Meet the Team
Please note that business advisers and account managers are assigned by geographical location
Abigail Phillips
Adviser Manager
Abi leads a team of business advisers across the East Midlands. With a strong financial background and over a decade of entrepreneurial experience, Abigail's journey from running her own business to business assistance reflects her adaptability and practical skills.
In addition, having worked as a high-growth business coach in ERDF projects and holding an ILM Level 7 in leadership and management, Abigail specialises in supporting business growth and innovation within the retail and e-commerce sectors under the UKSPF programme. Her expertise is valuable in facilitating the development of businesses in the East Midlands.
David Smith
Business Adviser
David has worked in the business support arena for over 20 years, spanning roles as Business Adviser, coach and mentor. During this time David has also managed multiple publicly funded grant programmes, helping 300+ businesses access over £10m in grant funding. David has also run his own consultancy business, delivering Access to Finance seminars and providing specialist innovation support on a one-to-one basis.
A Level 5 qualified coach and mentor, David combines his role as a Business Adviser within the Chamber’s Enterprise team with external business coaching roles.
Emily Gascoyne
Events and Engagement Officer
Emily started at the East Midlands Chamber of Commerce as a Business Administration Apprentice, completing her Business Administration Level 2 and 3 and after 7 years with the Chamber she have been in varied ERDF funded roles and supported different projects, including the D2N2 Growth Hub.
Emma Straw
Digital Marketing Specialist
With over 9 years experience in copywriting, proofreading, digital marketing and SEO, Emma is able to understand and implement successful campaigns and marketing for events both online and in person.
Supporting and creating marketing campaigns for the Growth Hub, this enables businesses, local authorities and partnerships to get involved with local events, as well as publicising local partner events within the D2N2 network.
In Emma's spare time, she regularly volunteers with Re-engage a charity which aims to bring together lonely...read more.
Hannah Kerridge
Events and Engagement Officer
Hannah has been involved with events across various sectors over the last 7 years.
She has been working as the Event and Engagement Officer for the D2N2 Growth Hub since 2019 and oversees the projects online events and the face to face sessions across Derby, Derbyshire. She works closely with local authorities in the area, arranging business surgeries, events and their other involvements with the Growth Hub.
Helen Carter
Frontline Growth Hub Adviser Manager
Helen has worked within organisations providing information to businesses for over 30 years.
During this time, Helen has built up a working knowledge of business development support services and funding schemes locally and nationally. She has used this knowledge to help all types and sizes of business, from pre-starts to multinational companies, to access the support they need quickly and effectively.
Insan Farooqi
Business Adviser
Insan has worked in business support and consultancy for 15 years. In that time, he's worked with start-ups and large companies, across many industry sectors. His business support career started with Business Link and continued with other support organisations.
After University, Insan’s IT career began when he started as a Programmer, progressing to Director of Technical Services. He worked with several businesses in the UK, Europe and had a 3-year stint in the USA.
With his experience of setting up two businesses and managing a family business, Insan’s well placed...read more.
Kayleigh Newby
Marketing Manager
Kayleigh is the Marketing Manager for the D2N2 Growth Hub and is responsible for the representation and promotion of the D2N2 Growth Hub brand. Kayleigh is responsible for all Growth Hub marketing activity to ensure that the D2N2 Growth Hub can reach as many businesses as possible with the Growth Hub services. This role involves building relationships and working closely with partners and local authorities in order to market the Growth Hub service to SME's across the D2N2 regions.
Kayleigh has worked in marketing for over 12 years and has experience in various...read more.
Lisa Byers
Frontline Growth Hub Adviser
Lisa has experience of setting up a new business as well as being a sole trader for 10 years. She also has over 12 years experience in retail management.
Having ran her own business, Lisa can relate to the day-to-day running and real-life challenges that business owners face. Combined with her passion for supporting others, business acumen and knowledge of trading in the East Midlands area, Lisa can provide relevant information to support businesses, from pre-starts to large businesses in an effective and timely manner.
Paul Stuart
Head of Business Support Services
Paul is the East Midlands Chamber’s Head of Enterprise, responsible for the delivery of its enterprise and business support products and services across the East Midlands.
Paul has worked in business support for over 20 years and is experienced in delivering ERDF contracts. He is responsible for the Chamber's publicly funded enterprise contracts, including ERDF and other funded contracts. This includes managing the ERDF funded D2N2 Growth Hub project, the LLEP Business Gateway project, and the Chamber’s LLEP Collaborate Project.
Peter Lawrence
Business Adviser
Peter has worked in the public sector, corporate and SME arena with a strong focus on employer engagement and business support for over 30 years.
During this time he has also ran two businesses, B2B and B2C, gaining direct experience of what it takes to launch, develop and grow a viable business proposition.
With a strong business development, sales and marketing background Pete has provided consultancy, coaching and mentoring support to businesses across a range of sectors in the UK and overseas.
Fully committed to the interdependency of education, industry and government...read more.
Richard Crowden
Business Adviser
Initially working in the Logistics sector as a consultant, Richard moved into Business support, working as a Business Adviser for Business Link Nottinghamshire, EMB Ltd, NBV Ltd and Pinnacle People. Delivering European and Council funded projects for over twenty years. Supporting both start-up and existing SMEs.
Richard is an experienced company Director and Business owner, with experience across various sectors including house building, food production and retail.
Serleeka Saini
Marketing and Communications Executive
Serleeka has been Marketing and Communications Executive at East Midlands Chamber since 2017 working on funded projects including the Digital Growth Programme and Digital Upscaler project.
Serleeka has over 18 years’ of marketing experience having worked in a number of marketing roles including the higher education sector. Prior to this, Serleeka also supported a research project; Supplier Diversity East Midlands funded by EMDA, which aimed to support EMBs.
Serleeka's current role is to raise awareness of the diverse range of business support available through the Chamber and D2N2 Growth Hub. This will be...read more.
Sonny Lakhani
Business Adviser
Sonny started his career working in the family business and went on to work for various learning, development and training consultancies as a business development manager and coach. This gave him a good grounding to understand the depth of challenges that companies face, enabling him to alleviate these challenges.
Having worked in the corporate & private sector for 20+ years; assisting businesses to grow, Sonny changed his focus to charities and social enterprises. Sonny is also studying a coaching diploma level 7 and business analysis level 5.
As a Business Adviser focussing on BAME...read more.
Steve Phillips
Business Adviser
Steve joined the East Midlands Chamber of Commerce in 2021, working as a Digital High Street Adviser for the Chesterfield Digital High Street program.
Steve helped both small and large businesses develop their online presence which was highlighted as an important area during and coming out of the the pandemic. Having successfully ran an online business for 10 years, Steve was able to transfer the skills that he acquired during that time to help businesses looking to engage with their clients and customers via online platforms and e-commerce websites.
