Tackling Everest
Quadriplegic sailor Geoff Holt will come to tell his personal story with humour, thoughtful insight and great photographs and film footage. He has faced adversity, challenged limits and continues to inspire others to maintain a positive attitude no matter what the challenges ahead.
Geoff Holt became an inspiration to thousands when he completed his 'Personal Everest' challenge and entered the history books in September 2007. Geoff sailed 1,445 miles, solo, around Great Britain in a fragile 15-foot dinghy. This was hailed a groundbreaking, courageous achievement because Geoff is a passionate yachtsman who uses a wheelchair. Paralysed from the chest down when he was just 18 years old after a swimming accident, Geoff lives by the mantra of ‘no excuses’ and continues to challenge what seems impossible. In January 2010, Geoff became the first quadriplegic to sail across the Atlantic. As someone once joked, Geoff is now the most admired disabled sailor since Nelson!
The Life of an Entrepreneur
Sir Peter Michael CBE, Chairman of Highcross PLC, will talk about the life of an entrepreneur.
Peter Michael is best known as the founder of Classic FM, the UK’s most profitable commercial radio station, where he was Chairman until 2008. Other items in his kit bag have included a range of technical companies and director and chairman positions on private and listed companies; from owning Cosworth Engineering, rescuing crashed Cray Electronics in the 1990s, to building vineyards in California, apparently leaving sufficient time to chair a small UK commercial property business called Highcross.
Monetary Policy and the Financial Crisis
Kicking off the new year with our 2nd business briefing, Kate Barker CBE, an external member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee will be joining us at 1000 Lakeside to talk about the challenges for policy from the financial crisis, and how monetary policy aimed at stable inflation is also vital to economic recovery.
Kate Barker has held a number of prestigious positions throughout her career. Since graduating from Oxford with a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics in 1979, Kate has gone on to become Chief European Economist of the Ford Motor Company and, later, Chief Economic Advisor at the CBI. Since being appointed a member of the MPC, Kate has become the first person to hold the position for three terms. She was awarded a CBE for Services to Social Housing in 2006.
What Next for our Towns and Cities?
Tony Pidgley, Chairman of The Berkeley Group, whose Gunwharf Quays scheme has been a leading force in Portsmouth’s economic renaissance, will be sharing his views on the future of urban regeneration and the UK housing market.
Tony Pidgley has been dubbed “Britain’s most influential housebuilder”. When his self-established business was bought when he was 20, Pidgley became building director of what is now Crest Nicholson and, seven years later, he established The Berkeley Group with an old colleague. Today, The Berkeley Group is one of the most successful housebuilders in the country.
