Panellist Biographies

An entrepreneur, Chief Executive and author, Margaret Heffernan was born in Texas, raised in Holland and educated at Cambridge University. She has previously worked at the BBC, run the trade organisation IPPA, and on her return to the States worked on public affair campaigns in Massachusetts and with software companies developing interactive multimedia products with Peter Lynch, Tom Peters, Standard & Poors and The Learning Company. She then joined CMGI where she ran, bought and sold leading Internet businesses, serving as Chief Executive Officer for InfoMation Corporation, ZineZone Corporation and iCAST Corporation.

She has written two books on women in business and female entrepreneurship. She holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Bath, where she teaches and she is also Visiting Professor of Entrepreneurship at Simmons College in Boston and Executive in Residence at Babson College, sits on the Council of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art as well as on the boards of several private companies. Margaret blogs for the Huffington Post and BNET. Her most recent book, Wilful Blindness has been nominated for the FT/GoldmanSachs Best Business Book award.

Shalini Khemka

An Investment Director at LDC, Shalini joined the company in March 2008 with specific responsibility to head up LDC's entrepreneurs’ network - The LDC Opportunity Club, to create a centre of excellence around LDC's Non-Exec Network. She also spearheads LDC's British Asian and UK/India businesses. Shalini joined from Lloyds TSB where she had been running the Group's Plain Vanilla International Trade Finance business for 4 years. She was Chair of Lloyds TSB's Emerging Leaders programme from June 2006 until January 2008. She has been actively involved in microfinance and supported Lloyds TSB's women's network.

Alongside her role at LDC, Shalini is CEO of The London Entrepreneurial Exchange – an entrepreneurial network for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs to create world-class companies. Shalini also represents LDC as Patron of The Prince of Wales Charity - The British Asian Trust, and is a board director of The Rajasthani Foundation (TRF) - helping women and children in Rajasthan.

Gita Patel

Gita is co-founder and a director of Stargate Capital where she created Trapezia, Europe’s first venture capital fund to invest in women focused businesses.  Before that Gita held senior positions at NatWest, Arthur Andersen and Gulf Oil and she was identified among the most influential Asians in the 2005 Power 100. Gita has employed her City background to help create a business environment in which entrepreneurship can flourish and her selection as a finalist for the 2007 Credit Suisse Award for the Outstanding Woman in Business (National Business Awards) further underscored her contribution.

Gita serves on the Oxfam GB Board, the London Chamber of Commerce ABA Board, the Institute of Chartered Accountants'  "Narrowing the Gap" Steering Committee, the board of the British Association of Women Entrepreneurs, the Finance Committee of the LSE where she is also a Governor and as a director of a number of private companies. Gita also mentors CEOs and is seen as an expert leading change in the women’s market and is in demand as a  speaker sharing her insights on the international stage. She contributes regularly to the media and is appearing as an expert on the “Women in Business 2011” series on Woman’s Hour, BBC Radio 4.

Karen Darby

Karen became a young entrepreneur aged just 22– setting up one of the country’s first telemarketing companies, the Decisions Group, now part of Sitel. Within seven years the company had more than 200 staff and sales in excess of £4m.

By 1990, she had decided it was time for a new challenge.  She sold her share of the company and set up her second business, a firm providing training for call-centre staff: Karen Darby Direct. With two young sons and working from home, Karen became a "mumtreneur" before launching her third and most successful venture, SimplySwitch, a price comparison service in 2003. Securing venture capital funding from Bridges Community Ventures, which was subject to the business meeting certain social criteria such as being based in one of the most deprived areas of the UK, the company launched as Simply Energy Ltd.  Initially offering consumers a free and impartial switching service for gas and electricity, it quickly extended its portfolio of products to include home phone, mobile, broadband and a range of financial products and was re-branded SimplySwitch. The company created over 100 jobs and helped thousands of consumers save over £20m on their household bills.

In August 2006 Karen sold SimplySwitch to the Daily Mail for £22m, and is now on a mission to create 10,000 jobs for the unemployed. Karen is also a trustee of Working Chance, a charity that helps female ex offenders to find jobs, and she also mentors women entrepreneurs.

Steve Allen

Deputy Chief Constable at Lothian and Borders Police, Steve has responsibility for Corporate Development, Corporate Communications, Complaints and Conduct as well as deputising for the Chief Constable.

Holding a BA (Hons) degree in Politics, a Masters in Defence Studies and a Diploma in Applied Criminology, Steve began his career in 1985 with the Avon and Somerset Constabulary, and after becoming Divisional Commander for the city of Bath and North East Somerset he joined the Metropolitan Police in 2003, where he took command of the MPS Diversity Directorate.

He became the Commander of the City of Westminster in 2007, and was responsible for policing the heart of the capital city and leading a team of over 2000 police officers and staff, and in 2009 was posted to the Human Resources Directorate where he was the MPS Director of Training and Development. Between 2006 and 2009 he was the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) lead for Honour-based Violence and Forced Marriage, and he is currently ACPOS National Lead for Diversity and Equality in Scotland.