Sarah Willingham

Sarah Willingham
Born	(1973-12-21) 21 December 1973 Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire, UK
Nationality	British
Alma mater	Cranfield University, Oxford Brookes University, École supérieure de commerce de la rochelle
Occupation	Business entrepreneur, Investor and Personal Finance expert
Spouse(s)	Michael Toxvaerd (m. 31 December 2008)
Children	4
Website
Official website

Sarah Louise Willingham (born 21 December 1973) is an entrepreneur, investor and personal finance expert. She regularly appears on various TV and radio programmes, including Daybreak, This Morning, The Wright Stuff and Sky News as a personal finance expert commenting on both personal finance and consumer affairs. Sarah appeared as a restaurant inspector and investor on all three series of Raymond Blanc's The Restaurant and as an independent investor on Sky TV series Cooks to Market ^[1]

She has two business degrees from Oxford Brookes University^[2] and the École supérieure de commerce de la rochelle business school in France. In 2004 she completed a MBA from the Cranfield University School of Management.

She is a founder and investor in Letssavemoney.com and Londoncocktailclub.co.uk and as a restaurant entrepreneur specialising in high street she is also a former owner of the Bombay Bicycle Club Restaurant chain.

Life and career

Sarah is the daughter of a maths teacher, Judith, and businessman, Rhondda, and has a younger brother Alex. She married her husband Michael Toxvaerd in 2008 and together they live in the countryside outside London with their 4 children Minnie, Monti, Nelly and Marly.

Sarah Willingham is one of the youngest entrepreneurs in the high street food and leisure industry.^[3]

Management Today^[4] and The Sunday Times acknowledged her as one of the “35 most successful women under 35” in the UK. In 2007 she was voted one of the “Courvoisier Top 500” ^[5] and American Express “Spokesperson for Small Business Saturday 2013 ^[6]

Having spent the early years of her career managing some of the biggest household names in restaurants ^[7] – Planet Hollywood and Pizza Express, Sarah decided to go it alone. In partnership with The Clapham House Group she bought The Bombay Bicycle Club in 2004,^[8] and turned a heavily loss-making business of six restaurants into a profitable group of seventeen, establishing the largest chain of Indian restaurants in the UK.^[9] Sarah sold her share back to The Clapham House Group in 2007.^[10]

In 2004 Sarah co-established AIM listed company, Neutrahealth plc,^[11] which acquired six businesses in the vitamin and mineral supplements industry and was sold to Indian company Elder Pharmaceuticals Ltd in 2011.^[12]

Subsequently Sarah continued as a main board director of The Clapham House Group where she was responsible for three of their four brands; Tootsies, The Real Greek and The Bombay Bicycle Club, over 50 restaurants and more than 1,500 employees.^[13]

In April 2008, she helped co-established a private equity platform in the UK.^[14]

In 2011 Sarah invested in the [London Cocktail Club] alongside Raymond Blanc, JJ Goodman, David Moore and James Hopkins. The first Cocktail bar opened in January 2011 on Goodge Street, London. In February 2012 the London Cocktail Club added their second cocktail bar on Shaftsbury Avenue, London and their latest bar opened in Great Portland Street, London in 2013.^[15]

In July 2012 Sarah launched a money saving website called www.letssavemoney.com which aims to help people take control of their time and be smart with their money, encouraging users to take action, through 1-minute guides to various aspects of money saving.^[16]

In March 2015, Sarah was named as one of the new "Dragons" on the BBC television programme Dragons' Den. The series will air later in the year.^[17]

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sarah Willingham.

• Official page on the BBC website

References