Meet Suzie - a non-executive director, supporting the Juno board and senior management team with a focus on finance. We sat down with Suzie to learn more about her experience, what brought her to Juno, and her hopes for the future of Children's residential care.
Tell us who you are and what you do
I'm the founder of The Friendly CFO, I've been a Chartered Accountant for over 25 years. Generally, I work with early-stage organisations and for-purpose enterprises, to help them use finance to be sustainable to scale, grow, use investment and funding, and basically to have some positive impact on the world.
I work remotely and split my time between London, Greece and Colombia with my partner. On the weekends, I'm generally anywhere in nature, whether it's the sea in Greece or the mountains in Colombia. I have recently re-discovered horse riding after about 30 years as well!
What excites you the most about working at Juno?
I think there are 2 key things: Firstly, I think that our approach is very much child-first, and we're really focussing on how we can make children feel safe, happy and supported - children who had a hard start in life and face challenges.
The other thing I'm excited about is the quality of the team. Everyone is amazing - really high-quality people, people who are lovely and good at what they do. So, every time I go to a board meeting or meet someone, I leave the meeting feeling really energised and enthusiastic about what we're going to do.
What are some of the challenges - what's hard for Juno and how do we tackle those?
Any social enterprise that exists has to work hard to ensure they're financially sustainable. So how do you balance being financially sustainable with being child-focused? In my corporate career, before I started my own business, I worked for an amazing entrepreneur who grew a for-profit company from zero to 500 million in the first seven years. That's such an impressive and creative individual, and even though we were a for-profit company, he had a motto which was "service first." You always focussed on the people you were trying to serve, to become a sustainable, growing business. And I think that is so important for any charity or social enterprise - you're not chasing profit or growth at any cost. If we put young people first, if we are exemplary at looking after young people, then we will always be able to grow and be sustainable.
We also have these ambitious plans to open multiple sites, and for any organisation that is multiple site-based, there will also be that challenge of a staggered approach. We're simultaneously working to ensure site one is exemplary, getting ready to open site two and planning site three. So, we are constantly looking at where we are and also looking ahead to make sure the roll out is working well.
What are your hopes for residential care in the future?
My hope is that when children who spent a part of their childhood at Juno look back, they feel that it has been a transformative time in their lives. Children living in residential care have faced really tough challenges in their lives, and as a sector, we need to support them not just while they are living with us, but also support them to go forward, to transition from care to their adult lives. So, my hope for the sector is that we get better at supporting young people in that really important period of their lives.
Interested in joining the team? Check out the latest vacancies here, or email us at hello@wearejuno.org to join the mailing list for all upcoming vacancies.
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