Born and educated in New Zealand, Judith Mayhew Jonas graduated LLM from the University of Otago, where she lectured before moving to the UK as a lecturer in law at King's College, University of London. In 1989, Judith entered private practice as an employment lawyer, and became Special Adviser to the Chairman at Clifford Chance, the world's largest law firm. 

She was elected to the City of London Corporation in 1986 and became Chairman of the Policy and Resources Committee in 1996. She held this position of Leader of the Council for six years. In 2006 she was appointed to the Board of Directors of Merrill Lynch in New York. She currently chairs the London New York Dialogue and the British Dutch Dialogue, The Apeldoorn Conference. Previously she was Deputy Chairman of the London Development Agency and chaired the business committee.

Judith is currently a Vice President of London First and has also served on a number of boards of educational and cultural institutions in recent years. She was appointed Dame Commander of the British Empire in the 2002 Queen's Birthday Honours list for services to the City of London.

Gordon is London & Partners' Chief Executive Officer.  

Prior to joining London & Partners, Gordon worked for the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS). He led the team which oversees the UK's transition to a green economy and the creation of a Green Investment Bank.

He also held senior positions at the Foreign Office and UK Trade & Investment (UKTI). In UKTI, he was responsible for leading its network across the US, as well as the marketing and communications team that promoted the UK economy in North America. Prior to joining the public sector, Gordon was a solicitor, both in the City and overseas.

Gordon has worked extensively in both the private and public sectors and, over the years, his work has taken him to Melbourne, London, Brussels, and New York.

Andrew is London & Partners' Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Chief Executive Officer. Andrew's responsibilities include leading the organisation's strategy and planning, financial management and research and intelligence functions. He is also responsible for the relationships with the agency's primary public and private sector partners as well as London & Partners' quality management systems including ISO 9000 and Customer First.  

Prior to joining London & Partners, Andrew spent 10 years with the Department of Trade and Industry focused on trade promotion and inward investment. His roles within the Department included four years with the Invest in Britain Bureau (now UK Trade and Investment) managing North American Investment and a posting to the British-Consulate General in New Zealand as Consul Commercial.

Andrew has an honours degree in History from Southampton University and Post Graduate Diplomas in Management Studies and Marketing.

Alan Bishop joined Southbank Centre as Chief Executive in February 2009.

Before joining Southbank Centre, Alan was Chief Executive of the government agency the Central Office of Information and previously Chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi International.

Having graduated from Oxford University with a degree in History, Alan began his career as an advertising executive for Bates, before leaving to help start up a new agency. He went on to work at Foote Cone and Belding, and again in a more senior role at Bates, before moving to Saatchi & Saatchi, in 1985. Over the next 17 years, he rose through the ranks of the organisation, amassing a depth and breadth of skills and experience. His career path coincided with massive change within the advertising industry, its globalisation, its move towards a corporate rather than a partnership structure, and its growth of an international client base.

In 1994 Alan moved to New York as Chief Operating Officer North America, a year later becoming Chairman and Chief Executive of the North American company. In 1997 he returned to London as the UK chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi. At the end of 1998 he was appointed Chairman International of the group, again based in New York. In 2002 he was offered the job of Chief Executive of the Central Office of Information, reporting to the Cabinet Office. In 2005 the COI amalgamated with the Government News Network and was restructured to suit a very different communications world, leading the move of government information and services online.

Alan is now applying all his management experience in the creative industries - from both the private and public sectors – to the exciting future development of Southbank Centre's iconic 21 acre site which includes the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Purcell Room, the Hayward Gallery and Jubilee Gardens. He has the mission to make it the world's most inspiring centre for the arts, crossing all art forms and using both the indoor and outdoor spaces to build on its great festival tradition – currently with the four months long 60th anniversary celebrations of the Festival of Britain.

Jean-Louis Bravard is a director of Burnt Oak Partners Ltd, an outsourcing consultancy he co-founded in 2009, which is headquartered in the City of London with offices in Sweden and Benelux. 

