Nigel joined The Big Issue in 1994 and currently is its Group Chairman, previously being its Chief Executive. Last year 3,000 homeless and vulnerably housed Big Issue vendors sold 124,000 copies a week in the UK and earned over £8 million as an alternative to begging. The Big Issue has inspired similar publications to be set up in 100 countries around the world.

Previous to that, he worked as a project manager, a systems analyst, works manager, lithographic No.1 printer and Trade Union official in the publishing and printing industry. He has founded three printing and publishing social enterprises. Trained as a lithographic printer, he gained his Diploma with Distinction at the London College of Printing.

He has also been a non-executive director of a London borough regeneration company and Chair of the Board of the London College of Communications (now part of the London University of the Arts).

He is a Cabinet Office Social Enterprise Ambassador, and a Council member of the Social Enterprise Coalition and is also a member of the British Venture Capital Association’s Responsible Investment Advisory Board. In 2008 he was the winner of the IOD Enterprise award.

Nigel Kershaw was been made an OBE in the 2010 New Year’s Honours List, for his services to social enterprise.
 

He subsequently had work with James Hanson on running Eric’s division of the nine businesses, acquisition spotting and integrating and thanks to James who funded him he set off on a serial entrepreneur route and acquired Babygro a company he took to full stock exchange listing and is now chairman of a group of high growth businesses including Baydonhill FX, which he took to AIM listing, Award winning Stage Technologies Ltd a company in the entertainment stage automation industry, Cimex technology, Boxfield Holdings, Stevenage Packaging ltd, The Consulting Consortium, Premier Cru, Buckley Jewellery and Halo International furniture. Eric is also Chairman of the Cambridge Leaders Association run by Cambridge Leaders Network a technology peer group which includes companies such as Axe, Jagex, Redgate Software, Citrus amongst others.

Eric personally mentors various blue chip leaders including Phil Smith the Chief Executive of Cisco Systems in the UK. Also Eric has experience in other areas of financial services, professional services and a wide international background having run businesses in China, Australia, Canada, France, Ireland and South Africa. He has also been the key note speaker at various conferences globally including USA, New Zealand, South Africa and Hong Kong. He has also been the key note speaker in the UK for amongst others the UK defence service and HLB the global tax and accounting business. He has previously grown and sold businesses in the management development area with Achieve Global whom he sold to IIP in Brussels and Hospitality Plus he sold to VT Group. He is also President of Institute of Sales and Marketing Management and has sat on a number of government boards FCO, DTI, BERR and BIS and is currently a Non Exec Director with UKTI and UK Equity Finance.

Eric has wide ranging experience of start up, turnarounds, internationalisation, financing, acquiring, disposal and flotation. Eric is passionate about people development, culture, engagement and innovation as ways to create differentiate competitive advantage. In a phrase Eric is all about “helping leaders find their own greatness and assisting them to make their business world class”. Eric is also Chairman of Uniqueness and The Peacock Foundation both charities supporting underprivileged young people and he is also the Chairman of Big Issue Invest which invests in social enterprises with social impact outputs.

For nine years to 2001, Sarah was at the World Bank working in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe with a specialisation in microfinance. She spent four years in Bosnia-Herzegovina where she led a £50 million microfinance investment fund providing risk capital and business support to start-up microfinance institutions, which today are serving large numbers of low-income people and providing financial returns to investors.

From 2001-2004, Sarah was a Director at the New Economics Foundation (nef) where she headed nef's work on access to finance, social enterprise, and social return on investment. She was also Director of the Inner City 100 which championed entrepreneurship in the inner city.

Sarah has served on the boards of several microfinance and social venture organisations.She has a Masters in Economic and Political Development from the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University and a BA in Law from Cambridge University.

Ed was first introduced to Big Issue Invest when SBI was asked to help the company launch its first loan fund in 2004. Ed has made a career of finding innovative ways of providing finance to businesses deemed by traditional financial institutions to be too risky.

In the developing world he has overseen the granting of thousands of loans to small businesses with no securable collateral or reliable financial accounts, and in the UK he has been a member of the Big Issue Invest Credit Committee since its inception and has been closely involved in the structuring of some of the more complex transactions it has undertaken.

Ed has practiced skills in debt financing and experience in structuring and utilizing quasi-equity and equity finance instruments. At Credit Suisse, Ed worked on a variety of structured and subordinated debt financings and at Big Issue Invest he advised on the structuring of a revenue-linked financing for Belu Water, among others.

From his time working with financial institutions around the world for SBI, Ed has experience with equity investment and governance issues from both the investor and investee as well as board rep perspectives. Ed has an MBA in Finance from New York University and an undergraduate degree in Economics from Boston College.