In the February edition of AHDB Talking Leaders, we were delighted to be joined by Colin Crooks MBE.

Colin is a serial social entrepreneur with a track record of establishing impactful and sustainable social enterprises. Currently he is launching BirdRun©, a novel competition designed to increase interest in wildlife and raise funding for environmental protection. Previously he ran Tree Shepherd which over 10 years supported hundreds of people from low-income backgrounds to start their own business. Before that he founded and operated 5 innovative recycling businesses. One of these, Green-Works was awarded the Queens Award for Enterprise; Sustainable Development.

In 2012 he used his experience of employing more than 1,000 hard to employ people to write ‘How to Make a Million Jobs, a charter for social enterprise’. Colin was awarded an MBE in the 2019 New Year’s Honours list for services to disadvantaged people and the environment. 

As a qualified, accredited coach and experienced facilitator/chair of meetings in community and business settings he also runs Intentionality, which works to create and/or support social enterprises to grow and increase their impact.