11 inspiring people from 11 years of Escape
On our 11th birthday we reflect on some of the people we've encountered and been inspired by along the way. Whilst there have been hundreds of inspirational stories, here are 11 that we look to for inspiration when we're in need of some. These are all people who have chosen different with their careers and who show that different is possible.
When we first started Escape the City back in 2010, we had no idea how many incredibly inspiring people we'd meet along the way. We set out to help ambitious and talented people to do work that matters to them and the world, and through the years we've encountered thousands of people who demonstrate that it's possible to do something different with your career and make a difference in the process. While it was hard to choose just 11 stories, here we've outlined a few of the people who we come back to regularly when we're looking for a bit of inspiration ourselves.
We hope you enjoy reading their stories and that they can be an inspiration to you, too!
Alastair Humphreys - The Adventurer
Long time friend of Escape, Alastair has published 12 books, is a keen photographer and videographer, and pays the bills through motivational speaking at businesses. He was chosen as one of National Geographic’s Adventurers of the Year in 2012 and won the Ordnance Survey Children’s Travel Book of the Year in 2019.
What we love about Al’s story:
Al has lived a life full of adventure and managed to find a way to make it work for him as a career. Not through luck, but through hard work, grit and determination.
There are a lot of adventurers out there who make the lifestyle look glamourous and unachievable. Al doesn’t shy away from sharing the ups and downs of a career as an adventurer and the challenges he’s met along the way. Al generously shares all that he knows about making a career in adventure sustainable and achievable with anyone who wants to make the leap for themselves.
He’s committed to helping others to live adventurously every day, despite their circumstances and brings such enthusiasm and good humour to everything he does. We always look to Al when we’re in need of a bit of inspiration and demonstration that doing something different really is possible.
Read Alastair's inspirational story.
Emily Penn - The Ocean's Champion
After an eye-opening trip which alerted Emily to the vast amounts of plastic in the ocean, she used her skills in architecture to come up with practical solutions to the problem.
Emily has won awards, shared her experiences around the world at TEDx conferences, universities and global companies, sharing both her adventures and an understanding of the issues relating to our oceans, human mindset and future society.
We've been lucky enough to have Emily as a mentor on our Startup Programme.
What we love about Emily’s story:
Emily is an incredibly inspiring example of someone who followed her curiosities and allowed herself to be led by a drive to solve the problems she saw in the world. Emily has put her skills and talents as a trained architect to use in a unique and creative way, shining a light on potential solutions to one of the greatest challenges our planet faces today.
Instead of getting stuck in the trap of thinking an architect can only ever use her skills in architecture, she allowed herself to see her skills in new ways and therefore create opportunities for herself.
Emily was working on ocean plastics and cleanups well before Planet Earth shone a light on the issue, and she has spent a huge amount of time and energy encouraging and inspiring the next generation to do the same. It’s Emily’s steadfast commitment to the ocean and the work she does that inspires us so much.
Deepak Ravindran - The Food Waste Hero
With his wife Emilie, they co-founded Oddbox, a social enterprise that fights food waste by locally sourcing misshapen and surplus fruit and vegetables, and delivering weekly wonky veg boxes to homes and businesses in London and the South East. They donate up to 10% of their produce to food charities and local community projects which tackle food poverty, such as City Harvest, and the People's Fridge in Brixton.
What we love about Deepak’s story:
Deepak chose the leave his successful career in investment banking behind to find work that was meaningful to both him and the world. In doing so, he followed his curiosities, tested out what he thought he might like to do, and was open to the opportunities and learning that came with that.
When his wife Emilie was in need of support to get Oddbox off the ground, Deepak took the opportunity that was right in front of him to take all of his experience and passion and put it to good use making Oddbox a success.
Not only has Oddbox been a huge success commercially, but the core of what Oddbox does is a huge benefit to the people and planet. Deepak remains one of the kindest and most thoughtful people we’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting.
