The Fashion & Textile Children’s Trust is an historical grant-giving trust which offers financial support to children whose parent or carer works in the UK fashion and textile industry. With a rich history spanning over 160 years, I was proud to lead a rebranding of the Trust in 2010 in the first step towards raising its profile within the fashion and textile industry. Networking with CEOs of leading UK fashion retailers, promoting and marketing our service on the front line and online and engaging with our beneficiaries is our primary focus.Achievements of the past four years have included:✔ Re-positioning grants giving procedures to ensure relevance to those working in the fashion and textile industry, increasing welfare grants from 20% to 80% of total grants committed.✔ Increasing the number of children supported annually by 40%.✔ Generating new partnerships with CEOs and Senior Executives of over 70 High Street fashion retailers including Next, Primark, Hobbs and Topshop; with all committing to our Outreach Campaign.✔ Implementing new and ongoing fundraising initiatives such as the ‘Hobbs Charity Week’ (with £20,000 raised across 100 UK stores) and the FTCT 5K Santa Run (supported by 30 enthusiastic runners who raised £4,000).This has been a real success story. In addition to the above, as a result of extensive networking, The Fashion & Textile Children’s Trust is now the only established chosen charity partner at 7 UK trade shows, including the Clothes Show Live. These achievements and more have meant that we recently achieved our highest fundraising levels for over a decade.

In 1994, I established The Newspaper Education Trust; a media charity set up for the benefit of children in the UK, enabling them to be journalists for the day. Over the past 15 years, in excess of 30,000 people have been beneficiaries of the Trust.Why am I proud of my work at The Newspaper Education Trust?✔ Founded the charity to become the principal supplier of work related curriculum media experience for young people in the UK.✔ Established creative partnerships with corporate partners including Thomson Reuters, Ogilvy and Mather and Osborne Clarke LLP.✔ Negotiated significant annual funding from Telegraph Media Group, Associated Newspapers, Guardian News and Media, Telegraph Media Group, Clifford Chance LLP and Hearst Publications.The Trust has been the winner of a number of awards including the Laureate of Permanent Archive Research Collection of IT projects, Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC, Londoner of the Year Award and Aim High Award 1997.