Penny Streeter

Penny Streeter OBE (born 1 August 1967) is an English entrepreneur[1][2] and founder of the A24 Group, comprising Ambition 24hours, Arabella Health Staffing and the NS Health Staffing. Penny Streeter established the medical staffing group in Sutton, England, in 1996, working with her mother Marion.

Penny Streeter OBE
Born
Penelope Marion Stiff

1 August 1967
Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe)
NationalityBritish
OccupationBusinesswoman
Known forFemale Entrepreneur
Spouse(s)Nick Rea - m 2009 and Doug Streeter - divorced, 1995
ChildrenAdam Streeter, Bonnie Streeter, Matilda Rea and Giselle Streeter
Parent(s)Marion Hewson and Peter Stiff

Early life

Penny Streeter was born in Zimbabwe in 1967 to South African best-selling author Peter Stiff and Marion Hewson. Penny left Zimbabwe in 1979 and was educated at Alberton High in Johannesburg until 1983. She left South Africa for the UK at the age of 12 with her mother Marion. She started work in the recruitment sector through the Youth Training Scheme after leaving school at age 15.[3]

Career

In 1989 Penny Streeter launched her own recruitment business: it failed and she also divorced, which left her homeless and penniless, finding refuge in homeless accommodation with her three young children.[3]

After some years working in other people's recruitment businesses, Streeter tried again in 1995 with a new venture, funded by evenings moonlighting as a children's party entertainer. Ambition 24hours, a nursing staffing agency, was launched in 1996. Following rapid growth, over the next decade, the company expanded the service to cover locum doctors, allied health professionals, carers, social workers and teachers/lecturers, and it opened other UK offices.[4]

In 2013 Streeter purchased and is the developer of the Benguela Cove Lagoon Wine Estate, a wine farm and residential estate in South Africa, located on the lagoon at Walker Bay, Hermanus.[5] Streeter purchased Mannings Heath Golf Club in West Sussex in 2016, buying out the majority share from the Exclusive Group.[6] This was followed in 2017 by her acquisition of Leonardslee Gardens, also in West Sussex.[7]

In October 2018 Streeter opened Restaurant Interlude at Leonardslee House, which won its first Michelin Star in August 2019 under chef Jean Delport, and then developed new hotel accommodation in October 2021.[8][9]

Personal life

Streeter currently lives in Cape Town, South Africa with her husband, Nick and other family members.

Awards
  • OBE (Order of the British Empire) 2006 New Years Honours for ‘services to enterprise’[10]
  • CBI (Confederation of British Industry) Entrepreneur of the Year, 2003
  • 'Management Today' magazine, Top 100 Entrepreneurs: Top woman, and No. 13 overall for two years, 2003, 2004[11]
  • Fast Track 100 ‘Fastest Growing UK Companies’ 2004, 2003, 2002 - No.1 in 2002[12]

See also

References
  1. "Pennywise route to success". Financial Times. 2004. Retrieved 1 December 2008.
  2. "How I made it: Penny Streeter of A24 Group". Financial Times. 2017. Archived from the original on 21 October 2011. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
  3. Thomas, Zoe (13 May 2018). "Penny Streeter: From a homeless refugee to a 140m business called Ambition". The Sunday Times Magazine. pp. 124–125.
  4. Stockdale, Sue (2005). Secrets of Successful Women Entrepreneurs: How Ten Leading Business Women Turned a Good Idea into a Fortune. Lean Marketing Press. ISBN 1-905430-03-5.
  5. "Penny Streeter interview: the head of HR firm Ambition on how her £140m business started as a homeless refuge". The Times. 2018. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
  6. "Meet the golf club owner: Penny Streeter OBE". The Golf Business. 2017. Retrieved 6 August 2017.
  7. "Famed gardens set to re-open to the public". West Sussex County Times. 2017. Retrieved 16 October 2017.
  8. "SA gains another Michelin-starred chef as Jean Delport wins big". Times Live. 2019. Retrieved 9 December 2021.
  9. "Luxury hotel rooms open at Leonardslee Lakes and Gardens". West Sussex County Times. 2021. Retrieved 9 December 2021.
  10. "UK Honours System, Cabinet Office". 2006. Archived from the original on 9 December 2006. Retrieved 28 July 2010.
  11. "Management Today". Haymarket. 2005. Retrieved 1 December 2008.
  12. "Ambition Recruitment". Fast Track 100/ The Sunday Times. 2002. Archived from the original on 29 October 2006. Retrieved 1 December 2008.
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