FOUNDERS

Kathleen Warden was appointed Director of Conferences Sales in March 2014, and has fulfilled a number of roles for the company since joining in 2000 as the Sales Manager for UK associations. This was her introduction to the world of business tourism, having spent 7 years in destination marketing both in the UK and overseas.

Committed to promoting Glasgow, Scotland and the UK for business events and conferences, Kathleen has loved being part of the industry’s evolution and its growing recognition as a major driver for economic prosperity and inward investment. Kathleen is passionate about seeing this success continue long into the future.

Matt is currently Director of Business Development at the Gallowglass Group and has been with the company for the past 10 years. Links with Gallowglass stretch back a little further, however, to 1998, shortly after the company’s inception, when Matt was an actor.

He originally trained at RADA and spent seven years working predominantly in theatre both in the West End and on tour, prior to moving into the events industry.

The Gallowglass Group works on over 9000 events a year from corporate AGM’s through to the Opening & Closing Ceremonies of the Olympic and Commonwealth Games.

Joanna has over 18 years experience in the events industry, gained both as a corporate client and within event management agencies. She first became interested in event management whilst working for Moët & Chandon, in their private chateau in Epernay, France. This job also helped her develop a lifelong passion for the golden bubbles… ?

Subsequently, Joanna moved to Ireland and worked for Meetings and Events Management; a small agency based in Dublin. After 3 years she returned to the UK and joined Imagination, a leading events and communications agency in London. Initially working within the logistics team, Joanna left Imagination 5 years later as Senior Account Manager, having worked with clients such as Aston Martin, Ford, Coca-Cola, Mazda, Ericsson and Warner Brothers.

Joanna joined AstraZeneca in 2007 as Head of Events for Primary Care for the UK affiliate. As well as delivering a number of meetings and events, she was pivotal in remodelling the company’s incentive scheme, which won industry awards for ‘Best Incentive Programme’ for two consecutive years.

She took on her current role as Global Congress & Conference Director at AstraZeneca’s Global office in October 2012 and is responsible for the successful delivery of the Business’ medical congress activity for the Cardiovascular, Renal and Metabolism therapy area. She also inputs into the Company’s Meetings & Events strategy whilst driving innovation and sharing best practice. She is the owner of the event delivery model and manages all aspects of relationships with external suppliers.

Joanna is Vice-President of IPCAA (International Pharmaceutical Congress Advistory Association http://www.ipcaa.org/), was a founding Mentor on the FastForward 15 Programme (http://www.fastforward15.co.uk/), sits on the Steering Committee of the ICE Awards (http://www.ice-awards.com/) and has spoken at a number of industry events and courses, including for The Event Academy (https://eventacademy.com/).

She is trilingual (Spanish/French/English) and lives in the outskirts of London with her husband and 2 young children who are often more difficult to manage than a boardroom full of corporates….

With a broad brand, marketing and communications background, Sarah has spent nearly 20 years in senior leadership roles at a number of blue chip companies and major agency networks. Events have long been a core component of the strategic marketing programmes she has delivered, from sponsorship activation of Formula One to stakeholder engagement at the World Economic Forum at Davos. Sarah is currently EMEIA Brand, Marketing and Communications Director at EY. Sarah previously held the role of Brand and Communications Director at BNP Paribas where she met Anita Howard, founder of the ICE Awards. With a strong belief in the importance of recognising individual and team contributions, Sarah was immediately inspired by the concept of the ICE Awards and has been delighted to help with the launch and growing success of this unique addition to the meeting and event industry awards.

Samme has been leading the business events sales team successfully since October 2011; previously Samme has been Head of Sales at both the Barbican and Twickenham Stadium.

She has been a board member of MPI UK & Ireland for over 7 years and has served as President of the chapter as well as international council positions.

Samme steered the development of London City Selection marketing consortium and has been chairing this since it launched in February 2010. She has a real passion for our industry and does her best to be a brand ambassador for meetings and events internationally. She also spends time working with students to ensure there is professionalism and career opportunities for the future leaders of the industry.

A meetings professional with 28 years experience in both conferences and exhibitions dealing with the creation, administration and marketing of conferences, meetings and special events. Previously with Blenheim Plc, Reed Elsevier group and EMAP McClaren working on both UK and overseas events e.g. Confex, In-Cosmetics, Graphic Design Show, Anita has experience in dealing with events for up to 10, 000 visitors and 400 exhibitors. Anita has a reputation in the events industry for her ‘can do’ attitude. She is passionate about the role of academia and technology in society and commerce. Anita has extensive experience and skills liaising across company, other agencies and contractors. In 2014, Anita and fellow founders came up with the idea for the International Corporate Event Awards as a way of rewarding the in-house event organiser for their hard work.