Claire Partridge heads up the High Growth Companies Account Management Team for Scottish Enterprise, who work across Scotland supporting early stage, high growth businesses raising investment and scaling up. Managing a team of 8,  Claire’s role involves understanding people, building strategic relationships within boards and management teams of SMEs and working with stakeholders and partners to grow the Scottish Economy.

As part of her role, Claire champions for social change and is particularly passionate about supporting young entrepreneurs, female entrepreneurs and supporting women back into the workplace, after having a family. As a working parent to a young child, Claire founded Scottish Enterprise’s Working Parents & Gender Balance Community group with a fellow parent colleague and is an EDI Champion within the organisation, encouraging client companies to think differently around building diversity within their teams.

Claire understands first hand some of the challenges faced by small businesses in Scotland, having set up her own artificial silk floristry business from her garden studio during lockdown. The business has continued to grow and thrive, now focused on bespoke wedding work for couples across the UK and abroad, who choose Scotland to get married.

Claire is a graduate of MIT’s Entrepreneurship Development Programme and is a qualified Chartered Marketer with the Chartered Institute of Marketing. She advocates for democratising entrepreneurship – believing everyone with the ability should have the chance to start a business.