Jan Iceton

I am Chair of Smart Works Greater Manchester, an independent charity that has supports, inspires and empowers 4,000+ unemployed women living in socially disadvantaged and minority communities to succeed at their upcoming job interviews, securing financial independence.

Our motto is “get the clothes, get the confidence, get the job” .... and 69% of our clients do just that following their Smart Works appointment. From our first centre in Stockport we have supported over 5,000 clients since opening in 2015 and we opened our second centre in Manchester city centre in April 2023, enabling us to reach more women living in the northern boroughs and in the north and east of the city region.

Aside from Smart Works, I support entrepreneurial SaaS platform businesses as an Investor/NED.

My whole career has been in business development with 10 years large corporate IT (Fujitsu), 10 years BPO in UK and North America (Vertex) then almost 10 years running my own consultancy / interim business supporting private equity owned companies.

In 2015, I went "back on the payroll" for 2 years when I joined Utiligroup, a fast growing, highly entrepreneurial SaaS provider to independent UK energy suppliers backed by North Edge Capital (PE). In April '17, we sold the company to ESG for £100m and in November we were recognised by the BVCA (Private Equity) as Best Management Team of the Year (Mid Market).