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Portobello Business Centre constitution
The Business Centre is a non-profit company limited by guarantee.

It employs both full-time and part-time professional staff and has a pool of consultants to call on.

The management of the Centre is the responsibility of the Chief Executive, Abim Olabinjo. He reports regularly to the Management Board which is made up of volunteers with direct relevant experience of the business world.

Our staff

Abim Olabinjo, Chief Executive
Abim has been Chief Executive of the PBC since 1998. He holds a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Hull and has run his own successful business which he sold. Despite his many commitments, he continues to support and advise a portfolio of small business clients. email: abim@pbc.co.uk

Maria Stammers, Senior Business Adviser
Maria, who has an MBA from the Open University, has been a Business Adviser at the Centre since 1998. Previously, she worked for Instant Muscle which supports unemployed people who want to become self-employed, ran an interior design business, and a costume jewellery retail business. Maria handles the Shell LiveWIRE and Prince's Trust awards and has a particular expertise in fashion. email: maria@pbc.co.uk

Colin Rutt, Business Adviser and Consultant
Colin joined the PBC in June 2001, having previously worked for Business Link Kent and the Greenwich Enterprise Board. His areas of specialist knowledge and expertise include business planning, raising loan finance, grants and equity finance. He also has extensive experience of marketing, international trade and importing and exporting. email: colin@pbc.co.uk

David Jones, Consultant
David has worked in the fashion industry for 40 years and for the last 15 years has run his own consultancy specialising in fashion. He leads the PBC's fashion training courses and gives advice and assistance on all aspects of the fashion business to PBC clients. David holds Fellowships of the Royal Society of Arts, of the Clothing and Footwear Institute (of which he is also Vice President), of the British Institute of Management, and of the Clothing Designers and Executives Association. email: pbc@pbc.co.uk

Joseph Jesuloba, Consultant
Joseph is an independent consultant and has been a mentor, consultant and business adviser to various business start-ups in the London area. His special area of interest is information and communications technology. He holds an MBA from the University of Warwick. email: joseph@pbc.co.uk

Boomy Tokan, Consultant
Boomy heads the music business team at the Business Centre. He lectures at City University on the Cultural Industries Foundation Degree program. As a label owner himself with over 20 year's experience, he addresses music business issues from a personal and experiential viewpoint. With his additional knowledge of other business environments, Boomy believes in bringing ideas from those sectors into the music business arena.
email: boomy@pbc.co.uk

Bill Lake, Consultant
Bill trained as an engineer and worked in industry for five years before gaining his MBA at Harvard Business School and moving into consultancy. He has carried out over 50 consultancy assignments for PBC clients in a wide range of sectors. His specialist areas are marketing, finance and business planning.
email: pbc@pbc.co.uk

Helene Panzarino, Consultant
Helene, who has an MBA, worked in commercial banking in New York before setting up the UK office of a US software house. She founded her own English language school in London in 1994. After selling this business in 1997, she moved into providing support and advice to UK firms and US firms planning to set up in the UK. She has also managed large scale advice delivery programmes.
email: helene@pbc.co.uk

Carolyn Johnston, Consultant
Carolyn has a degree in business studies and specialises in providing market research solutions. She worked with Yorkshire Television and McKinsey Management Consultants before moving to Japan to work for Marplan Japan. Carolyn set up her own consultancy in 1990. She has helped a wide variety of clients around the world to create marketing strategies. She has also lectured for the Market Research Society Diploma in Market Research.
email: pbc@pbc.co.uk

Laurie Bernard, Consultant
Laurie is a business studies and marketing graduate (Dip.M and MCIM) experienced in developing businesses in the retail and service sectors. He has run his own business development consultancy for over ten years. He is now an approved government business mentor, councillor and dynamic trainer.
email: laurie@pbc.co.uk

Stephen Omotomilola, Consultant Project Manager and Web Developer
Stephen is a qualified electrical and electronics engineer who later branched into IT and business development. Stephen manages and co-ordinates the Business Centre's projects and contracts, and is in charge of the design and development of the PBC website. He is responsible for the co-ordination of Train to Gain and other similar projects. He has more than 15 years business management experience, running his own consultancy business as well as various other businesses including businesses in the IT, events management and hospitality sectors.
email: stephen@pbc.co.uk

Rebecca Davey, Administrator
Rebecca is the PBC's Administrator and works three days a week. She has been with the Business Centre for 16 years. She manages the quality standard ISO9001 and Investors in People, and is responsible for the administration of the Winning at Work contract.
email: rebecca@pbc.co.uk

Kofi Asante, Project Co-ordinator
Kofi, who joined the PBC in November 2007, undertakes data entry for students on courses, is Centre contact for awarding bodies, and co-ordinates internal and external verification. He oversees NVQ training, and policy and procedures. He also does general administrative tasks including reception cover.
email: kofi@pbc.co.uk

Jenni Mullings, Human Resources and Office Manager
Jenni has been working at the Business Centre since September 2000. She gained her Post Graduate Diploma in Human Resources Management in June 2004, is now fully CIPD qualified and manages all the Centre's HR issues. She is also responsible for the management of the Loan Schemes, Westminster's City Recovery Programme and the overall running of the Office.
email: jenni@pbc.co.uk

Norman Lamb, Business Development Officer
Norman is responsible for outreach activity, liaising with related organisations and banks, and raising awareness of the Business Centre among core target groups. He also works to increase the number of new client enquiries. He previously owned and managed his own business and worked for the North Kensington Opportunities Centre.
email: norman@pbc.co.uk

Kris Mehnon, Consultant Accountant, BSc Economics, CA and ACMA
Kris has been running a financial consultancy practice for SMEs since 1993 and he has been working as a consultant with the PBC since 1996. Previously, he had six years experience in senior management in corporate finance and general management. He has also served as a director and trustee of commercial companies and charities and is responsible for a family investment company with £30m of assets and an international portfolio. He provides Business Centre clients with a free one hour advice session on accounting, taxation and business development matters. He advises on accountancy and tax, business planning, strategic development, raising equity, capital restructuring and on sourcing worldwide manufacturing facilities for designer products.
email: pbc@pbc.co.uk

Christopher Stone FCA, consultant
Christopher qualified as a chartered accountant and after a year with PriceWaterhouseCoopers, spent six years as a partner in a medium-sized City firm of accountants specialising in advising small and medium sized businesses from a wide range of industrial sectors. He left the profession in 1988 and for six years was the finance director of a Plc manufacturing company. He is now a portfolio non-executive director and consultant to a variety of SMEs, helping them to identify and build growth opportunities and to increase shareholder value. His current clients include a venture capital fund that invests in and monitors technology opportunities in the West Midlands. His background as finance director and partner enables him to support his clients with a strong blend of practical and professional experience.
email: pbc@pbc.co.uk
     


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