The Family Business Network launched their ‘Ambassador’ scheme in 2021, with an aim to reach family businesses across the UK. Find out more about them below:

Meet Kathryn Jackson; Our South East-based Ambassador.

Kathryn runs her own coaching company and describes herself as an ‘energetic person with a drive and compassion to help others.’

Having recognised a golden thread of coaching through her career, and reflecting on the joy that comes from helping others thrive and succeed, Kathryn started to formalise the coaching and utilising the experiences she had gained in both work and life, and took the leap of faith and set up the business to focus on coaching others to achieve their goals and aspirations.

Over the years, she has had a varied career in sectors including fitness, recruitment, marketing and nuclear. She has had the pleasure of finding candidates their ideal job, coaching individuals to achieve fitness levels they thought were impossible, developing high performing teams in complex and challenging circumstances, achieved business growth through sales, taken teams through business change, led project consultations and supported team members through challenges at work.

Kathryn says she is only human and that her career has also taken me to darker times where she has lost confidence, had low self-esteem and worked with others that have not shared her values. She knows what it is like to struggle, for example, in a difficult presentation or job interview. These periods felt debilitating at the time but she has gathered her strength to find a path of recovery and made decisions that led to other rewarding and self-fulfilling chapters of my life.

Meet Peter Cruikshanks; Our Yorkshire-based Ambassador.

Now a chartered accountant, Peter spent many years working in financial and commercial management. For more than a decade, he has focused his time supporting the owners of small businesses, the majority being family businesses.

His mission in is to help those ambitious business owners to have a better business that they can enjoy and get a good life from. He has been described as a blend of a coach and mentor and occasionally goes into consulting mode.

Part of his service to business owners is to offer mastermind groups where owners can share their confidential issues and gain support and advice from their peers.

Peter is based in Wakefield though his network covers most of West Yorkshire and beyond.  He works with colleagues across the world who educate business owners using the work of John Warrillow and the Value Builder System.

Outside the business world, Peter is the treasurer  of a small charity in Leeds called Back to Front. It supports communities in East Leeds to grow fruit and vegetables in their back and front yards. Peter is also a regular runner with Wellgate running club in Ossett.

Meet Victoria Sedgwick; Our North West-based Ambassador.

Victoria, otherwise known as Vic or Vix, is a H2H and human-to-human commercial photographer who specialises in people and property. She has played an important role in The Family Business Network since we were established back in 2014, capturing photos at our events, conferences and awards ever since.

Vic was born in Nottingham and had her own business from an early age, as well as being involved in a family business.  She moved around the county quite a bit with work, but then moved abroad and had a large studio in Portugal outside of Lisbon for 7 years.

She moved back to Cumbria in 2011 and it’s now the place that she calls home. She is the mum to two talented humans and one fluffy weirdo.

Vic loves being on the side of the camera where she can really make a difference, and how the human face, especially the eyes, always convey true emotions.

If warmth and professionalism are king, then authenticity is queen, and is why she works so hard to make the process an enjoyable and seamless one. The end result is a collection of strong images with genuinely relaxed real people. From confident and approachable headshots to large scale events, Vic’s passion is capturing emotive images that resonate and connect people with your business.

We are delighted to welcome Kathryn, Peter and Vic to our team of Ambassadors, and are looking forward to working alongside them.

Co-Director of The Family Business Network, Sue Howorth “Our Ambassadors are familiar with us and the value we bring to family businesses and those working within or supporting them. Using their experience and discretion, our Ambassadors will share details of the Network to family businesses within their own associations, ultimately helping them to identify opportunities for learning, development and collaboration within a trusted environment.”

As we continue to expand our reach, both nationally and globally, we are looking for more Ambassadors across the UK who will reach out to family businesses to share the positive outputs of the Network.

Our Ambassadors are carefully selected individuals that have experience of working within the family business community and are familiar with the values and ethos of our Network. They are as passionate about family business as we are and will be well placed to identify family businesses with whom to share details of our Network and the diverse array of services, support and opportunities that may benefit them.

If you think you could help to spread the word of The Family Business network, and engage with a wider audience, we would love to hear from you! Please email [email protected] to find out more.