An inspirational entrepreneur-turned-philanthropist will talk about her career – including building up and selling Europe’s first holiday rental website – in a webinar to be hosted by the Bristol office of financial and professional services firm Smith & Williamson.
Marcelle Speller OBE, pictured, who lives near Bath, is appearing at the online event, called An Entrepreneur’s Journey Through Business to Impact, at 5pm next Tuesday, January 12. 
She launched holiday-rentals.com, which advertised private holiday homes, in 1996 after more than 10 years working for leading advertising agencies in London and Amsterdam.
Having developed the site into a major force in the emerging online holiday sector and then sold it, she attended a workshop at the Institute for Philanthropy, which inspired her to found charity platform Localgiving.
To date Localgiving has raised more than £25m for local charities and trained 2,000-plus charities in digital skills.
Her latest venture is Brevio, a Bath-based social enterprise aimed at revitalising the grant application process in the third sector, by creating more impact and reducing administration.
Brevio automates the initial steps in grant applications to free up hundreds of millions of pounds each year.
It is regarded as a productivity tool that matches charities and funders based on the impact they both want to achieve.
Marcelle, who was awarded an OBE in 2011 for services to the voluntary sector, has also been awarded a Beacon Fellowship for Pioneering Philanthropy and was named Philanthropist of the Year at Spear’s Wealth Management Awards.
She came fourth in Fundraising Magazine’s 50 Most Influential poll in 2013 and has also appeared on Channel 4’s Secret Millionaire programme.
The webinar is staged by Smith & Williamson’s family wealth group and hosted by partner Rupert Phelps.
Visit https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Bsjz94MYQqqLD_SPhO9ADA to register.
