NEW Dorset Community Foundation trustee Jennie Paterson has worked all over world but she has come full circle by settling in the county where she had her first job.
Her career in senior financial asset management roles for companies including HSBC and AXA has taken her to the US, Europe, Middle East, Japan and Asia, ending up with her living and working in California. But when she and her husband John had to decide whether to make their US residency permanent, they chose to come back to Dorset.
“My first job was for Abbey Life in London and when they moved their headquarters to Bournemouth, we moved down here with them and enjoyed it,” she said. “So when we were coming back, we thought, ‘we really love Dorset’ and settled in Cerne Abbas.”
She is no stranger to the voluntary sector, working as a trustee with some smaller charities and spending 11 years as a trustee, and then chair, of The Footprints Project. The charity supports people in Hampshire and Dorset who have been affected by prison and the criminal justice system. Her term ended in 2024 but she said she was keen to work with another charity.
“I wanted to continue doing something challenging and for the community,” she said. “I’d heard of Dorset Community Foundation in several different contexts and I just thought it was a very efficient way of garnering funds and funding projects in a way that is very effective. So I contacted them and I am really looking forward to getting involved.”
I’d heard of Dorset Community Foundation in several different contexts and I just thought it was a very efficient way of garnering funds and funding projects in a way that is very effective
Jennie, who now lives in Poole, said she hopes her experience in chief executive and senior leadership roles, responsible for strategic development and large global teams and budgets, will, benefit the community foundation. “I think being able to think strategically can help a charity and obviously financial control, which is paramount to good governance, is useful,” she said.
“Also, I had people from all over the world in my team so, you get used to dealing with people, which actually is quite useful in a charitable situation as well.”
She said she is relishing the challenge of helping shape the community foundation’s direction. “I’m looking forward to being involved again because being a trustee is so interesting from an intellectual point of view,” she said. “I’m also looking forward to getting to know more about what’s happening in Dorset.”
While working in America she encountered a charity that resonated with her, and what she was told by one of its organisers has stayed with her. “She was running a charity for micro-loans for women in Ghana and she came up with what I thought was a great phrase,” said Jennie. “She said there are three stages in your life – you learn, you earn and then you return.
“When I was thinking about hanging up my boots, I decided I wanted to try and take some of the things I’d learnt in business and use them in a charitable situation, so I’m going to enjoy this new opportunity.”
