We have transitioned to The King’s Trust USA. For any enquiries on our name change, please contact [email protected].
We have transitioned to The King’s Trust USA. For any enquiries on our name change, please contact [email protected].
Lottie, 19-years-old from London, came to The Prince’s Trust when she was struggling at school and didn’t know where to turn. She completed the 12-week Team programme and is now enjoying her dream college course – applied science with forensics and psychology.
“I was bullied a lot at school and while I had my Nan to support me, I could get through it. I struggled with my identity and pretended to be someone I wasn’t by wearing make-up and putting on dresses. It wasn’t me but as part of the LGBTQ+ community, I worried what people would say.
“After my Nan passed away, I felt I’d lost my support blanket and things got a lot harder. I was taken out of school and was eventually hospitalised for my mental health. When I got home, I’d missed out on my GCSE’s due to my health so couldn’t do the course I wanted.
“I then did the Team programme. I loved every minute of it. I made so many friends and gained loads of support. I realised that I didn’t need to walk the same path as other people to get where I wanted to go.
“We covered the kinds of things that you don’t get to learn in school, career advice that really helped me to believe in myself. After the Team programme I enrolled on the college course I always wanted to do – Applied Science with Forensics and Psychology. I absolutely love it and can’t wait to go to University and study even more.”
Tracey-Ann runs two social enterprises supporting women fleeing domestic violence and young people. Having completed Explore Enterprise, Prince’s Trust International’s entrepreneurship programme, Tracey-Ann secured four new grants, enabling her to reach 3,000 more people and recruit four new employees – all women previously affected by domestic violence.
In 2017, Tracey-Ann set up i-SEEED, a community club that supports young people to reach their potential, whatever their circumstances – and despite high neighbourhood rates of unemployment, crime and early parenthood. She founded her second organisation, Get Out Alive World, in 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic and related lockdowns saw domestic violence surge.
Tracey-Ann is driven by a strong personal commitment to both these causes, with first-hand experience of both domestic violence and early parenthood – she was just 14 when she became a mother.
In 2022, Tracey-Ann took part in the Explore Enterprise programme, delivered in partnership with Prince’s Trust International and Jamaica Youth Business Trust. The programme empowers young entrepreneurs, whatever stage they are at, to build and grow their business. It has given Tracey-Ann the tips, tools and knowhow to strengthen her finances and scale up her services.
With sound finances, Tracey-Ann’s organisations can continue to serve their community for many years to come. After securing four new grants in 2022/23, the organisations have been able to expand to reach 3,000 more people, and she has taken on four new employees – all women previously affected by domestic violence.
“Don’t give up on people, sometimes all they want is a second chance and once we provide that, I believe that miracles will happen,” she says. “I am a living testimony that miracles can happen”.
Kevin Leboeuf, co-founder of Educated Beards, started his own company selling organic, natural beard-grooming products, with support from The Prince’s Trust Canada, after he left the Canadian Armed Forces. Kevin was released from the military for post-traumatic stress disorder after a deployment to Afghanistan.
After leaving the military, “I decided to grow a beard – something that had been strictly forbidden in the military,” explains Leboeuf. “The only problem was that I couldn’t find quality beard grooming products without harsh chemicals or toxic ingredients.”
Finding help from The Prince’s Trust which aims to guide people into successful entrepreneurship, Kevin was assigned a mentor who helped build Educated Beards into the international brand it is today. He described it as “like having a powerful cheerleader, with a wealth of knowledge to help broaden the vision of your business.”
“My mentor and I were able to break everything down – whether it was about financing, production, staff management – it was the guidance I needed.” Kevin said. “Having a mentor who has built businesses from scratch was key for helping me and my company mature.”
In a few short years, LeBoeuf was nominated to represent Canada at the G20 Young Entrepreneurs Alliance and his products have been featured in GQ and Rolling Stone magazine. He is a 2022 CANIE Award finalist for Veteran Entrepreneur of the Year, presented by Prince’s Trust Canada.
Charlotte Mensah is an award-winning hairstylist, author and was inducted into the British Hairdressing Hall of Fame in 2018. This success was not always guaranteed. Having been born in London, Charlotte was taken to Ghana under the care of her grandparents at 3 months, at 11 she returned to the UK to finish her schooling. Bullied and othered in school, Charlotte faced challenges integrating into her new life and sadly lost her mother when she was 13. Her passion for hair stems from Sunday afternoon rituals with her mother and sister doing their hair.
After training at famous hair salon Splinters and immersing herself in the beauty world, Charlotte became a mother herself and had a passion to set up her own salon. In her twenties with a lack of resource and knowledge to begin her venture, she was introduced to The Prince’s Trust and completed the Enterprise course. Working with a mentor and given a grant to buy equipment to start her venture, Charlotte’s time with the Trust allowed her to build her business knowledge and planning. Today, with a well-known client list and a salon on the famous Portobello Road in London, she is the queen of black hairdressing.
In a career that spans nearly three decades, Charlotte is recognized as the beauty industry’s authority on maintaining natural Afro hair as well as mixed heritage and curly textures.
After finishing art school in the 1980s James became a pavement street artists. With a college friend, Simon Needham they applied for seed funding and received a £2,000 grant from The Prince’s Trust. With the grant, they invested in first generation Apple Macintosh and founded ATTIK, a graphic design studio, in James’ grandmother’s attic bedroom. ATTIK grew to become a huge global design inflience with offices worldwide, serving clients such as Nike, MTV, and Playstation. In 2007, James and Simon exited the company to Dentsu. James then became the VP of Global Design at The Coca-Cola Company rebranding many of their billion dollar brands and in 2018 he launched ‘KnownUnknown’, a distributed creative community helping discover the best creative talent in the world while also exploring the future of a global marketing model. He is proud to be an Alumni, Patron and Enterprise Fellow of The Prince’s Trust, hoping to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs.
