Meet the Team
Caron Bernard
Director
Caron has spent her professional years working in corporate London, charities and education. She has over 10 years experience running coaching programmes in schools, mostly in London - supporting and encouraging students with their confidence, self-esteem, in their exams and overcoming self-limiting beliefs.
Whilst coaching, common themes highlighted a rise in levels of stress and anxiety facing young people today and increasing divisions between the disadvantaged and those who are not. Through coaching Caron learned that with support, focus and determination, many of these factors can be diminished.
Caron has first-hand experience of the difference a bursary can make having received one to commence Bar School. More recently, she has witnessed the impact of school bursaries and the value of building and promoting industry networks and relationships with higher education institutions.
Sam Ottley
Director
Samantha started her second career as a Maths and Business Studies teacher after 15 years in accountancy. During this time she has helped to train and develop people across all age groups as well as mentoring young people through a range of life challenges.
Through her own self-development she recognised a need to educate young people in Finance as well as Maths and Business she had the opportunity to develop a program within her school to do this. She believes that while standard forms of education are important to any young person’s life the need to know how to look after your financial well-being is equally essential.
Samantha has recently become a qualified Property Investor and through this has a diverse network of people that she can utilise in order to progress and promote the lives of the young people that she works with.
Lauren Downer
Marketing Manager
Lauren has spent her professional career working in advertising. Having travelled and worked abroad in the States and Canada in her early career. She is now a Group Account Head at a Marketing Technology Agency: Byte London. Where she leads advertising campaigns that provide creative, tech and data solutions to help brands tackle their business challenges, working with the likes of Facebook, ASOS, MADE.COM, Johnson & Johnson, Zoopla and Depop – to name a few. She is also a Board Member at the Luol Deng Foundation, a Mental Health First Aider and a KINShiP mentor.
Lauren is the eldest of five siblings and prides herself on kindness, laughter and giving back in any way she can. Having grown up in South West London, Lauren is very aware of how hard work and networking can be the true catalyst in your career success – and she is keen to make sure that more young women of colour have fewer barriers and more opportunities to succeed.