Gareth Hart Email & Phone Number

I am the co-founder of Iridescent Ideas CIC - a social enterprise that helps other ethical businesses to thrive. Our vision is to see a more socially enterprising, greener, fairer economy. I'm a business adviser with thirty years experience of working across the social enterprise, voluntary, public and private sector. Plymouth Marjon University awarded me an honorary Masters degree in Business, Management and Enterprise in 2023 in recognition of my work in social enterprise.I have been a champion of the social enterprise movement in Plymouth and the South West of the UK for the last thirteen years. I led the successful bid that saw Plymouth become the UK's first ‘Social Enterprise City’. In turn, this has led to over £10 million of investment in the city for social enterprise and has helped Plymouth become one of the UK's leading places for social enterprise development. I was the elected chair of Plymouth Social Enterprise Network for seven years 2013-2020 and I chair Plymouth’s Inclusive Growth Group. I am a member of the Social Enterprise Mark's National Accreditation Panel and I represent Plymouth as a member of SEUK's National Social Enterprise Place group. I was a member of the CIC Regulator's National Technical Panel and was the Social Entrepreneur in Residence at Plymouth University from 2014 to 2018 - lecturing and advising on social enterprise.I have worked successfully at a strategic level with national and international organisations, politicians and government and at a grass-roots level both providing business support on a diverse range of themes and working with local government, politicians and partners around building a successful social enterprise ecosystem. For this work, Plymouth Social Enterprise Network awarded me their Leadership prize in the 2023 Social Enterprise City awards.I have a wealth of knowledge and experience of: social enterprise start-up and development; social enterprise and economic development policy and strategy; inclusive economic growth and policy; income generation, funding and commissioning; governance and legal structures; and research and evaluation.I've spoken at many national and international conferences about social enterprise ecosystem development including at the Social Enterprise World Forum, SEUK events, with the president of Estonia, the government of Lithuania and across Europe from the north of Sweden to southern Italy. I've written numerous articles about the social enterprise sector for magazines and newspapers such as The Guardian, Pioneer's Post and local newspapers.

Listed skills include Social Enterprise, Social Entrepreneurship, Charities, Public Sector, and 46 others.