Andrew has been a leading figure in the media and events industry for over 20 years. He launched the innovative Business Design Centre in Islington and was CEO of the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) in Birmingham where he transformed the culture from 'council' to 'commercial' through a transformative leadership development programme. Today, he is Non Executive Chairman of Brand Events, the international consumer festival organiser, and the annual World Photography Awards in Cannes sponsored by Sony. However, his primary focus is as Chief Executive of the Academy for Chief Executives, which he acquired in January 2011.

In his role as an Academy chairman Jeff has coached a whole line of CEOs through the pain barrier to both personal as well as business success and earned himself the tag of ‘active business angel’. With a background working for Dunlop, BOC, TRW, Dowty and Concentric, Jeff is a passionate believer in the importance of a strong manufacturing base for the UK economy. In his distinguished career as an MD, Jeff has gained exceptional experience in developing strategies, establishing organisational structures and implementing new concepts.

Joanna chairs a CEO Group and a DF Group in the Peterborough and Northampton area. Throughout her career Joanna has been passionate about leadership, coaching, and "helping people reach their stars." She has extensive experience of coaching techniques including NLP and Voice Dialogue, as Joanna says, "if the person is right, their business comes right!" Her first career was with Marks and Spencer in senior management roles, prior to becoming a member of the leadership team at Business Link, Hertfordshire.

Gordon is a passionate businessman, having spent most of his 30-year working life personally leading food and beverage businesses at MD level. He led the Tropicana UK Fruit Juice business for thirteen years, from start up in 1991 to become the UK's Number 1 Juice brand with revenues exceeding £150m by 2004. As an ACE chairman, Gordon’s focus is on helping members, both collectively at meetings and individually through 1:1 mentoring, to be clear about the goals they want to achieve for themselves and their businesses and to find the best ways to be successful at both.

Tim splits his time between chairing his own Academy Group, which is based in Leeds and which he has been chairing for 9 years, and other clients for whom he provides individual coaching. He specialises in helping individuals discover (and sometimes re-discover) their personal strengths and talents and put them to work in their organisations and their lives. Often these personal strengths are being neglected as the individual struggles to meet the needs of customers, employees, stakeholders and colleagues.

Karen is an experienced and qualified marketing and public relations professional based in the North East of England. She works at both a regional and national level, her experience spans both the public and private sectors and ranges from multi-nationals such as British Energy and Merrill Lynch to regional SMEs and Local Authorities to charities and not-for profit organisations. Her early career was spent in the precision engineering sector prior to a number of years in both management and consultancy roles with Deloitte and Coopers & Lybrand.