Liverpool social enterprise The Women’s Organisation announces appointment of experienced economist Katie Dean to its senior team. Tony McDonough reports

Leading economist Katie Dean has joined the senior team of the The Women’s Organisation in Liverpool as its new director of business development and strategy.

Originally from Liverpool, Katie’s career has seen her work in corporate banking, international consultancy, and local government. She has operated at a national level with a global economic development consultancy firm.

Using her experience in banking. Katie developed specialisms in SME access to finance and strategy development.

After stints in London and Manchester, she returned to Liverpool in 2019 and joined the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority as its lead economist.

She played a pivotal part in shaping the region’s economic strategy and providing expert advice on high-profile investment projects. Katie also worked on development of the corporate plan which included the CA’s first equality, diversity, and inclusion strategy.

In her new role at The Women’s Organisation, Katie will seek to ensure national and local policy and investment initiatives are effectively structured to encourage and enable SMEs to start and grow and deliver increased levels of social and economic prosperity. 

Established in 1996, The Women’s Organisation has supported more than 80,000 women with training and personal development and helped to create more than 5,000 businesses.

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Katie will be specifically working on female entrepreneurship and socially trading enterprises to ensure that they are afforded the same development opportunities as other enterprises.

She will be responsible for helping to grow The Women’s Organisation’s international markets and leading with business innovation.

“I’m delighted to be joining such a dynamic and entrepreneurial organisation, with its focus on supporting businesses and in particular women by promoting equality and inclusion,” she said.