Nicola Fleet-Milne

Nicola Fleet-Milne, Owner and MD of multi-award winning agency FleetMilne Property. With prestigious offices on Birmingham’s Colmore Row, FleetMilne specialise in selling, letting and managing premium city centre apartments and is known for upholding the highest of standards.

Nicola has been a member of Birmingham Future since 2006, continually championing the younger, flourishing members of the organisation. She is passionate about ensuring that Birmingham continues to position itself as a city that promotes from within, nurturing the innate talents of our young professionals..

Suzie Branch

Suzie firmly believes that Birmingham is a city full of opportunities for all young professionals. Since winning Birmingham Young Professional of the Year 2009, she has directed her energies into supporting the city’s future generations through mentoring, supporting and advising school students and graduates thanks to the opportunities provided by the Future in the Community and Development Committees.

Proud to be part of Birmingham Future and to be part of shaping the city’s future.

Gareth Morgan

Birmingham Future chose its new Chair in March 2011 and the obvious choice was Gareth.  Throughout his time in Future, Gareth has clocked up 7 years of membership, including a stint on the Business Strategy & Constitution Committee where he worked his way up to be the Chair.  This resulted in a sound and thorough understanding of how best to lead the organisation.

Bina Ganatra

Bina has been involved with Future since 2006 (when she first moved to Birmingham), quickly went from being a member to being involved and Chairing the Marketing Committee. Loving what the organisation has to offer Bina also chaired Birmingham Future’s flagship event – BYPY in 2011. Bina is an avid sports nut (watching, participating and working within the industry); therefore chairing the Sports Committee just made sense. Passionate about, Sport, Birmingham, Future and partying, Bina’s responsibility is to engage members in sporting activities ‘Sweatworking’ if you will, strongly believing in the ‘Healthy Body, Healthy Mind’ philosophy.

Watch this space as the variety and frequency of sporting and sporting related activities continue to grow!!

Charlotte Crossley

Charlotte has been a member of Birmingham Future for over 10 years and has been on the City Centre committee for the majority of that time. A Brummie born and bred, she is passionate about the regeneration and continued renaissance of the city. Charlotte was the winner in the Communications category at BYPY 2008, which took place a week after she cycled 125 miles from Brindleyplace to Aberdovey in a day to raise £14,500 for Birmingham Community Foundation. In 2009 she was featured in the Who’s Who guide to the top 2% of directors in the UK aged 35 or under.

Hilary Allen

Birmingham Future has been an intrinsic part of Hilary’s life since making the move to the city centre from a career as a chartered surveyor in contracting to one in consultancy, nearly 7 years ago. When she was crowned as the winner of BYPY 2011, Hilary set about the creation of the Future Commission project; an initiative focused on attracting talent to the city and one that will help cement Future’s position as an authoritative stakeholder in the growth of our business community. The Commission will be reporting back in late 2012 – watch this space!

Ian Burrows

Ian Cooke

Ian Cooke is a member networks manager for ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants), the global body for professional accountants. Ian organises professional development and networking opportunities for accountants and business professionals in the West Midlands and several other areas of the UK.

Having been involved with BYPY for the last two years, Ian has now taken on the role of committee chair for Birmingham Future’s flagship event. BYPY 2013 promises to yet again showcase and celebrate the best young professional talent within Birmingham’s business community with all of the glitz and glamour of the Oscars! Miss it, miss out!

James Richards

James is a property development and construction lawyer at Gateley. He has been a member of Future since 2008. From mid 2010 to the beginning of 2012 he chaired the Development Committee. James is now responsible for leading the new Special Projects division with the aim of developing wider opportunities for Future members to integrate with other key initiatives throughout the wider city whilst also broadening Future’s ability to take the lead on specific and targeted projects.

Outside Birmingham Future James’s role involves working with developers, landowners and occupiers on all aspects of acquiring, developing, building, investing in and selling interests in land. James has extensive experience in both property and construction, which gives him a unique advantage when helping clients navigate the pitfalls of property development.

Kate Onions

Kate joined Birmingham Future in 2005 and lost no time in getting involved and setting up the Inspiring Futures Mentoring Scheme. In her role as Chair of the Development Committee, Kate continues to manage the Inspiring Futures Scheme, now an accredited scheme with well over 200 participants, but also the Momentum Mentoring Scheme and the delivery of a programme of professional development events. Kate was the 2012 BYPY legal winner.

Kate is a construction lawyer specialising in providing practical advice to assist her clients in preventing and resolving a wide range of construction disputes. She is Chair of National Association of Women in Construction (Midlands) and Vice Chair of the Forum for the Built Environment (Coventry and Warwickshire). With a strong track record for business development, Kate is also the founder and Chair of the Construction West Midlands networking group.

Louise Whitehouse

Louise has been an ardent supporter of Birmingham Future since she moved to the City in 2007. Enthused by an organisation which is so passionate about engaging and developing the City’s young professionals, Louise became involved at committee level in 2009 taking an immediate interest in the events and marketing committees.

Louise is currently chair of the Social and Culture committee where she is responsible for organising a calendar of highly engaging events and cultural opportunities. The aim of every event is to engage our members and inspire confidence, but importantly to have some fun at the same time! Keep an eye on the upcoming events calendars so that you don’t miss out.

By day, Louise is a Senior Solicitor at Mills & Reeve LLP specialising in commercial litigation, ensuring she delivers the best possible result for clients in any disputes she is advising on.

Tara Tomes

Tara has been involved in Birmingham Future since 2008 and heads up all marketing activity. As well as aligning the committees, she also helps to profile the fantastic events and initiatives being led by the organisation. Tara is passionate about the city and, in particular, what it has to offer young professionals – both inside and out of work. Tara was a finalist in the communications category at the 2011 BYPY Awards and won Outstanding Young Communicator at the CIPR Midlands PRide Awards 2010.

Verity Stokes

Verity is a Team Leader with recruitment consultancy Katie Bard which she joined as a graduate trainee in 2003. Here she works across a broad range of industry sectors recruiting from Graduate entry level to management positions. She has always had a huge passion for retaining the great graduate talent that Birmingham attracts to the city and believes that motivated and aspirational people are the cornerstones of great businesses. As Chair of the Talent Attraction and Retention committee she leads a team who are equally passionate about offering top graduates the opportunity to shine through the unique Graduate Apprentice scheme, which for the first time in 2013 offers the opportunity to 3 graduates, and also through key events for new young professionals in the city such as the Welcome to Birmingham event.