Rajesh Agrawal is the Deputy Mayor of London for Business and Chairman of London and Partners, London's trade and business growth agency. As Deputy Mayor Rajesh is a strong voice for London’s business community, protecting jobs and growth, and ensuring that the capital remains the most open and attractive place to do business in the world. A fintech entrepreneur by background, Rajesh is passionate about promoting London and supporting entrepreneurship.

Councillor Geoff Barraclough was first elected as a councillor for Maida Vale Ward in 2018, where he has lived for over 20 years. He works in the technology industry. Councillor Barraclough has been Cabinet Member for Planning and Economic Development since May 2022, and before becoming a cabinet member, he was the Labour spokesperson on planning and business. Portfolios include: Business Support and Economic Development; Employment; Town Planning; Planning Policy; Place-Shaping; North Paddington programme; Smart City programme and Digital Innovation in the public realm; Broadband.

Muniya Barua is Deputy Chief Executive at BusinessLDN. She leads our Policy, Campaigns and Communications team, with responsibility for our impact, influencing, thought leadership work and membership. She supports our CEO John Dickie in the running of the business and has responsibility for developing the overall business strategy. She was previously Managing Director of Policy and Strategy, and before that she ran our Corporate Affairs team.

Laura Citron is CEO of London & Partners, the business growth and destination agency for London. Laura leads London & Partners in its mission to create economic growth that is resilient, sustainable and inclusive. She runs inward investment and trade for the capital, supporting thousands of innovative businesses to grow in London and internationally. She convenes London’s tourism industry to develop the destination and win visitors and events, including the Let’s Do London campaign and VisitLondon. Laura is a global advocate for London, regularly appearing in international media and events. Laura has been CEO of London & Partners since 2017, leading through both Brexit and covid. Before that she spent nearly a decade at WPP, where she was Managing Director of the Government & Public Sector Practice. Laura is a proud Londoner, has a Masters degree in Economics from University College London and has lived and worked in Brussels, Moscow and Germany

John Dickie is the Chief Executive at BusinessLDN. Formerly the organisation’s Director of Strategy and Policy, he was responsible for the business membership organisation’s public policy development and its member management team. A former Deputy Leader of Camden Council in London, John was a member of the current Mayor of London’s London Finance Commission, the previous Mayor’s Infrastructure Delivery Board and is a member of the King’s College Commission on London. His previous senior roles include Head of Corporate Affairs at the BBC, Regulatory Affairs Director at the European Competitive Telecommunications Association and Managing Director of consultancy Prima Europe, later GPC London, where he provided political and policy advice to major international businesses. John started his career at Swiss Bank Corporation International and has degrees from Oxford University and the London Business School.

Nic is Chief Executive of South Bank Employers’ Group: www.sbeg.co.uk and South Bank BID: www.southbankbid.co.uk. SBEG champions London’s South Bank on behalf of businesses and employees, residents, students, and visitors: setting the agenda, facilitating co-operation, and delivering programmes that bring improvement and change. SBEG set up South Bank BID in 2014 and acts as its delivery agent. Nic is Chair of British BIDs - the national membership organisation that supports the interests and values of the BID industry and is the forum for its members to learn, network, share experiences and lead the industry (British BIDs | Homepage). He is a member of London’s Tourism Advisory Group, a Board member of Safer Business Network: https://www.saferbusiness.org.uk/ and an external Governor of Morley College London: https://www.morleycollege.ac.uk/. Nic’s career spans urban regeneration, culture and heritage, and funding and grant-giving, with senior roles at National Trust, Heritage Lottery Fund, Groundwork, and Westway Trust.

Ruth is one of the UK’s leading experts in the Business Improvement District (BID) sector, with a 30-year career that has included the development of many successful place-based partnerships to drive urban growth. To that end Ruth has leveraged over £80m of private sector funding, which has been the catalyst for generating more than £6bn of further investment. In addition to her roles at Primera and London HQ, Ruth is Chair of the Management Committee for the Guards Museum and Wellington Barracks, Chair of The Passage Trading Services Board, a member of The Goring Hotel School Management Committee, and a member of the NLA’s New London Sounding Board. In 2018 Ruth was awarded an OBE for Services to Business and an OC, a Belgian honour, following her fundraising for the Flanders Field Memorial Garden which opened in 2014.

