OUR TEAM

We bring a unique mix of strategic expertise and entrepreneurial experience to every engagement.


Who we are.

There are three groups to our team:

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CORE TEAM.

Our core team’s diverse backgrounds include founding successful start-ups, advising UK Prime Ministers and World Bank board members, consulting with the likes of McKinsey & Bain, combat leadership in Afghanistan, teaching at Harvard and coordinating campaign and logistics for Whitney Houston and Puff Daddy.

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entrepreneur community.

Our proprietary community of 1,000+ entrepreneurs is drawn from more than 35 countries. All are mature entrepreneurs with a track record of success building and growing large companies.

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Advisors.

Our advisory panel includes outstanding corporate leaders and experts from leading universities including Oxford and Harvard. This group helps to shape our service and continually absorb the latest research, trends and new thinking.


CORE TEAM.

  • Hamish Forsyth

    Co-founder & CEO
    hamish.forsyth@oneleap.com

    Co-founder and CEO, Hamish is responsible for OneLeap's development and client impact. He has a passion for business model innovation and transformation in legacy industries. He speaks globally on innovation and strategy and has guest-lectured at Cambridge and Harvard. Before OneLeap, Hamish was a senior adviser in the UK Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit, and worked on international free trade agreements in China and at the WTO as a lawyer and trade negotiator. He has built several non-profit initiatives in education and human rights fields, established the first ever Rhodes-Gates-Fulbright-Marshall Scholars global leadership forum and is a co-founder of the Family Institute. He holds an MBA (Dist.) together with degrees in Law and Philosophy and was a Cambridge Gates Scholar.

  • Bontle Senne, OneLeap Director

    Bontle Senne

    Director
    bontle.senne@oneleap.com

    Bontle leads people, business, and digital innovation and transformation engagements with a particular passion for leadership development, coaching, capability building, rethinking Design Think, and practical implementation of organisational agility. Bontle has led Transformation Office in three industries and led teams on 4 continents to deliver massive transformations including the £31bn merger of Virgin Media and O2. In addition to coaching entrepreneurs at Africa 4 Tech, DB Tech for Good, and The Innovation Hub, Bontle also launched her own wellness advisory called Strong-ish Women. Bontle grew up in South Africa where she earned her BSocSci (Hons) in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics (PPE) at Africa's top ranked university, the University of Cape Town.

  • Safiya-Mae Lewis

    Head of Operations and Events
    safiya.lewis@oneleap.com

    Safiya-Mae is OneLeap’s expert at the production and management of high-impact, complex experiences and projects. Safiya creates and organises simulations, community events, and major international programmes with our clients. Safiya developed her expertise at the highest levels of the global media industry: from campaigns and logistics at Sony/BMG for artists such as Whitney Houston and Puff Daddy, to managing operations, production, and partnerships working to the SVP of Elektra, a division of AOL Time Warner in Los Angeles. Prior to joining OneLeap, Safiya also founded an exclusive London luxury brand community. An advanced project manager, Safiya holds qualifications in marketing management and design from the Instituto Di Moda Burgo in Milan.

  • Charlotte McGarry

    Transformation Consultant
    charlotte.mcgarry@oneleap.com

    Charlotte is a transformation consultant with experience in investment banking, media and publishing. Before joining OneLeap, she advised on strategy and innovation for boutique consultancy Elixirr, where she managed the global development of a breakthrough digital financial services product. Prior to consulting, Charlotte wrote for award-winning publications in Beijing, Dubai and London. Charlotte read Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Cambridge, with a placement year at Peking University, and was a Huayu Enrichment Scholar.

  • Billy Matthews

    Strategist
    billy.matthews@oneleap.com

    Billy is a consultant with experience across strategy consulting and mergers & acquisitions. Before joining OneLeap, he worked as a Strategy & Ventures Analyst at City Football Group, owners of a global portfolio of football clubs including Manchester City. Here, Billy supported the acquisition of two clubs, and worked on strategic planning, revenue diversification and best practice development projects. Prior to this, he read Land Economy with Management Studies at the University of Cambridge. Billy is an accomplished athlete, having represented Cambridge as part of the Blues team and competed to a national level as a 200m and 400m sprinter.

