I am the founder of Parental Choice (www.parentalchoice.co.uk), a company dedicated to making a difference to parents through their employers.
In 2014, I was recognised by Brummell Magazine as one of the City’s Top Inspirational Entrepreneurs, whilst Parental Choice has been named in the top ten SMEs to work for by Working Families, short-listed three times for the SME Employer of the Year Award by Working Mums and shortlisted for the Relocate Awards 2018 in the Excellence in Employee and Family Support category.
A graduate of Bristol University, where I studied French and German, I became a lawyer, beginning my career in financial law at Linklaters. In 2004 I became an associate at Freshfields, a role which included secondment to the New York office and to the Real Estate Banking Group at Goldman Sachs. From 2007 until 2011, I was a senior associate at Berwin Leighton Paisner.
I retrained as an employment lawyer in 2011 and set up Parental Choice after the birth of my first daughter.
Aside from running the business since 2011, during this time I have also been / am
- a Trustee of the Family and Childcare Trust;
- consultant legal counsel for Allen Lane, a public sector recruitment company;
- non-executive director of the Association of Nanny Agencies;
- an affiliate member of the CIPD and a member of the CIPD Senior Policy Forum;
- a Changemaker supporting Working Families;
- a member of the Regulation Matters campaign working towards the regulation of domestic care in the home; and
- a fellow of the Chartered Management Institute.
I have been involved with Government consultations on childminder agencies as well as speaking publicly at Government policy briefings on topics such as “Bridging the Gender Equality Gap – The Future Role of Women” and the “Back to Work for Women” programme. I have attended several HR summits in my role as director of Parental Choice, including speaking at the Institute of Director’s “Women in Business” conference and appearing on panels on gender diversity in the workplace, I also present at law firms and corporates on family friendly benefits, childcare options and businesses’ family rights obligations at work including flexible working and shared parental leave reforms.
In October 2018, I opened our office in Hong Kong to extend Parental Choice’s services across the APAC region as well as the UK and EMEA. Over 8 years, Parental Choice has developed successful collaborations with family focused businesses in a variety of sectors, including Law, Retail, Financial Services and Media, enabling employers to support parent professionals combine long-term careers with, amongst other services, childcare, well-being support and family global mobility support, making a real difference to their lives.