I am a private investor with a passion for impact investing and education. Having been involved with the family retail business for 30 years I evolved my own impact investing platform in 2002. From these early beginnings Willows Investments UK was formed in 2008, with the aim of supporting promising ventures with a social mission.
I hold a number of non-executive roles which allow me to be at the forefront of impact investment and education: Chair of Social Stock Exchange (UK) and board member of both ResponsAbility AG (Zurich) and Grassroots Business Fund (Washington DC). I also act in an supervisory board capacity with The European Climate Foundation, The Mentoring Foundation (UK) and Sutton Trust (UK).
The NFTE organisation has remained close to my heart for fifteen years and I remain committed to the vital work in teaching the importance of entrepreneurship to young adults whose backgrounds have not been as fortunate as my own. As a long-serving board member of NFTE in Germany and The Netherlands, and as trustee of NFTE’s UK’s branch - NTYE [Network for Training Young Entrepreneurs] - I have been privileged to witness countless times how the nurturing of innovatory ideas and skills can bring about lifelong changes, benefiting not just individuals but their local and wider communities too.