Marverine Cole is a multi-award-winning broadcaster and journalist. She is best known as a newsreader on ITV1’s flagship breakfast programme, Good Morning Britain (GMB).

This year she celebrates 23 years in the industry, having been a Reporter, Documentary Producer and Presenter for many of the UK’s other leading broadcasters, including Sky News, BBC 5 Live, Classic FM and BBC Radio 4.

When Marverine is not presenting TV News, she’s always busy wearing her two other ‘hats’. She often evangelises about craft beer on ITV’s Sunday morning programme, Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh – in her guise as an accredited beer sommelier.

As a transformative coach and mentor, Marverine candidly shares her career and life experiences, personal advice & guidance on her social media channels.

Helen Godwin is the Mayor of the West of England. Elected in May 2025, she has started a new chapter for the region. Helen was born in the West, grew up and is raising her family there, and has worked as a local councillor and in business. 

Committed to bringing people together to make a difference that people can see and feel across Bath & North East Somerset, Bristol, and South Gloucestershire, her priorities are clear: reliable buses and trains that connect communities, affordable homes in the right places with essential services, and pathways to green jobs that power the region’s future economy.

Since May, the West has provided free bus travel for children during the summer, with over 900,000 journeys; launched a £5 million Youth Guarantee offering jobs and training to local young people; and secured an unprecedented £752 million for transport in the region. The West has also got the green light for the Portishead Line reopening, won a £25 million devolved fund for creative places, and signed a Strategic Place Partnership with Homes England to help build more affordable homes. Before Christmas, a new regional Growth Strategy was approved including plans for 72,000 new jobs over the next ten years and a proudly interventionist Child Poverty Action Plan was published.

Ida Levine is a Principal with Two Rivers Associates Limited consulting on policy, strategy and governance. She sits on the Board of Directors of the Impact Investing Institute with a focus on policy issues.  She also serves as a NED on the Boards of Creative UK and Creative UK Investments.  

Ida is a Governor of the Royal Ballet Companies. She also is a Trustee of Dancers Career Development (DCD), and the Maria Bjornson Memorial Fund, a grant-making charity in the performing arts.  Ida is the Honorary Patron of the Margot Fonteyn International Ballet Competition.  She was previously Vice-Chair and a Trustee of the Royal Academy of Dance, and received its President's Award.
 
Ida is a member of the Financial Markets Law Committee (FMLC) and the Advisory Boards of PRIME Finance Foundation, the UCLA Institute for Carbon Management and the UCLA Promise Institute for Human Rights Law.  
 
Previously Ida was Board Director, Senior Vice President and Senior Counsel for the Capital Group/American Funds where she founded the Governance and European Public Policy functions. 

Before Capital, Ida was European Counsel for JP Morgan Investment Management. Prior to this, she was a Partner at the international law firm Jones Day (London and New York).

Kim McGuinness is the first North East Mayor, elected on a manifesto to create the infrastructure of opportunity, end child poverty, and deliver well-paid local jobs. Her vision is for a region that goes beyond net zero, with climate policies that transform lives, good homes for all, and a skilled workforce supported by strong trade unions.

Her economic plan focuses on three strands:

•        improving the foundational economy
•        delivering on the green jobs revolution
•        making regional pride a key economic driver with investment in arts and music, culture and sport.

As Mayor, Kim is committed to introducing the UK’s greenest public transport network, centred on a better bus system. Her manifesto set out a vision for safe, reliable, affordable, and publicly owned transport.

Before becoming Mayor, Kim served as Police and Crime Commissioner for Northumbria, where she prioritised crime prevention and neighbourhood support through her Fighting Poverty, Fighting Crime strategy. She invested in youth services to improve life chances and established the region’s first Violence Reduction Unit, funding Sure Start-style initiatives to support families and prevent crime.

Kim has led locally on efforts to tackle Violence Against Women and Girls, introducing her flagship domestic abuse policy of placing specialists in police call centres.

Fran McIntyre is the Managing Director of Innovate UK Business Connect.  In her role, Fran works across sectors and regions to bring people, ideas and resources together - ensuring that innovative businesses get the support, networks and visibility they need to accelerate growth at pace.
 
With a background in business leadership throughout UK and Europe, Fran champions culture, collaboration and impact.

Karim Palant is Director of External Affairs at  the BVCA, where he leads the Public Affairs, Communications and Research functions.

Karim and his colleagues tell the story of private capital through high-impact  engagement with policymakers, stakeholders and the media.

Karim also oversees the BVCA’s agenda-setting research programme, which  includes the Performance Measurement Survey - the largest primary research survey of its kind in the UK, and the annual Report on Investment Activity. He has two decades of experience in tech and economic policy. From 2015,  he led public policy and economic impact work at major tech firms - at  LinkedIn and previously Facebook. Earlier in his career, he served as Head of  Policy to the Shadow Chancellor.

Karim studied PPE at the University of Oxford, following his education at Calderstones Comprehensive School in Liverpool.

Marverine Cole is a multi-award-winning broadcaster and journalist. She is best known as a newsreader on ITV1’s flagship breakfast programme, Good Morning Britain (GMB).

This year she celebrates 23 years in the industry, having been a Reporter, Documentary Producer and Presenter for many of the UK’s other leading broadcasters, including Sky News, BBC 5 Live, Classic FM and BBC Radio 4.

When Marverine is not presenting TV News, she’s always busy wearing her two other ‘hats’. She often evangelises about craft beer on ITV’s Sunday morning programme, Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh – in her guise as an accredited beer sommelier.

As a transformative coach and mentor, Marverine candidly shares her career and life experiences, personal advice & guidance on her social media channels.

Stephen Welton was appointed Non-executive Chair of the British Business Bank in October 2023. 

Stephen has extensive experience as an investor in private capital markets around the world. He was the founder CEO of the Business Growth Fund plc (BGF) from 2011 to 2020, then Executive Chair between 2020 and 2022, and later Non-Executive Chair until July 2023.

In 2013, Stephen was appointed as an advisor to the UK Government regarding the establishment of the British Business Bank and, in 2017, served as a member of the Industry Panel advising HM Treasury on the Patient Capital Review. He was also a member of the Prime Minister’s 2021 Business Council and member of the Innovate Council from 2018-2021.

Prior to BGF, he was one of the founding partners of global private equity firm CCMP Capital (formerly JP Morgan Partners) and, before that, managing director of Barclays Private Equity and Henderson Ventures, which he also co-founded.

Stephen was awarded a CBE in June 2023 for services to Small Businesses and Entrepreneurship. Stephen is also NED of ICG plc a FTSE 100 global alternatives asset manager, and NED and Chair of Investment Committee for Emirates Growth Fund, a major new investment firm for the UAE under the ownership of the Emirates Development Bank.