The British Business Bank has appointed Jennifer Donnellan to a new position as UK Network Director, Devolved Nations.
The British Business Bank is the UK government-owned economic development bank dedicated to making finance markets work better for smaller businesses.
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The Bank is establishing a UK Network, with team members based within each of the English regions and the three Devolved Nations. The UK Network will help enhance business finance ecosystems across the UK, so smaller businesses, wherever they are, can grow and prosper. It will also help the Bank develop a deeper understanding of small business access to finance markets in all parts of the UK, so that, ultimately, the Bank can improve its support to smaller businesses everywhere.
Jennifer and her team will represent the UK Network in Scotland, engaging closely with business finance stakeholders and smaller business intermediaries.
Jennifer joins the Bank after seven years in public policy and politics. For the last two years, she was a Special Adviser to the Secretary of State for Scotland focusing on UK Government policy in Scotland. Prior to that, she spent nearly three years working in HM Treasury as Special Adviser to the then Chancellor, George Osborne, where she covered a broad range of public spending and policy areas.
Judith Hartley, Managing Director, UK Network, said: “I am delighted to welcome Jennifer to the British Business Bank’s new UK Network team. This team is effectively a ‘start up’ within the Bank so Jennifer is joining at a really exciting time. I’m confident she will be a great ambassador for the Bank and that she’ll develop warm relationships with business finance stakeholders across Scotland.”
Jennifer Donnellan, UK Network Director, Devolved Nations, said: “I am very pleased to be joining the UK Network team as Director for the Devolved Nations. I want to help the Bank build lasting connections between us, smaller businesses, and the business finance ecosystems that serve them across Scotland. We want to enable smaller businesses to explore the different finance options available and I’m looking forward to getting started.”
The UK Network team is part of the British Business Bank’s new Demand Development Unit, which has been specifically created to raise the Bank’s profile and relationship with smaller businesses across the UK. The Demand Development Unit also incorporates the Bank’s recently launched Finance Hub, a digital information hub aimed at raising awareness of the finance options available to UK SMEs. It is the source of independent information for growing businesses and offers guidance for scale-up, high growth and potential high growth businesses using interactive content.
The British Business Bank is facilitating over £478.1m of finance to over 3,900 Scottish smaller businesses through its national programmes. It has provided £23.4m of Start Up Loans since September 2012.
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