Lucian (24) is the energetic face behind the Brave New® brand and founder of www.BraveNewTalent.com. An award winning young entrepreneur with a huge drive and passion for success. He has recently been awarded 5th place Natwest and RBS’s search for the UK’s ‘Top 15 up and coming Entrepreneurs’. Lucian has a ‘born global’ attitude with a strategy to match. He is the world’s youngest entrepreneur to join the UKTI (UK Trade and Investment’s) hugely successful Global Entrepreneur Program with Brave New Talent being described by the UK Government as a “Technology company of Exceptional Potential”. BraveNewTalent.com is the worlds first pre-employment networking site, connecting talent to employers online. The platform has plans to scale up globally but is launching initially in the UK and India. Brave New Talent will revolutionize the recruitment of student talent worldwide. Lucian was the UK’s first undergraduate entrepreneur to receive EU financial backing and Edinburgh University support. As a student he ran one of the UK’s only entirely student run charities - Take Heart India (www.takeheartindia.org). Through his fundraising efforts Take Heart has built an IT school in rural India training hundreds of blind students in IT skills. Lucian has worked with in India since …

My name is Samuel Kasumu. I am the Director of Elevation Networks (www.elevationnetworks.co.uk). I live in North london and have a vision of opening opportunities for groups within our society that can be classed as under represented.

Eleanor Ford is a trained anthropologist, filmmaker and entrepreneur. She has consulted and taught in anthropology, and has made films in Pakistan, Colombia and the UK. Within her entrepreneurial activity, as Director and Co-Founder of LikeCube Ltd (an online network funded by NESTA and the LDA), she is responsible for project management, fund-raising and the creation and development of the strong network of strategic partners. She was selected by NESTA as part of the Creative Pioneer Programme and, as the originator of the LikeCube concept, Eleanor recently won the Silver Award at the British Female Inventor and Innovator of the Year. Eleanor is currently involved in a transformational project with NESTA Connect and the RSA, bringing the 27,000 Fellows to the heart of the Society and focusing on civic innovation and social progress. As well as being a fantastic example of organisational transformation, this project develops her growing interest in the power of networks. She loves meeting, connecting and mobilising people for activities, projects and social change. Eleanor is mentored by leading figures in social entrepreneurship, investment, media and leisure, and by networking expert, Carole Stone.

I am not an academic. I am a linguist by education having studied French and Italian at Nottingham University. I am from a business background, having word for many years in International Trade, shifting for a brief while to a major accounting firm, before establishing my own consultancy business specialising in small business start-up and development, international trade advice and business funding. Before coming to Nottingham Trent University, I ran my own consultancy business, as well as developing a number of other small business opportunities over the last few years in areas such as mobile communications, printing, software development, first aid supplies and latterly express courier transport. I am currently student enterprise adviser at Nottingham Trent University and provide support, encouragement and advice to undergraduates and graduates in their business development aspirations. I manage the Students in Free Enterprise programme for the university as well as the Student Placements in Education (SPEED) programme and am an integral member of the Hive team. The Hive is the university’s own business development and creation centre based on campus in Nottingham.