Penny Streeter OBE (born 1 August 1967) is an English entrepreneur and founder of the A24 Group, comprising Ambition 24hours, Arabella Health Staffing and the NS Health Staffing. Penny Streeter established the medical staffing group in Sutton, England, in 1996, working with her mother Marion.

Early life

Penny Streeter was born in

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

in 1967 to South African best-selling author

Peter Stiff Peter Stiff (8 September 1933 – 27 April 2016) was a London-born South African best-selling author of both fiction and non fiction. Biography Peter lived in Rhodesia for 28 years and served as a regular policeman for 20 years in the elite Br ...

and Marion Hewson. Penny left Zimbabwe in 1979 and was educated at Alberton High in Johannesburg until 1983. She left South Africa for the UK at the age of 12 with her mother Marion. She started work in the recruitment sector through the

Youth Training Scheme The Youth Training Scheme (YTS) was the name in the United Kingdom of an on-the-job training course for school leavers aged 16 and 17 and was managed by the Manpower Services Commission. The scheme was first outlined in the 1980 white paper ''A N ...

after leaving school at age 15.

Career

In 1989 Penny Streeter launched her own recruitment business: it failed and she also divorced, which left her homeless and penniless, finding refuge in homeless accommodation with her three young children. After some years working in other people's recruitment businesses, Streeter tried again in 1995 with a new venture, funded by evenings moonlighting as a children's party entertainer. Ambition 24hours, a nursing staffing agency, was launched in 1996. Following rapid growth, over the next decade, the company expanded the service to cover

locum doctor A locum, or locum tenens, is a person who temporarily fulfills the duties of another; the term is especially used for physicians or clergy. For example, a ''locum tenens physician'' is a physician who works in the place of the regular physician. ...

s, allied health professionals, carers, social workers and teachers/lecturers, and it opened other UK offices. In 2013 Streeter purchased and is the developer of the Benguela Cove Lagoon Wine Estate, a wine farm and residential estate in South Africa, located on the lagoon at Walker Bay, Hermanus. Streeter purchased Mannings Heath Golf Club in West Sussex in 2016, buying out the majority share from the Exclusive Group. This was followed in 2017 by her acquisition of Leonardslee Gardens, also in West Sussex. In October 2018 Streeter opened Restaurant Interlude at Leonardslee House, which won its first Michelin Star in August 2019 under chef Jean Delport, and then developed new hotel accommodation in October 2021.

Personal life

Streeter currently lives in

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

, South Africa with her husband, Nick and other family members.

Awards

*OBE (

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

) 2006 New Years Honours for ‘services to enterprise’ *CBI (

Confederation of British Industry The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) is a British business interest group, which says it represents 190,000 businesses. The CBI has been described by the ''Financial Times'' as "Britain's biggest business lobby group". Incorporated by roy ...

) Entrepreneur of the Year, 2003 *'Management Today' magazine, Top 100 Entrepreneurs: Top woman, and No. 13 overall for two years, 2003, 2004 *Fast Track 100 ‘Fastest Growing UK Companies’ 2004, 2003, 2002 - No.1 in 2002

References

External links