Celebrate Success

I’m off today to celebrate the Prince’s Trust Technology Leadership Group (TLG) raising £10m for the Trust since its inception in 2002.

Since its foundation, the TLG has become the de facto CSR initiative for our sector. Indeed, I ran a check recently and found that companies representing over 75% of the revenues of the UK SITS sector were either Patrons (who contribute over £100K in to the Trust) or Members. The Corporate Patron roll call alone includes Accenture, Atos Origin, Autonomy, BT, Capgemini, CSC, EMC, Ernst & Young, Fujitsu, HP, Microsoft, Oracle and Qualcomm.

The TLG model was so successful that it gave birth to the whole Leadership Group movement at the Trust . First came the Insurance Leadership Group, formed by a TLG member Steve Verrall of Sirius, and then Construction, Women, Sports, Retail, Health & Beauty and, the most recent, the Internet & Media Leadership Group. Together they now contribute about a third of the Trust’s revenues from the private sector and are one sector of the Trust’s fundraising which is still rising in these troubled times.

To name the people who have really ‘made a difference’ to the success of the TLG since 2002 would be to risk major omissions. But, it would never have happened without James Bennett, John O’Connell and the current Chair, Adam Hale. At the Trust, the TLG has been headed by Julian Barrell, Tara Leathers and currently Jamie Webb – all fantastic people that it has been a pure pleasure to work with. Lastly a special word for Lord Young who has leant his special brand of support to this group from Day One.

But the real Success has come from the tens of thousands of really disadvantaged young people that the Trust has helped because of the efforts of the TLG. Lives that have been turned around and put back on the right track by the fantastic work that the Trust does. They are the ones who should Celebrate Success today.

Posted by Richard Holway at '07:50'