Speakers

Alison Blackler

Alison has a wealth of experience around human behaviour, coaching, counselling, facilitation and clinical excellence, with both adults and young people. She has a passion to help others overcome obstacles in their lives.

The author of A Path Travelled – How to Make Sense of Your Life and How to Make Sense of Relationships, these books incorporate all her experience, knowledge and practice in a straight talking, simple to read approach. By understanding where your feelings stem from you learn that you can choose how to manage them and how to change your response to life’s obstacles.

Sarah McTear-Smith

Sarah McTear-Smith is an Clinical Hypnotherapist specialising in Rapid Transformational Therapy, a therapy based on neuroscience that offers fast, effective results by combining the most beneficial principles of Hypnotherapy, Psychotherapy, NLP, and CBT.  By rapidly rewiring the brain’s neural pathways, RTT replaces our out-dated belief systems and negative behaviour patterns. 

Sarah works with clients to overcome challenges  – often rooted back to childhood – that are causing issues such as addiction, fatigue & anxiety, low self esteem, fears & phobias, and relationship issues.

Lucy McLaren

Lucy supports young people with Down syndrome to help them achieve their career aspirations; this may be through paid employment, supported internships or work experience. Lucy also engages with local business across Cheshire to help them create an inclusive and diverse workplace environment.

Fiona Flemington

Fiona is a Leadership Development Specialist and qualified Executive Coach with over 27 years of experience of developing leaders at a senior level. She started her Coaching consultancy in 2013 and has worked hard to establish her coaching business and has built a strong reputation as an Executive Coach and people developer.

Fiona is passionate about personal growth and developing others. Through her naturally curious approach she is both supportive and challenging. Working collaboratively with her clients, she is skilled in being able to elicit new insights and raise self-awareness in others.

Nicola Palios

Nicola is a barrister by background. After a 20 year legal career during which she came managing partner of a law firm and wealth/fund management business with over 1,200 employees in 10 jurisdictions, she left to begin her own consulting business and develop a NED portfolio, including a FTSE 250 company and a private equity backed fund management business. 

She is now co-owner and vice chair of Tranmere Rovers Football Club alongside her husband, Mark.

Allison Furlong

Allison is the mother of Alfie Fitzsimmons who set up ‘Alfie’s Squad’ at the age of 14 after he tragically lost his father to suicide in May 2017. The purpose of Alfie’s Squad is to support children bereaved by suicide.

From a mother’s perspective, Allison shares her personal story of Alfie’s Squad, the journey her and Alfie have been on over the last 5 years, and her hopes for the future.

Judi Hastings

Judi Hastings of YourTime2Change is an experienced Coach and Change Therapist registered with the Hypnotherapy Centre of Excellence. YourTime2Change is focused on providing high-quality, bespoke coaching and hypnotherapy sessions to help you manage your life better, achieve goals and eliminate unwanted habits, anxieties, fears or phobias. 

For the last 24 years, Judi has made it her mission to support others in understanding how our own thinking can sometimes hinder our lives and future. Her passion, drive and positivity spurred her on to earn further qualifications in: NLP, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy DISC profiling and Hypnotherapy.

Ronee Walsh

Be the Business is an independent, not-for-profit organisation, with a single goal: to help business owners and leaders improve the performance of their business. They work with some of the UK’s most successful businesses to provide small business leaders with the support, resources, and guidance they need to improve their productivity.

Their goal is crucial for to the health of the UK’s economy. The UK lags behind comparable nations in terms of productivity. But, by improving the performance of small business leaders, we improve the UK’s position overall, and everyone benefits.

Rachel Furness

Rachel is a key member of Liverpool FC Women’s squad and a legend at international level with Northern Ireland. She been a regular in the Barclays Women’s Super League having helped Liverpool win the FA Women’s Championship title.

