RUTH NYE, Founder

Well intentioned multi-tasker, mum, wife, big sis, friend, marketer, life coach and founder of the Bumblebee Collective.

If you ask Ruth’s parents they will say that she has always been curious. It has gotten her into some trouble but mainly into good things in life. She loves bringing people together, learning new things and exploring what makes people tick.

A business graduate from Trinity College Dublin she joined Lehman Brothers – the week the bank imploded. But you can’t keep a good woman down and so after her brief stint as an investment banker she specialised in marketing, launching everything from computer games to aeroplanes. She is a Marketing Academy Scholar and Women in Advertising and Creative London (WACL) awarded her their Future Leader Award in 2017. She is fascinated by psychology and what drives behaviour, something she has gained more experience in (than she ever thought possible) with the arrival of her two children and her qualification in life coaching. She founded Bumblebee Collective as a hive for curious minds and says of the new venture “who knows where it will go, but let’s have fun along the way”.

ALEX BIRTLES, Contributor

“You’ll hear her before you see her” seems to be a common phrase used to describe Alex. Perhaps appropriately then given her passion for talking, her day job for the past 8 years has been at telecoms firm TalkTalk where she has turned her hand to everything from consumer PR and corporate comms to customer churn and call centres, whilst dabbling a little at digital and most recently building a brand new fibre network.

Her interests outside of work are similarly diverse. She’s a proud Trustee of charity Young Women’s Trust which supports disadvantaged young women, and has just started volunteering at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. In the early mornings you’ll often find her covered in glitter at a sober rave and in the evenings weeping uncontrollably at opera (original only, though she’s trying to embrace modern English productions). Alex has just switched to part-time working to give her side-hustles, like Bumblebee Collective, room to grow.

CLARE BURKITT, Contributor

Diplomatic rebel by trade. Clare started her career as a lawyer at a global law firm. Never one to stick with the status quo, she started to shake things up a little and then a little more until... she was called into her boss’s office and asked to do it full time. One of the first in a new wave of innovation roles in an industry that - let’s face it - could do with a dose of change - Clare wrote her own job description as Innovation Manager. Shortlisted for the Associate Solicitor of the Year in the British Legal Awards 2015 for her work in legal innovation, Clare knows a thing or two about building a tribe and reverse-mentorship.

Fascinated by organisational behaviour and culture change, she loves nothing more than helping the self-professed “non-creatives” to create.

Personal mantra: if you want to go far, go together.

Spirit animal: cunning ferret.