Meet the Team

Peter Pledger - Chief Executive

Peter was born, educated and works in London. He was the Deputy Director of the London Training and Enterprise Council and served on the Board of AZTEC, the Training and Enterprise Council for South West London. He later moved to London West Learning and Skills Council (LSC) as the Executive Director which he set up in 2001 and managed for five years. Prior to joining the South London Business Peter ran his own consultancy business advising on skills policy and related issues. Peter joined SLB as the CEO early in 2007. He is also the Director of Greater London Enterprise and a Governor of St Mary’s College in Strawberry Hill, Twickenham. Peter lives in South London with his wife and daughter.

Simon Turnage - Finance Director & Deputy Chief Executive

E-mail: simon.turnage@southlondonbusiness.co.uk

Tel: 0208 253 4221

Simon hails from a background in Retail and Property sectors. His experience includes ten years with a London chandler (supplying hardware for yachts). After leaving the chandlery industry he spent two years delivering yachts in the Baltic and Mediterranean before moving into property. Simon has worked both as a consultant and private property developer - restructuring several private holdings and managing several extensive programs of disposals. Simon joined the South London Business team in 2003. In his spare time Simon enjoys sailing in warmer climates.

Ross Feeney - Director of Business Support

E-Mail: ross.feeney@southlondonbusiness.co.uk

Tel: 0208 253 4222

Ross joined South London Business from the private sector - where he worked for an import / export company specialising in sourcing products from Europe and China. He joined South London Business in 2002 to provide policy support to the chief executive. Ross now heads all marketing and communications in SLB and manages the business representation team.
Ross has a Master of Arts in Policy Studies and is an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations. He has a keen interest in local politics, and is a passionate Formula One fan.

David Boyer - Director of Business Skills

E-Mail: david.boyer@southlondonbusiness.co.uk

Tel: 0208 253 4223

David has a background in economic development. He worked for some years as a teacher in Africa before settling in London in 1990. Since then he has worked in the fields of education, employment and regeneration in the public and private sectors in various parts of the capital. He joined South London Business in July 2007 to manage its City Growth programme in Lewisham and Greenwich.
David lives in Gipsy Hill. He counts himself a bit of a film buff and also enjoys escaping to the fresh air to go fell walking.

Alena Harvey - Quality & Information Project Manager

E-mail: alena.harvey@southlondonbusiness.co.uk

Tel: 0208 253 4225

Alena graduated from the University of the West of England in Bristol, where she gained a 2:1 honours degree in International Business with French. She has spent time in both the private and public sector - working in research and analytical posts for global organisations such as Credit Suisse First Boston. Alena spent a year in France as part of her degree and worked for a French Chamber of Commerce, CRITT Agro-alimentaire. Alena is an avid reader, enjoys kick boxing and horse riding, and spends the odd weekend as a volunteer at a wildlife sanctuary.

Con O'Brien - Project Manager Business Support

E-Mail: con.obrien@southlondonbusiness.co.uk

Tel: 0208 253 4226

Con is a graduate in Business and Law, with over 10 years experience of working with the public and private sector - specialising in Business and Regeneration, delivering infrastructure and workforce development programmes in East London on the Royal Docks. He was also involved in the development of a business model for social enterprise in Greenwich. Con's role is to retain key employers in South London.
Con is a key supporter of the benefits that an Olympics can bring to the aspirations of young people across all of London.

Adrienne Foskett - Office Manager

E-Mail: a.foskett@southlondonbusiness.co.uk

Tel: 0208 253 4224

Adrienne is the longest serving member of the South London Business team - having been with the company since 1999. She describes herself as the font of all knowledge and manages the office with an iron grip.

Julie Harries - Business Skills Project Manager

E-mail: julie.harries@southlondonbusiness.co.uk

Tel: 0208 253 4227

Julie manages a number of projects at South London Business.  These include; Train to Gain and Response to Redundancy.  It is Julie’s role to engage with employers on their skills need for Train to Gain, and to mange training providers working under the South London Business Train to gain and Response to Redundancy programmes.
Originally from South Wales; Julie has background in Travel. She graduated with 2:1 honors in Travel & Tourism and has twelve years experience working in the Travel Industry. Prior to joining the team, Julie spent seven years working in Product Management for a number of large tour operators. Julie also completed an NVQ level 3 in Advice and Guidance and Prince 2 within the last year.  Julie lives in Mitcham, South London, loves travelling overseas, enjoys reading and socialising in her spare time.

Rutendo Mupfurutsa - Project Manager 

E-Mail: rutendo.mupfurutsa@southlondonbusiness.co.uk

Tel: 0208 253 4230

Rutendo’s background is in Business, she graduated from University of Wolverhampton in Business and Finance. She has worked within south London for over 5 years assisting businesses start out and acquire the necessary knowledge to succeed.
During that time she gained the Small Firms Enterprise Development Initiative (SFEDI) accreditation as a Business Information advisor. This is a quality mark that confirms that Rutendo has the personal and technical skills required to provide effective support to entrepreneurs.
In her spare time she is a part-time student in Business Studies at the University of East London, she also enjoys going to the gym and cinema.

Julie Leggatt - Assistant Project Manager

E-mail: julie.leggatt@southlondonbusiness.co.uk

Tel: 0208 253 4231

Julie joined the team in August 2004.  As part of her personal development training Julie has just successfully completed an NVQ in Team Leading. In recognition of her achievement Julie was promoted to Assistant Project Manager of the South London Business Awards schemes. Julie is a passionate Arsenal Fan, and enjoys playing football and is captain for Croydon Borough Ladies FC.