Simon is one of the leading consultation and engagement consultants in the central London property market today, with nearly 20 years’ experience working for local authorities and private sector clients with an expertise in providing strategic advice, stakeholder relations and innovative forms of engagement. He joined Kanda in 2018, having previously spent 10 years at Westminster City Council and over four years at another a major agency where he was responsible for leading consultation and engagement for a number of major development projects in central London. An award-winning communicator, he has specialist knowledge of the housing, infrastructure, planning and development sectors as well as a deep understanding of policy trends. As Deputy Managing Director, Simon is most passionate about continuing to grow and develop Kanda as a business, empowering staff to develop their knowledge and skills, and the diversity of clients and challenges that go with each client and project.

Lance leads strategic growth for BT’s new DLE vertical across England & Wales and is also responsible for the higher Education Vertical. Lance has over 35 years’ experience in accelerating digital services for clients and the customers and citizens they serve. As a former founder and CEO of a National Tech Services company Lance has had the privilege of working for many of the leading Service Providers in the UK, including co-leading O2’s Public Sector team and Telefonica Global Solutions Specialist Team. Lance’s team are mobilised throughout England & Wales, proudly serving customers in the places which they live and love.

Alexander is the non-executive chair of the Central District Alliance and Hatton Garden BIDs; the business improvement districts covering Hatton Garden, Holborn, Clerkenwell, Farringdon, Bloomsbury and St Giles. He is also chief economic advisor to the London Property Alliance which provides a unified voice for the leading owners, developers, investors and professional advisors of real estate across central London. He is an independent advisor to the EC BID covering the tall building cluster in the City of London. Alex was previously Arup’s chief economist. He is a regular commentator on London issues and is currently writing a biography of Lord Ashfield (1874-1948), the creator of London Transport.

Amy has served as London’s first Night Czar since 2016. She has a long and successful track record as a leader and collaborator in culture and creative industries, communities and broadcasting. Amy served as Mayoress of the London Borough of Camden in 2010-11 and spent her year highlighting the history and culture of live music and nightlife in the area. She co founded one of London’s most legendary club nights, Duckie, and hosted it for over 25 years. She currently presents weekend mornings on BBC Radio 6Music. Her debut book, From Prejudice to Pride: A History of the LGBTQ+ Movement – the first LGBTQ+ history book for children – was published by Hachette in June 2017. In 2018, Amy was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from University of East London and appointed Honorary Professor at University College London. In 2022 she was recognised as a National Treasure as part of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. Originally from New Jersey, Amy has been a proud Londoner for 30 years.

Sophie was a Hackney councillor from 2006 until her appointment by the Mayor of London. She was Deputy Mayor of Hackney Council, with lead responsibility for crime and community safety, environmental health and trading standards, equalities and neighbourhood and civic engagement. Sophie was part of the senior leadership that saw Hackney awarded 'Council of the Last 20 Years’ (2016) by the Local Government Chronicle (LGC) Awards, the LGC Editor’s Award for Partnership Working (2014) for their ground breaking gangs unit, and a rating of ‘excellent’ in the Local Government Equality Framework She was a special adviser at the Home Office from 2001 to 2004. While there Sophie worked with the Home Secretary and Ministers on policy development and strategy, including: police reform, crime and antisocial behaviour reduction, neighbourhood policing and reducing the harm caused by illegal drugs. From 1997 to 2001 Sophie was a special adviser to David Blunkett in the Department for Education and Employment. Sophie has been a member of the Local Government Association (LGA) Safer Communities Board, a peer reviewer for the LGA on community safety, and a member of the HMIC advisory board on PEEL (the police effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy programme) inspections. Sophie has worked in the voluntary sector as a campaigns and policy manager, campaigning to end child poverty. She has also worked in the private sector as a director of public affairs. Sophie has lived in Hackney for the last 30 years.

