'I feared that if I went into a big charity I would end up making the tea'

What is On Purpose? A one-year leadership programme for high fliers who want to get into social enterprise. What will the programme involve? Two six-month paid placements with social enterprises, to get on-the-job training, combined with a mini-MBA, which covers commercial basics, social sector knowledge, professional skills, and personal development. Our first five associates have just begun the programme. What made you think of this? After doing a PhD, I wanted to get into international development, but I feared that if I went into a big charity I would end up making the tea. I thought I'd better go into the private sector first, and ended up going into consulting with McKinsey. On Purpose is to avoid people having to make that trade-off. They can go into social enterprise, but still have the training and development opportunities and career structure that they might have with a prestigious private sector employer. What qualities do you bring to this job? After McKinsey, I worked for Comic Relief and ran Red in Europe (raising money to fight Aids in Africa). I've had experience of being a manager, mentor and team leader, and I've gathered enough of the entrepreneurial stuff to make myself take this plunge. onpurpose.uk.com Full interview at guardianpublic.co.uk