A woman of substance

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It is a source of amusement to Joanna Swash that every time she goes back to her old school (“state school”, she emphasises), the same one her children now attend and where she is a parent governor, she remembers her three Ds at A level and the teachers’ comments that “I would never make much of myself”.

Swash is the group chief executive of Moneypenny, an outsourced communications provider that handles more than 20 million calls, live chats and online interactions annually for 21, 000 companies – from the likes of BMW and Innocent to SMEs – in the UK and the US. She has also recently been appointed to the Prime Minister’s new Business Council, established to translate the ‘levelling up’ slogan into practical actions that will boost productivity and growth throughout the UK. “There are three pillars – innovation, infrastructure and skills and I’m going to be working on the skills side, ” she says.

There is a great deal of work to be ...