Paula Woodman is the British Council's Adviser on Social Enterprise, offering key strategic support to the team delivering the Global Social Enterprise programme. Worth over £1.6 million and operating in 13 countries in 2012-13, the programme includes capacity building for social entrepreneurs, as well as support for policy-makers wanting to create an environment where social enterprise can flourish. Since 2009 the programme has engaged more than 60,000 people through study tours, policy dialogues, competitions and youth forums. It has also trained 4,000 social entrepreneurs and has had a total media reach of over 56million.
Paula has worked in social enterprise for 14 years. She co-founded a social enterprise which she piloted regionally before launching across the UK, has worked in a local Government organisation championing social enterprise, and was a London network manager for community enterprises.