Guest Speakers and Judges
As well as the exciting pitching, the Final and Awards will also feature a keynote from a great guest speaker which, in the past, has included TV Dragon and Retail Entrepreneur Theo Paphitis, Professor Chris Evans, Head of Google Startups Marta Krupinska, Gareth Williams of Skyscanner, Illustrator and Author Johanna Basford, Oli Norman of itison, Duncan Logan of RocketSpace and BrewDog founder James Watt.
Check back for updates!
Host
Matthew Quinn
Future Sales Factory
READ MORE
Matthew Quinn was born and brought up in Oldham Lancashire before attending the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. He left the Army in the mid-nineties and began his civilian life in the motor trade.
After deciding that he had reached his peak as business manager in the flagship Mercedes Benz dealership in London’s Park Lane at the age of 27, Matthew went on to be a senior consultant for one of Europe’s largest management consultancies.
For 5 years he travelled extensively around the world selling, designing and delivering high-impact sales and sales management programmes for many businesses, most notably in the oil, entertainment and fast-moving consumer goods industries.
He then moved back into the field of sales leadership in the financial services and professional practices profession.
Matthew is a crowd favourite EDGE host, having returned to the role numerous times to inject his unique brand of humour and energy into the day’s proceedings.
For the record, Matthew is not Ken Whipp!
Speakers and Judges - Day 1
Dr Hina Khan
Executive Director of Space Scotland
(Judge / Speaker)
READ BIOGRAPHY
Dr Hina Khan is the first-ever Executive Director of Space Scotland, appointed to help accelerate the sector’s growth and collaboration.
Dr Khan has over 25 years’ experience in the space industry, having worked with NASA, and the European Space Agency (ESA). She also served as Head of UK Stakeholder Engagement at space-based data and analytics firm, Spire.
Her research background in space science allows Dr Khan to understand and communicate effectively with research scientists in areas of space science, space weather, ionospheric and upper atmospheric science, and Earth Observation fields to discuss potential collaborative activity with industry partners.
Space Scotland represents the collective Scottish space industry community and aims to enable, promote and grow the sector.
Jim Conning
Non-Executive Director & Board Advisor
(Judge / Speaker)
READ BIOGRAPHY
Jim brings a rich professional portfolio leading global strategy within technology-driven markets operating across a range of sectors at national and global levels, leveraging technology to synergise and fulfil business requirements.
Commercial acumen, combined with creativity and critical thinking, enables Jim to oversee delivery of innovative solutions that enhance customer retention, and to steer the successful delivery of business acquisitions and restructures.
Fraser Lusty
Managing Director of Equity Gap
(Judge & Speaker)
READ BIOGRAPHY
Fraser joined Equity Gap in 2011 and became a director in 2014. He has over 30 years’ experience in helping Scottish businesses and entrepreneurs build commercial capability.
He is passionate about developing angel investors globally and has led skill-building programmes in Canada and the Middle East. He is an ambassador with Women’s Enterprise Scotland championing diversity in the Scottish angel investment sector.
Recently, Equity Gap became the first Angel Investor group to sign a Scottish EDGE Pledge.
Laura Davidson
CEO at Tag Digital
(Judge / Speaker)
READ BIOGRAPHY
Laura is Director at Tag Digital, specialists in paid media across search, social, programmatic and video - exclusively in the events sector and running over 2000 events in over 50 countries both virtual and live per year for world-leading event organisers.
As a co-founder, Laura has worn many hats over the years but now leads the growth objectives within the company.
Speakers and Judges - Day 2
Dr Shonaig Macpherson CBE
Chair and Non-Executive Director
(Judge)
READ BIOGRAPHY
Shonaig Macpherson CBE, an experienced Chair and non-executive director used to working at the most senior levels of government, private, public and third sectors. Her practice as a solicitor saw her specialise in advising companies whose core asset is intellectual property. She worked for Sir Terence Conran, established the in-house legal department of Harrods and advised on the establishment of Aldi in the UK.
Shonaig was appointed as the first ever non-executive appointee to the Management and Strategic Boards of Scottish Government where she became the first lay person to chair its Audit Committee. From 2015 until 2020 she was Lead Non-Executive Member of the Management Board of the Office of Secretary of State for Scotland and the Office of the Advocate General.
She was a member of the UK Government and Scottish Parliament’s Commission on Scottish Devolution, the Scottish Executive’s Culture Commission and its Knowledge Economy Task Force.
Kevin Havelock
Regional Director, Edinburgh & East of Scotland Commercial – Mid Markets
at Royal Bank of Scotland
(Judge)
READ BIOGRAPHY
Kevin is Regional Director, Edinburgh & East of Scotland Corporate, Commercial & Business Banking for Royal Bank of Scotland.
His team provides a full banking service to trading businesses across a range of sectors with annual revenue of more than £0.75M in Edinburgh & East of Scotland as well as public sector and higher education institutions across all of Scotland.
He joined the Royal Bank as a graduate trainee in 1996 and has spent his whole career working directly with corporate businesses including plc’s, financial institutions, and ownermanaged businesses.
Kevin holds a Political Science degree from University of Aberdeen and an MBA from The Edinburgh Business School. Kevin is a Chartered Banker and Fellow of Chartered Banker Institute.
Kevin was a Non-executive Director of Essential Edinburgh, the city centre Edinburgh BID and was Treasurer of Families Outside, a charity supporting families impacted by imprisonment.
He is currently a Governing Council member of Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce, a member of the Edinburgh Napier University Business School Advisory Group, Vice Chair of Edinburgh’s Just Economic Transition Group and a board member of Prosper.
Ben Panter
CEO of Blackford Analysis
(Judge)
READ BIOGRAPHY
Ben is the founder and CEO of Blackford Analysis. The company operates a platform business model in radiology, bringing together over a hundred 3rd party, regulatory cleared AI solutions and delivering them to healthcare providers and major OEM channel partners.
Ben's background is as an astronomer, where he developed a data processing technique that dramatically improved the speed of analysis of galaxy spectra. In combination with huge surveys of the night sky this approach gave unprecedented insight into the history of star formation in the Universe from the Big Bang to the present. He started Blackford with the wish to bring this data processing challenge to bear on a problem closer to home - that of medical imaging.
Founded in 2010 as a spin out from the University of Edinburgh, Blackford was acquired by Bayer Plc in Feb 2023, and continues to operate independently based on Bayer’s well-established ‘arm’s length’ operating model. Blackford remains accountable to advance the company’s technology, channel partnerships and clinical application portfolio while benefiting from the experience, infrastructure and reach of Bayer as a global pharmaceutical company.
Dr Poonam Malik
Chair and Non-Executive Director
(Judge)
READ BIOGRAPHY
Dr Malik is Board Member for Scottish Enterprise, Scotland’s national economic development agency and a non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government.
An active Member of Investing Women Angels Ltd (IWA), Scotland's only Female Angel Investor Group, she supports female Founders as Business Angel Investor, Mentor, Advisor, Trainer and Reviewer. Hugely passionate about supporting women entrepreneurs, as Members of Changing the Chemistry (CtC)- a peer support Network; Equate Scotland and Women On Board- she speaks regularly publically on Panels to improve diversity of thought in the boardrooms and promote diversity and sustainable inclusive growth with entrepreneurship, innovation & investment. Specifically promoting Women in Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) and encouraging black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds, to increase their growth potential and have their voices heard.