Simon Borkin
Programme Development Lead, Co-operatives UK
Simon leads on the management and development of Co-operatives UK’s externally funded programmes, with a focus on co-operative and community enterprise support. This currently comprises the Community Shares Unit (CSU) and Community Economic Development (CED) schemes, funded by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), as well as The Hive – a new, UK-wide business support programme for new and existing co-operatives in partnership with the Co-operative Bank, and a community shares match-funding scheme with The Power to Change charitable trust.
More recently Simon has become interested in the area of technology and co-operation, informed by his experience running Microgenius as part of the Community Shares Unit. Microgenius was the first community shares crowdfunding platform, which supported nearly 50 enterprises to raise over £5m. With this, he is interested in how the emerging fin-tech space can support co-operative models.
My Sessions
Bringing principle five to life: co-operative education, training and information
304aSimon Borkin
Dr Richard Hull
Simon Parkinson
Constance Laisné
Why are Co-ops not as well understood as Ltd Companies? And what can the Co-op movement do to change that?