Kim Morrish has enjoyed a varied career in diplomacy and entrepreneurship and firmly believes that people are at the heart of any successful endeavour. A lifelong learner, Kim draws her greatest lessons from scaling businesses and her experience as a mother of four children.
With seven years as a tenured diplomat in the U.S. Foreign Service, she managed development projects in emerging markets before launching the U.S. branch of IPC GmbH, an international microfinance firm. In 1999, she co-founded How-Smart Ltd., delivering innovative tech solutions to British estate agents, later joining education technology start-up, Harvard Business School Interactive. In 2004, she changed gears from start-ups to acquire a sleepy but well-established operational business, Ground Control Ltd.
Under Kim’s leadership, Ground Control transformed from a small regional landscaping firm into a purpose-driven £200m enterprise, maintaining 60,000 commercial sites across Britain. She championed the company’s B-Corp status and carbon-neutral certification, earning two Queen’s Awards for Innovation and accolades as one of Britain’s Best Companies to Work For. During her tenure, Ground Control distributed £40 million to employee-shareholders and committed 5% of annual profits to green investments. In 2018, she was honoured as the EY Entrepreneur of the Year UK for Transformational Leadership.
Kim has invested in numerous social impact ventures and launched the £5 million Evergreen Fund in 2019, showcasing a commercial model for scaling nature conservation. More than innovation, Kim invests in people and backs founders.
While at Cambridge, Kim is seeking to explore the art and science of how people connect and find belonging. What can be learned from the vast amount of data, trends and research on this subject that might help people find what they truly want and need, whilst avoiding the pitfalls that plague so many life-long searches for love and connection.
