Jazz Shaper: Penny Streeter OBE

Produced by and broadcast on Jazz FM, Jazz Shapers now in its eleventh year, is presented by Mishcon de Reya’s Partner and Chief Brand Officer, Elliot Moss.

During each programme, Elliot interviews founders – business shapers - who, like the shapers of jazz soul and blues have defied convention, broken the mould and gone on to achieve great success.

Listen to the Penny Streeter Jazz Shaper Interview

Welcome to Jazz Shapers with me, Elliot Moss, bringing the shapers of the business world together with the musicians shaping Jazz, Soul and Blues. My guest today is Penny Streeter OBE, Founder of A24Group, the medical recruitment agency.

Zimbabwe born Penny left school aged 15 without any qualifications and started work in the UK on a Youth Training Scheme, having as she says, “Fallen into the recruitment industry by chance,” Penny was inspired to start her own recruitment company, Elite Personnel, with the support of her mentor, her mother Marian. But the failure of the business alongside Penny’s divorce left her homeless and penniless and finding refuge in homeless accommodation with her three young children.

After some years working in other people’s recruitment businesses, Penny tried again, funded by evenings moonlighting as a children’s party entertainer, she launched A24, a round the clock nursing staffing agency, in 1996, from the corner of a friend’s car dealership and with help from her mother, the business generated £1 million in sales within one year.

A24 has since grown rapidly, providing more than a 100,000 hours work each work for healthcare professionals in the UK and South Africa. I’ll be talking to Penny in just a couple of minutes about all of this and, wait for it, about her award-winning wine brand and how, as a keen conservationist, she acquired and restored the 240 acre UK site, Leonardslee Lakes and Gardens.

Read the full transcript here.