Festival of Business 2025

Tamara Lohan is Founder and CEO of Mr & Mrs Smith, the online boutique hotel booking specialist.

An entrepreneur with a background in marketing and technology, she co-founded Mr & Mrs Smith with her husband James, and has been responsible for evolving the company's digital infrastructure ever since.

Pivoting from publishing house to online travel agent in 2005, Tamara oversaw the development of Mr & Mrs Smith's in-house booking engine and proprietary availability-management systems, apps and Alexa voice skill.

In 2016, Mr & Mrs Smith acquired a villa company, and an experiences company called SideStory in 2018. Today, Mr & Mrs Smith has more than 1.5 million members worldwide and a fully distributed global team.

Tamara Lohan and her husband were awarded MBEs for services to the British travel industry. In April 2020, Tamara took over the helm as CEO of the company. She frequently speaks on entrepreneurship, resilience, women in technology and business and balancing parenting with career progression.

She has invested in startups and is a non-executive director at Not on The High Street, the online marketplace for small creative businesses.

Peter, who is 33, is CEO of rapidly expanding Derby-based business Orderly - a sustainability-focussed tech company.

Orderly grows and implements AI supply chain and operations solutions for clients such as Starbucks, Burger King, Eurogarages and Morrisons Supermarkets. 

Mat Prior is an AMBS Manchester of Business Administration (MBA) alumnus and currently CEO of TrustedHousesitters - a B Corp membership-based platform connecting homeowners looking for individuals to care for their pets and homes when they're travelling.

Mat has a wealth of experience in both start-ups and market-leading businesses including TUI and Travelopia. He also recently joined the board of Maison Sport, a platform connecting skiers and snowboarders with top-rated instructors, as a non-executive director.

Siobhan Morgan is Head of Development at Warp Films. She previously worked at the BBC as assistant drama commissioner for the North of England.

Before this, she worked in the BBC Children's drama commissioning team and as a script editor and producer at Lime Pictures. 

Siobhan has worked on series such as Netflix’s Adolescence and BBC's Doctors.

Jess McCreadie is Investment Director at Northern Gritstone, an investment company dedicated to supporting science and technology businesses in the North of England.

Before her current role, Jess worked at Octopus Ventures as Principal specialising in Health Tech and B2B SaaS. Prior to Octopus, she was Investment Director at L&G, investing in Health Tech, Clean Tech and Infrastructure scale Clean Energy.

Kerris Bright is Chief Customer Officer at the BBC. She sits on the BBC Executive Committee. She is responsible for developing the relationship with BBC consumers.

Kerris joined the BBC in June 2018 and was previously Chief Marketing Officer at Virgin Media. Before Virgin, she held senior marketing positions at British Airways, ICI Paints and Unilever.

She is a highly experienced leader, bringing a customer-centred, data-driven approach to setting marketing strategy and executing with creative flair.

Patricia Perlman-Dee is a Senior Lecturer in Finance at Alliance Manchester Business School.  She has a master’s in Finance and International Management from Stockholm School of Economics.

She also holds a Post-Graduate Qualification in Teaching (PGCE) and is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Patricia is also a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and a ABNLP qualified Master Coach and NLP Master Practitioner.

Patricia has extensive experience in the finance sector, including derivatives and wealth management. She's worked for over 11 years in large financial corporations such as Citigroup, JP Morgan, Nomura and Barclays in Manchester, London and New York.

Patricia has worked with a wide range of financial markets products, including structured funds, structured products, OTC options, notes, swaps and warrants, and proprietary index derivatives.

She has worked with a variety of client types including banks, asset managers, insurance companies, large corporates, fund distributors and other financial institutions.  

Joshi Herrmann is the founder of Mill Media, a weekly newspaper delivered via email through Substack focusing on local stories.

After starting The Mill in Manchester in June 2020, Mill Media has award-winning publications in Manchester, Glasgow, London, Sheffield, Liverpool and Birmingham. It also has more than 150,000 email subscribers.

Before setting up Mill Media, Joshi wrote for publications including The Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, VICE and The London Evening Standard.

Simon Binns is Head of Content Development at GOV.UK. Previously, he worked as managing editor at LADBible and as a journalist for the BBC, The Guardian and Manchester Evening News.

Jenni Rose qualified as an accountant with the ICAEW when working in Audit with KPMG in 2008. From this, she went on to teach in the KPMG Learning and Development team. Then, on to professional accountancy teaching before joining The University of Manchester in 2015.