Helen Newcombe - The Circular Economist
Helen is a Circular Economist and rising female entrepreneur, winning the Women of the Future Award for Entrepreneurship. She uses her business, Davy J, to deliver a much bigger message – that of building a circular economy and understanding the stories and lifecycles of the products we surround ourselves with and the resources that go into making them. Her work proves that profit doesn’t necessarily have to come at an environmental price.
What we love about Helen’s story:
When we first met Helen back in 2015, she was an exceptionally talented and smart person with a unique skill set determined to do something positive in the world.
What we love about Helen’s story is her determination and dedication to the circular economy, bringing together all of her skills and experiences into something new which ultimately brings a touch of glamour to the world of sustainability.
Helen is an incredibly inspiring woman, who decided to shun the traditional corporate, international aid, and economist career paths to make a difference in her own way. Davy J is a beautiful and brilliant brand making use of the wasted ghost fishing nets and returning them to the sea with beauty and ingenuity.
Ben Keene - The Rebel
Ben co-founded Tribewanted, an eco-friendly sustainable community existing simultaneously in the virtual world of the internet and on an actual desert island.
From there Ben became a member of the Escape the City family, inspiring thousands of talented career changers and aspiring entrepreneurs to take the leap and launch their ideas into the world. Ben led the Escape school team for 5 years, became a business advisor and mentor at Virgin Startup, and Zinc.
Ben has supported and mentored thousands of people to set up impactful businesses on a bootstrap budget.
What we love about Ben’s story:
Ben is truly one of the most inspiring people we know. His ability to experiment, launch and inspire knows no bounds.
From Ben’s initial work launching a “career break cafe” blog to help mid-career professionals to go on adventures and figure out their next steps, to launching a business on a remote island (before the days of Zoom!), to supporting founders to launch impactful businesses. Ben has led the kind of career that most of us only aspire to.
We know that Ben has worked hard and tirelessly to create these opportunities for himself, being a master connector and innovation genius, and are constantly reminded of the motto we used to hear often in the Startup Accelerators, “Be more Keeno”.
Read Ben's rebellious story.
Coss Marte - The Reinventor
When Coss was sent to prison at age 23 under drugs offences, he weighed 230 pounds. A prison doctor informed him he had to make a change, he had to lose weight.
After serving a decade in jail, he felt inspired to capitalise on the fitness regimen he crafted in prison. Coss launched his business Coss Athletics, with the help of Defy Ventures.
With over 20,000 clients, his fitness programme is a success. He continues to share his story in prisons inspiring others to break their cycle of crime and achieve success. He shared his incredible story with us at a Career Change event in New York.
What we love about Coss’ story:
Coss’ story demonstrates that grit, determination and some ingenuity are all you need to make things happen. He made the most of the circumstances he was given, utilised the skills he had learnt from an illegal industry and channelled them into a new, legal one which has set himself up well for success.
What inspires us about Coss is his dedication and commitment to helping to reduce reoffending, and his unashamedness about his own story. He’s said he has no regrets about his previous life as a drug kingpin. He says it was a journey he had to go through to become the legitimate businessman he is today. Living evidence that anyone can start again.
Charmian Love - The Force For Good
Charmian left the corporate world to co-found Volans, a London-based change agency working with global companies, innovators, government actors and civil society to help them move beyond incremental change to address systemic challenges.
An important milestone for Volans was certified as a B Corporation - they were the second to do so in the UK. Charmian was so inspired by the mission and process that she decided to dedicate time to work with the co-founder of another early B Corp, James Perry, to support the creation of an active community of B Corps. Together they set up B Lab UK, of which Escape was one of the founding members in the UK.
What we love about Charmian’s story:
Charmian truly is a champion and guiding light of the business for good movement in the UK and beyond.
She started her life in Canada, made a huge leap to go to business school in the US, and another big leap to start her life in the UK. With that move, she brings boundless energy and resilience and serves as an inspiring example of the idea that one person who wants to change the world, truly can.
We love Charmian's humour, sense of purpose, and commitment to the B Corp movement, which serves as an inspiration to all of us B corps in the UK and crucially to the people within them.
