Simon Berry

I am the founder of ColaLife, and bring a life-time’s experience in cross-sector stakeholder relations, rural development, open innovation and new media to make the ColaLife vision a reality. I've been labelled as an innovator/social entrepreneur. I gained community development expertise in South America (early 80s) and managed innovative projects in the UK and abroad since 1984, when he was commissioned by the British Overseas Development Agency (ODA, now DfID) to manage a politically sensitive co-operation project at Alexandria University, Egypt. From 1986-9 I managed institutional development in Northern Zambia (ODA) as part of the District Development Supportt Programme. On my return to UK I combined international consultancy with establishing a UK-based charity/social enterprise (ruralnet|uk), which brought internet-based innovations and early social media applications to support rural areas in the UK and support networks. I have managed partnership projects, both large and small, including the EU funded Regionet project (EU contribution of 3.4 mECU; 34 public, private and NGO partners from 9 countries). More recently, I have managed a cross-departmental Ministerial Task Force for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (UK) involving 4 Ministers and 16 NGOs, where my team won the national Compact Award for Excellence in cross-sector working. In 2010 I was selected by Honda to join their 'Dream Factory' which consists of 9 (soon to be 10) 'cultural engineers' - people trying the realise their dreams. Simon has won a number of other awards and nominations in social enterprise and open innovation, and is qualified in Project Management in addition to Undergraduate and Masters degrees.