Meet our Early Growth Programme contributors

We recognise the need for business support in our current economic climate and that trying to achieve growth and maximise business potential during such turbulent times is no mean feat. At Creative England, we’re continuing to introduce and progress key business growth initiatives, each of which have been adapted to support the creative industries during Covid-19 and beyond. 

The latest addition to the pipeline is our Creative Enterprise: Early Growth Programme, a dedicated and prestigious programme for up to 20 founders of screen-based companies with the potential and ambition to grow their businesses. If you’re looking to accelerate the growth of your business, we’ve got your back.

But we can’t go about providing these tools on our own, which is why we’ve taken on exceptionally talented and established industry specialists, each experts in their respective field.

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Luke English

Luke English is a Media and Technology Lawyer, who has been in the industry for over 22 years. He has been privileged to work as an inhouse lawyer for the BBC, Walt Disney, Sony Music as well as a West End Theatre production company.

Luke set up his own law firm in October 2020 and has a variety of clients in TV, Film, Music, theatre and tech including famous influencers, MOBO awarded artists and big brand companies both local and national.

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Tracey Howes

Tracey Howes is founder of Blue Mind Social, a company dedicated to inspiring, motivating and training entrepreneurs and teams to manage their social media in-house. She has 20 years of marketing and events experience, including 10 years of managing and teaching social media marketing.

Tracey helps business owners and teams transform their company’s social media to increase awareness, customer engagement and sales. With clear instruction, an understanding of the technology, and a strategic plan, Tracey works closely with clients, to enable them to make an impact and attract customers who will trust and buy from them.

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Andrew Walker

Andrew is a serial entrepreneur who has founded, grown and sold businesses in mobile and scalable SaaS products. He has extensive experience working with founders & Leadership teams in startup and scaleup businesses to help them bring their product vision to reality and speed up their journey to £10M ARR:

He has worked as an advisor on the Digital Accelerator supported by Creative England. Andrew has worked with >50 business in Tech, Games, Video, Animation, Writing, Marketing and Design. He is co-Director of Google Startup Grind Bournemouth, is an Advisor at Antler Ventures, & Mentor for Virgin Startups.

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Anthony Story

Anthony is an innovation strategist who helps companies prepare for growth, plan innovation strategies, engage customers, and attract investment. He works directly with creative and digital companies, and also runs business support and startup accelerator programmes. He founded an award-winning, engagement & communications agency which he exited in 2012.

Anthony is the Director of the Silicon South Network which champions and supports businesses in the digital, creative and tech sector across Dorset. He has a background in digital, film, theatre, events, brand and marketing and still appears in the occasional film. He is host of the 10^th Degree Podcast.

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Mike Hawkyard

Over the last twenty years, Mike has designed and sold innovative game-led solutions into a wide range of business sectors, including building games for clients as diverse as LEGO, KPMG, UEFA, Salesforce and the RNLI. He has also founded two games companies both of which have been successfully acquired.

Some of his career highlights include: securing No.1 iOS Apps in every country with an App Store; Launching six games with Star Wars™ licences; Generating three billion play sessions and counting; a BAFTA nomination (Best Independent Production Company)

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So there you have it, a collection of reasons why, if you sign up to the Early Growth Programme, you’re guaranteed expert guidance and an opportunity to work alongside some impressive industry figures. Sign up today, our contributors cannot wait to meet you!

Creative Enterprise has been developed with National Lottery funding from the BFI, to increase the sustainability of the moving image sector in the English regions outside of London.

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