An unforgettable 2021-22 season also saw her become Northern Ireland’s record goal scorer by netting twice in their World Cup qualification win over North Macedonia in November 2021. She was subsequently named BBC Northern Ireland Sports Personality of the Year and made further history as Northern Ireland qualified for the European Championship, their first appearance at a major women’s tournament.

Dawn Coker

Shining a light on the great things women in business can achieve, Dawn is an inspirational and tenacious leader who aims to revolutionise the culture of the financial services sector.

It is Dawn’s tenacity that helped her overcome the challenges that going through early menopause in the workplace threw at her when she was aged just 37. Tackling the issue of unsupportive and uncaring colleagues whilst experiencing debilitating symptoms meant Dawn was exhausted both physically and mentally, with no one to talk to. Dawn committed to supporting women’s advancement in business through developing and retaining female talent. One way of doing this was by rolling out a menopause policy at Access2Funding in 2021, which helps colleagues to openly and comfortably instigate conversations about the menopause.

Lesley Beattie

Lesley lead on building brand development opportunities for the charity, attracting major donors, bidding for funding opportunities and collaborating with corporates to deliver their CSR and social impact strategies whilst supporting the work of the Club’s charitable arm.

Everton in the Community delivers over 40 innovative and diverse social programmes and engages with more than 145,000 individuals annually.  As Director of Development, Lesley is impassioned to ensure the charity is sustainable to continue to deliver, grow and to help more people in need whilst delivering on its ambitious strategy. 

Joanne Anderson

Mayor Joanne was elected as Liverpool’s first female Mayor. She is proud to be the first black woman to be directly elected as a Mayor in the UK and she strongly believes in building a better, fairer city for all.  Mayor Joanne is committed in particular to empowering communities and promoting equalities.

Joanne now has nearly three decades of experience as an equality and diversity practitioner.  She set up the first black social enterprise, Innervision community consultancy in Liverpool in 2000 and has also worked as a civil servant as the community engagement policy lead within the Crown Prosecution Service.

Caroline Hopkins

Caroline Hopkins is a coach, trainer and speaker who helps business leaders take their presentation skills to a greater level of mastery to sell themselves, their ideas and engage their audiences.

As a reformed nervous wreck on the podium in her early career, she died on her feet many times before realising that she wasn’t a cat and her nine speaking lives were nearly up. Today, Caroline aims to improve the lives of speakers and their audiences by giving them the skills to love presenting.

Hazel Russell

Hazel is the head of fundraising at PAPYRUS which is a national charity for the prevention of suicide in young people.  

PAPYRUS was founded in 1997 by Jean Kerr, from Lancashire following the loss of her son to suicide and since then, has continued to listen to and learn from the experiences of those personally touched by young suicide. 

Angela Samata

Angela presented the BBC1 BAFTA nominated and winner of the Mind Media Award for Best Factual TV documentary, ‘Life after Suicide’. The film encouraged discussion and exploration of mental health issues, challenging the stigma of suicide.

Angela was awarded the prestigious Merseyside Woman of the Year Award for her work in this area.

Bethan

Bethan is an award winning entrepreneur, coach and business strategist who is passionate about helping people live their version of success without sacrifice. She has a portfolio of different income streams which each align to this mission and she scaled her first online business to £10,000 in less than 3 months of launching.

Bethan works with the best coaches, entrepreneurs and marketers in the world and shares the wisdom of her ongoing learning journey with her community via her podcast and Facebook group (Success Circle: Change-Makers on the Journey for Success Without Sacrifice).

Amina Atiq

Amina is a Yemeni- Scouse Human Rights Activist and was awarded the LJMU Citizenship award for her active and community engagement work and awarded the best North West volunteer by Human Appeal. She was long listed for the Jerwood Poetry Fellowship and awarded as a Young Associate for Curious Minds. She was awarded the BBC Words First Finalist 2019, alongside other 5 emerging poets across the UK.

