This event will be postponed. Please follow our website and emails for updates on our events.

The BusinessDesk.com is organising a special event in partnership with law firm CMS and private equity firm ECI Partners which will take a look at the issues surrounding foreign trade.

The panel of business leaders and experts will discuss the issues, challenges and opportunities faced by businesses in the region who are looking to make the most of overseas markets.

Although the UK has now left the European Union there is still plenty of  uncertainty surrounding Brexit.

The panellists will look at how businesses can still take full advantage of overseas markets and how advances in technology are making it easier than ever before to forge lucrative contacts and relationships across the globe.

The breakfast seminar is free to attend and is taking place at the Manchester Business School on Tuesday, March 25th.

More panellists will be added in the coming weeks.

Demand for tickets is expected to be high so early booking is recommended.

 

Barry Leahey

Barry is managing director of Playdale Playgrounds and Honorary Teaching Fellow – Entrepreneurship, Strategy and Innovation at Lancaster University Management School.

Barry is also an Entrepreneur in Residence at Lancaster University Management School and the chair of the Institute of Directors (IoD) Cumbria Branch.

Since Barry became managing director of Playdale in 2015, the company has been given the status of Commonwealth First Export Champion.

Playdale Playgrounds have been awarded Exporter of the Year 2015 in the CN Group Business Awards, National Manufacturing Family Business of the Year 2016 and National Business Exporter of the Year at the Federation of Small Businesses Worldpay UK Business Awards, 2016.

In 2018 he was one of 800 senior business leaders and heads of government from across the Commonwealth to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

 

Peter Zak

Peter has been chief operating officer at GBA Services for the last two years.

GBA Services is a logistics supply chain operator, offering time critical, temperature controlled, high security and dedicated transportation provision by air, road and sea. 

Headquartered in Lancashire, with an extensive depot and partner network and European subsidiaries based in Austria, Germany, Poland and Portugal. GBA provides customers with a combination of worldwide coverage for time critical freight.

GBA Services is a family-run business and has grown to become a leader in the field of logistics transport with more than 400 employees operating from 18 locations across the UK and worldwide

 

 

John Hayhurst 

John is head of ECI’s Northern office based in Manchester. 

ECI invest in management buyouts and buyins for majority or minority equity investments in medium sized UK growth companies.

John’s past ECI investments include Clarke Energy, Ascribe, Conviviality Retail, EDM, M and M Direct, LateRooms, and M2. 

He currently represents ECI’s interests on the boards of CPOMS and Imagesound. He joined ECI in 2003 from KPMG.

He graduated with a First Class degree in management sciences from UMIST and holds an ACA.

 

Matthew Davies

Matthew is a partner in CMS’s corporate group based in Manchester.

He specialises in UK and multi-jurisdictional mergers and acquisitions, corporate reorganisations and restructurings and corporate law and governance issues, as well as having particular experience in investment transactions, including joint ventures, partnerships and shareholders’ agreements.

Matthew has a particular focus on the financial services sector and has been involved in a number of high-profile deals.

Andrew Goldwater

Andrew Goldwater is Chief Financial Officer at M247
Andrew is a B2B services executive with experience in highly acquisitive private equity and public company environments. He is a ‘top 4 trained’ qualified chartered accountant with extensive commercial experience and track record in delivering success. He has been working within the UK telecoms industry for over 10 years, working in general management, commercial and financial senior roles at Daisy Group, BNS, Telecom Group PLC and Ernst & Young. He then went on to be chief financial officer at Onyx Group before joining M247.