About Bernie

Bernie was born and brought up on a council estate in Hertfordshire. At 18 she won a place at university but choose not to take it up, preferring instead to become financially independent early in life.

After a short career in retail and sales, she married and had three children in five years, becoming a housewife in the process. During her 14 years in this role, she set up a parent and toddler group, a babysitting circle and a holiday playscheme. She became a parish councillor and chaired the management committee of the local youth club. She also worked in her local chip shop in the evenings and at weekends.

When Bernie decided to re-enter full-time work, she met with many barriers, as innumerable prospective employers failed to value her time at home and the skills she developed as a volunteer. She persevered through a multitude of rejections and eventually got a full time job with her local council.

To make herself more marketable, Bernie persuaded her local university to give her a place on a Masters course, which she passed with flying colours. She undertook further training and education, becoming a qualified teacher of adults in the process.

Less than eight years after returning to full time work, Bernie was appointed to the post of CEO of the Community Development Finance Assocation. Under her stewardship, the sector she represents is worth over three quarters of a billion pounds. She is a member of HM Treasury's Financial Inclusion Task Force, a board member of Transact the national forum for financial inclusion. She is a Fellow of the RSA, an advisor to the Commission on Unclaimed Assets and an inaugural judge on the Daily Telegraph/Morgan Stanley Great Britons Awards. Her career was not all plain sailing however, she faced many obstacles and overcame them all through her own determination and perserverence.

Her work has taken her all over the world, speaking to audiences across Europe, the US, Asia and Africa. Some of the more interesting venues she has spoken in include: the New York Federal Reserve, the House of Commons, Windsor Castle and Mount Kenya Safari Park.

However, while her career was on a positive trajectory, her marriage was failing due to her husband's alcoholism. And so, after 30 years, she found herself single and having to re-build her life alone in a new town among strangers. Applying her own brand of determination and positivity to this very difficult situation, Bernie has created a new life for herself: along the way she has taken up stand-up comedy, even performing at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2008.