Penny Power OBE www.pennypower.co.uk @pennypower

Penny joined the Technology Sector in 1983 and built many sales channels and help people that find technology challenging.

In 1998 Penny and Thomas Power founded Ecademy, the UK’s first social network for business, a fore-runner to LinkedIn which followed in 2002 and FaceBook in 2004, Penny and Thomas learned many of the lessons of building community and supporting people in this way. Ecademy www.ecademy.com was sold in 2012 – leaving a legacy of over 600,000 Small and Micro Businesses who understood what it meant to be part of a global community as friends.

In 2009 Penny authored her book, “Know Me, Like Me Follow Me” which was followed by her Manifesto for Digital Business Britain http://www.pennypower.co.uk/DBBM in 2011 supported by Mark Prisk MP, UK Business Minister. Penny become a Sector Leader through this and learned how to help others elevate their voice in their communities and lead change through purpose.

In 2011 Penny stepped into the Education market, bringing an employer driven qualification to market and founded the Digital Youth Academy www.digitalyouthacademy.com (DYA) bringing a new Apprenticeship to market to help young people get jobs that played to their Born Digital strengths and embed them into our SME community to help them grow and digitally transform.

In the 2014 New Years Honours List Penny was been awarded an OBE for her commitment to ‘Entrepreneurship and Social Digital Development’.

In 2016, following extensive research and experience Penny and her Business partner Gail Thomas are bringing to market a new concept in SME Support. The Business Café® will be a network of Café’s dedicated to SME’s. The Business Cafe will be a channel for the Digital Software market and others wishing to support small businesses in towns across the UK. The Business Cafe will provide Digital Skills and capability to the local business community for free when required, personalising the experience in a 121 friendly way.