Dr David Cooper, Founding Partner of Cooper Limon Limited

Dr David Cooper is a Fellow of both the Institute of Chartered Accountants and of the British Psychological Society, and visiting Professor of Research Impact at Leeds University Business School.

David is a recognised authority, international speaker and media commentator on the psychology of private equity. Through his firm, Cooper Limon, he advises GPs, portfolio leaders and LPs on the application of behavioural insights as a basis for creating value.

Karen Emanuel, CEO of Key Production

Karen is the founder and CEO of Key Production (London). Karen's musical journey started at the University of Leeds where she was Events Secretary at the Student Union. Starting from a few thousand pounds from a redundancy payment and one customer in 1990, Karen has grown Key to be the largest creative manufacturer of vinyl records, CDs, cassettes and bespoke physical product in Europe, with five offices and over 60 staff. Key is an industry leader both in innovation and creativity, most recently being nominated for a Grammy, and is a pioneer of sustainability in the music industry becoming a certified B-Corp in 2023.

Karen is an award-winning entrepreneur and has led a range of industry initiatives championing diversity and sustainability in the music industry. In 2024, Key Production became an Employee Owned Trust (EOT). Karen brings a unique experience not only about how to grow a successful and purposeful business, but how to exit a business by selling it to her employees.

Anna Sutton, Co-Founder & CEO of The Data Refinery

Anna Sutton co-founded The Data Shed, a Leeds based data engineering consultancy in 2013. Exiting to Hippo Digital in March 2023, Anna is now in the process of taking her SaaS data integration platform, The Data Refinery, to market with the aim of providing enterprise level data warehousing, insight and segmentation tools to small/medium sized businesses at a fraction of the cost.

This event is fully-funded by the Business School and places are limited, so please reserve your place by completing the Registration Form. Please note, this event is not open to students.

Please note

There will be a photographer present at the event. Photography from the event may be used by Leeds University Business School to share news about the event, and to publicise future events. Images may be used in press releases, printed publicity and published on the website and social media. If you have any concerns please contact the Small Business Hub Team at LUBSSMEHub@leeds.ac.uk

SME Leaders Forum April 2025