About Emma Harrison
She’s tenacious, driven, hardworking and one of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs. Yet first and foremost, Emma Harrison believes businesses can and should do good.
As well as her business interests, Emma is a mum of four, works tirelessly for charity and lives in a “posh commune” with 20 of her friends and family. Her story is one of creativity, determination and hard graft.
Growing up
Born in Clacton-on-Sea, Emma grew up in Nigeria and Sheffield, her family moving where their father’s
training company took them. Money was tight and her mother, unhappy with family life, would regularly
leave home.
Emma confesses to being a naughty child but also showed her entrepreneurial skills at school from an
early age, running an illegal tuck-shop at the age of 9, raising money for charities through bring-and-buy
sales and auctions at 12, and becoming a school governor at 15.
Mediocre ‘A’ Level results put paid to a career in medicine but, through persistence and going out and knocking on doors, Emma secured an engineering degree place at Bradford University as well as four years’ sponsorship by British Steel where she worked throughout her course.
A4e
After graduating, Emma’s life took another twist and when she was 23, her father left England for
Germany, leaving Emma in charge of the training company. At the height of the decline of the steel
industry in Sheffield, Emma pioneered training solutions for out of work steel workers and in 1991
founded Action for Employment (later to become A4e) in order to provide them with new opportunities
and improve their lives.
Emma went to work marketing the company and by the end of her first year, she’d increased turnover
from £100,000 to £1 million. Today, A4e manages £300m of government training contracts, operates
in 11 countries, employs over 3,300 people and has a turnover of close to £200m.
A4e is now the prime contractor to the UK government of services such as Flexible New Deal,
Legal Aid Helpline, Social Care, Education for Offenders, Business Enterprise and Youth Vocational centres.
Yet Emma still manages the business as an organisation whose first priority is to help others.
Her company motto “Doing well by doing good” explains the A4e approach to improving people’s
lives by helping them develop new skills.
Under Emma’s stewardship A4e has now diversified into many markets, with the sole aim of improving
people’s lives. Emma still, to this day, mentors staff individually, believes passionately in what A4e does
and provides them with the inspiration to embody the company’s ethos.
Other business interests & roles
Emma’s business acumen and success make her much in demand as a mentor and she has
supported many small businesses throughout her career. She serves on the boards of other companies and is Chairman of Andromeda (an events company), Chairman of Improving People’s Health Plc and food group Novantia (develops and owns the new Brian Turner Food Brands) She also has a role in the Bank of England regional consultations on behalf of the Monetary Policy Committee, has been a governor of the Sheffield College (the largest college in Europe) and is a Trustee of the Fellowship Council of the RSA and also The Eden Trust, a Freeman of the Cutlers Company, Honorary Member of the NSPCC Council, Companion of the Chartered Management Institute and until recently was a Non-Executive Director ofthe Institute of Directors.