Southport, England, United Kingdom
Most of my recent work has been in education, shaping curriculum and supporting students directly. I've consulted on a BSc Biomedical Science programme at a UK university, developed content for a Business School entrepreneurship module, and served as Director and Trustee at Edge Hill Students' Union, which represents around 15,000 students and is the only English university with Ofsted Outstanding ratings across all teacher-training age groups. The SU runs its own businesses (a laundrette chain, fast food, a multistorey bar). I've also sat on interview panels for roles including Deputy Vice Chancellor and SU CEO. I enjoy building initiatives that help kids learn or add fun to their day. I cofounded Floofsters Animal Antics, a nonprofit sending mascot performers into nurseries and schools, and helped launch Critter Chaos Productions. I also became the second-largest shareholder in Jarvis Discovery, a Michigan company focused on building and running a school with new funding. Currently, I am developing a sustainability education nonprofit that runs primary workshops and offers trainee teachers hands-on curriculum experience. AI is a significant focus. I have served on boards of AI startups, supported medical school automation, and built executive dashboards for budget tracking and meetings. I also completed headteacher recruitment training and am awaiting a Trustee role with a multi-academy trust. I've run Young Enterprise UK workshops with secondary school and sixth-form students. I have also connected my organisations with groups such as the Women's Societies Alliance, the For Us ethical AI coalition, and SDG Youth Connect. Ethics and student involvement, especially around entrepreneurial thinking, matter a lot to me. Marketing keeps pulling me back, particularly because so many educational organisations struggle with their online presence. I've consulted for a charity supporting survivors of sexual violence. I built a social media account that reached 1,000,000 views and 1,800 followers in 2 months, with over 40% hyperlocal to a small UK university town. Another account reached 64,000 views in its first month, 67% from one city; a third hit 50,000 views, with over half from a small city. On the business side, I've negotiated for an EV startup and cofounded a cloud tech company with a large data centre. I've also consulted for a Santander-backed recipe box platform and two social media platforms with a combined 20,000 users. These experiences have grounded me in strategy and commercial due diligence.
This past year on the Student Advisory Panel has been a chance to work closely with a lot of different people across the university, from digital learning and teaching staff to the Students' Union and recruitment teams. It’s been encouraging to see that more than half of the recommendations we made as a panel have already been put into action, like bringing on a new SU staff member and creating more paid opportunities for students. Getting to know the other students and staff on the panel has been a real highlight for me. Our first training session set a good tone, and I appreciated that we could agree together on how we wanted to work as a group. I suggested we keep what’s shared in the room confidential, so everyone could feel comfortable speaking up. I was glad to be able to contribute some thoughts and a quote to the Mature Students’ Guide. I’m looking forward to continuing on the panel next year.
I’ve always been interested in curriculum development, and I had a chance to help shape the New Venture Creation module (BUS1054) earlier on. So when the chance came up to get involved in validating some curriculum changes as a consultant, I put my hand up and joined the team. The first degree I worked on was the BSc (Hons) Biomedical Science, which runs for three or four years and covers areas like cell biology, immunology, and genetics. For this project, I looked over the official Validation Submission Document and Briefing Paper, and shared feedback on how the proposed content and structure might work for students.
In 2025, Dan Moss and I started Vita AI. Like most new ventures, it began with a lot of paperwork (registering with Companies House, setting up profiles on Google and Crunchbase) and then a lot of conversations. We leaned heavily on in-person networking and the connections we already had to get things moving. Our first clients came through people we knew. One was a roofing company with a connection to Dan’s family. His mum’s background in construction opened a few doors for us in an industry that doesn’t usually jump at new tech. That pattern kept repeating. We found ourselves drawn to sectors like transport, logistics, and infrastructure, places where experienced workers are retiring, and it’s tough to find replacements. I spent a lot of time on the road, meeting clients, leading sales calls, and representing Vita AI at events like FinTech North and IdeasFest. One highlight was co-hosting a machine learning conference for SMEs in Ormskirk. Some of our best leads, including a regional branch of one of the big UK bus companies, came from just showing up and talking to people face-to-face. In August 2025, I joined the For Us youth coalition in signing a letter to the Prime Minister, asking for better digital well-being protections as AI becomes more common. Around the same time, we brought on our first Sales Lead, a marketing student with some hands-on construction experience. We’d hoped to bring in Kyle Davey, who had a strong background in communications, but those talks didn’t quite work out. After a year that I look back on as both challenging and rewarding, Dan moved on to start a supplements brand. I decided it was time to close Vita AI and put my energy into automating the areas I care about most, especially education.
In early 2023, I teamed up with Fred Newtz to start NewtzGrady. We first thought of it as a holding company for our own software projects, but it quickly became clear that there was an opportunity in AI, and what AI founders needed most was practical support and advice. So, we shifted gears and focused on helping other AI businesses grow in a way that actually worked for them. I handled the early branding work, including coming up with the name, sorting out the logo, and registering with Companies House. I also joined the board for some of the first ventures we backed, like GourmAI, where my main job was to offer practical advice and help them get off the ground. One project that stands out was working with a US-based plastic surgeon who founded an AI-powered 3D facial-mapping company. My role was to help them get their operations in order and prepare for a clinical trial involving 100 Botox patients. They managed to secure funding for it, which was a big step forward. I also took on the company accounts early on, which was a steep learning curve. By the end of 2023, we were working with a good mix of AI startups across Northwest England. Our focus had always been on helping founders turn technical ideas into businesses that actually work. Early on, we worked on everything from AI-powered accountancy tools to quick-build e-commerce platforms and consumer debt support apps. But what really set us apart was helping technically strong founders scale and attract investment. In mid 2026, I decided to step back from my commercial AI work, including NewtzGrady, to focus on bringing AI and automation into the public sector.
At Edge Hill’s Open Day, I spent time chatting with prospective students, answering their questions, and sharing information about our courses. I gave a couple of short talks on the entrepreneurial resources we offered, including our mentorship programme and the new business incubator that was on the way. I also made sure to mention how we were connected with other universities like Bristol, Aston, and York, since those networks could open up more opportunities for everyone. We talked about our annual Women in Business event and the upcoming LGBTQIA+ entrepreneurship event, both aimed at making the startup community more welcoming and inclusive.
While interning at Edge Hill’s Medical School, I spent a lot of time figuring out how to use Microsoft Power Automate alongside Excel, Forms, and Word. By automating some of our regular admin tasks, we were able to save the team a noticeable amount of time. After getting the basics working, I put together a Flexible Leave Tracker, a Monthly Budget Tracker, and an interactive dashboard for the Medical School and Professional Standards Manager. I also set up automation for student report processing for the Quality Officer and built four email reminder flows for examiners, which are now up and running. Along the way, I rewrote a process document for a Senior Lecturer, built a module tracker to help with postgraduate scheduling, and gave some advice on data anonymisation. On top of the automation work, I mapped out four processes to help make our workflows clearer and more consistent, designed some posters for GP incident reporting, and put together a budget tracker for placement costs. Altogether, these projects probably saved the Medical School somewhere between 180 and 260 hours each year, which is more than five weeks of full-time work. Working alongside the admin team gave me a real sense of how much they juggle, and made it clear to me that most inefficiencies come from old systems, not from the people doing the work. On a lighter note, I found out later that the building I walked through every morning was actually used as the set for Persia Live UK in ITV’s Betrayal (2026).