So after a year or so of liberation from a regular salary and with time to experiment across a variety of projects my new professional life is starting to take shape.

I’m increasingly acting in advisory and consultancy capacities to individuals and organisations intent on realising public benefit.  Organisational and strategic development, personal coaching, investment advice.  These are some of the themes I work with.  Tutoring at the School for Social Entrepreneurs, assisting the start up of Flavours of Mexico, managing conference programmes and social media activities for Forest Trends and The Katoomba Group.  These are some of the organisations I’m currently or have recently worked with.

And I do a lot of project development, either of my own initiatives or through in-depth assistance to existing organisations.  A notable and ongoing commitment is to Blue Ventures where I am assisting in developing their Madagascar based uniquely integrated approach to marine conservation and then scaling it internationally.  One of my own initiatives (well, in partnership with a good friend) is looking at how to support British Waterways and relevant parts of government successfully transition BW into the charitable and community sector.

Pro Bono I continue to manage the Sarah Dodds Enterprise Accelerator, a memorial fund for a good friend who died in a cycling accident in 2008.  This year we have two projects underway placing MBA interns into growing social enterprises, Bootstrap and MyBnk.  Bootstrap, who provide managed workspace in Dalston, are working to, literally, lift the roof off their building and create a new floor of workspace for charities and cultural industries businesses as well as a roof park).  MyBnk, who provide financial literacy training for young people, are developing their strategy for expansion, initially across the UK and then further afield.

This year I instigated a fringe to the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship branded OxfordJam.  OxfordJam has taken on a life of its own as a crowd-funded and crowd-sourced three-day fringe to Skoll.  It’s set to be a regular event and discussions are underway with a view to gifting the model to other large social sector conferences looking to establish fringe events.

And then, of course, there is Hackney Pirates, which I’ve helped get off the ground.  It’s piloting one-to-one support delivered to kids in unconventional learning environments.  Hackney Pirates is inspired by 826 Valencia and their Pirate Supply Shop.  The pilot is running Summer 2010 and there’s plenty of room for all, so come and get involved…!

And a little of my backstory?  Well the last salary I drew was as UK Director of Ashoka, a global network of leading social entrepreneurs.  I had the privilege of working with a range of deeply inspiring and world class social entrepreneurs from all over the world.  Ashoka was a great journey, a big learning curve and it set me up to work internationally.  Prior to this I founded and led the London Community Recycling Network for 7 years, which launched a dozen recycling social enterprises while I was there and was, and continues to be, instrumental in securing tens of millions of new funding  to support community based waste management across the UK.