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Creator of the Build A Better Network Course and Co-founder of Children’s Literacy Campaign TOTS
Oli Barrett is a serial co-founder who enjoys making useful connections between people and ideas. He created Tenner, the UK’s largest schools enterprise challenge, in which over 250,000 pupils have made money and made a difference in a month, starting with just ten pounds. He co-founded Volunteer It Yourself (VIY), the social venture, which has helped thousands of young people to fix their own youth clubs. He is also the founder of TOTS (Turn on the Subtitles), the children’s literacy campaign. His first job was at Walt Disney World in Florida, and his first experience in television was working on the launch of Bob the Builder.
He co-founded The Rainmakers (an innovation and incubation company) in 2004, which continues to operate out of San Francisco. From 2008, he co-created and led eleven international trade missions (including WebMission and the Clean and Cool Mission), to help companies succeed overseas. In 2011, he co-founded StartUp Britain, launched by the British Prime Minister and funded by the private sector. The campaign led to the creation of PitchUp Britain (with John Lewis and Sainsbury’s) and PopUp Britain, with the opening of shops around the UK. Oli hosts The Lens podcast with Business in the Community, which pairs senior leaders with future leaders, to discuss the future of work. He is a regular conference and awards host, for events across education, technology and entrepreneurship. He is on the advisory boards of Tech London Advocates, One Million Mentors and Troubadour Theatres, and is a Fellow of impact incubator and business builder Zinc. His latest venture, The Connector Unit, founded in 2016, forges valuable and creative connections across a range of sectors and industries.
Co-Founder, Nuture and Founder, Cabal
As the co-founder of Nurture, a black book business that at its core is built on the principle that big relationships create magic, and founder of Cabal, a handpicked club of curious people – Gemma is a restless connector of people and ideas. She is always looking for ways to curate experiences to drive change – driven by her fundamental belief that if you bring good people together, good things happen.
Gemma is all about being brave. Through her previous role as Chief Executive of The Marketing Society, where she led the expansion into the thriving global community it is today, her proudest moment was spearheading the brave agenda that led to a global movement where by creating safe spaces, taboos were tackled, boundaries were pushed and together they had a bigger impact.
Alongside her businesses she was honoured to have been the first female president of the Solus Club in their 90-year history. And her world revolves around Joshie, her fascinating six-year-old.