Craig McWilliam became The Arch Company’s Chief Executive Officer in January 2022. The Arch Company is the UK’s largest landlord to small and medium sized enterprises, with a diverse portfolio of approximately 5,200 properties across England and Wales, concentrated in metropolitan areas. He joined after spending a year as Programme Director of the NHS’s new hospitals programme. Prior to this, Craig was Chief Executive of Grosvenor Britain & Ireland from 2017-2020, having joined the business in 2010 as a board member. Prior to Grosvenor, Craig held roles in investment banking and private equity. Craig studied Land Economy at the University of Cambridge and is a Fellow of the RICS. Craig is vice chair of the University of Greenwich, chair of Coram’s Fields and Harmsworth Memorial Playground charity and a member of the endowment committees of Church Oxford and St John’s College, Cambridge.

Mauro Mortali is Senior Manager Public Sector Strategy within BT, responsible for defining the longer term strategic plans for the various parts of the Public Sector that BT supports. Mauro has been with BT since 2004, having worked in numerous strategy and innovation roles across major programmes such as 21CN, Superfast Broadband and All-IP. Prior to BT, Mauro worked in a boutique consulting firm to the high tech & telco sector. Mauro holds an MBA in Strategic Management, a degree in French & German, and is a professional coach.

Nicki is the BID Director for the Harley Street BID. Nicki has worked in BIDs since 2009, joining the Victoria BID as it embarked on its first ballot. She has worked on numerous ballots with Primera across a variety of BID areas including establishing the Victoria Westminster BID, gaining knowledge and experience across all aspects of BIDs. She took over the Harley Street Area Partnership in April 2020 and led the BID to a successful ballot outcome in December 2021. Nicki’s experience has helped her understand the importance of building strong relationships with levy payers and key stakeholders, understanding the commitment required to establish those partnerships. She brings a varied skillset which supports her in managing the team and BID. She is highly organised, efficient and attention to detail is paramount to her. Managing a budget of £1m, Nicki understands the importance of accountability as she ensures that the BID at Harley Street delivers tangible outputs and is successful in its first term and many beyond.

Paul Scully was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Tech and the Digital Economy) at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology on 7 February 2023. He is also Minister for London, having been appointed on 13 February 2020. He was previously: Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport from 27 October 2022 to 7 February 2023 Minister of State at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities between 7 July 2022 and 27 October 2022 Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy from 13 February 2020 to July 2022. He was elected the Conservative MP for Sutton and Cheam on 7 May 2015.

Maria is an energy and sustainability leader with more than 12 years of experience with globar organisations. She started her career with an Engineering Doctorate looking at the energy performance of retail. This gave her a fundamental understanding of energy efficiency projects and how to deliver them. She understands all the stages of a project lifecycle, from inception to completion, and she has advised many customers on their sustainability & Net Zero journeys. • Passionate about sustainability, she aims to bring awareness amongst building professionals and support the implementation of relevant legislation aimed at reducing carbon emissions in buildings. She is currently the chair of CIBSE's Energy Performance Group and a member of the retail committee for the new UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard.

Alex Williams – Chief Customer & Strategy Officer As Chief Customer & Strategy Officer Alex leads Transport for London’s customer and strategy work. He advocates for our customer's needs, defines our strategic direction and works to ensure the maximisation of our organisation’s commercial investment and consulting arm. Alex is also responsible for our relationship with the London Transport Museum. Prior to his appointment as Interim Chief Customer and Strategy Officer, Alex held the post of Director of City Planning. He was responsible for managing our relationship with London’s Borough Councils and working with the Mayor of London to develop and deliver his Transport Strategy. He also played a key role in developing our powers to initiate and deliver major infrastructure projects such as tube extensions and new river crossings. Prior to joining TfL, Alex also held a number of roles at the London Borough of Camden and Ealing respectively.

Mark has been at Heart of London Business Alliance for 5 years, originally leading the consumer marketing team, and now as Director of Destination. Mark leads on all aspects in relation to the West End as a destination, including strategic international marketing and event campaigns, development of the cultural, tourism, ENTE and placemaking strategies, the data and insights team, and inward investment activity. As part of this role, he sits on the London's Tourism Advisory Group Prior to working at Heart of London, Mark had a 17 year career working in the field of events, festivals, international touring and management of evening night time economy venues across London & UK. He was previously a board director of the Night Time Industries Association.