Our story
Co-founders Dawn and Angela have been best friends since they were 11. Liverpudlians born and bred, they grew up in Bootle and Litherland respectively and quickly became the ying to each other’s yang. Always full of drive, attack and ambition, with an optimistic and positive approach to life. Dawn’s the thinker, creative strategist and slightly bonkers one. Angela is the super friendly, people person who’s all about bringing people together. Dawn’s also big on ripping up the rule book and affecting transformation and Angela thrives on developing business through relationships and joining the dots. Together, they have built International careers and are now wanting to give back and make a difference to creative and digital businesses through their unique and powerful blend of skills and styles.
Working with Dawn and Angela, you will be guaranteed to have a high impact experience – they did consider the tagline “You’ll hear them before you see them”! They have a deep-rooted understanding and appreciation of the ‘real world’ which SMEs inhabit and have a dazzling array of experts that will help them pivot and transform their business. They will help you, stretch you and support you – and are only in the business of creating true, long term relationships and making a positive and concrete impact to your business growth and your bottom line. We all have something extraordinary, whether we know it or not and Dawn and Angela will help you unlock it. And, they are big believers in Oscar Wilde’s famous adage – “Never love anybody who treats you like you’re ordinary.”
Our purpose and our why is simply – we’re all about inspiring and enabling the growth of our world class creative and digital entrepreneurs to help scale the region and propel us onto the International stage.
Get ready for a life less ordinary.
Dawn Paine
Co-Founder
Most recently Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer at Creative England, Dawn was responsible for corporate and marketing strategy, as well as strategic business development across commercial and regional partnerships.
Dawn has enjoyed an award winning and successful 20 year career in leadership roles across the creative industries, entertainment, retail and technology sectors. She was Vice President Marketing at Universal Pictures and prior this, UK Marketing Director and Deputy GM at Nintendo UK. Over a 10 year period, she oversaw the transformation of the video game and entertainment landscape in the UK, directly overseeing the record breaking launch of the Wii, Nintendo DS, Brain Training and Wii Fit in what was the most successful period of Nintendo’s 110 year history.
She is an active member of the exclusive female leadership network WACL, the Marketing Society and is a Non Executive Board Member of renowned contemporary dance organisation The Place and the London Contemporary Dance School.
Dawn has recently been voted as a Marketing Week Vision 100 leader, an accolade awarded to marketers seen as visionary in their field.
Angela McClelland
Co-Founder
Most recently Head of Partnerships at Creative England, Angela was responsible for developing corporate, SME, public sector and cultural partnerships across all areas of business. A primary responsibility was the curation of 2 major ERDF creative and digital programmes, Pro Connect – leading teams in Manchester and Herts working with the Manchester Growth Hub and the Hertfordshire LEP respectively.
Angela has enjoyed a successful career in leadership roles, primarily in retail and commercial banking. She was a Regional Manager for Santander leading a team of over 200 people. Prior to this she worked for HSBC for 10 years as a Regional Commercial manager with her primary focus being to support, nurture and drive SMEs to optimise their performance and increase their profitability. This role enabled Angela to lead the commercial team with their primary aim being to strategically develop those SME leaders to be the ‘best they can be’. Specifically, Angela and her team reviewed and diagnosed their business plans, gave them advice on next steps to grow their business including funding and sales planning. She relocated to Hong Kong during this role, for an overseas placement as International Business Director creating the Global Relationship Management programme.