Biographies

Our first speaker is Peter Grant, Managing Director, Grant Management (http://www.grantmanagement.co.uk/). Peter has a background in newspapers having risen through the sales side of Thomson Regional Newspapers. He spent time with a variety of companies including The Scotsman and John Menzies, before becoming Circulation Director of the Daily Record in 1994.  In 1997 Peter and his wife Colette, founded Grant Management (GAM), which has since become both the largest and fastest growing residential Property Management and Investment Company is Scotland. The company has roughly doubled in size each year, primarily through client referrals, and now has some 1,300 flats under management. It buys and renovates around 400 properties per annum. Clients range from private individuals with just one flat, to hi wealth clients with a property portfolio. Investor retention has been well over 97% since the company started in 1997. In 2005 GAM started working with larger Institutional clients, also. In early 2006, GAM formed a £100m JV Investment Fund with Bank Of Scotland. BOS also took a 20% stake in GAM. With its head office in Edinburgh, and a full time staff of 95, the company is now expanding from 6 to a further 20 locations throughout the UK. The aim is to become an integrated "Asset Management" business, for Residential Property, across the UK. This has become particularly relevant with the advent of REITS, from 2006. Peter is in the process of setting up two new businesses, one being a fund management business. These will help exploit the new REIT market opportunities. Having being awarded "Professional Service Company of the Year" in 2004, 2005 saw Peter Grant awarded "Entrepreneur of the Year" at the National Business awards for Scotland. Peter also owns a personal property portfolio, and set up GmSailing.com - a Luxury Corporate Sailing Charter business, in the West Coast of Scotland. Personal interests include skiing, sailing and golf.

Our second speaker for the evening is Sanjay Majhu, CEO of Glasgow-headquartered Harlequin Leisure Group (http://www.harlequinrestaurants.com/), Europe's largest chain of Indian restaurants and the company behind the popular Ashoka restaurant brand. Sanjay is a successful entrepreneur with an expanding portfolio of business interests. He has worked in the restaurant trade ever since landing his first part-time job as a waiter in the Ashoka West End, Glasgow while still at school. He assumed ownership of Harlequin in an £8 million deal in March 2005. Comprising 16 restaurants employing 350 staff and generating an annual turnover of £12 million. Harlequin is now gearing up for a period of rapid expansion, with plans at an advanced stage to open new sites at Springfield Quay, Glasgow, Wellgate Centre, Dundee and Bearsden. Sanjay has several other business ventures, including the £1 million turnover Starlighting Electrical Wholesale; the Apple Pharmacy Group, which, following recent acquisitions, now comprises eight units throughout Scotland, generating a turnover of £6 million, and a range of commercial property interests.Amongst many accolades, Sanjay was recently presented with the Business and Commerce Excellence Award at the prestigious Asian Jewel Awards while Apple Pharmacy recently won the Scottish Business Development of the Year award at the prestigious Scottish Pharmacy Awards.

The evening will be chaired by Chris Gorman OBE, Executive Chairman, Team Advisors, and Joint Vice Chairman, The Entrepreneurial Exchange.  A serial entrepreneur, Chris Gorman has headed several highly successful ventures in technology and retail businesses.  A founder shareholder in UK mobile phone retailer, DX Communications, Chris then went on to create the internet services company, Reality Group.  Current business interests include a number of mobile and internet enterprises as well as Quintessentially, Datastore, The Lean Team, and purple-lounge.com. Chris has also experienced the tough end of business as the devastating demise of The Gadget Shop chain hit the headlines and the High Court.  The high profile court case ruling completely vindicated Gorman and his partners finding that, contrary to the allegations made by the other shareholders, they were entitled to acquire Birthdays, the card and gift retailer. Highly regarded, Chris has received many business awards for his entrepreneurialism over the years including Ernst & Young Scottish Entrepreneur of the Year, UK E-Business Entrepreneur, Young  Business Leader of the Year, Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland in Business, and the laudable SBAAT Businessman of the Year Award. In June 2005 Chris was delighted to receive an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list for services to business. Chris is a regular speaker at business events; he has featured in several business related TV shows; he lectures in schools and universities and has been awarded an honorary professorship in business at Paisley University.  He is Vice Chairman of the Entrepreneurial Exchange and Governor of the Royal Scottish Academy for Music and Drama.