Head of Business Development
Brightside is a social mobility charity, creating inspirational online mentoring relationships which help young people make confident and informed decisions about their future. Recognised as the clear leader in online mentoring, Brightside use their years of experience and expertise to reach and inspire young people. They find and train the best mentors, connect them with young people, and support them as they work together through their award-winning online programmes. Currently Brightside support over 10,000 young people a year across every region of England.
Prospectus were approached by Brightside to support with the recruitment of a Head of Business Development. The purpose of this role is to lead and manage their business development approach, ensuring sustainable growth in sales and to increase the number of young people they help. With a key focus on targeting new business opportunities, Brightside were keen to find a commercially astute candidate with a strong track record of business development, with the ability to effectively communicate their service offering not only within higher education but also to prospective clients in the corporate and charity sectors. Brightside pride themselves on their friendly, professional and supportive culture therefore it was also vital that the successful candidate shared these organisational values, with a passion for education and the not for profit sector.
Following a successful recruitment process, Brightside appointed Emma Johnson, a senior business development professional with a proven track record of building relationships, cultivating partnerships and growing income channels. With experience across the higher education and commercial sectors, and with voluntary involvement for a number of charities, Emma has now successfully transitioned in to her first charity sector role with Brightside
Emma commented on the process: “I had a very positive experience with Prospectus. Steven, who was looking after the role I applied for, was lovely throughout the process. He was professional, supportive and encouraging. I was delighted to be offered the role and it was clear that Steven was thrilled for me too. Steven gave me good advice and was there every step of the way throughout what was a long, complex application process. Thank you for helping my dream to move into the charity sector come true!”