Entrepreneurs Community.

Examples from our community:

  • BRETT AKKER

    FOUNDER & CEO, LOVESPACE

    Brett is currently chairman of LoveSpace, a rapidly-growing by-the-box storage solution which picks up and delivers straight to your front door. Brett previously co-founded StreetCar, the first and largest pay-as-you-go car club in the UK, with a turnover in excess of £23m when it was acquired by US-based Zipcar in 2010. Brett worked at FMCG giant Mars for seven years before launching StreetCar. He now spends his time as a non-executive director and investor across a wide-ranging portfolio of high growth startup businesses.

  • JOANA PICQ

    PARTNER, JAMPP

    Joana is a multi-award-winning partner at Jampp, a high growth B2B mobile advertising platform, initially focused on Latin America and now expanding into developed markets. Based between CapeTown and San Francisco, and frequently working in Brazil and France, she is also an ambassador for Papaya Ventures, an incubator and venture fund. Previously, Joana established Voyage Prive in Brazil and was its first CEO. She has also founded an architecture startup and worked with Microsoft. Additionally, Joana has edited an international magazine for startups, of which she is still part-owner.

  • CHRIS VAUGHN

    FOUNDER & CEO, SAUCEY

    Chris Vaughn is the CEO & Founder of Saucey, an on-demand mobile alcohol delivery platform, introducing new advertising capabilities for brands and unlocking never-before-seen consumer drinking data, changing the way both targeting and reporting work in the $105B/yr U.S. alcohol industry. Formerly CEO of Jarvus (acquired by textPlus), Chris became Director of Marketing and Business Development for textPlus, one of the largest mobile messaging apps in the world. Chris has grown company revenues from zero to millions of dollars in less than 12 months and worked directly with some of the top brands in the world, including Anheuser Busch, Absolut, UMe, MeUndies, The Sinatra Family, and many others on their marketing strategies.

 OUR Advisors.

  • DR. BETH ALTRINGER

    LECTURER, INNOVATION & DESIGN, HARVARD

    Dr. Beth Altringer is based at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Graduate School of Design, and is a Faculty Associate of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. She runs the Desirability Lab and uses design and psychological research to help innovators embed desirability into product experiences, and manage interdisciplinary creative work. She has worked with hundreds of teams from multinational companies and educational institutions including: Piaggio Fast Forward, Harvard Innovation Lab, Stanford D-School, MIT, Berkman Center, Artscience Labs, Kering/Gucci Group/Puma, Swarovski, ARG.

  • ADAM PARR

    FORMER CEO, WILLIAMS F1

    Dr. Adam Parr is an entrepreneur and investor based in Oxford. He chairs the Oxford University machine-learning spin-out, Mind Foundry, and is a director of Cosworth Group. He is an advisor to Apolitical.co. Adam raised the finance for ingenie.com, acquired by Watchstone Group, and QuantumBlack, acquired by McKinsey & Co. A barrister by training, Adam served as Chief Executive and Chairman of the Williams F1 team between 2006 and 2012. He is a graduate of Cambridge University and holds a PhD from University College London.

  • ROBYN SCOTT

    CO-FOUNDER & SERIAL ENTREPRENUER

    A serial entrepreneur with a strong interest in communities of entrepreneurs, Robyn began her career with BP and the Financial Times. Her enterprises include Apolitical and the acclaimed Mothers for All, a Southern African social enterprise backed by the World Bank, Barclays and the EU. She is also a bestselling author: her first book is an acclaimed memoir about growing up in Botswana. She holds degrees in Bioinformatics and Bioscience Enterprise and was a Cambridge Gates Scholar. She is an Ambassador for the Access to Medicine Index, and a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader.

Read about our impact.

ANY QUESTIONS?

We have answered some of the most common ones on how we work.