The team

Kate Bowe

Kate Bowe is operations manager at ClearlySo.  She organises the day to day running of the office, leads any recruitment drives and liaises with third party suppliers, among other tasks.

Kate is an experienced IT consultant who has worked on multi million pound projects in the public and private sector.  She has also set up a theatre company in Brussels, studied Fine Art at London Metropolitan University and is a trustee of Camden People's Theatre.

Richard Brownsdon

Richard Brownsdon is the events coordinator. His main role is to organise and plan all the exciting events and activities that ClearlySo has to offer, from social investment speed dating to the annual Social Business Conference. Before starting at ClearlySo, Richard inspired the youth of Japan through teaching them the mysteries of the English language, and once saved a team of yoga teachers from a cobra in India.

Aside from battling wildlife Richard has studied business at Sheffield Hallam University, spent three months as a lifeguard in California, worked as a volunteer in Nepal and a Kung Fu school in China plus three months in Madrid completing an entrepreneurial exchange at a social networking website.

Simon Evill

Simon Evill is customer services contact and account manager at ClearlySo.  His main role is to maintain and develop the social businesses profiled on the site but is also involved in organising events for our members and managing our intern scheme.

Simon is a law graduate but has worked for Bright Green, a ‘green’ recruitment agency, a leading IT assessment training company and as a restorer of historic gardens.

Chris King

Chris King is personal assistant to the CEO and assists in operations management. She comes from a background in architecture and publishing and more recently has worked for the Local Government Agency editing their online library. She has been chair of a school governing body for five years and, as well as a BA (hons) in interior design, has also gained ITEC diplomas in holistic and sports massage therapy.

Julie McDowell

Julie is CEO of ClearlySo Canada.  She is responsible for building the ClearlySo brand and membership in Canada and advises on business development strategy for North America.

She has held leadership positions with both social purpose organizations and in private industry. Most recently she served as Board Chair of the Canadian Abilities Foundation and was Regional Director for ORBIS Canada, based in Toronto.

She worked for 17 years in the apparel and textile industry, and has held sales and management positions in retailing, manufacturing, and small business consulting.  She was founder and CEO of Millenitex Inc., a creative merchandising company that she sold in 1999. 

Julie holds a Master of Science from Cornell University where her research focused on the effects of international trade policy on small and medium sized businesses in the textile and apparel sector.

Rod Schwartz

Rod Schwartz is CEO of ClearlySo, and leads the strategy and growth of the company.

Rod worked for 17 years (from 1980) as a research analyst and senior manager with investments banks PaineWebber, Lehman and Paribas.  He founded Catalyst Fund Management & Research in 1997, a traditional venture capital firm, which, in 1999 began to diversify into “social” investment.

Rod is a past chair of Shelter (the homeless charity) and JustGiving.com as well as serving on the boards of several online businesses including Avanza, Scandinavia’s largest online stockbroker.  He is also a non-executive director of the Ethical Property Company and AXA Investment Managers, and chair of The Green Thing. 

Rod teaches social finance at the Said Business School (Oxford) and regularly writes about and speaks up for the social business & investment sector.

The Advisors

James Alexander is a trustee and chief executive officer of Green Thing.  Green Thing is a public service that inspires people to lead a greener life through irresistible creativity. James is also a co-founder and board director of Zopa, the marketplace where people meet to lend and borrow money.  Prior to Zopa, James was strategy director at Egg, a world leader in digital banking.  James is also an associate to The Foundation and an advisor to MyBnk.com, Walkit.com, Mojo.com, Kubera Money and Leap.

Luca Bosatta has 16 years of experience at UBS Investment Bank. Over the last 10 years he helped large institutional clients to understand their investment portfolios. He designed a technology platform and was managing director of a global advisory business which became market leader in portfolio analytics. In 2008 he left UBS to work with private equity funds that impact society here in the UK and elsewhere. He has a passion for the role business can play in transforming society. He founded Corenno Partners to create investment opportunities in Georgia and Armenia amongst entrepreneurs who do well commercially and impact their country. He is also partner of the Transformational Business Network.

Jonathan Brooks acts as a non executive director of several companies, both listed and privately-backed. Until 2002 he was CFO of ARM Holdings plc and was part of the team which took it from start-up to IPO and then on to the FTSE100.

