User:Susiewarransmith/sandbox

Susie Warran-Smith


Susie Warran-Smith, CBE, DL (born 6 June 1961) is a British businesswoman, broadcaster and author. She was the Founder and CEO of Breakthrough Funding bought by Ernst & Young in 2020. Ernst & Young, 1 April 2020.

Early life and education
Warran-Smith was born at Annie McCall’s Maternity Hospital and brought up in Clapham, London. She went to the Macaulay Church of England Primary School in Lambeth on the edge of Clapham Common. The family moved to Ashford, Kent in 1972 where she attended Ashford Girls Grammar School and gained one A-level in art. After a year out, she attended the University for the Creative Arts, Canterbury, where she graduated with a B.A. (Honours) in Design in 1984. She attended Staffordshire University part-time for three years, graduating with an MBA in 1995.

Career
Warran-Smith began as a designer in advertising agencies in London in the early 1980s, going on to become a marketing and communications director in corporate roles including at Barclays Bank. In 2015, she founded the award-winning tax company Kent Online, Breakthrough Funding (known as the Breakthrough Group) Tolley’s Awards, retrieved 2021 , which was sold to Ernst & Young in 2020. She went on to become a Senior Adviser and an Executive Director (Europe, Middle East, India and Africa) there, until her retirement two years later.

For six years she was a non-executive member of the Audit and Risk Committee at the Department for Communities and Local Government (now DLUHC) from 2006 to 2012 and was appointed Chair of Produced in Kent in June 2021 Kent Online, 23 June 2021. She is a Non-Executive Director of His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC). Government website, retrieved 2 October 2023.

In 2016 she founded The FoodTalk Show podcast, hosting more than 300 shows until her final programme as lead presenter interviewing Marcus Wareing on 21 August 2023.

Advocacy
Warran-Smith is an advocate for gender diversity and kindness in business. She has often been critical of gender discrimination but also women’s lack of confidence in business   Retrieved 15 January 2017. and their reluctance to enter the tech sector Retrieved 26 December 2017. . She has written in depth about her own experiences of discrimination in the business world in the autobiography Swimming On My Own.

Honours and awards
Warran-Smith was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the Queen's 2022 New Year Honours Produced in Kent website, 4 January 2022. In the same year she was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant (DL) of Kent. 7 November 2022.