Trade and Industry Secretary, Patricia Hewitt, today announced the appointment of nine new members of the Small Business Council (SBC). The new members are: Andre D Ive, John McLaren-Stewart, Ilyas Patel, Sally Preston, Fiona Price, John Reynolds, Sean Taggart, Janice Ward and Candida Whitmill. A total of 24 members work with the Chairman, William Sargent, to advise the Government on issues affecting small businesses.

The SBC represents a wide range of sectors including: manufacturing, retail, social enterprise, tourism, business support, environmental businesses, media and entertainment, recruitment and accountancy. The membership represents all parts of the UK and includes people of different ages and backgrounds.

Ms Hewitt said: "The Small Business Council has a vital role in ensuring that the voice of small firms is heard throughout Whitehall. The nine new members of the Small Business Council are fully involved in running their own businesses and bring that experience direct to Whitehall.

"I very much look forward to working with them, listening to their advice and taking forward their suggestions for making Britain the best place in the world to start and run a business."

The Small Business Council, an advisory Non-departmental Public Body has, since its inception in May 2000, been involved in a wide range of issues including employment legislation, skills provision, access to finance, better policy making and improved business support. The Council operates by building good relationships with ministers and senior officials and, through persuasion and explanation, ensure that ministers and policy makers at all levels are aware of the consequences of their action on small firms.

The SBC reports to the Secretary of State and meets regularly with the Minister for Small Business, Nigel Griffiths and the Chief Executive of the Small Business Service, Martin Wyn Griffith.

NEW SBC MEMBERS 2004

Andre D Ive

Andre Ive has been the Chief Executive Officer & founder of two businesses. The first, X-IT Products, launched its own products into North America and was named one of United States 'Top 10 Start-ups in 1999'. In 1999 X-IT Products won a Business Week product design award for its first product selling through multinational retail companies. Andre then began a data management company improving efficiencies in the global retail space. While CEO, Andre worked with the investor and venture capital community, negotiated partnerships and customer relationships. Andre has helped a number of entrepreneurs at the early stages such as Blazent (real time IT intelligence) & PocketThis.

Andre has an MBA from Harvard Business School and previously held positions with Siebel Systems (USA), Procter & Gamble (Europe) Ltd and IBM (World Trade Asia). While working with these companies Andre focused on building businesses often from the early stages. Currently Andre is an advisor to an early stage company in the telecom sector and is at the formative stages of developing his third company.

John McLaren-Stewart

John McLaren-Stewart is the Chief Executive of Alliance Insurance Management Ltd, a fast growing business insurance and risk management company. The company was established in 2000 and now employs 40 staff across four locations in London and Anglia. It provides insurance, health & safety, disaster planning and other risk services to the business world. His company acts for several hundred SME customers across a broad range of industry sectors.

John's business brings him into close contact with many SME businesses. This enables him to understand SME issues from a cross-industry base. John is also a member of the CBI SME Council.

Ilyas Patel

Ilyas Patel is the Managing Director of Ilyas Patel Chartered Certified Accountants providing accounting services to mostly small and medium sized businesses. Ilyas launched the Business Breakfast Club in 2003 in Preston attracting senior business decision makers from the local area. He is the Regional Press Officer for Lancashire and Cumbria Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and writes for various publications such as Lancashire Evening Post, Preston Business Club, Lancashire at Work and Tax Tips Newsletter.

Ilyas is also the Managing Director of Mayfair Consulting Ltd and Company Secretary of a recruitment agency UKR Group Ltd. He is a member of the Small Business Committee of the ACCA.

Sally Preston

Sally Preston, founder of Babylicious Ltd, has over 17 years experience within the food retail & manufacturing sector, most notably 11 years as an experienced food technologist at Marks and Spencer. During her time in M&S, Sally was heavily involved in developing the reputation of M&S prepared foods as world-class leaders.

In 2001 Sally set up Babylicious Ltd an innovative frozen baby food manufacturer. Babylicious products are sold throughout the UK and Ireland with plans to further expand on markets in Europe and the USA.

Sally is a member of the Institute of Food Science and Technology (IFST) and the mother of two young children.

