Speaker Profiles
Colonel Bob Stewart DSO
After being commissioned from RMA Sandhurst in 1969 Bob Stewart was an infantry
officer for the next 26 years. At various times he was an intelligence officer
and company commander in Northern Ireland, a Sandhurst instructor, a staff
officer in Military Operations within the MOD and Military Assistant (Lieutenant
Colonel) to the Chairman of NATO’s Military Committee in Brussels. In
March 1991 he assumed command of 1st Battalion the Cheshire Regiment. As
Commanding Officer he was the first British Commander under United Nations
command in Bosnia during 1992-93. On returning from Bosnia he was awarded
the DSO. Promoted to Colonel he then took up the appointment
of Chief of Policy at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers in Europe.
Stewart left the British Army in September 1995 to become Senior Consultant in the Public Affairs and Corporate Policy Division of Hill & Knowlton (UK) Ltd. His specialisations there were Government Relations and Marketing as well as Security, Crisis Management and Negotiation. His clients included the Government of Egypt, the Government of Canada, AMEX, and the Paper Federation of Great Britain. In May 1998 he was appointed Managing Director of WorldSpace UK Ltd, a digital radio satellite broadcasting company that operates across the World. On the WorldSpace broadcasting system he set-up and ran the transmission of 21 radio stations internationally from London including CNN and BBC World Service. In October 2001 he left WorldSpace to be a freelance consultant - specialising in Leadership, Security, Intelligence, Motivation, Crisis Management, and Negotiation.
Bob Stewart’s book ‘Broken Lives’, about command during the Balkan War, sold well. He often appears on television and radio and was an ITV Channel anchor during the last Gulf War. In 2004 he wrote and presented a 60 minute BBC film on ‘Military Principles in Business’. Bob Stewart writes occasionally for national newspapers; most recently for The Guardian, Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday and The Herald. Currently he is writing and presenting four TV programmes for Channel 5 Television on the art of Negotiation.
Bob Stewart has been Chairman of the Independent Defence Media Association, representing freelance British Defence and Security journalists, for the last 4 years. He is also an Industrial Fellow of Kingston University Business and Law School.
Charles Grimes
Business Consultant
Charles Grimes is a specialist in Personal Development and how it leads
to Business Development. Working frequently with major global organisations,
he advises companies on how to increase effectiveness and productivity by
developing their Internal teams and their Corporate Client relationships.
He has a unique background which informs all of his consultancy work. He has pursued a wide-ranging career, covering the worlds of Real Estate, through Broadcasting, to (most recently) Personal and Organisational Development.
Qualifying initially as a Chartered Surveyor, the 1980s saw him working for Property practices in London and the Far East. It was there that his long-standing passion for classical music became his "profession", initially joining Radio Television Hong Kong as a radio presenter and producer, and subsequently working for the BBC and National Public Radio in the USA.
For almost 10 years now this varied experience has been brought to bear on his consultancy work. Once dubbed "Superman!" by a client, his Conference presentations and seminars are known for their clarity, their enthusiasm and passion, and above all their practical business focus.
Steven Crawshaw,
Former Group Chief Executive, Bradford & Bingley plc
Steven started his career as a litigation solicitor before
taking a full time MBA course at Cranfield School
of Management. Steven then spent 8 years at Cheltenham & Gloucester
and Lloyds TSB before joining Bradford & Bingley Building Society in
1999 as Flotation Programme Director for the demutualisation to form Bradford & Bingley
plc.
After the flotation Steven became a Group Director with responsibility, over time, for a number of areas including strategy, marketing, public relations, HR and IT. In January 2002 he was elected to the plc Board. In January 2003 he became Managing Director with specific responsibility for the Lending & Savings businesses and was appointed Group Chief Executive in March 2004.
David Bennett,
Chief Executive, Alliance & Leicester plc
David gained an economics degree from Queens’ College, Cambridge. He
then joined the Corporate Banking area of Grindlays Bank before moving to
work in the Treasury operations of firstly Chemical Bank, London and then
later Abbey National Building Society.
In 1988 David was appointed Assistant Treasurer of Cheltenham & Gloucester Building Society, becoming Treasurer and a member of the Executive in 1989. He was given responsibility for the retail investments in 1990, which included the postal savings operation run out of the merged Portsmouth Building Society. In 1993 he attended the Program for Management Development at Harvard Business School. On his return David became a member of the three-man team that negotiated the sale of C&G to Lloyds Bank. Subsequent to the announcement of the deal, David worked with Lloyds Bank management on a plan for the integration of the two businesses. In January 1995 he was appointed Head of Sales & Marketing responsible for C&G’s branch network, with a key part of the brief being to implement the integration plan. In August 1995 he was appointed to the Board of C&G as Finance Director, whilst keeping sales and marketing responsibilities. In November 1996 David became Director of Risk Management of the National Bank of New Zealand (a subsidiary of Lloyds TSB) based in Wellington and subsequently Chief Executive of Countrywide Bank following its acquisition by NBNZ. David joined Alliance & Leicester as Group Treasurer in January 1999. He was appointed to the Group Board in January 2000 and took up his role of Group Finance Director in October 2001.
David became a non-executive director of easyJet plc in October 2005.
David is married with two sons.