Tomas Carruthers is chairman and chief executive officer of Interactive Investor, one of the UK's leading online financial services providers. Tomas’ experience extends from start-ups to turnaround situations and from seed capital raising to IPO and public company leadership on London and NASDAQ.  He has built an online TV channel from scratch and worked in international M&A in banking, online stockbroking (where he was one of the industry’s pioneers), wealth management and financial media.

Tim Farazmand joined LDC in 2005. He has spent over 20 years in private equity with 3i, Royal Bank of Scotland and Catalyst Fund Management. Prior to joining 3i Tim worked for IBM. In his previous role at LDC Tim was the managing director for the London Office completing a number of significant transactions including GVA Grimley, NAH and JCC. Tim remains a non-executive director of Catalyst Fund Management & Research.

Malcolm Gloak MG has over 30 years experience in private equity and venture capital, across a range of sectors. After a 28 year career at 3i, Malcolm left in 2003 and has since performed a  number of roles as both Chairman and non-executive director in public and private companies. He is chairman of the Investment Committee of Catalyst Fund 1, a fund focused on UK-based social businesses.

Ella Heeks joined Abel and Cole in 2000 and, as managing director, drove its growth from a company with an annual turnover of £500,000 and 20 employees to one with a turnover of over £30m and 350 employees, and a string of awards for its ethical and sustainable business model.  Having handed over her role as MD in 2007, Ella completed her transition out of the business by serving as ethics director until late 2008. 

Ella also helped to set up the Organic Trade Board, serving as its vice chair. She speaks on entrepreneurship and ethical business, and offers coaching and consultancy to ethical start-ups.

Andy Hobsbawm established the first international Internet agency in 1994 and was a founding director of leading British new media company Online Magic which merged with Agency.com in 1997. He has been a weekly columnist about the new economy for the Financial Times, and published a widely acclaimed report: 10 Years On: The State of the Internet a decade after Mosaic. Andy was recognised by UK internet industry professionals as one of most influential 100 individuals over the past decade and also received a Special Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005. He is currently European chairman of Agency.com and co-founder of The Green Thing, which inspires people to lead a greener life.

Melanie Howard is a successful entrepreneur and futures specialist who built up the Future Foundation, an online trends forecasting service and consultancy which she sold to Experian four years ago. She is now a visiting professor at Henley Business School and specialises in advising charities and small businesses on building sustainable sources of revenue, as well as conducting a range of futures projects for organisations as diverse as Camelot and the Charities Aid Foundation.

Graham Pimlott  is currently chairman of the Export Credit Guarantee Department.  He is also a non-executive director with Inchcape, Grosvenor and Tesco Financial Services.  A lawyer by background he shifted to investment banking at Kleinwort Benson and then joined Barclays and held several senior positions.

Jessica Shortall is a social business entrepreneur, consultant and spokesperson (see her blog). In 2002, she co-founded The Campus Kitchens Project, a successful non-profit venture that teaches leadership skills to students through food rescue and redistribution and culinary job training for unemployed adults. Having successfully franchised the model, Jessica moved to the UK to embark on an MBA at Oxford.  Following her MBA she has worked with a number of social businesses, including for Belu Water, Passion Organic, Riders for Health and The Better Trading Company.  She is now living, working and advising ClearlySo from Austin, Texas.

Interns

ClearlySo is immensely grateful for the contributions made by its many and wonderful interns over the years.  We thank, in alphabetical order: Therese Arno, Katherine Assad, Sandra Barbosu, Andreas Bickford, Marta Bruske, Jerome Cogan, Ana Costea, Thomas Deniaud, Lara Francis, Josh Freeland, Vanessa Gleiss, Esra Hofacker, Olivia Jellicoe, Charles Kaye, Solange Le Jeune, Gaelan Love, Samatha Lynch, Benjamin McCarron, Alice Meek, Mary Meek, Anisa Missaghi, Joshua Oakley, Mingxia Peng, Devinder Pharar, Hans Schmucker, Alex Scott-Tonge, Harry Smith, Jason Stone, Damola Timeyin, Johnny Vinson, Gavin Voller, Trent Wood, Stella Zhang.  If you are interested in joining their number, please have a look at our internship programme.