Jessica (Whittingham) Jackson
Non-Executive Director at Heatio
Jessica (Whittingham) Jackson
Non-Executive Director at Heatio
Manchester Area, United Kingdom
Overview
Work Experience
Investment Manager
2022 - Current
Praetura Ventures was born out of the need to give more than money to exceptional founders, advisers and investors, focussing on the North of England.
Non-Executive Director
2022
Award winning Renewable Energy experts, providing Smart Home Energy Monitoring & Innovative Finance solutions.
Founding Member
2020 - 2023
A vocal and influential collective of women in investment supporting women entrepreneurs in the North to succeed. I co-founded the initiative alongside a cohort of women in investment, growing it to 40+ investor members, 700 female entrepreneurs and 35+ women angel investors.
Head Of Investment
2020 - 2022
GC Angels is a leading early stage investment service in Greater Manchester. As Head of Angel Investment I deployed over £3.5m of capital into early stage startups, oversaw the operations of the service and managed the portfolio of circa 30+ businesses across Digital, Creative and Tech. Connectivity. Collaboration. Co-investment.
Investment Director
2018 - 2020
GC Angels is the most active early stage investor in the North West, funding innovation in the region. We are a unique offering, bringing together angel investors, co-investment capital, and an advisory service supporting innovative, high-growth businesses, critically bringing a scalable, compliant, and professional investment infrastructure to focus on the early stage market.
Operations Manager
2014 - 2018
Growing the businesses from within by lending business change support, as well as by assessing new opportunities such as investments and acquisitions. At Evergreen we believe that businesses that do good prosper. That’s why we support organisations that intentionally create positive social and environmental impact alongside a financial return. Currently our focus is in the areas of Health and Energy Sustainability, investing our own capital and building on existing businesses to encourage growth and impact. Our passion is to empower individuals and organisations by giving them access to trusted expertise and support, financial investment and innovative products and services that help make a difference to people’s lives and the world around us.
Investment Manager
2014 - 2018
Ascent Ventures supports businesses that make a difference, through capital and business support services. We invest in businesses that deliver social impact - specialists in health and sustainability.
Executive Project Coordinator
2013 - 2014
I have worked on various organisational change projects, from acquisitions to business improvement initiatives. I worked chiefly alongside the Exec chairman, though my key relationships spanned the business. I supported the delivery of a £50m+ acquisition of Ascribe by EMIs group, the UK's leading primary care systems supplier, working closely with financial advisers, lawyers and Ascribe's exec team. This was a tremendously exciting time for the business, involving a lot of change and demanding I be flexible in my working hours. I coordinated a project to create an integration plan for the two businesses seamlessly together, with a wider view to integrate Healthcare in the UK. My role was also customer facing, as I supported the CEO in developing key customer and stakeholder relationships within Ascribe's strategic sites.
Assistant to the Executive Team
2012 - 2013
I agreed to take on the role of Executive PA for a period of 9 months for Maternity cover, and really enjoyed the role, developing my time management skills and my understanding of how the business works. During this time I expanded my task set to include various pieces of internal business change, and visited customer sites to learn about account and relationship management, as well as learning about Business transformation within the NHS. I am interested in applying the same principles within Ascribe, helping us to provide an even better service to Healthcare. Supporting the CEO, Financial Director, COO and the Healthcare director with day to day time management, as well as assisting in driving projects of across the business. Other tasks which I have undertaken whilst working in a constantly shifting environment include assisting with customer complaints, expectations and quote production.
Graduate Scheme
2012 - 2012
I joined the company's graduate scheme in May, starting out in the HR department and taking on extra responsibility in Quality. I was heavily involved in the installation and config of a new electronic Appraisal system which is used across the entire business of 300+ employees, and act as support for all staff.
Education
Physiology
2008 - 2011
A Levels
2006 - 2008
GCSEs
2001 - 2006