Stuart helped to create, run and host many publications, conferences and awards events. These include The First Women Awards in partnership with the CBI; the Women of the Future Awards and the Asian Women of Achievement Awards in partnership with their founder Pinky Lilani; and the Growing Business Awards.
Stuart has worked with the international IP firm Mewburn Ellis on the content development for its website, including articles on graphene, battery technology and future mobility.
For more than five years, Stuart has worked with London & Partners on many initiatives celebrating the city and its fast-growing companies and sectors. These have included:
London Tech Heroes: highlighting 15 role models for London’s tech scaleups, created for London Technology Week 2015;
London International Growth Heroes: created to support the launch of the award-winning Mayor’s International Business Programme, which supports the international growth of high-growth London companies in the technology, life sciences, and urban infrastructure sectors.
Transatlantic Tech: an extensive series of interviews with US and Canadian entrepreneurs and senior executives about their experiences of starting and growing tech businesses in London
Capital of Convergence: a publication highlighting the density of domain expertise and technology talent in London and identifying the city as “the world capital of convergence.”
In addition, Stuart has written for London & Partners on the city’s collaboration with Japan; on the development of its digital health sector; and on a response to the Brexit referendum.
Working with London Stock Exchange Group, TheCityUK and YouGov, Finance for Fintech surveyed than 400 fintech companies across eight countries – Australia, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Singapore, Turkey, UK and USA – about their growth plans and how they will finance growth.
Alongside this, 12 in-depth interviews were conducted with fintech CEOs. The report provided important insights about the scale and ambitions for global growth of the fintech sector. The report highlighted the UK as one of the top priority markets for fintechs seeking to expand internationally and raise finance.
For more than five years, Stuart has been deeply involved with the pioneering work of the ScaleUp Institute and its communications and content strategy. Past publications include:
300 years ago, in April 2021, a smallpox epidemic was raging in England. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu knew that she could save her three year-old daughter using the process of inoculation.
She had witnessed this at first hand in Turkey, while she was living there as the wife of the British ambassador. She also knew that by inoculating she would face opposition from doctors, politicians and clerics. Her courageous action – making her daughter the first person protected in the West – eventually led to the eradication of smallpox and the prevention of millions of deaths.
But Mary was more than a scientific campaigner. She mixed with the greatest politicians, writers, artists and thinkers of her day. She was also an important early feminist, writing powerfully and provocatively about the position of women.
She was best friends with the poet Alexander Pope. They collaborated on a series of poems, which made her into a household name, an ‘It Girl’. But their friendship turned sour and he used his pen to vilify her publicly.
Aristocratic by birth, Mary chose to elope with Edward Wortley Montagu, whom she knew she did not love, so as to avoid being forced into marrying someone her father preferred. In middle age, her marriage stale, she fell for someone young enough to be her son – and, unknown to her, bisexual. She set off on a new life with him abroad. When this relationship failed, she settled in Europe, narrowly escaping the coercive control of an Italian conman.
After twenty-two years abroad, she returned home to London to die. The son-in-law she had dismissed as a young man had meanwhile become Prime Minister.
Chairing a conference requires careful preparation, good humour and being a stickler for time-keeping.
Stuart has chaired many conferences in is career. Recently, he has been a regular chair of the UK Business Angels Association’s National Investment Summit and Winter Investment Forum. You can read more about these events here.
He has also been chairing a series of events in the Business is GREAT campaign, including a networking event on a Virgin Train from Birmingham International to Euston, and conferences at Gatwick Airport and Telefonica’s Soho office.
A business awards ceremony needs many things: slick organisation, a quality venue, generous sponsors and supportive partners, and a compere who can communicate the achievements of all the contestants – not just the winners – with warmth and intelligence. And the whole show needs to run on time.
Stuart has been hosting business award ceremonies since the mid-1990s. His most recent event was to compere the GREAT Faces of British Business Competition, which was held at the BT Tower. The Daily Telegraph featured this competition extensively.
Jo produced the revamp of BIRDS OF A FEATHER for ITV. It was a big ratings success.
Jo produced this comedy for BBC4 starring Joanna Scanlan and Vicki Pepperdine.
