Being confident, always and forever

Sam has been at pro-manchester for 17 years and has been an integral part of its growth from a small, effective membership network to a sophisticated business development organisation. A firm part of the Manchester business community, Sam is a familiar face to most, constantly and efficiently working to bring businesses together in the city region.

As chief executive, Sam is responsible for the organisation’s corporate engagement as well managing all existing key partnerships and member relationships. Sam manages the day-to-day running and strategic direction of the business alongside Nicola McCormick – COO. They run the organisation together as equal partners with shared responsibility.

Sam also sits on the board of trustees for Forever Manchester, a charity that supports community activity across Greater Manchester. As well as this, Sam also sits on the Greater Manchester Economic Resilience Board, the Greater Manchester Organisational Representatives Group, the Manchester Business Sounding Board, the Bee Net Zero Advisory Board and the Manchester tech hub Board.

In 2019 Sam also became the Regional Deputy Chair of TheCityUK, where she helps to engage the national body on a regional level on behalf of individuals in the financial and professional services industries. In 2022 Sam was featured in the inaugural Top 50 North West tech Transformers list complied by BusinessCloud

Amy joined the Booth Centre, an organisation supporting people experiencing homelessness in Manchester, in 2014 as their Development Manager. She has responsibility for generating sustainable income streams for the charity, including managing and developing corporate partnerships. Her experience in the third sector over the last 10 years includes fundraising, communications, marketing and development roles with various local and national charities including The Christie and The Children’s Society.

Amy has developed a particular passion for corporate fundraising and relationship fundraising, having helped to grow the Booth Centre’s unrestricted income and fundraising team to diversify sources of income away from local authority funding and restricted grants. Amy has developed a fundraising strategy to support the organisation’s vision for everyone to have a secure home and the opportunity to have a good quality of life. The Booth Centre is an example of a small local charity with limited reach and awareness, but with a growing demand for its services in Manchester.

Shelly Rubinstein, Chartered Psychologist, founded Impact Consulting Psychologists in 1994. She has over twenty-five years of high-level commercial experience and has led change programmes across many organisations. Shelly has an in-depth understanding and robust experience of organisational change, its impact on leaders and the consequences for services to customers. She is the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the British Psychological Society

Experienced in working with senior executives in investment banks, financial services, legal sector, manufacturing industry, BBC, Police Forces, and most government departments for many years. Shelly Rubinstein has made TV and Radio appearances as an expert on stress at work, workplace bullying and Leadership. She has featured in the Financial Times on topics such as “Standing Up for Yourself at Work”” and “How to unite newly formed teams.” Shelly integrates both business and people focus in order to increase organisations’ staff satisfaction levels, productivity, quality and profit.

Alistair is a Partner in Eversheds Sutherland’s core corporate group, specialising in advising public and private companies on acquisitions, fundraisings, disposals, restructurings and general corporate governance.

Alistair has lived and worked in Manchester since 2002 and joined the board of pro-manchester in 2015. He co-leads Eversheds Sutherlands’ global aerospace and defence practice and over the past decade has advised on some of the North West’s most prominent corporate transactions.

Outside of work, Alistair is married with two young daughters and enjoys wine, squash and Arsenal FC.