Meet the IOE&IT
International Trade
Awards judges

Dr Di Li

Assistant Professor and Programme Director of MSc International Trade, Strategy and Operations (ITSO) at WMG, the University of Warwick

Dr Di Li, BSc, MSc, PhD, SFHEA, is an Assistant Professor and Programme Director of MSc International Trade, Strategy and Operations (ITSO) at WMG, the University of Warwick. She conducts research, teaching, and projects in the field of supply chain and operations management within the international trade context. Her primary research focus lies in digitalization-enabled sustainable operations and trade, supply chain resilience in Industry 4.0, global supply network design, reversed FDI, and business strategy analytics.

Di is a member of the EurOMA conference review committee and has consistently presented her research at international conferences and been published in leading peer-reviewed journals. She also serves as an academic advisor for multiple companies and the governmental institute, while leading and/or participating in projects with accumulated funding generation of around £100K.

Additionally, Di mentors and assesses academic staff for Higher Education Academy (HEA) fellowships at the University of Warwick. Meanwhile, she holds the position of Chair of the Academic Conduct Panel and is a member of the Academic Quality and Assurance Committee at WMG, ensuring high-quality teaching and learning activities. Di is a departmental Athena Swan Champion, actively contributing to the subjects of Organization and Culture, and Support and Advancing Career Development.

Emma Jones

Founder of Enterprise Nation, Business Expert and Author

Following a degree in Law and Japanese, Emma joined international accounting firm Arthur Andersen, where she worked in London, Leeds and Manchester offices and set up the firm's Inward Investment practice that attracted overseas companies to locate in the UK. In 2000, bitten by the dot.com bug, Emma left the firm to start her first business, Techlocate.

After 15 months, the company was successfully sold to Tenon plc when Emma was 27. The experience of starting, growing and selling a business from a home base gave Emma the idea for Enterprise Nation which was launched in 2005 to support the flourishing number of start-ups and SMEs.

The company has since expanded to become an active small business membership community, reaching more than 800,000 businesses each year with its powerful digital business support platform. Businesses benefit from free business building tools to start-up and support growth, legendary events and resources including the annual Start Up Show and daily Lunch and Learns. Its platform offers business owners in the UK, Ireland and across EU, the chance to connect with like-minded peers, professional business advisers and trained mentors. It links them to opportunities to expand through procurement sessions with Tier one suppliers. Enterprise Nation also presents a positive campaigning voice to governments and the media on behalf of its partners and members.

With Emma at the helm, Enterprise Nation now works with multiple global and government partners to deliver tailored business support programmes for a growing number of micro and small business owners. It also delivers regular data-led research to highlight and understand the important contribution SMEs make to the economy and to establish ‘what works’ when it comes to funded support programmes.

In 2021, Emma was awarded a CBE for services to small businesses and entrepreneurs and has held several key advisory roles at the heart of the UK government, making the case for small businesses in the corridors of power.

Enxhi Tresa

Trade Policy Division of the OECD

Enxhi Tresa is a trade economist in the Trade Policy Division at the Trade and Agriculture Directorate (TAD) of the OECD working on issues of trade and climate change, including circular economy of plastics, trade in environmental goods and services, etc. She is co-author of several research papers and reports, on interlinks between trade and other topics such as climate change, global value chains and trade policy.

Prior to that, Enxhi worked as a research economist with the modeling team at the Research Division of the World Trade Organization (WTO), undertaking work on trade and climate change using computable general equilibrium modeling and being involved in the writing of the World Trade Report 2022 and 2021. She has also briefly worked at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), on issues of trade resilience during the COVID-19 downturn. Enxhi worked as a teaching assistant for undergraduate students in several universities in France, while completing her doctorate degree.

She earned a PhD in Economics focused on global value chains, labor mobility, and services trade from Cergy Paris University, where she continues to be an associate member of THEMA (Théorie économique, modélisation et applications) laboratory. She holds a Master of Science from the Paris School of Economics and a Bachelor of Science from Toulouse School of Economics.

Gabriela Álvarez

Advisor to the International Business Center (ITC)

Gabriela Álvarez is an advisor to the International Business Center (ITC) and has collaborated on multiple initiatives, including the International Executive Program (SAI Platform, ITC, Cambridge Institute for Sustainable Leadership) and the EU City Award for Just Business and Business. She is a member of the Advisory Board for Trade for Sustainable Development of ITC.  

Gabriela Alvarez is also the founder of a group of businesses in Colombia producing cocoa and agroforestry that transforms traditional subsistence crops into opportunities to generate rural prosperity and promote positive contributions to the environment. These initiatives include cocoa sourcing for European chocolate industry clients integrating more than 2,500 cocoa producers with international value chains. The most recent endeavors include direct reforestation and carbon capture programmes.

She holds a Doctorate in Administration from the University of Cranfield (England) with a thesis on coffee sustainable supply chains, an MBA from The Wharton School, a Master’s in International Studies from the University of Pennsylvania (USA) and a degree in Economics from the University of Buenos Aires (Argentina). She teaches Strategic Management at the Executive MBA of the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, and at the University’s Hub for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

Lucinda Bruce-Gardyne

Chair of the Board of Scotland Food & Drink (and founder of Genius)

Lucinda graduated with a Physiology degree and has spent her career working with food. After training at Leiths School of Food and Wine and Bibendum Restaurant, she ran a successful catering company before returning to Leiths to teach and co-write the award winning Leiths Techniques Bible, focusing on the functionality of ingredients and cooking techniques. After her sons were diagnosed with a dairy allergy and gluten intolerance, she published How to Cook for Food Allergies, on the substitution of mainstream ingredients in allergy-free home cooking. Gluten free bread was most challenging to perfect, but Lucinda was determined to crack it for her son and others like him.

