Our presenters

Dennis Turner is the Chief Economist of HSBC Bank plc in the City. His role involves advising lending bankers on economic trends not only at national level, but also on industries and regions.

Before joining Midland Bank in 1978, he worked for four years in Whitehall, for the National Economic Development Office. This was during the Labour government’s Industrial Strategy Initiative, which was an attempt to improve the performance of the UK’s manufacturing sector.

His first job on leaving university (Swansea and University College, London) was as an economist for a national trade union. Here he was responsible for the preparation of pay claims, arbitration cases and the union’s submission to various statutory bodies set up under Edward Heath’s Industrial Relations Act.

His principal interests outside office hours are music and football and his publications include the definitive history of Fulham Football Club, the need for an Industrial Investment Bank in the UK, analyses of the textile and construction industries, and critiques on the recordings of Van Morrison, Joe Cocker and Ray Charles.

Derek started his career with Macquarie Bank where he was an analyst and trader in financial, commodity and energy markets. After completing his MBA, he joined Accenture as a Strategy Consultant in financial services and energy markets.

Derek established Beond in1999. After commencing as a wholesale power market it developed into a market for energy consumers, through the acquisition of BuyEnergyOnline. He is now leading Beond's latest initiative Zero Carbon Project to tackle climate change.

Derek serves as the Chairman of West London Sustainability and Climate Change Commission.

Éamon is a qualified solicitor who advises on the protection, management, exploitation and enforcement of intellectual property, including copyright, designs, trademarks and patents. He advises a broad spectrum of clients including authors, literary agents, publishers, film production companies, clothing and footwear designers, greeting card designers, furniture designers, graphic designers, sculptors, technology start-ups, business consultants, IT consultants and others.

Ed Round

Partner, London

Chartered (UK) and European Patent Attorney 

Ed advises clients operating in a variety of business sectors, but with a focus on advanced electronic technologies. He has extensive experience of the complex legal issues surrounding patent protection of computer implemented inventions. The primary focus of his work is on obtaining patent protection for clients, allied with advising on other aspects of IP management such as infringement risk, patent validity, and the impact of standards essential patents. 

Ed has a background in Communications Engineering, and has harnessed this throughout his career to advise businesses on the impact of IP to communications technologies.  This has involved preparation and prosecution of patent applications directed to signal processing, channel detection and physical layer protocols, through to data level technologies such as video coding and compression, and data security including cryptography.  Ed has also advised on technical standards, with specific experience with IEEE 802.11 standards, together with technical specifications developed by MPEG and associated groups.

Ed also has substantial experience of providing clients with strategic commercially focused advice, to enable them to align their IP strategy with their business objectives. He became a partner at Marks & Clerk in 2004.

Ed was listed as an expert by Who’s Who Legal in 2016.

Sir Edward Lister served as Chairman, Chief of Staff and Deputy Mayor of Policy & Planning at London & Partners Limited until August 2016. Prior to coming to City Hall, Sir Lister served as a Leader of Wandsworth Council from 1992 to 2011. As the longest serving council leader in the country, he made Wandsworth the most successful value for money local authority in the country with the country's lowest council tax charge and top satisfaction ratings from its residents (Place Survey 2009).

He has been the Chairman of Homes and Communities Agency Limited since July 2016, and Director of Covent Garden Market Authority since June 2016. He was honored with a Knight's Bachelor in the Queen's 2011 Birthday honours list.

Ehab Sayed, Founder and Director of Innovation at Biohm and Researcher at Northumbria University, is a sustainable design engineer, circular economy strategist, built environment innovator and Climate-KIC Certified Professional with a passion for creating a biomimetic (nature-inspired) future that meets our environmental, economic and human needs. Through extensive research on the global construction industry, he is developing nature inspired construction systems and materials that champion a transformation towards the integration of biological processes in manufacturing. Leading a solid team of young and talented designers, engineers, architects, biologists and business innovators from around the globe he is working towards revolutionising the construction industry.

Emma Hindes has managed shopping centres for Westfield for almost 15 years. Prior to Westfield, working in retail management gave Emma an insight into the importance of delivering a high quality product and service proposition. Combined with her experience of working with Westfield, Emma believes that the delivery of great customer service, offering a range of highly desirable services and intelligently targeted marketing to customers is fundamental to delivering high performing centres and loyalty.

Sir Eric Peacock was appointed as a non-executive director of the UKEF Board in 2011. Sir Eric was knighted in 2003 for his services to international trade. He previously sat on the boards of UK Trade & Investment, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

He is currently Chairman of e-Careers Limited (E-Learning), iPro Sport Corporation Limited (Natural Isotonic Sports Drinks), Buckley Jewellery Ltd, Stevenage Packaging Ltd, Halo International Group Ltd (Furniture), Boxford Group Ltd (Leisure and Farming) and Just Loans Plc and also leads the Peacock Foundation, Uniqueness and the AB Trust all of which focus on disadvantaged children and young adults. He has worked in New Zealand, Australia, USA, Hong Kong and Ireland in a wide range of industries.

Gaby Roslin is the host of her own chat show on BBC Radio London, Gaby’s Talking Pictures for BBC Radio 4, and Shop Smart: Save Money on Channel 5. Her other hosting credits include The National Lottery Draws for BBC1, The Saturday Show on Channel 5, The two-part documentary The Science Of Sleep: How To Sleep Better also for Channel 5. Gaby made her TV debut presenting the children's programme Motormouth live on ITV, and as the co-presenter of The Big Breakfast.

After training as a chef, Gareth went on to study Hospitality management at Bournemouth University. He then spent 5 years working in Front office. He left as Assistant Front of House Manager to pursue his career in HR in 2005. Since 2005 he did a Post Graduate diploma in HR Management and has worked as an HR manager for over 7 years. He has been working at the Copthorne Tara for 3 years.