The Yorkshire Enterprise Network business advisors have a wealth of national and international experience within various different business sectors. They provide us with a useful insight into their business sectors and come with the background of success and experience.

Our Advisors will help the Yorkshire Enterprise Network champion the region and provide the business knowledge that will help our members implement successful strategy and methodology in their businesses.

Professor Lord Patel of Bradford OBE

Professor Lord Patel of Bradford OBE

Currently Lord Patel has a diverse range of appointments;

• University Director of Strategic Partnerships and Senior Advisor to the Vice Chancellor at the University of East London tasked with creating strategic links between the university and a wide range of public and private sector organisations regionally, nationally and internationally.
• Chairman of Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust overseeing a £380 million organisation employing over 5,500 staff.
• Chairman of Bradford City Producer Board that oversees a new strategy for business and economic growth in the region of Bradford with an £8.3 billion economy.

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• Life Peer, House of Lords (Baron Patel of Bradford: June 2006-date)
• Board Director: England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) (July 2015)
• Vice President: Royal Society of Public Health London
• Vice President: Institute of Healthcare Management
• Professorial Fellow: Royal Society of Public Health London
• Professorial Fellow: The Institute of Mental Health Nottingham
• Chairman of All Party Parliamentary Group on Men’s Health
• Chairman of All Party Parliamentary Group on Prescribed Drug Dependence
• Member of Advisory Board Institute for Dementia University of Salford
• Special Advisor on Higher Education to The CASS Foundation (2012-date)
• Chairman: Community Innovations Enterprise and the International Forum for Community Innovations (2011–date). Responsible for overseeing a wide range of action based research and consultancy projects.

He has extensive experience working at the highest levels on national and international developments in government policy on a wide range of areas, including health, social care, crime, community cohesion, extremism, mental health, drug and alcohol use, equality and human rights, and higher education. He has led international health and social care initiatives and brokered developments between UK statutory and voluntary organisations and other countries (including India, Middle East, Africa) to realise real benefits for local institutions and communities.

Lord Patel has, over the years, been appointed to a number of national boards and committees, including, the Central Council for Education and Training in Social Work, the Home Office’s Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs, the Healthcare Commission, the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse and the Care Quality Commission. He was also Chairman of the Mental Health Act Commission. He is currently Chairman and/or Patron of over 30 not-for-profit organisations across England.

Lord Patel has contributed to a variety of Government policies including being the architect of the Government’s five year action plan for delivering race equality in mental health care. In 2007 he was appointed by the Prime Minister to act as a Ministerial Adviser to the Secretary of State (DCLG) in respect of the government’s PREVENT agenda (Preventing Violent Extremism); he was also Chairman of a National Taskforce looking at the effectiveness of prison drug treatment culminating in the publication of The Patel Report.

Lord Patel was appointed as Minister in the House of Lords Government’s Whip’s Office as Front Bench Spokesperson for:- Communities and Local Government, Ministry of Justice, Cabinet Office and the Attorney General’s Office in 2008.


David Weir

David Weir

Professor of Intercultural Management

David is professor of York St John University, Professor Emeritus of Northumbria University, Visiting Professor at Edgehill University and Lincoln University

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David Weir is Professor of Intercultural Management at York St John University, Professor Emeritus of Northumbria University, Visiting Professor at Edgehill University and Lincoln University, and has held Chairs at several Universities including Glasgow, Bradford, Liverpool Hope, UCS and ESC Rennes and SKEMA in France. He has published extensively on risk management and on management and leadership in the MENA countries. He has supervised more than sixty PhD theses on aspects of management and has written several books and many journal articles. He was a member of the Committee of Enquiry into engineering (Finniston Committee) and has been a member and chair of research council committees for ESRC and SERC. He is a Companion of the British Institute of Management and a Foundation Fellow of the Leadership Trust, an Ambassador for Bradford and a Burgess of the City of Glasgow.

He worked in industry as a Director of Gulliver Foods: he heads his own consulting company and has advised and consulted with many organizations including Babcock Power, Arthur Andersen, the Scottish Development Agency, the Islamic Development Bank, Cambridge Scholars publishing and many SMEs. His hobbies include gardening, Leeds United and jam making; he won first prize for raspberry jam at the Sedbergh show of 1974.


