Derek spent 29 years in primary education before leading a company with £90M+ turnover and 108,000+ services. He now mentors UK entrepreneurs, empowering income growth and community impact through national events.

Richard is Labour candidate for the West Midlands Metro Mayor election in 2024. Richard grew up in Bristol and was the first person in his family to go to University-reading Economics. He spent most of his professional life at PwC, where he was a Partner in the Advisory Business. Richard brokered the deal, that led to the creation of the West Midlands Combined Authority in 2016. He is passionate about devolution and his political priorities are to grow the regional economy,create better paid jobs and ensuring no one and no place is left behind.

Abhishek Tripathi is an accomplished entrepreneur and digital marketing specialist with a strong focus on international trade and relations. As the Director of Rydhm.com and Abiflo Ltd, he empowers businesses with innovative digital solutions and strategic growth initiatives. His experience includess to spearheading digital campaigns for high-stakes state elections in India and providing brand management for Indian Parliamentarians.
Serving as the Vice-Chair of the Europe India Centre of Business and Industry (EICBI), Abhishek plays a pivotal role in strengthening international relations. He has facilitated the successful delivery of 27 summits, fostering collaboration and innovation within the EU/UK-India corridor, with 24 of these summits held at the UK Parliament and three at the European Parliament.
Abhishek’s entrepreneurial journey includes launching initiatives that have garnered recognition, such as India’s first national crowdfunding conference and BookMyHealthCheckup.com, a pioneering healthcare platform acknowledged by the Economic Times-Power of Ideas award. He has also developed platforms like TwoCorners to help artists connect with buyers.
A proud alumnus of Birmingham City University, UK, Abhishek holds a Master’s degree in International Business and Management. His wide-ranging expertise and strategic vision equip him to assist organizations across various sectors, such as politics, healthcare, finance, recruitment, IT, and energy, navigate the fast-paced digital economy.

On leaving my corporate career in May 2017, I knew if I was going to function at the investor level rather than being a landlord, I needed to have others in my business dealing with the day-to-day operational tasks. So I systemised my business and took on my first Virtual Assistant working from the Philippines. I was also on a 12-month property mastermind programme, and other delegates told me they had tried working with a VA but had not had the same success. After chatting with them, I could see common mistakes people were making and started to help them overcome these issues. I started speaking at various networking events on how to scale up using a Virtual Assistant. Immediately people started asking me to recruit their own VA and show them how to systemise…. VaVaVoom was born.