As Chair of Baltic Creative CIC, I am really proud of being part of the growing social, creative and digital ecosystem in the region. Our unique status as a CIC means that unlike other schemes, our profits can only be used to reinvest in our community and sector. Right now, our spaces support 180+ companies and around 600 of their staff; and we’re still getting enquiries at a rate of one per day. With demand for space still high, there is an incredible opportunity to provide further support to Creative & Digital businesses across the region.
My role at LJMU focuses on supporting leaders and managers to start, scale and run good businesses, with programmes like the MBA Scale up and the European Social Fund – Leadership Growth Skills programme for SMEs across the Liverpool City Region. I enjoy working across business and academia, breaking down some of the misconceptions about universities and bringing real world experiences into the classroom. Collaboration and bringing people together are critical to both my roles in the LCR.
I work in Liverpool, spending most of my time at the university campus on Mount Pleasant and the Baltic triangle and I live in the Wirral.
Born in Birkenhead, spent my early childhood in the middle east as an expat and returned to secondary school in the 1980s, left the Wirral early 1990s, went to university, then London and later Shanghai for a year. I returned in 2007 as I wanted to raise my family here, it was a very frustrating time as there was limited employment opportunities in the creative sector, I had been working in the fashion industry and saw so much potential here for a creative economy to thrive but didn’t know where to start. I joined the board at Baltic Creative in 2009 because I saw there were other brilliant people who recognised a need and a way of creating a permanent place for creative and digital businesses to come together and grow.
The people – tenacity and irreverence rolled into one – we’re bold and creative and not afraid to stand up for ourselves – there is so much raw opportunity here and we’ve got the courage to be inclusive and really change the way we shape our future now…
Plus, we have the best beach views and sunsets (a lockdown revelation).
There is so much potential here – over the last decade I’ve grasped the opportunity to create the job I wanted, connecting people to do the things they want to do and prosper – having a job that feels purposeful and hopefully making an impact here.
We have a growing cluster of socially trading businesses in the LCR – all about empowering others to fulfil their potential and create real social change; Kindred LCR, the Women’s Organisation, Kuumba Imani Millennium Centre, Blackburn House in Liverpool, MCT, Future Yard and Bloom in Birkenhead are just a few of the organisations that are setting the standard for us to be better and run better businesses – it’s a really exciting time to be in the LCR.