John McAndrew

Chief Executive Officer – Callcredit Information Group

John joined Callcredit as Sales Director in October 2000 and was appointed Managing Director of Callcredit in December 2003. He was promoted to CEO in June 2009.

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He has spent his entire career within the consumer lending and consumer information industry and has successfully led businesses in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and the UK. Callcredit is a major player in the UK consumer credit data and marketing services industries. Callcredit employs around 1,100 professionals in the UK and has additional operations in Japan, China, Dubai and Lithuania.

Sarah Dixon

Dean of XJTLU Business School

Professor Sarah Dixon is Dean of XJTLU Business School. XJTLU (Xi’an Jiaotong Liverpool University) is an international joint venture university located in Suzhou, near Shanghai in China. Prior to joining XJTLU in 2013 Sarah was Dean of Bradford University School of Management for two years.

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Sarah has 23 years’ international management experience working for Shell in a variety of roles including business management in expatriate postings in Austria and Russia, strategic planning and mergers & acquisitions. Consultancy activities include investment analysis, strategy development and implementation and management development for major companies in UK and Russia.

Her research interests lie in the strategic management of large corporations, more specifically dynamic capabilities, organisational learning and organisational change. She has conducted research into radical organisational transformation in a transition economy (Russia) and she is currently engaged in studying the dynamic capabilities of Western high tech multinationals facing radical change.


Chris Caulfield

Chambers UK: 2012 leading individual for dispute resolution

The Legal 500 UK: leading individual in the 2011 edition

Cambridge University, Law Degree, First Class

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Chris Caulfield is a partner in Squire Sanders Litigation and International Dispute Resolution Practice Groups based in the Leeds and London offices. His expertise covers UK and international commercial and corporate disputes. Chris has experience in a wide range of high-value contentious work and has been praised for his forthright approach and dedication to his clients.

He has experience in the field of mediation and is a Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR) accredited mediator.

Chris also leads the Squire Sanders export control practice in the UK. He won the Rising Star Award at the 2008 Yorkshire Lawyer Awards.


Keith Madeley - Mr Yorkshire

Keith Madeley - Mr Yorkshire

Company Chairman and Financial Management Professional

Keith is a Company Chairman and Financial Management Professional with a successful track record in the Financial Services Industry. He is highly respected in the financial sector for innovative product development.

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Born in the heart of Yorkshire, Keith was brought up and educated in Bradford. At the tender age of 16 he joined British Rail in Bradford and on gaining a promotion went to work in the South East and became Britain’s youngest Station Master at the age of 21, an achievement which Keith is still immensely proud of today.

Returning to Yorkshire from the South East, Keith formed an independent financial services business and quickly established a reputation for his innovative approach and creativity in providing products that were relevant, not only to the everyday man, but also to high-worth individuals and companies. The business grew substantially both in the UK and abroad, and Keith finally sold his company in 2004 to Yorkshire Investment Group when his business partner retired.

As Chairman of the Yorkshire Society for the past seven years, Keith has presided over a period of significant growth in corporate and individual members, with membership increasing five and ten fold respectively.

Keith is also an active participant in a wide range of community activities where his public speaking skills and long-standing links with national, regional and local media are used to great effect. His strong networking ability within Yorkshire and beyond assists both corporate relationships and many activities promoting Yorkshire and all that is great about the county and its people, communities and businesses. Keith is a natural communicator who excels in new challenges and influences key opinion to support a range of community issues and activities. For example, Keith has joined forces with a leading Financial Services Lawyer to launch the People’s Regeneration Fund, which will enable individuals to invest ethically alongside major financial institutions in rural and urban regeneration.

Keith's vision is to bring the financial services sector and regeneration together for the benefit of the integrated community. Because of his considerable financial services expertise and background, his desire is to attain achievement in regeneration in the widest possible sense. He is deeply committed to assisting the disadvantaged, facilitating improvements in schools, local schemes and contributing to community affairs in general.

With his strong corporate and community ties throughout Yorkshire and beyond, Keith is an ideal candidate to promote Yorkshire business and community groups.



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