Our Team

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  ASHLEY WARD
  Chairman and CEO Programme Leader

  Ashley is a highly experienced CEO who has been through the spectrum of learning experiences as a CEO including IPOs, trade sales and downsizing. Career highlights include leading the IPO for one of LSE’s highest growth stocks in Orchestream with a market cap of over £900m in 2000. He was also part of the leadership team that turned around Cray/Anite Networks and executed its sale to Cable and Wireless.

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  NIKKI WATKINS
  HR Programme Leader

  Nikki is a forward thinking strategic HR leader with direct experience of High Tech and FMCG environments. She can demonstrate a successful performance record in a range of disciplines from sales, customer services, trade marketing, organisational learning and development, talent management and HR leadership. Having worked in Companies including MARS, Dell and Business Objects (acquired by SAP in 2008 for $6.6bn) she has built a reputation for personal effectiveness, instilling a sense of urgency into situations and producing effective systemic results that directly affect organizational performance. She has a high measure of personal drive with a motivating, action orientated approach to the challenges of fast moving and complex organisations.

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  NATALIE TURNER
  Programme Leader

  Natalie has a background in marketing and business strategy both from direct managerial experience in the Telecoms industry as well as through her time as a Director in a variety of innovation and business consultancies including corporate incubators and interim management positions. Working in strategic innovation and business facilitation, Natalie works with clients to help generate concepts for new products, services and innovation strategies from discovering the needs of a marketplace, creative idea generation and helping businesses to build and sustain a culture of innovation.

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  NIKI LEMON
  Operations Director

  Niki has worked with two of the UK’s leading event management agencies in both operational and sales-based roles. She has delivered internationally recognised events on a global basis for clients in the TMT, pharmaceutical and government sectors. In her most recent role at MCI she was a core part of the management team that grew UK-wide business opportunities establishing the UK HQ as the leading provider across Europe. Niki is also responsible for expanding ELP's community of Chairmen, Founders & CEOs. Niki graduated with a first class honours degree in Event Management from Leeds Metropolitan University.