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 Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

in 1967 to South African best-selling author

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

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 Ne ...

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 Mannings Heath Golf & Wine Estate is located in Mannings Heath, Horsham in the south of England. The 500 acre parkland site includes two golf courses and a vineyard. The estate was acquired by Penny Streeter OBE in 2016 and is a division of ...

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 Leonardslee is an English country house and English landscape garden and woodland garden in Lower Beeding, near Horsham, West Sussex, England. The Grade I listed garden is particularly significant for its spring displays of rhododendrons, azalea ...

, 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 ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the 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 contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

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

Confederation of British Industry The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) is a UK business organisation, which in total claims to speak for 190,000 businesses, this is made up of around 1,500 direct members and 188,500 non-members. The non members are represented through the 1 ...

) 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