Reduce costs maximise profit Nottingham - Speakers

Bob Bhabra is the Nottinghamshire Area Manager for Business Link East Midlands and is responsible for the effective delivery of Business Link branded services to small and medium sized businesses. This is achieved through a team of experienced business advisers. Bob has also played a leading role on the development of a range of business analysis tools which are widely used to help businesses identify and prioritise key issues facing them.

Prior to his current role, Bob was the Director of Advisory Services for Business Link Nottinghamshire where he helped to successfully develop and deliver business support to a SMEs over a six year period.

Bob is a Chartered Electronics Engineer and spent 20 years in industry during which he set up and developed his own company which won the Queens Award for Technological Achievement. He was involved with acquisition of and merger with other companies before selling the business and joining Business Link.

Stephen is Chief Executive of East Midlands Business Ltd (EMB) which provides the main Business Link, Train to Gain and UK Trade & Investment and other business support services for the whole of the East Midlands, helping over 80,000 companies to improve their performance and make a major contribution to the economic development of the region. He formed EMB whilst Chief Executive of Northamptonshire Chamber and Business Link, bidding successfully for the new regional government funded business support contracts.

Stephen is/has also been involved in various economic development roles as a non executive director of North Northants Development Company, Princes Trust, British Chambers of Commerce (UK board), Explore Northamptonshire and Invest Northamptonshire.

He began his career in brand marketing with major plcs, including Glaxo Smith Kline and Unilever, before moving into general management with Hallmark Greeting Cards and later as Managing Director of a £100m+ turnover pharmaceutical distribution company, winning four awards for rapid growth, re-engineering the business with £2.5m capital investment and acquiring another £16m company.

Simon Drury is the Strategic Partnerships Director for the Envirowise Project. This is a role he has held since 2006. Simon is responsible to the development and delivery of the Envirowise Large Business engagement strategy. He project manages a number of projects with large businesses and is a spokesperson for the wider Envirowise Project.

Simon has specialist skills in all aspects of corporate environmental management, to include corporate social responsibility, sustainable development, resource efficiency, waste management, and environmental management systems.

Prior to this Simon was the UK Environmental Manager for the Center Parcs Ltd (a UK Sustainable tourism destination). A post he held for seven years. Within this role Simon is responsible for all aspects of the four UK village's Environmental, Energy, sustainability and CSR strategies, including the company's ISO14001 certification.

Simon went to college as a mature student and gained his BSc Honour from Leeds University in 1997, he is an Associate Member of IEMA, Founder Chair of the EMRA's Promoting Sustainable Development Group, which works to drive forward the sustainable development and climate charge agenda with five counties. He is a member of the Regional Energy Group.

He sits on his regional CBI's Environment Committee. Simon is committed to showing businesses that the environmental consideration makes good business sense.

Simon is married to Susan and has two teenage daughters, Abbie and Megan. In his spare time Simon is a keen naturalist, he enjoys sailing and fly-fishing, which he does not do as much as he would like.

Marvin Cooke is Director – Production Operations at Toyota Manufacturing UK. He joined the company as a Manufacturing Engineer in 1991 and has since held various posts within all vehicle manufacturing areas.

Among Marvin's responsibilities is the practical implementation of the world famous Toyota Production System, building Avensis and Auris cars that exceed customers' expectations.

After graduating from Nottingham Trent University with a BEng Hons in electrical and electronic engineering, Marvin worked as an engineer for Pirelli Tyres at both Burton-on-Trent and Carlisle plants. Before joining Toyota, Marvin worked as a consultant engineer within the food and drinks industry.

Marvin is married, with two children, and in his spare time plays lead guitar in a rock band.

Katie has over ten years experience in the environmental field, with particular expertise in water management, resource efficiency and IPPC. She is a Principal Environmental Consultant for Hyder Consulting Ltd, and has worked on the Envirowise programme for ten years.

Katie has prepared material for a number of Envirowise publications including Good Practice Guides, Case Studies and online tools and has been an advisor on the Envirowise Advice Line for over three years.

Much of her experience comes from working in the food and drink industry, retail and hospitality sectors where she has undertaken waste and water audits, environmental reviews, effluent monitoring programmes and prepared a number of IPPC (EP) permit applications.

Matthew is the head of the Envirowise Retail, Food   Drink Team. Within this role he is responsible for ensuring that the Envirowise service meet the needs of the retailers, commercial companies (banks etc) and food manufacturers.

Prior to working for Envirowise, Matthew worked as an environmental consultant as well as working in the local authority waste management sector.