Nigel Kershaw

Biography

Nigel Kershaw OBE is Chair of The Big Issue Group (TBIG) and The Big Exchange. He joined The Big Issue (TBI) in 1994, subsequently becoming its MD, then Group Chair, before going on to become the first CEO of Big Issue Invest.

The Big Issue is one of the world’s most successful and best-known social enterprises. More than 200 million copies of the magazine have been sold in the UK by street vendors and it has inspired over 100 similar publications around the world.

Big Issue Invest is the social investment arm of The Big Issue and finances the growth of sustainable social enterprises and charities across the UK. It currently manages or advises over £175 million of social funds from its innovative early stage venture funds, lending programmes, regulated investment funds to advising on pioneering public retail and institutional impact funds.
Nigel is also Chair of The Big Exchange which in partnership with a number of leading Asset Managers is revolutionary mobile-first investment platform that will bring a wide range of social and environmental impact funds direct to ordinary people for the first time in the UK. The ultimate objective is a complete blockchain-based financial system that works for everyone.

Previous to TBI, Nigel founded three printing and publishing social enterprises. He trained and work in the trade as a lithographic printer and gained his Diploma in Printing Production at the London College of Printing where he later became Chair of the Board of Governors.

Nigel is a Social Enterprise UK ‘Champion of Champions’ and winner of the Institute of Directors’ Good Enterprise Award. He currently sits on the Steering Group of the Government's Taskforce: Growing a Culture of Social Impact Investing and on the National Advisory Board on Impact Investing. In 2010, he was awarded an OBE for services to Social Enterprise.

In his spare time, he’s loves nothing more than sailing and following the Arsenal.