Jean-Louis Bravard has held several senior executive positions as a Managing Director at J.P. Morgan Co and more recently served for more than 10 years at EDS Corp in New York (later London) as Managing Director, Global Financial Services. Other experience includes CEO of Arbinet Corporation (a telecommunications company), President and COO of IFusion.Com (a leading push technology venture) and Managing Director with VICOR a Palo Alto based advanced technology consulting and systems engineering firm focusing primarily on large financial services firms. 

Jean-Louis is a Graduate of l'Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris (now ESCP Europe) and holds an MBA from the Johnson School of Management, Cornell University. Jean-Louis is very active in the London community and is a member of the Franco-British Chamber of Commerce.

Stuart Fraser is Chairman of the City of London Corporation's Policy & Resources Committee. The committee sets the strategic priorities, agrees the resources and decides on the policies of the City of London, the local authority for the Square Mile - the world’s leading international, financial and business centre. 

The Policy & Resources Committee leads the City of London's relations with local and regional government, Westminster, Whitehall and Brussels, as well as the emerging markets of China and India. It is also responsible for economic development, public relations and public affairs.

A Common Councilman of the City of London since 1993, representing Coleman Street Ward, Stuart is a former Chairman of the Planning Committee (1997 – 2000) and Deputy Chairman of the Policy & Resources Committee (2004 – 2008). Stuart represents the City of London on the London Councils' Leaders Committee as well as a number of other external organisations and bodies.

Stuart came to the City of London in 1963 as a trainee stockbroker and over the course of his career moved through a succession of investment-related disciplines, including Foreign Exchange, Money Broking, International Equities, Investment Research and Fund Management, becoming a member of the London Stock Exchange in 1980.  

Stuart then became a divisional director of Brewin Dolphin Securities, the UK's largest independent quoted stockbroker responsible for the management of Private Client, Charitable and Trust investment portfolios and he chaired the Group's Asset Allocation Committee. He retains a link with Brewin Dolphin as the Chairman of its Pension Trust. He is also an Associate of the Association of Investment Management and Research and a Fellow of the Securities Institute.

Stuart is a Liveryman and member of the Court of the Worshipful Company of Fletchers. He is married to Laura and enjoys travel, walking, golf and theatre.

Glen Manchester is the founder and CEO of Thunderhead, a global software company. Thunderhead is a market leader in customer experience and communications management solutions, helping large organisations from both the private and public sector to develop personalised relationships with their customers. Under Glen's leadership, Thunderhead has grown from an innovative UK start-up to a global technology player, with expanding operations throughout Europe, North America and other emerging markets.

Glen is a technology pioneer and entrepreneur with more than 20 years' experience. He founded Geneva Digital in 1991 at the age of 26, creating solutions for clients such as Egg and Virgin Direct. After eight successful years, Geneva Digital was acquired in 1999 by North American-based Xenos, a publicly traded company. Glen was appointed President and CEO.

In the turbulent environment of 2001, Glen recognized an opportunity for a new generation of customer experience and engagement solutions that would enable organizations to exploit emerging digital channels – like social and mobile – to interact with their clients. He launched Thunderhead, which is renowned as the leader in its field. The company has been consistently recognized for its growth and innovation, including its multi-year selection to the Sunday Times Tech Track 100, and as the winner in 2008 of the Deloitte Fast 50 fastest growing technology company in Europe.

Glen is widely acknowledged as a visionary entrepreneur and has won numerous awards, including Ernst & Young's London & South Entrepreneur of the Year, and Real Business' Entrepreneur of the Year.

Kevin Murphy is Chief Executive of ExCeL London, the international exhibition and convention centre. Kevin's media career spans more than two decades, and has involved both private publishing and exhibition businesses and senior corporate positions with large media owners, including AGB, Maxwell Business Communications and Emap plc.

Kevin has served twice as Chairman of the AEO (Association of Exhibition Organisers) and it was his first tenure that saw the exhibition industry adopt ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulations) auditing as the industry standard. He has also served as a Board member of ABC and recently stepped down as Chairman of the AEV (Association of Event Venues).

