospitality and the Master Chefs of Great Britain. His fifth book, ‘Mr Todiwala’s Spice Box’ was published in 2016.