Guest Speakers and Judges
As well as the exciting pitching, the Final and Awards will also feature a keynote from a great guest speaker which, in the past, has included TV Dragon and Retail Entrepreneur Theo Paphitis, Professor Chris Evans, Head of Google Startups Marta Krupinska, Gareth Williams of Skyscanner, Illustrator and Author Johanna Basford, Duncan Logan of RocketSpace and BrewDog founder James Watt.
Check back for updates!
Hosts
Matthew Quinn
Future Sales Factory
READ MORE
Matthew Quinn was born and brought up in Oldham Lancashire before attending the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. He left the Army in the mid-nineties and began his civilian life in the motor trade.
After deciding that he had reached his peak as business manager in the flagship Mercedes Benz dealership in London’s Park Lane at the age of 27, Matthew went on to be a senior consultant for one of Europe’s largest management consultancies.
For 5 years he travelled extensively around the world selling, designing and delivering high-impact sales and sales management programmes for many businesses, most notably in the oil, entertainment and fast-moving consumer goods industries.
He then moved back into the field of sales leadership in the financial services and professional practices profession.
Matthew is a crowd favourite EDGE host, having returned to the role numerous times to inject his unique brand of humour and energy into the day’s proceedings.
Greg Summers
Presenter and Speaker Training
READ MORE
Greg Summers is a communication skills trainer, speaker and presenter.
Greg has hosted Kiltwalk, Scotland’s largest mass participation event since 2016 and regularly hosts large events throughout the UK and Internationally.
Greg also helps businesses improve their communication skills through the delivery of presentations, public speaking and sales pitch training.
Like co-host Matthew, Greg is a veteran of the EDGE hosting role and is always an audience-pleaser with his signature style of interactive crowd work that ensures the energy levels in the room never dip.
Judging Panel - Pitching Room 1
Shane Corstorphine MEng CA
Founder of Scale Up Consulting Limited
(Judge)
READ BIOGRAPHY
Shane Corstorphine is the founder of Scale Up Consulting Limited, a consultancy firm he established following his departure from Skyscanner, a Scottish-founded company, where he held the roles of CFO and SVP of Growth. During his tenure, Shane played a pivotal role in the company's growth, contributing to its expansion from approximately 75 employees to over 1,500. As CFO, he led the development of award-winning Finance, Business Intelligence, Legal, and Corp Dev teams. Notably, Shane successfully attracted investment from US tech giant Sequoia and later orchestrated the largest fundraising effort for a private tech company in the UK at that time.
Before joining Skyscanner, Shane began his career as an accountant at PWC in London, specialising in Private Equity investments within the Financial Services Advisory team. With a background in M&A, he was part of Europe's leading mid-market Leveraged Finance team at RBS from 2006 to 2008, and later worked at Barclays.
Beyond his consultancy work, Shane serves as a non-executive director for Forge Holiday Group and Simple Online Pharmacy, a healthcare scale-up based in Glasgow. Additionally, he holds the position of Chairman of the Board of xDesign a UK Design Consultancy and OAG, a Travel Data and Scheduling company.
Sif Rai
COO at QikServe
(Judge)
READ BIOGRAPHY
Sif is a technology leader who in her varied career has supported a diverse range of tech companies through key growth stages. She has held senior positions at companies, including Touch Bionics (now Ossur), Blackford Analysis and Iceland Telecom.
Currently, Sif is the Chief Operating Officer of QikServe, a market-leading provider of order and pay solutions for the world’s most loved hospitality brands. She joined the company in 2017 as Chief Marketing Officer and transitioned to COO in 2020, responsible for customer success, implementation, customer support and project management. Since then, the company has grown considerably, from 20 people to nearly 100 people with teams across multiple countries and continents.
Sif holds an MBA degree in International Business from the University of Edinburgh Business School and a BSc in International Marketing from the University of Reykjavik.
James Holian
Managing Director, Business Banking & International Retail at NatWest
READ BIOGRAPHY
James leads NatWest Group’s Business Banking & International Retail team that supports over 1 million small businesses across the UK, Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man and Gibraltar. He moved into this position in March 2023
James originally joined NatWest Group in 2009 to lead the restructuring of the Group’s investment banking business. He has worked across multiple areas of the bank including commercial banking, investment banking, operations and technology. Prior to his current role, James led NWG’s Financial Crime and Controls teams through a period of significant change. He has over 20 years of financial services experience in the UK, U.S.A. and Asia. Before NatWest, James worked at McKinsey and Company and has an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Rachel Jones
Founder of SnapDragon
(Judge)
READ BIOGRAPHY
Founder of SnapDragon Monitoring, Rachel was thrown into the world of brand protection when her own invention was counterfeited, just as it reached its 50th export territory. Horrified, she learned how to remove counterfeit products from online platforms using intellectual property and resolved to build software to empower even the smallest brand to fight back, raising USD$4m to do so to build bespoke tech and an international team in Edinburgh.