Kevin leads a highly ambitious team and with the support and investment from their owners, ADNEC (Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company), has plans to further invest and develop east London to become a leading events and business destination.

Hilary has spent most of her career in the fashion industry acting as Managing Director of many of the UK High Street's leading womenswear brands and later as CEO of the British Fashion Council.

Between 1996 and 2001 she was a member of the Management Board of Arcadia as MD of Evans, Top Shop, Dorothy Perkins, Principles, Wallis and Warehouse. In 2001, she was part of a management buy-out team taking Principles and Warehouse into private ownership. Following the sale of these brands in 2005 Hilary gave her expertise on a pro bono basis to the BFC and took over the organisation of  London Fashion Week (LFW) and its designer support schemes. She spent 5 years restructuring the finances, the organisation, the schedule and the international marketing of LFW before putting in place a succession plan, recruiting a professional management team to ensure sustainable growth. She is widely recognised as having positioned London and LFW at the forefront of the global fashion stage. In 2008 she was awarded an OBE for services to the fashion industry.

Since 2009 Hilary has been a Non Executive Director of Shaftesbury PLC, a property company with £1.5 billion of assets in the West End of London largely focussed in retail and restaurants.

Mike Thompson is Senior Vice President, Commercial Strategy, at GlaxoSmithKline. Part of the European Executive Team, he is also accountable for the delivery from both therapeutic and capability Centres of Excellence, across Europe, Asia Pacific/Japan and emerging markets. Mike joined the company in 1995 having previously worked since 1981 for Unilever in their food and toiletries divisions, joining as a Commercial Trainee and latterly as Marketing Director in the UK for household names such as Lynx (Axe) and Timotei. 

Mike was educated at The Queen's College, Oxford, where he read Politics, Philosophy and Economics. He is married to Pamela and they have two children. He is also a 'non-exec' of The Wine Society and previously held a position on the Board of Think London.

Linda Yueh is Director of the China Growth Centre and Fellow in Economics at St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford, and Adjunct Professor of Economics at the London Business School as well as a research associate at the London School of Economics and Political Science. 

Dr. Yueh is Bloomberg TV's economics editor. 

Previously, Dr. Yueh practised international corporate law while resident in Beijing, Hong Kong and New York. She holds doctorates in both economics and law. She has advised the World Bank, European Commission, Asian Development Bank, World Economic Forum, and is a Non-Executive Director of the JPMorgan Asian Investment Trust. 

Dr. Yueh is widely published and her books include: Globalisation and Economic Growth in China (co-edited with Yang Yao) (2006), Macroeconomics (co-authored with Graeme Chamberlin) (2006), The Law and Economics of Globalisation: New Challenges for a World in Flux (editor) (2009), The Future of Asian Trade and Growth: Economic Development with the Emergence of China (editor) (2009), The Economy of China (2010) and Enterprising China: Business, Economics and Legal Developments Since 1979 (2011).

Nigel Carrington is the Rector of University of the Arts London. The university has 19,000 students across its six colleges and is Europe's largest university for the study of art, design, fashion, communication and the performing arts. 40% of students come from outside the UK and the university has an extensive network of relationships with peer institutions across the world.

Before joining the university in September 2008, Nigel's career was in the commercial sector, including 21 years with Baker & McKenzie, the international law firm. He was Managing Partner of the London Office and Chairman of the European Region. 

Nigel also spent 7 years as Managing Director and Deputy Chairman of the McLaren Group, the world-leader in high performance automotive design and production. As a practising lawyer until 1994, Nigel specialised in advising companies and other organisations on cross-border mergers, acquisitions and alliances.

As a business leader for 14 years before taking up his present role, Nigel managed complex "people" organisations which relied for their success on maintaining a successful balance between encouraging individual creativity and delivering institutional strategies.

In addition to his responsibilities at University of the Arts London, Nigel holds a number of non-executive positions in the public, private and charitable sectors, including a trustee of International Students House and as Chairman of The English Concert, the London-based and internationally-renowned chamber orchestra.

Nigel was educated at St John's College Oxford (Jurisprudence) and The Courtauld Institute of Art (Art History)