Fiona Price

Fiona is currently a non-executive director of Destini Fiona Price (formerly Fiona Price & Partners Ltd), the firm of independent financial and tax advisers she founded in 1988 to pioneer financial advice to women. Today it is the market leader in its sector. Heralded as the "the first woman of finance" by Harpers & Queen, Fiona built her business into one of the most respected and high profile firms of financial advisers in the UK and over the last 16 years, has been a regular figure in the national press, on TV and radio.

She has been profiled in many books on women entrepreneurs, is listed in "Who's Who in the World in Finance and Industry" and is the winner of several national business women's awards. Fiona also founded the non-profit Women's IFA Group (WIG), an organisation for women independent financial advisers and runs the 'IFA Woman of the Year Award', now in it's third year. In addition, Fiona is in demand as a mentor and speaker. She also sits on the Advisory Board of the Cass Business School.

John Reynolds

John Reynolds is the Managing Director, Reynolds Geo-Sciences Ltd. in Wales. Following a PhD in glacio-geophysics for research in Antarctica with the British Antarctic Survey, he joined an engineering consultancy based in Cambridge but spent much of his time looking for potable water supplies in the Sub-Sahara of northern Nigeria. Then followed a period of seven years teaching geophysics and environmental management at what was then Plymouth Polytechnic.

In 1994 he set up his own geological and geophysical consulting practice in order to concentrate on developing geophysical consultancy and glacial hazards assessment and mitigation services internationally. His company was accredited as the 'Welsh Small Business Champion 2003' in the British Small Business Awards in November 2003.

John is also the founder and Chairman of Geoscience Wales Ltd, an association of 24+ geoscience SMEs based in North Wales.

Sean Taggart

Sean Taggart is Group Managing Director of the Albatross Travel Group of companies, an organisation that operates within specialist wholesale travel marketplaces in the UK, Continental Europe, the USA and Australia and which in 2001 was voted 'Kent Company of the Year (under 100 employees)' by KPMG in the annual Kent Business Awards. He has held a range of senior positions within specialist travel industry companies since graduating from business schools in Germany and the UK in 1988. He is also Chairman of his main industry association, The British Association of Wholesale Tour Agents (BAWTA) and Vice-Chairman of the Coach Tourism Council (CTC) in the UK. He was also invited to become an Ambassador for Small Business by Nigel Griffiths in 2002.

Janice Ward

Mechanical Engineer by background, she started work for a large US steel maker in 1979, specialising in metallurgy and high alloy heat and corrosion resistant metals for the oil, gas, power and petrochemical sector in particular. Took Institute of Export exams to get grounding in commercial aspects of international trade and worked for several medium sized international producers and distributors in US, Europe and Far East. She especially enjoyed working with clients in the Middle East and carried out several projects over the years establishing companies in these markets. Opened own company in 1992 specialising in supply of high alloys to niche markets in the Middle East. Have offices in UK, Saudi, Iran and UAE. Director for International Trade and Membership at Southampton and Fareham Chamber of Commerce, Business Representative for Southampton Partnership (LSP) and until last year sat on Export Clubs Advisory Panel at DTI. Was named International Businesswomen for 2001 at Women in Business International Conference.

Candida Whitmill

Candida Whitmill is a co-owner and executive director of Whitstone House Limited, a company that has been involved in the tourism industry for over 20 years. From humble beginnings, the business built up, through acquisitions and the development of greenfield sites, to a chain of nine travel agencies in the Bristol area. Candida was involved in the establishment and operation of the first ABTA YTS training courses and subsequently in creating the NVQs for the travel and tourism industry. She was also elected to serve ABTA (Association of British Travel Agents) for the South West region, representing the interests of hundreds of small businesses.

In 1997 Candida bought out a failing farm based tourism project - Eastcott Farm, involving the conversion of part of the farmhouse into a new pub and restaurant and building up the accommodation side of the business. Her knowledge of rural issues and the rural business environment has led her to study for her Masters Degree in Rural Tourism. She is also a Fellow of the Institute of Travel and Tourism and a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

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