She is now a senior lecturer and passionate advocate of empowering independent connected learners. The main focus of her teaching is in auditing, financial reporting and financial statement analysis, as well as on the MBA at the University.

She won the teaching excellence award, 'University of Manchester Teacher of the Year in 2020', for her work as BSc Accounting programme director and sharing best practice in teaching excellence debriefs.

Jenni also has a significant interest in teaching career adaptability, drive and resilience, personal development and professional skills. She loves questions, connecting to others and little nudges which can make a big difference.

Ken McPhail is currently Head of Alliance Manchester Business School.  He was previously Deputy Head and Director of Research. Prior to this, Ken was Vice Dean for Social Responsibility within the Faculty of Humanities at The University of Manchester.

As Vice Dean, Ken oversaw the strategic development and implementation of the Universities distinctive social responsibility agenda across 5 schools, 36 disciplines, 18,000 students and 1,800 academic and support staff.

Ken's work is focused on various aspects of accounting ethics and corporate accountability.

Peter Buckley is Professor of International Business at Alliance Manchester Business School and Visiting Professor at Hong Kong Metropolitan University and the University of Queensland Business School.

He was President of the Academy of International Business (2002-04) and Chair of the European International Business Academy (2009-2012). Appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) 2012 and elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), 2014.

Dr Axele Giroud is Professor of International Business at Manchester Business School and Visiting Professor with the University of Gothenburg. She's also Head of the Comparative and International Business Group.

Her research focuses on the interception between multinational firms' strategies and structure, FDI and sustainable development.

Building on international business literature, she integrates concepts from the international economics and development fields, to demonstrate the relationship between international business and sustainable development.

Bruce Tether is Professor of Innovation Management and Strategy at Manchester Business School (MBS) within the University of Manchester.

He is also the Associate Head of Research for the Innovation Management and Policy Division within MBS, and a member of the Executive Board of the UK Innovation Research Centre (UK~IRC) based at the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London.

Bruce teaches innovation management and entrepreneurship on the MSc Management programme and on the MSc Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship programme. He has a research affiliation to the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research.

Professor Sir Cary Cooper is a world-leading expert on workplace wellbeing, occupational health psychology, women at work and occupational stress. He has authored more than 250 books and is a frequent media commentator on workplace issues.

He has held numerous senior positions with UK industry bodies, was the founding member of the Journal of Organizational Behaviour and is currently Chair of the National Forum for Health and Wellbeing at Work. In 2014, he was knighted for his contribution to the social sciences.

Gerard P. Hodgkinson is Professor of Strategic Management and Behavioural Science at Alliance Manchester Business School. From 2017-2022 he was the Vice-Dean for Research of the Faculty of Humanities.

From September 2016-October 2017 he served as Deputy Head of the Business School. In his Vice-Dean role, Professor Hodgkinson was responsible for leading the development and implementation of the Faculty's research goals and operational plan, in accordance with the University's overall strategy and its 'statement on research expectations'.

Dr. Mann is a Professor of the Practice at Brandeis University. She contributes to the research program of The Productivity Institute and is a Science Advisor to the European Investment Bank. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Economic Association, among others.

Dr. Mann's research has focussed on international economic relationships and outcomes, including trade, finance, climate, productivity, and inequality.

She has authored or co-authored seven books, 60-plus articles, and numerous shorter pieces and testimony.

Professor Markos Zachariadis holds the Chair of Financial Technology (FinTech) and is Full Professor of Information Systems at Alliance Manchester Business School (AMBS), at The University of Manchester.

He is a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on Financial & Monetary Systems; Chief Fintech Advisor to the President of the Hellenic Competition Commission, Greece's competition and markets authority; and a FinTech Research Fellow at the Cambridge Centre for Digital Innovation (CDI), University of Cambridge.

Professor Zachariadis' research sits at the cross section of economics of digital innovation, financial technology studies, and network economics.

Professor Lou Cordwell is the inaugural Chief Executive Officer of Unit M, The University's newly launched initiative to connect with, and catalyse, the regional innovation ecosystem to drive inclusive growth. In 2024 Lou was appointed Professor of Innovation at the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research (MIOIR) at Alliance Manchester Business School (AMBS), and Special Advisor to the Office of the President and Vice-Chancellor.

Lou is also Chair of Greater Manchester's Business Board and an angel investor, particularly focusing on female tech founders. Lou was awarded an OBE in the 2018 New Year’s Honours for services to the creative and digital economy.