Creative Business Mentor Network

Creative businesses are crucial to the economy, contributing £57 billion a year to UK plc. But those businesses with high growth potential often need specialised help.

Which is why NESTA has set up a Mentor Network specifically for creative businesses in the TV production, advertising and digital media sectors with an appetite for growth.

The Creative Business Mentor Network is an opportunity for 24 creative companies to benefit from one-to-one mentoring with some of the most successful business people from the creative sector.

The selected companies will have access to practical advice on the challenges of growing a creative business and be able to tap into their mentors’ years of business and industry experience.

In short, they’ll help you find your edge.

Lord David Puttnam, NESTA Mentor Champion and Nick Blunden, Managing Director, Profero

The mentors:

• Lord David Puttnam,   NESTA Mentor Champion
• Tess Alps,CEO, Thinkbox
• John Bartle,Co-founder,BBH
• Nick Blunden, MD, Profero
• Peter Bazalgette, Media Consultant, NewBaz Ltd
• Tim Bonnet CEO, TEQUILA
• Andrew Chitty, MD, Illumina
• Alex Connock,CEO, Ten Alps
• Peter Cowley, Managing Director of Digital Media, Endemol UK
• Wayne Garvie,Director of Content & Production, BBC Worldwide
• Alex Graham,CEO, Wall To Wall
• Mike Kelly, MD, Northern Alliance Limited
• David Kershaw, CEO ,M&C Saatchi
• Howard Kiedaisch, MD,Arts Alliance Media
• Ray Marshall, MD, Festival Film & Television
• Moray MacLennan, Global CEO, M&C Saatchi
• Patrick McKenna, Chairman, Ingenious Media
• Andrew O'Connor, CEO,Objective Production
• Louise Pedersen, MD, All3Media International
• Paul Sandler, Managing Director, Objective Productions
• Andy Taylor, Director, All3Media
• Steve Taylor, Director of Development & Innovation at Aegis Media UK and Ireland
• John Varney, Former CTO, BBC
• Charles Wace, CEO, Two Four
• Stephen Woodford, Chairman & CEO, DDB
• Andrew Zein, MD, Tiger Aspect

All the NESTA mentors are creative professionals with tried and tested experience in the industry. As well as having experience in running international businesses they're incredibly well connected - if they can't answer your question, they're likely to know someone who can.

So, why are the NESTA mentors giving up their time to help high growth companies of the future? They understand the value of talking to a new generation of entrepreneurs and are keen to give something back.

The companies

• Agency Inc
• Airlock
• Avatar Productions
• Axis Animation
• CitySocialising
• Connected Pictures
• DESQ
• Distilled Ltd.
• Glasshead
• Hotspur and Argyle
• Jason Bruges Studio
• Kindle Entertainment
• Lambent Productions
• Love Productions
• Mammoth Screen Limited
• Nameless media group ltd
• Novarising
• October Films
• OTPL Worldwide
• Que Pasa
• Roughcut Television
• The Neighbourhood
• Thinkpublic
• Traffic Digital

Our partners

To set up the Creative Business Network we are involving the expertise and experience of:

• Grant Thornton, a leading business and financial adviser to the SME community with particular expertise in the creative sector.

• PACT, the UK trade association that represents and promotes the commercial interests of independent feature film, television, children's and animation media companies.

We also pooled together the experience of various mentors, creative businesses, practitioners and consultants.