About us
The Jobs Foundation is a registered charity (1202928) that champions the role of business as a force for good. To help us achieve this, we are building a broad coalition of business leaders across the country who share our mission. This group will form our Business Council, which we will then develop into separate Regional Councils, connecting and inspiring local businesses as they work in their communities to help people most in need. Our work is overseen by a strong Board of Trustees, and our plans are immeasurably improved through the guidance of our Advisory Council.
A successful society requires successful businesses.
Advisory Council
Patsy Baker
Patsy stepped down as Chairman of Citigate Dewe Rogerson in early 2023 but continues as Senior Group Advisor to the Accordience Group (including CDR). She has provided Senior Board Counsel to CEOs in the UK FTSE 250 and has promoted and protected the reputations of many well-known brands. Patsy is also a NED of AIM-listed RBG Holdings a professional services company and sits on the external affairs committee of the Design Museum.
Amelia Carmichael
Amelia is the founder and CEO of Auree Jewellery. After many years working in luxury retail and e-commerce, Amelia launched Auree in 2014. Alongside this, Amelia partners and volunteers with a number of charities, the latest being the London Baby Bank, Little Village, with Auree raising nearly £15,000 for their vital services.
Alison Cork MBE
Alison floated a publishing and mail order business in 1994, making her the youngest female founder of a public company and then founded the Alison at Home interiors brand. She subsequently founded the not for profit organisation Make It Your Business, which supports and encourages women to start their own business. Alison was awarded an MBE in the 2023 for services to female entrepreneurship.
Lord Cruddas of Shoreditch
Peter founded CMC Markets, a global financial services company, in 1989. In 2016 it became a member of the FTSE250. It serves 30,000 clients, servicing them from 13 different offices across the globe. Peter has recently published a book - ‘Passport to Success: From Milkman to Mayfair’ which tells the story of the birth of online trading and Peter’s epic business achievements.
Michel De Carvalho
Michel joined CapGen as Chairman after a 20-year career at Citigroup where he served as Vice Chairman of Citi Investment Bank and Global Chairman of Citi Private Bank. A graduate of Harvard Business School, Michel obtained an MBA in 1970. Before joining Citi, he was MD at Credit Suisse First Boston.
Judith Donovan CBE
Judith is a successful female entrepreneur based in Yorkshire, founding her own marketing agency in 1982, which she grew to over 50 staff, and a turnover of £12.5 million, before selling to her managers in 2000.
Christine Emmett
Christine has over 30 years of experience in management consultancy based in the East Midlands. She has been both an executive and non-executive director on large-scale transportation, healthcare and political projects with budgets up to £56 billion.
Amy Folkes
Amy is Business Development Director at her family business based in the West Midlands. Folkes Holdings was established in 1697, and comprises a Real Estate investment division, an engineering division and wealth management division.
Prudence Freeman
Daisy Green Collection was founded by Australian born Prue Freeman and her husband Tom Onions in 2012. Prue left a role in M&A at UBS investment bank to pursue her dreams of bringing relaxed and buzzing Australian food and coffee culture to London. The Collection now includes 14 cafes and restaurants across London and is the holder of Trip Advisor’s Number 1 Brunch spot.
Charlie Gilkes
Charlie founded Inception Group in 2009 in his mid-twenties. It operates a group of a unique bar, restaurant and club concepts in South West and Central London, with now almost 400 employees and a turnover of over £20 million.
Lord Harrington of Watford
Richard started his career working for the John Lewis Partnership, becoming an entrepreneur in the property sector. He became a Member of Parliament for Watford in 2010 and served as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Business between 2017 to 2019. He also served as Minister for Refugees under both Prime Ministers David Cameron and Boris Johnson.
Luke Johnson
Luke is one of Britain’s most prolific entrepreneurs, as former chairman of Pizza Express, the Royal Society of Arts and Channel 4. He is the Chairman of Gail's bakery and Feng Sushi restaurant chain, among other businesses. He created a think tank in 2013 called The Centre for Entrepreneurs.
