Meet the Judges

Winner of the BBC “Apprentice” Series 2007

Simon Ambrose
Simon was educated at Westminster School, and Magdalene College, Cambridge where he graduated with a BA in Economics. He is a member of Mensa with an IQ of 174, which he achieved at the age of 13.

Previously he worked for investment bank Credit Suisse in London and then ran his own Internet shopping business before applying for the £100,000 a year job through the BBC show, The Apprentice. He was hired by Sir Alan Sugar in the final episode.

Now working at Amsprop he is also training as a surveyor. He is in charge of developing a hotel and golf course near Stansted Airport and it is reported that he and Sir Alan are planning on building London's most expensive office and may bid for a prime site on London's St. James's Square.

“George Bernard Shaw once challenged a young man who was asking rather silly questions, by saying to him - 'You look at things and ask why?....but I dream of things that never were and ask - Why Not?' And the Grand Challenge is posing that question to many teams in many companies who will be not only dreaming of things - but making things happen - as they seek to multiply an investment more effectively than their competitors - all to support the work of a wonderful, innovative organisation which works to bring equality, choice and independence to people with disabilities”

Professor Alan Barrell, Entrepreneur in Residence, University of Cambridge and Chairman of Judging Panel
Alan Barrell has spent almost 30 years in senior executive positions in technology based industries and has become one of Cambridge's most articulate promoters of entrepreneurship. He is a founder shareholder in Library House, Entrepreneur in Residence at the University's Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning and Visiting Professor of Enterprise at the University of Bedfordshire School of Graduate Business Studies. He is Visiting Professor at Xiamen University in China and Senior Enterprise Fellow, University of Essex. Recently appointed as International Fellow, Laurea University of Applied Sciences in Helsinki, he is also Chairman of Health Enterprise East Ltd, an organisation seeking to exploit innovative inventions, processes and procedures in the National Health Service within the Eastern Region.

Following a scientific training, he worked around the world with Baxter Healthcare and was its Chief Executive for six years. Subsequently, he joined Domino Printing Sciences as Managing Director, following which, after six years, he joined Willett International, an industrial electronics company, and was its Chief Executive, building its international business into a major success.

He was instrumental in launching the Cambridge Gateway Fund to fund early stage technology businesses in the region and is involved with a number of charities including the Papworth Trust, the RSA, the Centre for Tomorrow's Company and The Prince's Trust. He has also chaired the Cambridge Enterprise Conference and works closely with a number of Science Parks and Innovation Centres in Cambridge, elsewhere in the UK and overseas. He received The Queen's Award in 2006 for Enterprise Promotion.

Founder and Chief Executive of Cobra Beer

Lord Karan Bilimoria CBE DL
Lord Karen Bilimoria is the Founder and Chief Executive of Cobra Beer. He also serves as Chairman of the Indo-British Partnership. He is a member of the UK-India Round Table and the Asia Task Force and serves as Vice-chairman of the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Asian Business Association. In October 2006 he received the UK Trade and Investment Special Recognition Award for his contribution to Indo-British trade, business and investment.

Among a number of other appointments, Lord Bilimoria is a representative deputy lieutenant of Greater London and Chancellor of Thames Valley University, the UK’s youngest at the time of his appointment. He is also one of the first two visiting entrepreneurs ever appointed at Cambridge University and sits on the government’s national employment panel.

Lord Bilimoria has received numerous awards for his contributions to enterprise, business and the Indo-British relationship, including the RSA Albert Medal in 2004 and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales Outstanding Achievement Award in 2005.

Lord Bilimoria is a qualified chartered accountant and has a law degree from Cambridge University.

