Dana Elman , London, United Kingdom

Excellent at project management, writing, policy research analysis, event organisation, stakeholder engagement management, partnership building.

I am a business consultant with diverse experience of 13 years and specialised in business and trade policy. My international background spans at least three countries: the UK, Germany, and Israel, and I speak four languages. In my career I have been representing SME CEOs and engaging with startup founders to help them grow through building relations with policymakers, investors, and banks. Through my work at the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) in the UK and the Manufacturers Association of Israel (MAI) I developed long-term relationships with businesses and helped them to communicate effectively with officials from DIT, HMRC, WTO, Institute of Exporters, and other stakeholders.
My key strengths are trade and innovation policy research, relationship building and management, public speaking, project management and partnership building. I specialise in business policies that support innovation, entrepreneurship, access to finance, and international trade. I also volunteer with socially minded entrepreneurs through Zinc VC and beginning mentoring Israeli female entrepreneurs through Ashoka’s Impact Transfer Programme.
I bring a consultative, client-focused mindset with previous line-management experience of a team of 16 people.
In the past two years I honed my skills through representing the small business voice at Whitehall and the WTO.
Additionally, I authored the Spotlight on Innovation report, which was published on July ’18. I managed the full life-cycle of the project from beginning to end, including designing the survey questionnaire, moderating focus groups, writing and conducting quantitative analysis and in-depth interviews with diverse audiences of business owners from across the UK.