In 2009, Lucinda founded Genius Foods, launching the first soft, fresh gluten free bread and other innovative products across the UK, and globally. Lucinda recently stepped down from Genius to focus on her new role as Chair of Scotland Food and Drink and to support other pioneering businesses. As a Former Royal Society Entrepreneur in Residence at Edinburgh University, Lucinda continues to support the School of Physics, stimulating industry and academic collaboration.

She is also an NED of The Scale Up Institute and Libereat. In 2012 Lucinda won EY Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year, was elected as Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2017 and named as one of the Maserati Top 100 Innovators in 2018. Lucinda lives in Edinburgh with her family.

Matthew Wilson

Coordinator of WTO informal working group on MSMEs

Matthew Wilson has over 25 years of experience in Trade and Development. He is currently the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Barbados to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Switzerland and Chairperson of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Working Group on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

He has held various senior roles in international organizations including Chief of Special Projects/Partnerships (2021-22) and Chief of Staff (2013-2021) at the International Trade Centre which is the joint development agency of the United Nations and the WTO focused on MSMEs. He has also served in senior strategic roles at the WTO including Senior Adviser to the WTO Director General from 2011 to 2013 and as Deputy Aid for Trade Coordinator from 2009-2011. He has been a career foreign service officer and diplomat for the Government of Barbados.

He has post graduate degrees in International Relations from the University of the West Indies, Development Studies from the University of Bath and an MBA Essentials from the London School of Economic. He has a BSC in psychology and sociology from the University of the West Indies. He is a Chevening Scholar and diversity and inclusion champion.

Martin McTague

National Chair, FSB

Martin McTague was appointed as National Chair of FSB in March 2022. Prior to this, he was FSB National Vice Chair, Policy and Advocacy (from 2021) and FSB Policy and Advocacy Chair, a role he was elected to in March 2016.

Martin has served as a volunteer with FSB for more than 20 years, in a variety of roles including Chair of the Local Government Policy Unit.

As National Chair, Martin works closely with government and opposition leaders, attending ministerial meetings and representing FSB and its members at the most senior levels. He also works to ensure that members’ views are represented in international institutions.

Martin started his own business 35 years ago and now currently owns and manage three businesses - offering public policy, engineering and IT consultancy services.

Martin’s business experience is invaluable to him in his role as FSB National Chair. He believes that the Federation’s unblemished record of integrity and political independence are both vital preconditions for its success and stands firm that there can be no compromise on these principles, which are the strength of FSB.

Ratnakar Adhikari

Executive director, EIF at WTO

Dr Ratnakar Adhikari has been serving the Executive Secretariat for the Enhanced Integrated Framework at the World Trade Organization as its Executive Director since October 2013. Prior to this assignment, he was the Chief Executive Director of South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics and Environment (SAWTEE), a Kathmandu-based regional think tank. Previously he served, among others, as a Senior Adviser to the National Planning Commission, Government of Nepal, and as a Trade Programme Specialist for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Asia Pacific Regional Centre in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He also worked as a Manager of Nepal Indosuez Bank Ltd. (a member of the Crédit Agricole Group) and a lecturer at the Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, besides working as a consultant for various multilateral organizations.

Dr Adhikari has conducted extensive research as well as published in the areas of international trade, regional economic integration, Aid for Trade, competition policy and intellectual property rights, particularly from the perspective of the least developed countries.

He obtained his PhD from the University of Warwick, United Kingdom; his Masters of International Law and Economics from the World Trade Institute, Switzerland; and his Masters of Commerce from the University of Delhi, India.

Sally Jones

UK Trade Strategy and Brexit Leader, EY

Sally is EY’s UK Partner for Trade Policy & Strategy. She is a subject matter expert on trade in services and on trade disruptors. Sally works with organisations to understand the barriers that prevent efficient trade, calculate the financial costs of those barriers, and then identifying strategies to mitigate their impact, and her clients spanning multiple industries, including FTSE 100, Fortune 500, privately held companies, governments, and trade bodies.

Sally is the deputy chair of the Professional and Business Services Council, co-chair of the UK International Trade Group (working on trade policy matters on behalf of UK Government's Department for Business & Trade), and co-chair of TheCityUK’s Liberalisation Of Trade In Services Committee. She has been called to give expert evidence to both the House of Commons and the House of Lords on trade policy matters on many occasions, and has addressed the World Trade Organization’s Public Forum.

Shemina Amarsy

International Trade Centre (ITC) Sustainability Advisor

Shemina Amarsy works for the International Trade Center (ITC) as Advisor on Sustainability Standards and Value Chains. ITC is an international organisation focused on trade development for developing and transition economies and dedicated to supporting the internationalisation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Prior to this, she worked as Sustainable Development Coordinator in the retailing industry, and then for Fairtrade International as Liaison Officer in the Caribbean and Latin America, giving support and training to agricultural SMEs to access sustainable export markets and improve local livelihoods. 

After this, she joined the Fairtrade Strategy & Policy Direction as Senior Standards Manager. She also worked for GoodWeave International, an initiative aiming to stop child labour in international supply chains, for Sphere as Humanitarian Standards coordinator, for IDH as Recognition Leader on Living Wage Benchmarks Methodologies and accompanied the NGO Geneva Call in its strategy to make humanitarian standards respected by armed-non state actors and protect civilians in conflict-affected areas. 

She studied business management at NEOMA in France and Fundacao Getulio Vargas in Brazil and holds a Master of Philosophy.