Nearly ten years on and SnapDragon’s software and expert Dragons protect some of the world’s most loved brands online.
In 2024 SnapDragon was honoured with a King’s Award for International Trade reflecting 200% export growth over three years, including those of the pandemic, reflecting Rachel’s leadership and tenacity.
Passionate about being kind, ethical manufacturing, open and honest communication, exporting and encouraging female entrepreneurs to raise investment, Rachel is very much recognised for using her network and experience to connect businesses and people.
Rachel was CEO of the SnapDragon business until undergoing treatment for breast cancer last year. She is now an NED of SnapDragon, Co-Chair of the UK’s IPO Crime Group, an NED for angel investment group Equity Gap, a volunteer coach at Smart Works and on the Board of Morebattle Village Community Shop.
Judging Panel - Pitching Room 2
Gillian MacAulay
Founder of Gabriel Investments Limited
(Judge)
READ BIOGRAPHY
As Founder and CEO of Gabriel Investments Limited, Gillian MacAulay has helped nurture over 300 young businesses since 1990 and implemented a strong company support system.
Gabriel is an angel syndicate, aimed specifically at supporting young, pre-start and emerging technology businesses. It doesn’t matter how young – Gabriel welcomes ‘light bulb moments’ too – and the process is simple, to help get the funds injected into the business quickly.
Companies from a broad spectrum of sectors will be eligible for funding, but Gabriel’s focus is on companies that can demonstrate growth potential, ambition and scalability, preferably in new products and markets.
Gabriel Investments was launched in 2012 and to date has done 72 investments into companies, deploying nearly £3m which has leveraged a further £47m in investment into these early-stage companies. Gabriel addresses the gap in the market of first-stage funding for businesses, mentoring them to create disciplined, high-value, growth companies.
David Tuck
CEO of Waracle
(Judge)
READ BIOGRAPHY
David Tuck has worked in technology services for 25 years, mostly in London. He held senior positions at Thoughtworks, Scott Logic and The App Business before joining Kin + Carta, where he held the role of Group Chief Executive – Europe.
David joined Waracle in early September 2024 with plans to establish the Scotland-based company as a market-leading technology services business throughout the United Kingdom.
David was named CEO of the Year in the digital transformation category by European CEO Magazine in 2024. He is a member of the Forbes Technology Council and YPO, the global CEO network.
Alex Lu
Founder of PortF
(Judge)
READ BIOGRAPHY
Alex Lu is the Founder/CEO of PortF, a next-gen portfolio management system. PortF aims to bring together commercial, ESG, and Impact management in one platform by automating data collection through direct connections to source data. Prior to founding PortF in 2021, Alex worked as an Investment Director at West Coast Capital from 2015 to 2021. Before that, they served as a Portfolio Manager at J.P. Morgan from 2011 to 2014 and as a Fixed Income Trader at Barclays Investment Bank from 2005 to 2011.
Alex Lu attended the University of Waterloo from 2000 to 2005, where they pursued a degree in Electrical Engineering/Mathematics. In 2018, they enrolled in the Flatiron School to study Data Science. Additionally, in 2017 to 2018, they received continued education at the London Business School focusing on Executive Education in Finance. In 2018 and 2019, they attended the Flatiron School again to obtain a degree in Data Science.
Andrew McLauchlan
Chief Operating Officer of Prescient Security
(Judge)
READ BIOGRAPHY
Andrew McLauchlan is Managing Director for EMEA at Prescient Security.
With two decades of experience in the Financial Services sector, including a recent stint at Amazon Web Services where he led the EMEA/APJ Partner Sales team, Andrew brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the panel.
His unique blend of experience in big tech and entrepreneurship, combined with his international background, positions him perfectly to advise on scale and international expansion.
Speaker
Oli Norman
Founder and CEO of itison and itison venues
READ BIOGRAPHY
Oli is the founder and CEO of itison and itison venues.
Oli founded itison in 2010 on a mission to help local businesses connect with more customers. Today, itison speaks to 1.5 million members and connects them with over 5,000 businesses.
At itison, life is all about the experience. Oli creates those experiences through itison’s major events team, producing and directing events for over 300,000 ticket holders annually to the likes of GlasGLOW and Elfingrove.
Oli also owns and operates itison venues, some of Glasgow’s leading hospitality businesses, including Brel, Sloans and Maggie’s Rock n Rodeo.
Oli is passionate about creating fun work environments, growing teams and businesses and ensuring itison is a force for good in our local communities having created itison us which donates thousands of experiences and donates millions to local charities. Itison has a team of over 250 and is a Sunday Times top 100 employer.