Piers Linney who is famed for his canny and frank approach on the BBC hit series ‘Dragons Den’ will be delivering the keynote speech at the forthcoming Signature Awards on the 1st Feb 2019 at the ICC Birmingham.
Piers Linney is an entrepreneur and investor with a professional background in the City. Piers is known as a champion of entrepreneurship and growth businesses and featured on Channel 4’s Secret Millionaire. He has broad experience of the financial and operational challenges that continue to face growth businesses as a founder, adviser, director and investor.
Piers has founded several technology and communication businesses and has won a range of entrepreneurship awards, including Entrepreneur of the Year at the inaugural EY sponsored Black British Business Awards. He has sat on the Cabinet Office SME Panel and the Board of TechUK, and is a Trustee of Nesta, the UK’s leading innovation charity with a £450m endowment. Piers is a Non-Executive Director of the government-owned British Business Bank, which aims to unlock capital for UK SMEs and which has facilitated over £12bn of financing, including £250m for the Midlands Engine Investment Fund.
Piers has been recognised as one of the top 100 most influential Black Britons and as a leading ethnic minority executive by the Financial Times.
‘We are pleased to have a fantastic speaker at the awards, Piers will give an insight into the world of technological disruption and the role of data in today’s business world. I am also sure that he will give us insight into his time as a Dragon and what the future looks like for SME’s and entrepreneurs.
The tickets are selling extremely well and we have been really pleased with the quality of the nominations. The deadline for submissions is the 16th Dec so there is still time for entries’. Ninder Johal, past president of the Black Country Chamber of Commerce and current board member of the Black Country LEP, West Midlands Growth Company and founder of the Signature Awards also referred to the region’s future both economically and politically.
‘Whilst we await to see what happens over the next few weeks politically, the region continues to perform well particularly in terms of inward investment and jobs. The country continues to produce great businesses and entrepreneurs and those who enable the creation of wealth to continue – the very ingredients that we look to celebrate at the Signature Awards’.
The sponsors on the night include Porsche, Cobra Beer, NFU Mutual, FBC Manby Bowdler, Rational FX, East End Foods, Pathway Group, Wolverhampton University, BJS Distribution, Oxbridge Home Learning, Hollywood Monster, Vision Printers and Bootcamp Media.
The event will be hosted by Tommy Sandhu and the charity on the evening will be Acorns.
