Rainmakers Summit 2026 - what a line up
Top class contributors from beginning to end
Hello Rainmakers,
When we started thinking about you as a community, we really wanted to find the issues that bound people together. It’s what encouraged us to do so much more than just hold an awards do once a year.
By the way, it is an excellent awards, it’s more chilled out, not black tie, more of a community celebration in every region.
But we are also aware that there are a lot of really smart people in this community who are disrupting and changing how corporate finance is transacted in the regions of the UK.
That’s why we wanted to do a Rainmakers Summit, to air the important issues. To help to get people in this critically important economic community around the same table as civic leaders, and to understand key issues around value creation, business leadership and strategy.
This year’s event has really top class contributors from beginning to end. I’m really looking forward to being part of it, and very proud of the team that will be delivering it on the day.
Keep reading to find just a few of the highlights of the 2026 event.
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One of the greatest tricks pulled by the investment sector is to have lobbied towards the Mansion House compact, which could open up pension funds to invest in regional venture funds.
Sarah Adams is Director of Policy at UK Private Capital (formerly BVCA), who has played a big part in that and she’ll be explaining how her policy team have achieved such a good result for sector.
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Duncan Johnson, founder and chief executive of Northern Gritstone will be speaking.
The investment veteran, who started out in turnaround, has shaped Northern Gritstone to be a chunky life sciences and deeptech investment firm that’s now raised £362 million. The fund has close relationships with the research universities in the North, Leeds, Manchester, Sheffield and Liverpool.
As we said in an interview with TheBusinessDesk.com last year, the chief executive of Northern Gritstone looks and sounds like a man having the time of his life. He completed a fresh £50 million raise from leading institutional investors including £35m from LGPS, the collective asset pool for Greater Manchester, Merseyside and West Yorkshire Pension Funds, alongside £15 million from new investors Fulcrum Asset Management and Aviva.
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The Beauty Tech Group has smashed its targets for the current financial year, reporting surging revenues for the year ended 31 December 2025 following its IPO in October 2025.
CEO Laurence Newman will be speaking at Rainmakers Summit this March, where he will tell the extraordinary, behind-the-scenes story of the company’s IPO and rapid post-listing growth.
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The Rainmakers Summit on the 25th of March will feature a debate on the future of professional services as partners consider their next strategic options.
Featuring leaders of businesses who have chosen very different paths, and an investor in one of the consolidators driving the change across the sector, the debate will throw an intense focus on the stark choices that professional services firms face.
Making the case for independence will be Helen Clayton, managing partner at accountancy firm PM&M.
Telling the story about their respective lives on the public markets will be Rakesh Shaunak, CEO of MHA, and James Sheridan, head of M&A at Knights PLC.
Explaining the investment decision behind aggregation will be Matt Nicholson, investment lead at Tenzing, the private equity backer of accountancy consolidator DJH.
As a thank you for being part of our Rainmakers community, we are pleased to offer an exclusive 20% discount for the upcoming Rainmakers Summit on March 25th.
This is a unique opportunity to engage with industry leaders, gain insights, and connect with like-minded professionals.
As you can see the agenda features keynote speakers and exclusive sessions hearing from The Beauty Tech Group, Northern Gritstone, Rem3dy Health & GM Pension Fund. With some more details below…
Event details & registration:
https://www.rainmakerssummit.co.uk/
Discount code: RAINMAKER20
Please note that this offer is available for a limited time. We encourage you to secure your place at your earliest convenience.
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