Simon Needham also began as a pavement artist in Yorkshire. Along with James, Simon received the £2,000 grant from The Prince’s Trust and together they launched their award-winning design agency, ATTIK. Once Simon exited from the $30M+/year grossing company as Chief Creative Officer, Simon went on to become a Director and Photographer and is now offering his photography skills to NGOs in need of professional quality images and has already worked extensively with One Heart Worldwide, GG Conservation, Development Media international, California Wildlife Center, Care for Wild, and Fundacion Natura Bolivia.
After leaving school at 16, Liverpool-born Mike Welch set up his own tyre business from his bedroom with a £500 grant from The Prince’s Trust. He subsequently sold to Kwik Fit where he was hired as the group’s first head of e-commerce in the lead up to Ford’s £1bn acquisition.
As a teenager growing up in Liverpool, Mike Welch said he wasn’t particularly academic and struggled to engage with school. After getting his first job as a tyre fitter in Birkenhead at the age of 16, Mike was inspired to set up his own business from his parent’s home. In 2001, Mike set up Blackcircles.com, the world’s first click-to-fit tyre retailer. The business was acquired by Michelin Plc for £50m in 2015.
Twenty years after launching Blackcircles.com, the world’s first click-to-fit tyre retailer, Welch became president and CEO of Tirebuyer.com in 2021, one of America’s largest online tire retailers with over 18,000 installers across the US.
He is also Founder and Chairman of The Welch Trust (est. 2015) which supports children and young people. In 2016, Mike was awarded an OBE from the Queen for services to business and charity.
Entrepreneurial leader, Chris Lamontagne was born Garston, Liverpool, one of the most deprived suburbs in the UK. Twelve years after completing The Prince’s Trust Enterprise program he became CEO of Silicon Valley ecommerce platform Spring, during his 6 years the company drove $1.2bn in revenue and was acquired in November 2022.
In a career that spans start-ups to scale-ups, Chris got his start after meeting The Prince’s Trust in a public library aged 19. Armed with a hand-written business plan, Chris scaled and subsequently sold his first business, a platform that connected brands like ESPN, O2 & Nike to a younger audience demographic through live workshops.
As a young person, Chris was ‘perpetually frustrated’ knowing that he had big ideas but no outlet to turn them into reality until he found out about The Princes Trust from a family friend who’d won a grant in the 1980’s (Power to the Alumni network!).
Chris has remained involved with The Prince’s Trust for over 16 years, as a speaker, mentor, host for corporate events in San Francisco and now as a philanthropist. Chris has gone on to study at Harvard, Published numerous articles on Social Commerce (Forbes, WSJ & The Information) and in 2021 he was included in the USA’s Top Visionaries and California’s top Social CEO’s.
On his success and the future Chris says “The Princes Trust made an initial investment of just £750 in me in 2008, since then, I have founded 3 companies, had 2 exits, employed over 2,000 people, paid out more than $400m to creators all over the world during my time at Spring – I feel like it’s been a positive ROI! I am so incredibly proud to be ‘Prince’s Trust Alumni’ and extremely excited to be part of this next wave of expansion.”
Danny is a football specialist, entrepreneur, and founder of Global Freestyle. With the help of The Prince’s Trust in the UK, in 2009, he founded Global Freestyle, the first dedicated freestyle and street soccer commercial talent agency. As a Prince’s Trust Ambassador in the UK and the US, Danny says: “Passion for soccer and support from The Prince’s Trust has allowed me to build a successful career in the industry that I love.”
Born and raised in a single parent family on a council estate in Walsall, England, Danny’s life took a challenging turn when his brother became severely ill at 14. With his mother also ill, Danny was left to fend for himself.
After being released from professional football team Wolverhampton Wanderers FC, Danny ended up on the streets, hanging around with gangs and on a downward spiral. He then discovered an underground football skills movement that would change his life forever.
He turned to the Prince’s Trust for support and was able to turn his idea into a globally influential business. Danny went from practicing soccer skills in his back garden to having one of the most popular soccer channels on the internet, generating hundreds of millions of views. The athletes he represents currently generate over 3 billion views per month across all social media platforms.
He has also consulted for well-known brands such as Nike, Adidas, and New Balance. He has been recognized as the industry leader in freestyle and street soccer in the UK media and described as the “mogul” of the industry.
David Thomas is a world-renowned, well respected fashion stylist with 30 years of experience in the fashion world. He is considered one of the original pioneers of celebrity styling. David received a grant from The Prince’s Trust in the late 1980s and is currently a stylist for Prince’s Trust Global Ambassador, Lionel Richie as well as award winning singer, John Legend.
In 1982 at the age of 16, David Thomas was living in his hometown of Gloucester, UK and dropped out of school at the advice of his careers teacher. Upon that advice, David pursued a four-year plumbing apprenticeship and during his spare time would devour glossy fashion magazines and newspapers. Determined to fulfill his dreams, David left his plumbing job.
Undaunted and unstoppable, in 1988 David received a grant from The Prince’s Trust. To support himself, he worked weekends washing dishes in a café and evenings as a lavatory attendant in a West End nightclub, while attempting to build his career as a fashion assistant.
In 1991, at the age of 25, David became the world’s youngest fashion editor for British Magazine Esquire and subsequently at 26, the youngest fashion editor in the US as contributing fashion editor of Esquire Gentleman. Through the years of David’s career, he has worked with various clients such as: Sting, Paul Newman, Jack Nicholson, Liza Minnelli and Angelina Jolie among many others.
The Trust was founded on the vision that every young person should have the chance to succeed – a vision that remains unchanged today.
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