Robert Kilgour
Robert is a Scottish entrepreneur and investor, who founded Four Seasons Health Care, opening its first care home in May 1989 in Fife in Scotland. He left the company in early 2000 when it was the UK’s fifth largest care home operator with 101 homes, employing over 7,000 staff. In 2004, he founded and currently chairs Renaissance Care which operates 17 care homes throughout Scotland with 1,200 staff.
Michael Lorimer
Michael has over 30 years experience across the Textiles and FMCG sectors, starting his career at Mars, he went on to hold the position of Managing Director at Henderson Foodservice as well as Director of Landmark Wholesale. He is now CEO of DCS Group, the UK’s largest sales and distribution company for health, beauty and household brands based in Banbury. They also operate a manufacturing plant in Redditch.
Gary Lydiate
Gary Lydiate is Chief Executive of Kilfrost, a Northumberland-based manufacturer of de-icing products - a now three generational family business set up in the 1930s. He joined the Merchant Navy at 16 before pursuing a career in the Royal Navy and at BAE.
Alastair MacMillan
Alastair founded White House Products in 1984. Over the past three decades the company has forged and maintained a reputation as one of the leading distributors of hydraulic equipment in the UK, based in Scotland.
Lord Jon Mendelsohn
Jon’s career has straddled the PR industry, gambling and politics for more 30 years. He founded LLM Communications in 1997 and co-founded Oakvale Capital LLP and was appointed Executive Chair of 888 Holdings in 2023. He previously worked for the Labour Party and has served as a Shadow Spokesperson for Business, International Trade and Innovation and Skills.
Christopher Nieper OBE
Christopher Nieper joined the David Nieper family business in 1986 and witnessed the British fashion industry’s huge migration of manufacturing to offshore production. The company has multiplied sales 25 times and employs 250 people. In 2015 Christopher formed the Christopher Nieper Education Trust, which engages with education establishments at all levels from primary and secondary schools, to universities and vocational training.
Jago Pearson
Jago joined Finnebrogue in 2018 as its CSO. Finnebrogue is a family-owned business based in Downpatrick, Northern Ireland, known for its premium artisan and plant-based products. Prior to joining Finnebrogue, Jago was an adviser to the business at Media Intelligence Partners.
Akshay Ruparelia
Growing up as a free school meal recipient and carer for his deaf parents, Akshay founded Doorsteps at 17 years old, achieving £1 billion in sales. Being the youngest on Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe's Technology sector in 2021, he now spearheads ventures like AKR Growth and Impact3, including 1 Club: leading members' club for Entrepreneurs and nonprofit initiatives for young Founders. Akshay sat as a board member of the Prince’s Trust RISE Campaign and supports the Royal Association for Deaf People. His journey demonstrates resilience, innovation, and commitment to community.
Mark Stoleson
Mark Stoleson is the Chief Executive Officer and a Partner of Legatum. He has been with the firm since its inception in 2006. Mark has worked with his partners at Legatum to incubate a number of the firm’s key philanthropic endeavours including the END Fund, Freedom Fund, Luminos Fund, The Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at MIT, and the Legatum Institute Foundation in London.
Khalid Talukder
Khalid Talukder is co-founder of DKK Partners, a leading provider of foreign exchange (FX) services to banks and businesses in emerging and frontier markets. Khalid has overseen the company’s rapid expansion, which includes reaching revenues of over $100m and opening offices across Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
Fergus Wells
Fergus is Manging Director at Fluorocarbon Polymers & Surface Technologies, based in Hertford and Manchester. Fluorocarbon specialises in the design and formulation of new materials, and the manufacture of complex machined composite components, supplying industrial businesses in all sectors. Fergus works also on advising UK SME businesses on scale-up funding solutions and mentoring, as well as upcycling projects for the circular economy.
