A successful businesswoman with a proven track record founding and managing companies in a range of sectors, Beverley is Managing Director of Natural Empathy.
Founding partner of ladies high fashion boutique Mariposa Couture, Beverley has always harboured an interest in fashion, style and living well, believing that the key to looking good and feeling great is achieved through living a healthy lifestyle.
Studying natural skincare technology in rural France ignited her enthusiasm for developing pure, natural and effective body care. Armed with this knowledge Beverley actively pursued her own healthy and natural lifestyle, which involved making sensible choices about food, skincare and general wellbeing.
‘What goes on goes in’ became Beverley’s philosophy as she grew more fascinated with the properties of natures products and how they could be used on the skin for their real health benefits.
“To look good you must feel good” claims Beverley, and the products developed by the Natural Empathy team are carefully created to marry luxury and indulgence with purity, care and the best of nature’s ingredients, each one chosen for its quality and known provenance.
Her role at Natural Empathy is primarily to guide the company direction, ensuring the product collection continues to grow and develop in line with the founding philosophy, so it never loses sight of its values and focus.
A polymer technology graduate and former research chemist, Philip has many years of scientific expertise formulating complex mixtures to produce particular active properties and developing award-winning high performance textile treatments.
This led him to spend several years as managing director and/or founder of major industry names in the outdoor technical clothing market including IQ Textiles Group, Peter Storm Group and Diffusion Textiles Ltd.
A highly respected regional entrepreneur, Philip is well known in business circles for his strategic approach and business acumen, leading him to pick up the title of North East Regional and National Export and Innovation Winner on more than one occasion.
Although pursuing a technical career path Philip is a real creative at heart; a passionate songwriter, musician and accomplished author there are many strings to his bow, most of which are driven by his unfaltering enthusiasm to set himself new challenges. It was a love of the outdoors and fascination into the possibilities of natural ingredients that led to the creation of family-run business Natural Empathy.
With wife Beverley and daughter Maddy, Philip set about exploring the market for good quality, feel-good products offering true benefits, with provenance at their heart.
He quickly uncovered an industry, which put profit before purity and cash before care. Quite simply he felt Natural Empathy could do it better, offering consumers a thoughtfully produced collection of products where every ingredient is traceable to its source and always using the best of nature’s good stuff whilst banning the nasties.
This philosophy sums up Philip’s own belief of what makes a good idea a business reality. Doing it differently, better, putting customers first and staying true to values makes a focused, driven and passionate business that cares about what it creates.
Philip’s core role is to work with the Natural Empathy team as strategy director advising on business development and strategic options for growth as well as product formulation and the ongoing research and development that will see the range increase.
Alongside Beverley, Maddy is well-known face in fashion and style in the region, being one of the founding partners of Mariposa Couture, the Hexham-based, ladies high fashion boutique.
With an eye for beautiful design and classic styling Maddy is a driving force behind the look and feel of the Natural Empathy range, its marketing materials, branding and the indulgent ambiance of the company’s Amble store.
An award-winning singer songwriter, Maddy has a strong creative streak, which as well as being evident through her music, is clear in her work with both Mariposa Couture and Natural Empathy. Her individuality and passion for detail shines through both brands from the product choices to the unique styling.
An astute businesswoman Maddy has blended strategic thought with creativity to carve a role for herself in Natural Empathy, which will help take the brand forward.
Sharing her mum Beverley’s passion for living a healthy, balanced and natural lifestyle, Maddy has a clear enthusiasm for the ingredients and suppliers used to produce the Natural Empathy range.
Involved in the business from its conception she has embraced the learning process and developed a real talent for recognising and working with the natural fragrances derived from essential oils used in the collection.
Her primary responsibilities include managing key purchasing accounts and sales accounts, development of a customer base online and in store, as well as marketing support and the ongoing growth of the Natural Empathy brand.
Bex's inspiration for this role comes from her husband Ross who farms in the beautiful Northumberland National Park. Bex, alongside her husband Ross, is passionate about organic and sustainable farming methods to help the environment for future children and generations to come. Being in tune with the natural environment now and in the future is a primary focus.
Bex is an accomplished business woman whose working background includes account management for major food retailers in the FMCG market. Extensive pan-European experience for one of the world’s top retailers is combined with national expertise marketing products and business as varied as dairy farmers to vine fruit growers.
Hailing from beautiful, rural Yorkshire, Bex has always had a passion for nature, the great outdoors and provenance; having a real understanding of the importance of good, sustainable ingredients, the growers and the journey those ingredients take.
The passion for great products made from traceable ingredients has driven Bex’s career, ensuring she has always carefully considered the companies, products and people she works for.
As a fashion model in her teens, Bex became even more aware of the importance of healthy food and its impact on the body. Her interest sparked, she also became fascinated with the impact of using natural skincare products – after all, what goes on goes in.
Her affinity with Natural Empathy and its range of organic, pure and thoughtfully produced products was obvious, and she accepted the role to present this new brand to a growing audience of consumers who share her passion for luxurious skincare that does you good.
Glen Hall Non-executive Director
Before founding the Write Research Group and Smart Public he was Director of Research for a consultancy group.
By the age of 11 his entrepreneurial stirrings were beginning to emerge. A seasonal conker business flourished alongside the school tuck shop. By the age of 13 he was employing his best friend as they ran a gardening business for the next 3 years (but only on Sundays!).
It would be a while later before Glen was awarded the 2005 Ernst & Young/Coutts Emerging Entrepreneur and then the 2006 British Chambers of Commerce Northeast Entrepreneur of the Year.
In 2007 he was directly involved in the acquisition of Smart Public Ltd which gave him a feel for M&A and has since successfully integrated the business into Write research Group.
He is a graduate of the School of English at the University of Leeds where he obtained a 1st degree and M.A.
He is currently developing and implementing a high performance framework that places talent and organisational design firmly at the centre of performance improvement.
