Barbara Dennis

Barbara is a highly respected and sought-after Business Strategist, Executive Coach and Professional Speaker. She is, herself, a successful business owner with over 20 years' experience of business leadership. She promotes an entrepreneurial leadership style and stresses the imperative of working as a cohesive team.

For the past decade she has been a strategic adviser, thought leader and coach for top business executives supporting the shaping and maintaining of high-performance, competitive business environments.

Her recent career includes being Chief Executive of Norcare Limited, a business with an extensive social housing portfolio. She is currently Chair of the Gateshead Housing Company, responsible for delivering a £320 million regeneration programme. Under her leadership, Gateshead Housing Company secured Three Star Status and is rated as excellent by the Audit Commission.

Linda Rutter

Linda is currently working with a case-load of emerging and established social enterprises, working on a range of products which represent a methodology and training package for setting up social enterprises, a tool kit for existing social enterprises and material for cascading enterprise and entrepreneurship throughout the voluntary and community sector.

She is responsible for clustering and networking social enterprises to take advantage of the emerging opportunities in health and well-being, procurement and community building agenda. Linda provides appropriate intervention in the form of business advice to the social economy sector.

Linda's current caseload are social enterprises that deliver or aspire to deliver health and well-being services, community hub provision, and sustainable grass-roots regeneration.

Linda's track record in supporting social investment and growth demonstrates an average leverage of one million pound investment on an annual basis.

Andy Peers

Andy Peers is Founder and Director of Love Enterprise, an organisation which works with individuals and organisations that have embraced enterprising approaches or the need for organisational development to help them achieve positive social change.

"We do this by bringing the experiences, skills and inspirations of credible practitioners to the support we provide. If they haven't been there, we won't put them with you. Because of our experiences we truly understand the unique cultures, values and tensions that exist within social purpose organisations that are striving to achieve both social and financial aims."