Nick has worked in the major sports event industry for over 30 years. He started at The European Tour Golf where he was responsible for the staging of the Tour’s key events including the Ryder Cup and PGA Championship before setting up an independent event management company, working as Tournament Manager for the Scottish Open in Loch Lomond.
This was followed by 4 years working as Head of Production at TEAM Marketing in Switzerland responsible for the delivery of UEFA Champions League branding programme and the 2006 FIFA World Cup. He returned to the UK to launch the original fabric frame display system in partnership with CSM Live (formerly Icon) before joining them full time in 2010 to head up their international football division. During this time, he directed multiple branding and signage projects, including 4 FIFA World Cups.
Having worked as both client and supplier, the importance of understanding and appreciating both perspectives has been central to how he works and a key to his success. First and foremost though, he is a passionate believer in the critical importance of rigorous and detailed planning and processes in successfully delivering projects on time and on budget.
Rupert Gather
Rupert Gather is the founder and Executive Chairman of InvestUK, a specialist advisory firm helping international entrepreneurs and innovators establish successful companies into Britain. Services cover access to relevant visas, investment capital and relocation support.
He has had a distinguished career in venture capital managing investments into innovative and scalable early-stage companies that he has built following active service in the British Army. To date InvestUK has facilitated 400 investments valued at £250m across multiple sectors and created 4,000 jobs in the process.
Rupert is a regular speaker and panelist at international conferences, a TEDx speaker with 750,000 views and a global evangelist for the UK enterprise economy.
He is passionate about education and works closely with the UK Department for Education as an independent trustee focused on improving educational outcomes for disadvantaged children. He founded the IUK Academy to combine his interests in business and education.
Mark Scholfield
Mark is an accomplished hospitality professional with 30 years’ experience within 5* luxury hotels, prestigious private members clubs and premium brands.
Having been at the heart of two of London’s major hotel restoration and opening projects, Mark specialises in event management, sales and operations with a hands on and visible approach. He has a proven track record in operating multi-outlet F&B divisions whilst employing, motivating and coaching highly professional teams.
Venues that Mark has worked with include The Savoy, The Hurlingham Club, Berry Bros. & Rudd, Coutts & Co, Rosewood London and The Ritz Carlton, Bahrain.
A member of the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts, Mark has advised, amongst others, The British Olympic Association, UBS & Hiscox Insurance on their event management strategy.
David Sharples
David is a Price Waterhouse qualified Chartered Accountant and holds an MBA from Warwick Business School. He has worked extensively in the Venture Capital and Private Equity environments and headed his own accountancy and tax practice for a number of years. Latterly he was appointed Chief Financial Officer of a major cyber security firm.
David’s expertise is in working with start ups and SMEs and in developing appropriate, commercially based financial and management reporting systems to complement the overall strategy of a business. He is highly experienced in assisting businesses with debt and equity fundraising and is well connected in the market.
Kate Disley
Kate has been working in exhibitions and conferences for over 20 years. She has been responsible for the successful delivery of brand strategies and campaigns for hundreds of events, including the largest B2B event in the UK, Spring Fair, and the multi-award-winning New Scientist Live.
She now runs her own successful and award-winning event support agency servicing hundreds of event organisers, from Emerald, Informa, Clarion and Reed to corporates, start-ups and launches. Her team are also building a portfolio of media brands of their own.
Kate continues to advise clients on market position, brand strategy and tactical delivery. She also provides best practice training, templates, and guidance for inhouse teams.
Guy Rodger
Guy has worked in the events and hospitality sector for over 30 years. In 1989 he founded The Ultimate Experience which later became the growth engine for The Concerto Group. As a Director of the Group, Guy was closely involved in Sales and Business Development – developing new projects and sales across venues, catering, teambuilding and private client events.
Since the sale of The Concerto Group, Guy has enjoyed success with a number of businesses in the events and hospitality arena including; Berry Brothers & Rudd, Leading Venues of London, Oxygen Events Services Ltd, Kirtlington Park and Costa Coffee.
Guy unashamedly admits he enjoys working on business growth rather than logistics. Guy brings a contagious level of enthusiasm which inevitably leads to growth.
Richard Groves
Richard is an expert in venue and catering sales and operations, event management, strategy & business development.
He launched his first catering company, Richard Groves Catering & Events, working in prestigious central London venues, before merging with two of his clients to form The Concerto Group in 2000. Rebranded as Create Food & Party Design, the catering division grew exponentially by an average of £1 million pounds per annum. Concerto was sold in 2015 when it was turning over £40 million. He is a former President of the UK Chapter of ILEA.
Richard repeated this growth plan at Smart Group from 2014, introducing a special event caterer and several new sole catering venues into the Group. Richard is an expert in venue and catering sales and operations, event management, strategy & business development.
Peter Jackson
In a previous life was the founder of leading creative live events agency Clive (formerly Concerto Live). Throughout his 20+ years leading the agency Peter set the agenda in the business to deliver impressive year-on-year growth, not only in financial terms but also reputationally, creatively and culturally guiding the business to a top 10 in the UK agency rankings spot.
With client acquisitions and long-term relationships such as Facebook, LinkedIn, BP, BT, Spotify, Indeed, Honda Finance, VWFS, Virgin Media, Pinterest, Slack, Shopify and Irish Life secured during his tenure, he is expert in aligning the creative agency dynamic with the ever-changing needs of client brands and their audiences.
Peter is passionate about the importance of a dynamic, creative and supportive culture in the agency environment, combined with the need to ‘always put the client first’.
In 2019 Clive was acquired by FIRST Global Agency.
David Watt
David is an expert on Business Development and Lead Generation through social media, specialising in LinkedIn.
Prior to Kershaw Partners, David worked in the leisure, sport and entertainment Industry for 20 years, principally as a business developer and marketer. He has extensive knowledge of the sports events hospitality sector.
Having helped drive the development of Quintus Events, he ran the hospitality and events programme for the Ryder Cup between 2004 and 2010 before becoming Marketing & Communications Director at Spotless International Services. In 2014 he set up the award winning Pubs on Wheels, which he ran until its sale in 2018.
Richard Dean
Richard, was International VP Marketing for global sports marketing business IMG, before spending 20yrs building & managing strategic consultancy & ROI specialist Sponsorship Science.
During his marketing career, Richard has managed, bought & sold businesses in the entertainment, travel, research, property & estate agency industries.
Richard’s expertise is in business growth planning, marketing & exit strategy.