Dr Baroness Helen Newlove

On 10 August 2007, Helen’s husband, Garry Newlove, was brutally beaten by a gang of youths outside the family home in Warrington. He died two days later. It was an act of violence that shocked the nation and would have a profound impact on the lives of Helen and her children. After the ordeal of a ten-week trial and the murder conviction of three youths, Helen held a press conference, giving a speech that attracted national media attention and propelled her into the role of a campaigner for victims’ rights and against the lawlessness that blights so many of our towns and cities.

In 2010, Helen was appointed a seat in the House of Lords. Today, she is Baroness Newlove of Warrington, a tireless campaigner against antisocial behaviour and for the rights of victims and witnesses.

Danielle Kershaw

After experiencing a mental health crisis in the summer of 2017, Danielle embarked on a life changing journey.  As a part of this journey she has learnt and used a multitude of tools to calm the once incessant chatter within her mind – the thoughts, fears, the inner critic that consumed her.

Danielle now uses her personal experience and training to raise mental health awareness in Liverpool and the North West. “I am not alone,” says Danielle. “I’m one in 4 of you experiencing poor mental health, anxiety and depression at any one time. Telling my story helps not only raise awareness, but also shares the tools we all need to look after ourselves and each other.”

Dave Bolton

Dave served in Air Ops Iraq and survived being crushed by an articulated lorry before going on to become a World Kickboxing Champion.  His subsequent career saw him tackling serious and organised crime as a Detective Sergeant for Merseyside Police. Dave has been diagnosed with cancer, beating it twice to defy all odds to outlive his terminal diagnosis.   

Hear Dave told us his extraordinary story, shared his incredible passion for life and explained now that he helps others to overcome the odds by helping them improve their mental resilience.

His recent work has seen him found the Northwest Wellbeing Hub Ltd and Ahead Of The Game Foundation.

Sue Connerty

Sue is the Co-Founder and Charity Manager of the Walking With Giants Foundation, a global family and medical support network that aids families and children affected by rare life-limiting conditions collectively known as Microcephalic Primordial Dwarfism.

Sue’s motivation behind The Walking With Giants Foundation came after her son Alex was diagnosed with Primordial Dwarfism in May 2006, aged just one.

The Walking With Giants Foundation helps fund individuals, families and doctors to come together from all over the world once a year at their conference in Liverpool. For some, this is the only time they have ever met others with the same condition.

Simon Keegan

Simon has been a journalist for more than 20 years. In that time he has worked at the BBC as producer, for national newspapers like the Mirror, Express and Metro, and has been editor of large local newspapers including the Salford Advertiser.

He began his journalism career as an 18 year old with no degree, no short-hand qualification, no formal training and no friends in high places, but he had a willingness to learn. Simon has interviewed everyone from Theresa May to Shaun Ryder, from George Osborne to Oasis.

In 2018 he took part in the Business Heavyweights boxing event which raised £140,000 for charity and in 2011 he led a campaign that raised £250,000 for a new Christie Hospital, of which he laid the first brick.

Outside work he is the author of three best-selling books, two on the legend of King Arthur (he claims to have saved Camelot) and one on martial arts.

Emma Degg

Following the 1981 Toxteth Riots, the NWBLT was established to bring together leaders of national and international businesses with substantial commitments and interests in the North West of England. 

The NWBLT works to exert its collective influence for the long-term good of the region, economically, environmentally, culturally and socially.  Its mission is to make the North West the UK’s best region in which to do business, work and live for generations to come.

Emma has spent her career focused on bringing together business leaders and policy makers to make a tangible difference, nationally, across the North West and in local government. 

Sara McKee

Sara is an entrepreneur with a track record in helping transform start-up businesses into multi-million pound companies. She now brings this experience to Evermore, an innovative model that will eradicate institutionalised care and open up the market for older age living.  

For Sara, going into a care home is not an option. She is determined to eradicate care homes and all institutionalisation of older people by providing an alternative choice that’s positive, aspirational and just like living at home. A brand new lifestyle model for older people which puts companionship at its heart.