Oration for Rachel Clacher CBE

I am delighted to present Rachel Clacher for the award of Honorary Fellow of Wrexham University.

Here at Wrexham University we are guided by our vision and strategy to be a world-leading, modern civic university – by that we mean that we embrace our responsibility to serve our communities by being drivers of economic, social, environmental and cultural change.

I can think of few people who so clearly embody our values and ethos more than Rachel Clacher and we are delighted that she is joining us here today with her mother Mair and daughter Nell.

Rachel is a creator of powerful communities that drive and celebrate growth, impact, and connection, purposefully moving to enable social mobility. 
She co-founded Moneypenny with her brother, Ed Reeves, in 2000. The company now has a workforce of over 1,300 across offices in the UK and the US, and enjoys an international reputation as ‘the happiest office in this land’. 

In 2014, Rachel brought Moneypenny’s unique approach to people development to a whole new cohort in our local community, namely disengaged young people. The first programme, run in 2014 proved so successful – with 70% of participants moving in to fulltime work or education – that a charity was created, called WeMindTheGap. Today that charity serves the young people of Wrexham, Flintshire and Cheshire with a whole host of holistic programmes that changes futures for young people with love and care. Programmes range from an in-school programme to encourage young people to reengage with school, to a digital programme for young people isolated in their bedrooms, to a full six month employment programme. Upon being award a CBE in the Queen’s Honours List in 2019, Rachel commented that the aim of the charity was to enable young people to “transition from ‘prisoners of circumstance’ to ‘pilots of their own lives’.” I am very pleased that our we have been able to partner with this fantastic charity – for example this year, we worked together on the latest ‘Big Conversation’ to find out directly from young people aged 18-21 what life is like for them and what might make it better. The report that has been produced is now shaping the way national partners such as Big Lottery work with young people. 

In 2019 Rachel’s world was turned upside down with the sudden death of her middle daughter Josie. This was quickly followed by the isolation of Covid. These concurrent events gave Rachel a new respect for the saying ‘accept what we cannot change and change what we cannot accept’, and an even greater belief in the need to activate human-kindness and positive connections in the people and organisations that shape our daily lives. 

That belief has led her to bravery with WeMindTheGap and new and exciting ventures in building communities:

WhatWeAllAgree on is a co-created community that helps and supports entrepreneurial businesses that solve social issues to scale up. Since its start last year it has already had a dramatic impact on the ability of a number of powerful national businesses to grow and demonstrate their social return. 

In her latest role as Chair of Wrexham City board Rachel is using the power of community to build new futures and bold ambitions that harness our city’s extraordinary new international profile. She really believes that Wrexham can be the best city in the world to thrive in, and is fostering a city-wide radical collaboration with the new leaders, talent and energy – and of course the University is key to that - that is so abundant here to make good things happen for all of our futures.

It is my heartfelt honour to present Rachel Clacher for our highest award of Honorary Fellow, in recognition of services to business and the wider community.