“Bringing the excitement of a business challenge to teams in companies growing donations towards the causes of disability is a fabulous idea which I am delighted to support”

Sherry Coutu, Library House, Cambridge
Sherry Coutu is a Non-Executive Director of Library House and has more than 20 years experience in financial services and technology industries. As an executive, she has founded two software companies that continue to serve the financial services industry. The first was acquired in 1997 and has operations in more than 70 countries and the second was floated on the London and NASDAQ markets in 2000 and currently serves 1.7 million retail financial customers in the UK. Sherry led Interactive Investor International plc as Chief Executive for 5 years and then served as Chairman after the flotation up to the sale of the company. Prior experience includes time as a consultant with the LEK Partnership, Accenture, and Coopers & Lybrand Deloitte.

Since retiring as Chairman of Interactive Investor International plc in August 2001, Sherry has been an active business angel investor, a lecturer in entrepreneurship at London Business School, and a non-executive director of several technology companies including RM Plc where she is the Senior Independent Director and Chairs the Remuneration Committee. She is a founder member of Cambridge Angels and The Technology Leaders Group (Prince's Trust), and a member of the European Alumni Advisory Board of the Harvard Business School. Sherry has been and remains an active mentor to many software start-up entrepreneurs.

Sherry graduated with first class honours from the University of British Columbia (Canada) in 1986, a MSc. with distinction from the London School of Economics in 1987 and an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1993.

Marilyn Davison, International Consultant
Marilyn Davison, educated in the US now residing in France has many years experience as an international consultant and sales and marketing executive. She has worked on many development programmes as an independent researcher and senior consultant. Previously affiliated with Arthur D. Little consultancy, She is currently a partner with Simudyne, a business simulation company.

She has been a key note speaker at numerous public conferences throughout Europe as well as designing and presenting seminars for a number of European based clients.

Mark Goyder, Founder Director, Tomorrow’s Company
Mark Goyder is Founder Director of Tomorrow’s Company, a not-for-profit research and agenda-setting organisation responsible for the business led Tomorrow’s Global Company inquiry whose findings were published in June 2007. A business-led think-tank, Tomorrow’s Company is committed to creating a future for business which makes equal sense to staff, shareholders and society. After 15 years as a manager in manufacturing businesses, Mark Goyder initiated the Royal Society for the encouragement of arts, manufacturing and commerce (RSA) Tomorrow's Company Inquiry, a business led inquiry into ‘the role of business in a changing world’. The objective was to develop a shared vision of the company of the future. In 1995 he founded Tomorrow's Company and, over the past ten years, has inspired and challenged the boards, leaders and managers of leading large and small companies with his clear vision and practical insights into the changing agenda for leadership, governance, and stakeholder relationships, most recently with the publication of Restoring Trust: investment in the twenty-first century (June 2004). A prolific writer and winner of the Institute of Management Studies (IMS) Tillers Millennium Trophy for best speaker, he has addressed audiences all over the world. Mark is also a member of the British Airways Corporate Responsibility Board, the BT Leadership Advisory Panel and the Camelot Advisory Panel for Social Responsibility. He also writes a monthly column in Ethical Corporation Magazine.

“I am absolutely thrilled to be involved in this highly innovative initiative assisting an extremely worthwhile cause.”

Walter Herriot OBE, Managing Director of St John’s Innovation Centre Limited
Walter Herriot OBE, has been the Managing Director of St John’s Innovation Centre Ltd since 1990. The Innovation Centre, based in Cambridge, is regarded as a model for incubators, particularly those linked to Universities, both nationally and internationally. The Centre is a social enterprise as all its profits are covenanted to St John’s College the sole shareholder with a view to re-investment in the educational activities of the College. Prior to running the Centre Walter spent 18 years as a Manager for Barclays Bank, and was then Corporate Finance Director for Coopers and Lybrand in East Anglia. Walter is Chair of the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce, The EEDA Enterprise Hubs in the East of England and Enterprise East (The Federation of Enterprise Agencies in the East of England). He is a member of the steering committee of the Greater Cambridge Partnership. In 1999 Walter was awarded an OBE for services to businesses in the East of England and in 2002 was the Cambridge Evening News "Businessman of the Year". In 2006 he received the Queens Award for Enterprise Promotion and was appointed Visiting Professor at the University of Hertfordshire.

