Founders Circle

Andy Milner is a Founder and Managing Director of DNASTREAM, the growing Enterprise IT Consultancy based in the Surrey Research Park. DNASTREAM has over 40 staff and a revenue of £6 million and focuses on service companies with customers including Northern Ireland Water, JLA, RES and Sureserve. DNASTREAM started life in SetSquared the local incubator on the research park. Prior to that Andy held Senior positions at Total Energy, Wipro and SAP. He holds a degree in Mining Engineering and an executive MBA from Henley Management College. 

His industry expertise is packaged software, energy, utilities, insurance and service companies. 

As a mentor Andy has areas of interest in business finance and funding, Sales & Marketing and Managing alliances and partnerships. 

Outside of work Andy enjoys road cycling and is the chair of Charlotteville Cycling club. He also acts as a school governor. 

“Things take much longer than you think. Really plan your cash flow.”

With over 25 years experience in Sales across diverse industries and now running her own Sales Consultancy, Training & Coaching business, Anita focuses on empowering, educating and delivering ethical sales and professional skills support to individuals as well as organisations. She enjoys building confidence and changing mindsets, especially on how to present yourself – as everyone has the capability to present or sell themselves effectively in interviews or sales meetings - and in life generally! 

Anita has supported a number of business owners through their growth journey, leveraging her passion for sales, training, client engagement, networking, recruitment, as well as process improvement to engage new clients, shape market propositions and scale teams.

Her passion is Learning & Development which has also led to her working with education institutions like Bournemouth University in order to prepare, guide, and educate students on the real-life skills they need to be successful.

Anita always delivers engaging, fun and enjoyable experiences for all!

I started off my career on an IT graduate scheme with BOC Gases on the Surrey Research Park implementing SAP across the globe.  After 5 years at BOC I joined SAP as a programme director for British Airways (the largest SAP programme in Europe at the time) and then moved into Sales for SAP.  My last role at SAP was running Education sales across EMEA, a EUR 220m division with 100 direct sales reports.  SAP was a great place to learn the art of sales.  After 11 years I left SAP to join Capita in order to run sales for the majority of a FTSE100 business.  I looked after public sector sales on the board of a FTSE250 equivalent size organisation called Capita Government Services.  I joined Capita as it was a very entrepreneurial and business focussed environment and it certainly delivered.  

I followed the former CEO of Capita to run growth for a business his Private Equity business had bought called Grayce Group.  Grayce hires, trains, and deploys bright graduate talent into the market competing against and working with the major consultancies.  In 2024 I had the opportunity to leave Grayce with a successful growth story of growing it from £0 value to £150m, having completed 5 years, originally agreeing to 2 or 3 years to kick start the business.

I have established a growth focussed business called Partner Management Group that is supporting Founder, PE & VC businesses to accelerate their growth.  I work with some of the most active investors in London and ambitious start up and scaling businesses to grow their valuations for the next round of transactions.

For the past 7 years I have also been a Trustee and most recently Chair of West Horsley Place Trust, a charity based in West Horsley founded by Bamber Gascoigne known for his hosting of University Challenge.  

I am a Londoner who went to school and university here. Having read modern languages I joined a multinational company BOC and worked for them for a few years in the UK when I was awarded a scholarship to study for an MBA. This I did at Bayes and learnt a lot from this excellent experience. 

Having returned to BOC I was asked to set up their healthcare business in Japan spending a couple of years there. With this success I went to Singapore to do something similar which worked out well commercially. Whilst there I was offered a directorship of Glaxo which I accepted and spent 2 more stimulating years there. 

I then returned to UK and worked for the Glaxo group for another 4 years when I joined a smaller manufacturing company to prepare me for the big move to run my own business as a healthcare entrepreneur. 

In 2007 I established my own company called Ardmore Healthcare focussing upon the UK market to supply non invasive gastro products and software.. The company grew rapidly in terms of revenue, profitability and market share, reaching 70%+ in 2018 when a hedge fund company offered me a big number to sell. Negotiations were completed in 2019 when I withdrew from AHC quite satisfied with the result. 

From then I have done a lot of sailing and have been lecturing at 5 different universities. 

“Innovation is key to success”

Lee Lam is an award winning business strategist and founder of Your Startup Partner and the business advisory platform Adviser In Your Pocket. After 24 years in financial services technology, in COO and Chief of Staff roles,  Lee is a blend of risk-taking, change-making creativity, with the security, safety and logic of a COO who can implement change and growth without any dramas.  

Her mission is to build a strong startup democracy.  She breaks down barriers to starting and growing a business and growing into successful organisations of the future. 

She is sector agnostic. Her focus is on ensuring that the external facing business model and the internal facing operating model are synchronised and the strategy for growth is both stable enough to grow at whatever speed is necessary, but agile enough to flex as necessary to take advantages of opportunities or avoid risks.

 “I believe that the status quo should be constantly challenged and validated, because I believe we can always be better”.

I believe entrepreneurship can be a powerful force for good—creating opportunities for founders and wider society. Since 2006, I have worked with start-ups and sole traders, helping them navigate the challenges of building sustainable businesses. Passionate about social business, I’ve supported early-stage social entrepreneurs at UnLtd, and recently worked on launching an impact investment firm. 

As a trained teacher, counsellor, and coach, I support young adults in their personal and professional development, bridging entrepreneurship education with life skills for resilience and growth.

Areas of expertise:

• Early-stage start-up operations
• Social entrepreneurship
• Mental health and wellbeing

Sven Hughes is the founder-CEO at Enigma Strategic Communications. He provides insights and communications support to governments and leading global brands. 

He was awarded ‘Businessperson of the Year 2024’ at both the CSBAs and SBAs, and ‘Creative Entrepreneur of the Year 2023’ at the Great British Entrepreneur Awards. Enigma has also been listed among the Elite Business Top 100 UK SMEs for the last two years. 

He is the author of, 'Verbalisation: the power of words to drive change' (Amazon) and makes regular media and lecture appearances, advocating for the use of ethical strategic communications.

Areas of expertise:

• Government, political and security communications.
• Marketing, audience insights and messaging strategies.

“To become a successful entrepreneur, you need to be the Swiss Army Penknife of business. With a broad range of skills for every eventuality. Once you have these, you become unstoppable.”