John Wood
John is CEO, of the famed Belfast ship makers, Harland and Wolff. John has enjoyed a distinguished career within the Oil and Gas sector, holding senior posts with BAE Systems, and was more recently the Global Head of Oil and Gas with Aurecon, a global engineering and advisory firm.
Nicky Woodhouse
Nicky Woodhouse is an award-winning multidisciplinary director whose 20+ year career has spanned broadcast TV, politics and commercial production. She established her production company Sister Motion in 2022 to address the gender imbalance that exists in production by actively championing women and underrepresented talent. She lives between North Devon and London, where you can often find her in the surf with her husband, Ben and daughter Nancy.
Trustees
Nigel Baxter
Nigel is part of the entrepreneurial Baxter family. He worked for his family’s international transportation business until its sale to Swiss international logistics firm Kuehne and Nagel in 2011. In 2012 Nigel led a team that reacquired part of the business, and now heads The RH Group, which has interests in commercial vehicle sales, maintenance and rental, alongside other property interests. Having worked and trained in agriculture before joining the family business, he is also an arable farmer, currently farming 600 acres (243ha) in south Nottinghamshire.
Simon Boyd
Simon started his own business at the age of 25 in heavy lifting and steel erecting and as part of this undertook work for REIDsteel. He was invited to join REIDsteel in the 1990s to look after the construction of football stadiums and became contracts director in 1998 before taking on the role of Managing Director in 2016.
Lady Calthorpe
Susannah is an experienced fundraiser and has worked in the UK policy environment and in humanitarian emergencies, including working as head of development for Sean Penn’s J/P HRO in Haiti following the earthquake in 2010.
Nathan Gamester
Nathan is the Managing Director of the CSJ Foundation. Previously he was the Chief Operating Officer at the Legatum Institute and the Chief Operating Officer at the Centre for Social Justice. In addition to his work at the CSJ Foundation he runs the Atlantic Partnership, an organisation chaired by David Cameron, that seeks to develop and maintain a strong relationship between the transatlantic group of nations.
Victoria Hewson
Victoria worked for Procter & Gamble before entering the legal profession and practiced as a lawyer for 17 years in the fields of technology and financial services. She then went on to become a policy adviser and has published work on the implications and opportunities of Brexit in financial services and movement of goods, and the issues in connection with the Irish border. She is currently a Policy Adviser at both the Foreign Office and the Department for Business and Trade.
Dia Chakravarty
Dia Chakravarty is a senior journalist at the Daily Telegraph and previously worked as a tax consultant before moving into communications and public affairs. She has worked for Banking on Change, a global partnership between Barclays Bank and two international charities seeking to extend access to basic financial services through savings-led microfinance.
Claire Jolly
Claire Jolly is Director of European Government Affairs at a global investment management firm. She currently Chairs the Alternative Investment Management Association’s (AIMA) Global Government and Regulatory Affairs Committee and has served as both Chair and Vice-Chair of the Managed Funds Association’s (MFA) International Affairs Committee. Claire also holds advisory roles with think tank and government bodies and has worked in the UK Parliament, US Senate and international NGO sector.
Michael Webster
Michael Webster worked in Government and in public affairs in London before co-founding media information provider Gorkana in 2003. After the business was sold he moved to Singapore in 2013 where he co-founded APAC media information business Telum Media, employing more than 100 people across Asia Pacific.
What is growth for if not to help ordinary people thrive?
Leadership team
Matthew Elliott
President
Matthew has worked on UK public policy for almost twenty five years, including overseeing two national referendum campaigns, founding four high profile pressure groups and convening two respected policy commissions.
Georgiana Bristol
Chief Executive
Georgiana started her career working at Open Europe, moving on to lead the development for a range of public policy and referendum campaigns. She has also worked with various charities, including Venice in Peril, Project Trust and the Imperial War Museum.
Patrick Spencer
Director
Patrick was a Senior Policy Adviser at the Department for Education for six Secretaries of State. Before that he was Head of Work and Welfare Policy at the Centre for Social Justice, a think tank dedicated to improving the most disadvantaged communities across Britain.