“The reason why I support this initiative is that I believe very strongly in social entrepreneurship and have promoted it for the last 3 decades, even though the world only seems to have caught up on it in the last 5 years! Such is the fate of entrepreneurs!”

Candace Johnson, Telecommunications Entrepreneur
Candace Johnson is a Serial Telecommunications Entrepreneur who has been at the start of SES ASTRA, SES Global, Loral Teleport Europe, Europe Online, Iridium, etc. Dubbed by the Economist as Satellady, she has been at the origin of the first private satellite television in Europe, the first private trans-border satellite telecommunications in Europe, the first internet-based online service provider and the first IPTV and user-generated content on demand, peering network.

Ms. Johnson has also been cited as “the woman who democratized telecommunications in Europe” by The Chilli, Europe’s online magazine about entrepreneurs and is the founding president of the VATM, Germany’s pioneering association of private telecom operators who took the Deutsche Telekom to court and won for illegal subsidies of the data networks. She is also the founding President of the Global Telecom Women’s Network and was recently named “Homme de l’Annee” by Nice Matin for bringing about the first global festival of the Arts, Technology, and Science in Sophia Antipolis, Europe’s high tech hub and “Telecom Valley”.

In 2002, Ms. Johnson was the first and continues to be the only woman in the world to receive the “Lifetime Achievement Award” by the World Communications Awards, an honour which the father of the Internet Vinton Cerf and the father of the Web, Tim Berners Lee received before her. Ms. Johnson is a Commander of the Ordre de Merite de Luxembourg which she just received for her work in globalising the SES satellite system after having been named Officer of the Couronne de Chene for her work in creating SES ASTRA and has received the Bundesverdienstkreuz 1.Klasse for her work in de-regulating and privatising telecommunications and media in Europe. She is on numerous telecommunications, venture capital, and university boards throughout the world.

“To bring the competitive spirit and the entrepreneurial spirit into such a worthy cause as Papworth Trust and its objectives concerning disability is such a positive move - I applaud it wholeheartedly. To engage teams in companies to grow donations from an initial investment is a really innovative idea - and gives those participating a real world challenge”

Doug Richard, Founder Chairman of Library House Ltd., and one of the original Dragons of Dragon's Den
Having appeared in the first and second series of Dragons' Den, Doug is the founder and Chairman of Library House www.libraryhouse.net, Founder and Vice-Chairman of the Cambridge Angels, Chairman and CEO of Trutap www.trutap.net, and Chairman of the Conservative Party Small Business Task Force.

Doug is a successful entrepreneur with 20 years' experience in the development and leadership of technology and software ventures, both in the US and in the UK. Between 1996 and 2000 he was President and CEO of Micrografx, a US publicly quoted software company which he sold to Corel Corp. in 2000. Prior to that he also founded and subsequently sold two other companies: Visual Software and ITAL Computers. Doug holds a BA in Psychology from University of California at Berkeley and a Juris Doctor at the School of Law, University of California at Los Angeles. In 2006 Doug was an Honorary Recipient of The Queen's Award for Enterprise Promotion. In 2007, Doug became a fellow of the RSA.

Shailendra Vyakarnam, PhD MBA, Director for the Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning, University of Cambridge
Shai is Director for the Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning. He started his working career in small companies, leaving to complete his MBA and PhD at Cranfield School of Management, where he stayed on the faculty for ten years, before taking up a Chair in Enterprise at Nottingham Business School.

In 1990 Shai co-founded Transitions, combining his academic interests with the practical 'how-to' for businesses. As a result of this he has worked with over 400 businesses in workshops, consulting assignments through his business Transitions and as coach, mentor and non-executive director.

Shai is on the editorial board of the International Small Business Journal and the Journal of Strategic Change. He is Visiting Professor at Nottingham Business School and at the University of Reading.

The Grand Challenge

Meet the Judges