Don’t worry if you missed this special conversation with Emily Cloke, British Consul General in Los Angeles.

Moderator – Carlo Cavanga, Regional Director, Southwest U.S., The UK’s Department for International Trade

CLICK HERE TO WATCH A RECORDING OF THE WEBINAR

Featuring:

 British Consul General, Emily Cloke

Emily Cloke is British Consul General in Los Angeles. She is the senior representative of the UK government in Southern California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah and Hawaii. In this role, she promotes trade and investment, scientific cooperation, tackling climate change, creative and media collaborations and educational partnerships between the UK and the southwestern United States. She also oversees delivery of essential consular services to a 600,000-strong British resident community and British visitors. 

Emily has a range of policy, commercial and international experience working for the British Government. Her recent roles include as Deputy CEO for the UK-Africa Investment Summit hosted by the Prime Minister in 2020, and as a senior leader in the Department for International Trade’s Sectors Group, overseeing export and investment promotion for industry sectors including aerospace, advanced manufacturing and education. She has worked overseas as Trade Director for the British Embassy Tehran, setting up and leading the UK’s trade section and strategy following the re-opening of the British Embassy in 2015, and as Head of Trade at the British Embassy Sweden. Her wider experience includes advising on the creation of the world’s first Green Investment Bank, and leading the Ministerial private office for the Minister of Employment Relations and Consumer Affairs/Minister for Women & Equalities. Emily started her career as a lawyer in the City of London and studied law at Cambridge University. 

 Her Majesty’s Deputy Trade Commissioner, Kunal Khatri 

Kunal Khatri is the UK’s Deputy HM Trade Commissioner for the USA, based at the British Consulate General in New York City. In this role he leads a cross-USA team to deliver new trade and investment opportunities across all economic sectors by helping UK firms export to and enter the market, and support US firms to invest into UK. Prior to this he spent five years at the British Embassy Beijing as the UK’s Minister-Counsellor & Director for Financial and Professional Services, and seven years at HM Treasury on financial services, international economics and as Ministerial speechwriter. Kunal has also worked at the World Bank, United Nations and The Economist Newspaper. Kunal graduated from Oxford University and the London School of Economics, and speaks fluent Mandarin. 

Panellists include:

 David L. Bahnsen Founder, Managing Partner, and Chief Investment Officer of The Bahnsen Group

David L. Bahnsen is the founder, Managing Partner, and Chief Investment Officer of The Bahnsen Group, a bi-coastal private wealth management firm with offices in Newport Beach, CA and New York City, managing over $2.7 billion in client assets. David is consistently named as one of the top financial advisors in America by Barron’s, Forbes, and the Financial Times (2013-2021). He brought The Bahnsen Group independent in early 2015 after eight years as a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley and seven years at UBS Financial Services. He is a frequent guest on CNBC, Bloomberg, and Fox Business and is a regular contributor to National Review. David serves on the Board of Directors for the National Review Institute and is a founding Trustee for Pacifica Christian High School of Orange County. He is the author of several bestselling books including Crisis of Responsibility: Our Cultural Addiction to Blame and How You Can Cure It (2018), and The Case for Dividend Growth: Investing in a Post-Crisis World (2019). David’s true passions include anything related to USC football, the financial markets, politics, and reading. His ultimate passions are his wife of 20 years, Joleen, their children, Mitchell, Sadie, and Graham, and the life they’ve created together on both coasts.

 Bern Gilbey, CEO, 11Health

Bernhard (Bern) has spent more than 20 years leading and growing businesses, most recently as CEO of 11 Health & Technologies, a med-tech company based in Orange County, CA. Having spent most of his career in the professional services sector, successfully building a global team as well as leading the turnaround of his firm’s fortunes in the mid-2000s, Bern switched to healthcare in 2018. As Chief Commercial Officer, Bern was responsible for 11 Health’s commercial strategy for its products and services. More recently as CEO, Bern has been focused on ensuring the delivery of its new generation of wearables, reframing the company’s proposition into the 11 Health Virtual HealthCare Ecosystem and building a strong team to enable the company to take advantage of its unique products and services solution.

 Giovanna Forte, CEO of Forte Medical

Giovanna co-founded Forte Medical with her brother Dr Vincent Forte _{BA (Cantab), MBBS (Lond), MRCGP, MSc, DA.}, retired NHS GP. In 2010 their Peezy Mistream prototype won the East of England NHS Innovation Award and the UK Design Week Awards … where runners up were the Apple MacBook Air … and Microsoft. Forte Medical delivers Vincent’s now highly engineered evidence-based innovation Peezy Midstream to clinical settings in the UK and USA, where major GPO supply contracts are being set in place together with a granted HCPCS code. Peezy Midstream technology improves right-first-time diagnoses, infection control, patient safety and finances whilst reducing unnecessary antibiotic prescribing, helping fight the growing crisis of AMR. New devices are in the pipeline to maximise efficacy of novel liquid biopsy early stage cancer tests.Giovanna drives company vision, growth, manufacture, regulatory matters, marketing, sales and distribution in the UK and USA. She is a regular speaker at industry events and delivers an annual lecture to Healthcare Innovation Masters Students at Imperial Business School London and Imperial College MedTech Design BioEngineering students.

Moderator:

 Moderated by Greater Irvine Chamber President & CEO, Bryan Starr

Bryan Starr is president and CEO of the Greater Irvine Chamber, one of California’s largest chambers of commerce. He oversees the organization’s economic development and destination marketing divisions and the Irvine Chamber Education Foundation. Each of these areas has resulted in a significant positive economic impact for the community.

Under Starr’s leadership, the Chamber has earned numerous honors, including the U.S. Chamber’s highest Five-Star Accreditation, the U.S. President’s E-Award for Export Service, and the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Community Excellence Chamber Award. He has led the Chamber in its role as a key steward of the Irvine Master Plan by convening business, community, civic, non-profit, and education partners to sustain the city’s economic health. Starr serves on the Irvine Mayor’s Business Reopening Task Force and several boards, including UCI Beall Applied Innovation, Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Committee of 100, and Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives Major Cities Council. He has served on numerous public boards and was a founding board member of the Irvine Community Land Trust. Starr served as senior vice president to Orange County Business Council, and earlier as CEO of the Building Industry Association of Southern California, Orange County Chapter. In 2019, Starr was named Executive of the Year by the Western Association of Chamber Executives and was among Orange County’s most influential people by the Orange County Business Journal.

Jacquie Blair