Gareth Hart

​​​​Gareth is the co-founder of Iridescent Ideas and has thirty years experience of working with the social enterprise, voluntary, public and private sector. He has worked at a strategic level with national organisations and at a grass-roots level providing business support and funding advice on a diverse range of subjects and themes. 

Gareth led the bid that saw Plymouth become the UK's first 'Social Enterprise City' and writes regularly on social enterprise themes for various publications. Gareth is a Director of the local social enterprise network. Email: gareth@iridescentideas.com

Mel Tucker

Mel is the co-founder of Iridescent Ideas. Mel brings strong experience of all aspects of operational management and has a Level 5 Qualification in Leadership & Management and a degree in Social Work.

Mel has a wealth of experience of working across a range of sectors, including education, the health and social care, housing and the voluntary sector. Email: mel@iridescentideas.com

Lucy Blackley
Lucy has over fifteen years experience of evaluation and research. She has conducted research to inform strategy and policy development at a national, regional and local level. Her wide ranging experience includes working for the public, private and third sector on research into consumers, markets, social policy, impact and evaluation. She has expertise in designing, commissioning and conducting research projects.

She holds a post-graduate certificate in social research methods including modules on qualitative and quantitative methods and evaluation. She also received a distinction for the Certificate of Market Research from the Market Research Society. Email: lucy@iridescentideas.com

          Aja Cooke
Aja is our digital content developer, creating content for all of our social media for Iridescent Ideas.

​Aja is an enthusiastic content creator and has over 10 years of personal experience creating content on a range of platforms. Aja has both an Undergraduate and Masters degree in filmmaking which included demographic and audience research. 

Aja has previously worked within education as a Primary School teacher and also a Film and Television teacher. She has skills in video editing, presenting and creative writing but has a real passion for creating digital content.

Email: aja@iridescentideas.com  

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Our non-executive director

Sara Burgess

​Sara was the Regulator of Community Interest Companies from 2007 to 2015. Sara’s key role was to raise awareness of Community Interest Companies and maintain public confidence in the CIC legal form. Sara was a consultant to the law firm Bates Wells and Braithwaite, consulting on CICs and social enterprise.
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Sara has 26 years’ experience of working in the third sector, with a variety of small local and large national charities. Sara also volunteers / mentor with the UK Charity CharityWorks, is a fellow of the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacture and Commerce) and a member of member of the IOEE (institute of enterprise and entrepreneurs).