Kwame Anyemedu - Assistant Contract Delivery Manager

E-Mail: kwame.anyemedu@southlondonbusiness.co.uk

Tel: 0208 253 4241

Kwame is a business economics graduate who joined with the team in June 2007. Kwame has considerable experience working on business support projects in North London. In his spare time Kwame enjoyes playing sport, visiting the gym and going to the cinema.

Janet Edwards - Personal Assistant to Chief Executive

E-Mail: janet.edwards@southlondonbusiness.co.uk

Tel: 0208 253 4232

Following a varied career, Janet joined South London Business in 2006. Prior to this, she held a number of high level support roles to senior executives in major international companies including Esselte, Vodafone and Nestlé.

In her spare time Janet is a school governor for a local primary school - enjoys travel, cycling and going to the gym.

Faith Tomala - Events Manager

E-Mail: faith.tomala@southlondonbusiness.co.uk

Tel: 0208 253 4228

Faith graduated from Bournemouth University in 2004 where she gained an Honours Degree in Tourism Management. Prior to joining South London Business in September 2008, Faith worked for 3 years in a private off plan property investment company running their educational events and logistically managing an off site team.
Faith is currently doing an NVQ Level 3 in Management, lives in Chessington and in her spare time enjoys swimming, playing squash and socialising with friends.

Simon Pallen - Clerical Assistant

E-Mail: simon.pallen@southlondonbusiness.co.uk

Tel: 0208 253 4236

Simon joined SLB as an Administrative Assistant in October 2009 after completing his A Levels. In his spare time he enjoys socialising with friends and going to the gym, and is very interested in music.

Hayley Reid - Project Assistant Business Skills

E-Mail: hayley.reid@southlondonbusiness.co.uk

Tel: 0208 253 4276

Hayley joined SLB as a Project Assistant for Business Skills in December 2009. She is currently working on the Train to Gain and Response to Redundancy programmes. Since completing a Humanities degree in 2008, she has worked on youth community development programmes; facilitating workshops. Last summer she gained funding from DFID to travel to South Africa for 10 weeks, to volunteer as a community development worker, which involved encouraging young people to participate in library education. Hayley currently volunteers as a film workshop assistant working with 14-18 year olds; producing short films for the first Croydon Film Festival in 2010.

Tendai Mupfurutsa - Project Assistant Business Information and Research

E-Mail: tendai.mupfurutsa@southlondonbusiness.co.uk

Tel: 0208 253 4235

Tendai joined SLB in December 2009 as a Web Information Assistant. Prior to this he graduated from Middlesex University in North London in the summer of 2009, where he gained a 2:1 honours degree in Business Management. Tendai has 5 years experience in Sales; he worked as a Sales Consultant part time during his tenure at college and university. He lives in South London and in his spare time he enjoys creative writing and music. 

Emma Amess - Project Assistant Business Support

E-Mail: emma.amess@southlondonbusiness.co.uk

Tel: 0208 253 4234

Emma joined SLB in October 2009 as Project Assistant for Business Support.  Before that she worked at the Royal Bank of Scotland for 4 years as a Recovery Officer in the debt department. Emma has an NVQ level 2 in customer service.
In her spare time she enjoys spending time with her friends and family and looking after her daughter.

Business Community Assistants

More than 300 unemployed young people from South London are to be given on the job training that will help not only their future prospects, but also local firms and the community. Employed directly by SLB the new recruits are contracted for a six-month period. During this time they will be based at the organisation’s central Croydon headquarters where they will be trained to carry out a range of office tasks including business administration, events co-ordination, and outreach work. 
This will involve placements with other organisations in South London working to assist local businesses. These will include local chambers of commerce in other boroughs. The young people, each of whom is designated as a Business Community Assistant, will find themselves supporting social enterprises as well as voluntary and community groups and small businesses.

For more information please CLICK HERE

Magnus Cole - Business Development Consultant

E-Mail: magnus.cole@southlondonbusiness.co.uk

Tel: 0208 253 4294

Magnus was born in the UK and has also lived in the USA and Sierra Leone, West Africa. He is a Business Development Consultant with considerable experience in sales and marketing. His career spans media sales, events, exhibitions and sponsorship sales. Coincidentally he worked closely with South London Business selling category sponsorship for borough business awards a few years ago not realising that he would be offering his services again to the same organization in the not so distant future! He has also been involved in entrepreneurial activity, investment promotion, artiste management and import export. He is an economics graduate and has a management accountancy background. His hobbies are music, reading, keeping fit and voluntary work.

Julie Taylor - Senior Project Manager, Future Jobs Fund

E-Mail: julie.taylor@southlondonbusiness.co.uk

Julie joined SLB in February 2010 as the Senior Project Manager responsible for the Future Jobs Fund (FJF) project; a DWP initiative set up to help 18 to 24 year olds who have been on Job Seakers Allowance (JSA) for six months or more to gain valuable work experience and ultimately ongoing employment.

She started her career with Natwest Bank and then spent 13 years working her way up the management chain within the Revenues & Benefits department at Lewisham council finally managing their busy call centre. She then moved into her first private sector role managing a technical helpdesk for a telecommunications company in the Docklands and then in Australia.  On deciding to move back to the UK, Julie worked for Bromley Council and later Croydon Council; her final role being Head of Service responsible for the 200 seat contact centre delivering face to face, phone, text and email services to Croydon residents.

She has a BEC General diploma, an NVQ level 3 in Supervisory Management and an Institute of Customer Services (ICS) innovations award.
 
Julie has been married for 20 years; lives in West Wickham and has two young people of her own; a daughter aged 19 and a Son 18.  Her hobbies include Tennis, ceroc (partner dance, cross between the jive and the salsa) and property investment.