Eileen Burbidge - The Passion Enabler
Described by Fortune Magazine as “The Queen of British VC”, Eileen Burbidge is one of the UK’s biggest Tech personalities and one of London’s most influential venture capitalists.
Eileen was awarded an MBE in the 2015 Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to Business. In November 2018, Burbidge was named to the Financial Times' list of the 'Top 100 minority ethnic leaders in technology and made a Non-Executive Director of Dixons Carphone.
What we love about Eileen’s story:
Eileen is an incredibly talented, smart and passionate person. She’s made her career by bucking the trends, firstly as a female software engineer, before progressing to a successful leader in the male-dominated tech & VC worlds.
She started a VC fund with little experience in finance and has gone on to back some of the UK’s most successful businesses and entrepreneurs, and sticking to her principles by investing in good people with good ideas, all whilst having a family of her own.
Eileen has been influential in our story at Escape as she was a trusted confidante when we were deciding whether to take investment from a VC or to attempt to fundraise from the crowd back when crowdfunding was at its infancy in the UK. We’ll forever be grateful for Eileen’s guidance and support and are always inspired by the work she does and how she shows up as a person in that work.
Ready Eileen's maverick story.
Matt Trinetti - The Escape Artist
Matt has led Startup, Career Change and Freelance workshops and programmes at Escape, inspiring thousands of people to do something different with their careers and crucially supporting others to practically make the changes for themselves.
He’s written dozens of articles, ebooks and guides for people on the future of work, career transition and living adventurously every day, as well as hosting a Tedx talk about saying Yes to adventure.
What we love about Matt’s story:
Matt is not only an exceptionally talented and passionate person but also an exceptionally self-aware and thoughtful human.
Matt has been open to his curiosities and interests that have cropped up over the years and has been brave enough to allow himself the space to explore them. He has documented his journey along the way which in turn has inspired others to do the same.
Matt epitomises a true Escape artist, someone who is continually planting seeds for new opportunities to sprout from, and who is open to adapting and changing as the world does. His approach to life, commitment to living each day as if it were his first, and his kind and thoughtful nature make Matt's story an inspiring one for us.
Read Matt's adventurous story.
Anna Mcnuff - The Adventure Queen
Anna has undertaken some incredible adventures, including running the distance of 100 marathons through Great Britain, in her bare feet.
She is proud to be the UK Ambassador for Girl Guiding, and the co-founder of Adventure Queens; the UK’s fastest-growing women’s adventure community. Anna’s zest for life and adventure has inspired many women and girls across the UK that they too can pursue the adventures they seek.
Anna was recently named by Condé Nast Traveller as one of the 50 most influential travellers of our time, and by the Guardian as one of the top modern female adventurers.
What we love about Anna’s story:
Anna is one of those people who have such an intense zest for life that you can hardly stop smiling when you interact with her. Her joie de vivre and sheer determination to make the impossible, possible, are a huge source of inspiration not just to us but to all those who come into contact with Anna.
Anna has shunned the traditional path in search of that which makes her come alive, and her work with Girl Guides and the Adventure Queens means that not only are her adventures inspiring, but she actively helps others to live more adventurously in their lives as well.
Anna is an inspiration to all of us and a demonstration of what the human body can achieve if one sets their mind to it. Never has this been clearer than on her barefoot journey around Britain, we take our hats off to her!
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - The Game Changer
In the fall of 2016, as Donald Trump was heading toward a win over Hillary Clinton, Alexandria’s brother sent an application to the group on her behalf, and her campaign for Congress was born.
At age 29, she became the youngest woman to win a House seat.
What we love about Alexandria’s story:
Watching Alexandria’s story on the Netflix documentary Bringing Down the House was a moment of pure inspiration.
Her determination to “meet a machine with a movement” was one of the most inspiring things we’ve ever seen. AOC's determination to stick with her principles, shun the donations from corporate America and stand up to the establishment through her eloquent debates in congress is a constant source of inspiration to us.